Home Health & Hospice Week

Tip #1: Post anything patients will need. Your website is the perfect place to store forms, privacy notices, Medicare information, and other important items clients will need, says physical therapist Melissa Horton with Carolina Balance and Rehabilitation Center in Raleigh, N.C.

Tip #2: Optimize for keywords. Online search is no longer king, but it's still important. Fewer online users are turning to search engines to find information, according to a recent Nielson study (see related story, this page). However, hundreds of thousands of people use search engines everyday. You can't afford not to come up in those searches. To increase your chances, make sure you use keywords that your potential patients and referral sources are likely to use, Passmore encourages.

Tip #3: Tone down the unnecessary flashes. Many providers invest their resources in a flash header or entry page, but online users don't want graphics for the sake of graphics, notes PT Michael Arnold, a marketing consultant based in London. Rather, pour your money and energy into videos and images that highlight why potential clients should spend more time learning about your services -- which could translate to a new customer, he advises.

Tip #4: Sweat the small stuff. Just creating a pretty site won't keep future patients on it. You must test your site in different browsers to ensure it looks good from every angle, find and fix any broken links, and constantly update with new information, Passmore recommends. Make sure your menu is clean and consistent and that your text is easily read against the site background. Left unchecked, these small issues can balloon into big problems for users.