With the popularity of directory services that provide online information on doctors (and even ratings) such as CitySearch and Yelp, it is becoming more important for doctors to actively market their practices online and having a good website is an important step in online marketing. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published some key statistics about how Americans use the internet to find health information online including the following:

• 74% of adult Americans access the internet
• 80% of the online population have looked up health information online
• 29% of Internet users have researched a hospital or doctor online

Whether a prospective patient finds your site through Google or through a directory service, it is important to get a few basic things right. Once the patient makes their way to your site, they will evaluate you based on the content that they find there but also the experience they have navigating and interacting with your site.

Content

There are some key things that a patient wants to know about you when they get to your site. There is a credentialing process that is foremost in their mind. The basics include your medical specialty (or specialties), educational background, Board certifications, teaching positions (if applicable) and community involvement (are you on any local committees for charities, etc.). Other basics include the types of insurance accepted, office locations, hours and contact information.

Once these basics are covered, there are other things that you may not initially think of but would be helpful to a prospective patient. Copies of standard forms that the patient needs to fill out during their visit should be posted on your site in order to expedite the new patient process. Having the forms on your site gives the patient the opportunity to fill out the forms before even coming to your offices.

Providing background information on the conditions you treat (for instance, common causes of allergies) is not only helpful patient education but it also provides another important function. Information on specialty conditions also helps with search engine optimization (SEO). Optimizing your content for search engines such as Google helps direct users by improving your search ranking when someone searches on a specific topic. Finally, the content should be organized in an intuitive manner, with navigation that is labeled clearly. A recently launched website for Advanced Vision Care in Tucson, AZ provides a good mix of all the content a new patient would need before making an appointment, organized in an intuitive interface.

Rebecca Petris, the publisher of the dryeyezone.com which has an active message board of dry eye sufferers recently conducted a survey amongst the community as she was planning an Opthamologist and Optometrist directory on her site. She noted that many survey respondents wanted to get "personal statements from doctors" regarding their philosophy on practicing medicine and their relationship with patients.

A good example of just such a personal statement can be found on Dr. Arthur Lubitz's website. Dr. Lubitz is an allergist in New York. In the video, Dr. Lubitz says, "I attempt to see where prior physicians who evaluated this patients may have missed key points." This statement provides important insight to patients who are chronic allergy sufferers or looking for a second opinion.

Functionality

Making an appointment online is a natural next step that a prospective patient would like to take once they are comfortable that they've found the right doctor. Many physician are concerned about allowing patients to request online appointments due to HIPAA concerns. For physicians who are concerned about collecting any information online, encrypting the appointment page of your site would be advisable. Encrypting the page provides for secure transmission of the data entered into the form. Providing a note on the page that patients should not provide any medical information in that form would be another way to prevent inadvertent disclosure of patient health information.

For those doctors who practice in New York and are listed on Zocdoc, directing patients to Zocdoc for online patient appointments provides the added benefit of showing available timeslots for appointments. A low tech alternative for providing scheduling availability for doctors who do not participate in an online appointment service would be to integrate Google calendar on your website. Entering free appointment times on Google Calendar would be an even better way to update both new and existing patients about your availability. Google calendar is a free service and Google has an Outlook desktop app that helps make the process of updating the calendar easier. The desktop application allows for constant synchronization between a specified Outlook calendar on your desktop and a Google calendar online. It's advisable to maintain a separate Outlook calendar for free appointment times in order not to reveal patient names and other appointments you might otherwise not want posted on your website.

One more important thing to keep in mind when designing (or redesigning) your site -- A growing number of Americans are using smartphones to access the web. Over 22 million Americans now access the internet daily via their mobile phone, according to comScore. Depending on where you practice, mobile device compatibility may be an important consideration for designing your site.