Acupuncture Websites - What Works and What Doesn't

As an acupuncturist, I consider it to be absolutely crucial that you have an acupuncture website for your practice. In this day and age, most people are turning to the internet to get the solutions they need for their various problems and issues. This trend will only continue. As an acupuncturist, you can market your practice in cost-effective and creative ways with your website. Without a practice website, you will be very limited in your ability to reach out and connect with you target market.

In my own acupuncture practice, I have consistently brought in 2-3 new acupuncture patients per week through my acupuncture website.

This website has continued to work very well for me year in and year out, largely because of a few factors:

• It has been search engine optimized-- You want to have a very qualified SEO expert do the search engine optimization on your practice website. This will help you rank higher in the search engines like Google and Yahoo. Because of the excellent SEO job my web person did, I can say with confidence that Google has been a primary influence in building a successful acupuncture practice. You want these search engines to help you as much as possible, but you have to get your website optimized or else noone will be able to find you.
• It has a lot of content-- This site has tons of health articles on various conditions acupuncture treats. All of this content helps move the site further up the search engines.
• The home page is organized, uncluttered, and provides a clear call to action-- The home page of your acupuncture website is the most important page on the whole site. If someone likes the home page, they will likely get more information or even call your office.

Honestly, there are many details that go into making your home page really effective, not to mention your entire site. I understand that as an acupuncturist, you may have very little interest in internet marketing or website development. Frankly, I don't blame you. It is a vast world that requires some specialized knowledge.

This is why I recommend that you delegate this project to experts who do this all day long. You should find someone who has some experience in the alternative health field, as building a practice website requires specialized knowledge.

It really is a beautiful thing when it is set up well. After all, you now have an automated marketing system working on your behalf 24/7 that will constantly promote your acupuncture practice. What could be better than that?

Kevin Doherty, L.Ac., MS

Kevin Doherty, L.Ac., MS is a licensed acupuncturist and business development consultant who specializes in helping acupuncturists build thriving private practices using internet-based technologies. You can check out his website package for acupuncturists at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage