Chiropractic Website Design
Tips for developing a successful chiropractors web space
By Michael Dorausch, DC

Your local web designer will likely have their own homepage and there's a very good chance they're going to provide a link to your web site from their home page. They are also going to likely provide links to other businesses in your community and you know every business owner is going to check every other businesses web site.

Who you want your web site visited by? Different chiropractors from around the world that want to "borrow" your content, graphics, and videos to use on their web sites? Or would you like people in your local community visiting your web site? There's no question, Go Local for Web Design!

Don't use patients to build to websites unless they are a professional design agency and you've got a really good relationship with them. While going the patient route can be easy, you lose some of that juice you'd get from going with somebody completely new in your circle. Think about who's going to be hungrier, your existing patient or the Web designer that wants to prove their product works?

Go Basic
What do you want your web site to do? Do you want to be educational? You want the whole world to know about DD Palmer and the first chiropractic adjustment on Harvey in 1895? Save yourself some trouble, I've already been down that road.

Most web sites have this information and it had better be on your checklist. Your phone number, your location, who you are. By that I mean are you a chiropractor (or are you something / someone else)?

What about my office hours, what about photos, what about where I went to school, what about the types of insurance I accept? Hold on Sparky, you can include all of those but they are not basics. The most basic successful local business web site will have a phone number, the name of the industry, and general location.

John Smith, Chiropractor
800-555-1212
Mount Washington, Nebraska
12748

This is my million-dollar secret and I don't want you to share it with anyone else. Look at the above information and tell me what you see. I'll tell you what I see...

1) Existing patients finding you online because you've included your name and your profession. They will specifically type "John Smith chiropractor" when seeking you out (I have volumes of research on this). They will not be looking for a DC or D.C. in fact, many don't even know what those letters mean.

2) New patients finding you online because you've included all three ways they will do so. The terms... Chiropractor Mount Washington, chiropractor Nebraska, chiropractor 12748 all come back to you (if you've done your work right - topic for another article).

3) Other chiropractors and often times of attorneys finding you to refer patients for the same reasons mentioned in #2.

I've helped chiropractors gets boatloads of new patients just by utilizing the basic information above.

You're so bright that you figure you'll use the methods above but will make it "even better" by including your e-mail address, complete business address, and office hours. Those are options but I'll tell you what will happen, so make your choices accordingly. 1) You will receive e-mails as follows... Do you take my insurance? I have an itch near my rectum is that something chiropractic can help with? What are your fees? 2) Including your complete business address will allow someone to search you on a map, discovering you are "too far" for them to travel. 3) Office hours are great way to tell people you're not available.

Be Unique
Express yourself but don't be a lunatic, unless of course you are. Seriously, there are many things about you that people probably don't know. They are often things that will allow you to bond with the people you serve.

As examples, I've been running long distance for years, mostly along the beach here in Southern California. I receive a steady volume of long-distance runners simply because we share common interests. If you're a tennis maniac, soccer mom, active in a local church, computer guru, have young children, driving traffic (finish this list yourself). In my experience, people are bored with seeing professional business photos that just show you sitting there like some sort of run-of-the-mill person.

What does this photo say? Besides me needing a tan (guy on the right with lots of sunblock on) it may say that I'm a cool guy, or that I'm all right, that I get the thumbs up. It helps that the kid next to me is one of the worlds top performers in his sport (BMX). He won a major contest the day the photo was taken and we are sitting on one of my chiropractic adjusting tables.

I love seeing stuff like this on chiropractor's web sites. They tell me something about the chiropractor.

If you're a soccer mom, mention it on your web site, and mention it in detail. Talk about the league your kids are in, how you take time off from the office to get them to practice and games (mention locations such as Playa field). If you provide chiropractic care to all the kids that are on the team include that information online. Your human, you are unique, tell us something about yourself! We can learn about BJ Palmer and DD Palmer in the office or a Planet Chiropractic.