It’s not good enough simply to have a web presence.

Patients are searching for doctors, medical practices and hospitals via search engines, like Google, so whether or not you’re found on the first page can make a significant impact on the number of patients you see.

Furthermore, it’s in your best interest to have some control on how your name or practice comes up on search queries. Because if you don’t, it’s likely that negative news items or other unsavory information will be associated with your name instead.

So, I’m happy that the American Medical News wrote about the issue, going over some basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques (via The Entrepreneurial MD) that one can utilize.

It’s a good place to start, but in the end, they recommend outsourcing this task. If you’re so inclined, there’s also plenty of resources on the web if you’re reluctant to hire a consultant.

I highly recommend Darren Rowse’s post on the topic, How to Grow Your Blog to the Next Level With SEO, as well as Brian Clark’s tips on writing blog headlines, How to Write Magnetic Headlines.

Applying the advice from these two posts can significantly improve how your site or blog ranks on Google.