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The Internet has become the world's favorite tool for marketing. It is a popular, easy and cost-effective way to reach a large audience. With a website, millions of people can learn about you, your practice and any other information that you put out there. This is why more and more professionals are using the Internet as a way to develop their practice.

Once you have made the decision to create a website, you must consider details such as content, design, the person or persons responsible for updating the site and so on.

These are the key points that can make or break your site.

CONTENT

You can have a website that includes your practice's name, your hours, address and phone number. But how does that differ from a yellow page ad?

Aside from the typical information as stated above, include your practice's philosophies in dealing with patients. Don't just list your services--describe them. Also, include a list of health plans in which you participate. If you have special training in a certain procedure, include that as well. Seminars you are giving or conferences that you have attended will also be of interest to the reader.

In addition, provide detailed directions on how to get to your office. You may want to link this portion of your site with an on-line map program.

Keep the information on your site timely. For instance, during the summer, include information on ailments that are more common during this time of year. Do this for every season to keep the reader's interest.

DESIGN

Once you have your information together, you will want to decide on how you package it. The design of a website is just as important as its content. Your design should be visually appealing without being too busy. If it is too busy, you will overshadow the content and possibly lose the reader. Animation is a good tool in a website but, again, you don't want to overdo it.

An increasingly popular design feature on websites is an interactive page. For a medical practice, this page can be an on-line appointment schedule. You can post your schedule on your site (excluding patient names, of course), listing what times you have available. The patient can then enter his or her name in that vacancy. Afterwards, one of your staff members can e-mail or call the patient to confirm. Another interactive idea is to have patients fill out forms prior to coming to your office for their appointment.

TRAFFIC

Now that content and design are squared away, you want to make sure that your website can be easily found. One of the first things you should do is place your web address on your business cards, letterhead, newsletter and any other literature that patients may receive. The next step is to link your site to all the medical/health care directories and search engines you can find. Remember, a website that can be accessed quickly is a site that people will return to again and again.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Updating your website is important. Monthly updates are a good idea. Ideally, you should update  your website as often as new information is available to you.

Another consideration is who will manage the website? If you or your staff do not have the time, or ability, to update the site, you may want to hire an outside "webmaster" to handle this responsibility. Still, you or a designated staff member will need to provide the webmaster with any changes or updates that need to be made.

The Internet can be used for other purposes as well. If you want to conduct patient surveys, e-mailing the surveys to the patients may get a higher response rate than mailing them a paper form, since many people spend a lot of time at a computer.

Another good use for the Internet is to send patient reports to referring physicians. However, you want to make sure that patient confidentiality is maintained in the process.

With the increasing number of people who are on-line, it makes sense to use the Internet to develop your practice. But you must develop your site correctly or you will have spent a lot of time and money for nothing. By following these steps, you will reap the benefits of the World Wide Web.