MD Clients - Physician Marketing Frequently Asked Questions
Are you a US-based company? What % of services do you provide in-house?
We are a US company, with headquarters in Sherborn, MA. We DO NOT outsource onsite SEO, offsite SEO, Social Media, 2nd Tier Paid Search, or Website Production services – everything is done in-house through our Massachusetts and International offices. We partner with MD Connect, Inc. to provide our Medical Clients with the extended Google-Yahoo-Bing Paid Search Program. We also have a partner, who assist us with video production and distribution through the Local and National TV Channels. We might acquire more partners in the future to deliver a one-stop-marketing solution, but the services mentioned above will always be our in-house services, as this is our core product.
Do you provide with Hosting? Is it in-house, as well?
We are not a hosting company, however, we have our own dedicated server at hostingsource.com and on this server, we create a special medical IP where we place our medical customers if they indicate their interest in being hosted and maintained. All of our hosting packages include the actual hosting for the medical website, free limited web support, free technical support, free domain renewals (if domain has been purchased through us), free back up copy, free email set up, and so on. Our packages start at only $600 per year, pre-paid.
What is the average cost of a medical website for a doctor and what is included?
On average, the basic cost of a medical website is $1500.00 (fifteen hundred). This price includes up to 15 pages of content, conversion/Contact Us form, PDF versions of patients forms attached, all design (e.g. logo, banners, graphic materials), and a free draft of the website content, in English. We also add Google Analytics software to your site, so you may start learning how your site is performing. On-Site SEO is included by default, as well. Things like Content Management, Admin, on-site form secure transmission, pages in Spanish, Russian, and Portuguese, social media and 2.0 interactivity can be added for an additional charge.
On average, how long does it take for the website development project to be fulfilled?
On average, it takes 1.5 months from the ground floor to the completed product (medical website). Some projects get fulfilled in just 1.5 weeks, but some take more than 2 month.
The process is simple: 1. Indicate your interest. 2. Answer our Preliminary Questions. 3. Sign an agreement and make a 25% deposit 4. Approve the design 5. Approve/edit the content 6. Approve the final version of the website.
What is On-Site SEO?
On-Site SEO is anything that can be done directly on your website to improve its Search Engine Optimization Score. Content and the keyword density both play a major role in Search Engine Optimization and Positioning. Metadata, especially meta title and meta description, are unique to each page of your medical website and both help a lot. If your medical website is only located under the Medical IP with other websites of a similar nature, that’s a major plus, as well. Clear HTML code through well-defined CCS and tag attributes, adds a lot to the total SEO score (W3 compliance). Errors compliance, such as 301, 401 and 404 also contribute to the total SEO Score. Images, Video, and PDF files should be optimized as well, to make sure your site takes a minimum of time to upload.
What is 2nd Tier Paid Search?
2nd Tier Paid Search is often referred to as Content Match Search and includes anything but Google, Yahoo, and Bing. When you are browsing a website and see a banner on your right, this is a content match search. Basically, we come up with a banner and place it on sites related to your medical practice and wait till somebody clicks on the banner and spends a significant amount of time on your website. This brings you legit traffic and the visitor may even become your customer. We do 2nd tier in-house, as this has proven the best way to achieve results. Currently we are using Linkedin, Yahoo Answers, Local, Ask, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Health & and Local Directories to provide the best of 2nd Tier Paid Search for Doctors. We are planning to use more TV portals, web portals, and forums for the same purposes.
What is Off-Site SEO?
Generally speaking, off-site SEO comes from a variety of links pointed back to your site. However, not all links are born equal. It’s very important that the site from which you have a link pointed back to your medical website also be a related site. Any kind of healthcare site would be related to your business such as any local directories or healthcare directories, and many media sites are also considered to be related. Also, it’s important what the SEO total score is for the site that is relevant to yours and that you have a link pointed back to your medical site. The higher the SEO score of that website, the better it is for your medical site as well. So, we bring you a combination of the best links available from healthcare and local directories, to social networking places and everything in-between like online publications, articles, etc. We do off-site SEO in-house, as well.
What is the difference between a Website and a Microsite? Why should I think of both?
When you create your website, you invest in the future lead generation channel. Your own websites stay at on your premises as long as you need it. You may use it to attract new customers, retain existing customers, or just having your practice represented on web, because everybody does these days. However, it may be inefficient to run focused medical marketing campaigns out of your website. For a better understanding of their leads, many medical marketing agencies will offer to build (free or paid) a microsite, just for the purposes of their medical marketing programs. If it’s free to you – go for it, it really helps, and it really produces better results. However, if it is paid, think twice about it. Why do you need to spend your money again and again, when you might be better off bringing all that traffic to your current site? A microsite, probably won't even have half of the information that is currently on your website. And, a microsite is not forever. Once you stop paying a marketing agency for the microsite, it doesn’t belong to you anymore.
What is Inbound and Outbound Marketing? Is it appropriate for Medical Practice?
Inbound Marketing includes all activities that do not go after the lead directly. Such activities include, but are not limited to having your website listed in many directories, answering questions where your help may be appreciated, posting tips and suggestions to your blog, facebook profile, twitter, Linkedin, remarketing, and so on. Basically, when somebody finds your practice without you telling him to go and look for it, that’s an inbound marketing.
Outbound Marketing usually refers to the direct activities made to obtain more leads, such as cold calls, direct mail, email newsletter, conference participation, etc.
As a Medical Specialist, your best bet is to use Inbound Marketing Techniques, since it tells people about your business without forcing them to contact your office.
Do you provide any guarantees, as to number of leads, traffic ranking, and so on?
Yes, with our SEO and Social Media Packages for Medical practices, we provide you with an "at least" guarantee to the number of directories, social bookmarks, followers, on-site traffic, and traffic rank achievement over the specific time period, based on the quoted project size for your needs in particular. Our Partner, MD Connect, Inc. also provides a specific # of minimum leads acquired through their programs.
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