Do You Need A Chiropractic Website?

Last Updated: May 17, 2019

There’s a pretty consistent trend in 2015.  A trend that shows me that there are a lot of struggling chiropractors.  Offices that are having trouble getting enough money into their office each month to enjoy their normal lifestyle or even to keep their doors open.

What I see coming in the future is that things are not going to be getting any easier.  Insurance companies are going to keep pulling back, money is tighter for most families, and most chiropractors don’t have the education they need to succeed at marketing.

Many doctors are looking to chiropractic websites as a new source of patients, but do you really need one?  That seems like a crazy question being that I sell websites, but what I can tell you is that they are not for everyone.  There are some things you need to know before you start spending your hard earned dollars on a new website for your practice.

The Purpose of a Chiropractic Website?

Have you ever sat down and really thought out the purpose of your website?  It’s certainly to get more new patients, but does it have another purpose?  Should you be using it for patient education also?  In order to answer that question I have to share some research with you that I’ve done.  Now I shouldn’t share this because my competitors can see it also, but I’m pretty confident they won’t catch up to us anytime soon.

So here’s what we know today:
1.    Patients spend no more than 5 seconds on your homepage.
2.    They don’t roll down to read anything.  They just look at the top area.
3.    They spend about 5 seconds on your about us page.  Probably just to look at your picture.
4.    They then contact you or they leave.  They don’t do anything else.

So knowing that this is a fact above that I can prove to you, do you think patient education is going to happen on a website?  Is much of anything going to happen on the website besides people looking at pictures?  How important do you think it is to have your picture on your website?

At Inception we take all of this into account when we work with clients.  We make sure our sites are designed to specifically guide new patients to what they want to see.  By doing this our sites out produce most other templates about 10 to 1.

How Much Does a Website Cost?

When you’re looking at purchasing a chiropractic website the cost is pretty variable.  You’ll see $40 per month on the low end to $2500 per month on the high end.  As a former chiropractor I don’t feel that anyone should be spending more than $500 per month on a website, SEO, and social media combined.  If you start to add in Google Adwords PPC then it would be higher, but otherwise $500 should be the max.

At Inception all of our clients get all of our services.  I don’t believe in different levels.  You either go all in with internet marketing or you save your money.  That being said across all of our clients we average a cost of $250 per month.  Some people are lower some are higher, but all get our full array of services including; website, social media, expert level SEO, mobile site, blog posting, high end press releases, directory listings, etc…  There is really not another company that matches this, but let’s talk about one more thing.

The Reality of Your Google Rank?

What most chiropractors never think about is their Google rank.  What I can tell you is that you have to be in the top 5 for the main search in your area to get any new patients with consistency.  So if you practice in Chicago, IL you need to rank in the top 5 for “Chiropractor Chicago”.  If you don’t you’re probably wasting your money.

So let me ask you this question.  Most of the companies in chiropractic have no limits on how many clients they take in an area.  Some have dozens in one city.  How are they going to be able to do a good job for all of their clients?  Are you going to be the special one that they do more for?  Are you buying into the lie of the more expensive package to out rank the rest of the people that are using the same company?

At Inception we work with a maximum of 2 people in a city.  In fact it’s generally one in most cities.  If we do have 2 they have different styles of websites.  I don’t feel that we can effectively help more than two clients in any given city so we don’t do it.  Doing a great job for our clients has to come before our profits.  If it doesn’t then we are just another chiropractic website company making false promises.

So Should You Buy a Website?

My thought on this topic is that every office needs to have a website.  If you’re a chiropractic office that doesn’t do much marketing and your budget is tight, find a local website builder and put up something simple that patients can see your hours and phone number on.  Pay a onetime fee and don’t waste your money every month paying for a low level website.

If you’re goal is to get to the top then you have to find a company that really knows their stuff, that has client limits in cities, and has a reasonable fee.  I know I’m biased, but we really are the only company that fits these requirements in the chiropractic field.  Give me a call and I think you’ll feel comfortable with the fact that I know my stuff.  As I’m writing this I rank #1 for “Chiropractic Marketing” and “Chiropractic Websites”.  Our clients that have been with us are seeing the same results.

I hope this post has been helpful.  I try to help my fellow chiropractors as much as I can even if we never work together.  I believe fully that when I give a lot away I get much more in return.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  I’m happy to help.

By Mike Hamilton