Is your New Years Resolution that want to improve your marketing as a whole for your business or is it that you simply have been hit by the recession that your business has still not fully recovered? If so, You are in the right place, at the right time.

My favorite Chinese proverb states, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.”

The three main sources of online marketing that every doctor and local business needs to utilize is optimizing local directories, using social media as a friendly face to your patients or customers and company blogging. These 3 aspects of marketing are no longer what the few businesses have. Instead, it is the Golden Standard that businesses need to have.

Did you know that in 2010, 67% of future patients tend to visit ‘yelp’ or a different review site to review the doctor before entering their office. They will also view your website and make a judgment on you before ever stepping in the front door! Think of a doctor’s website like a book’s cover. Even though everyone says “do not judge a book by its cover,” most people generally will judge that very book by its cover.

Here are the 3 Best Ways to Increase Traffic to your Website:

1. Local Directories

   Local Directories are the Yellow Pages of the web. It lets patients find information about your business which would include: your website, phone number, hours of operation, types of payment, directions, and even any coupon deals your office may be offering. Directories also are Smart Phone friendly, so patients can search the address and contact information while on the go. Many people have set up directories for their businesses, but it is very rare to find an optimized directory. Optimized directories are ranked higher on search engines and could be the reason your practice gets clicked when a patient searches for a Doctor in your Local Area.

2. Social Media

   Social Media is the newest and most innovative ways that businesses can grow in the marketplace today. Social Media can either hurt your company if done poorly, or it can essentially boost your business entirely. I can not emphasize this next point enough: There is a fine line between Social Networking and Social Media. Social Networking is the interaction between yourself and your friends and peers. It is a way to network with other people through different online networks. Social Media on the other hand is the types of interaction that your business has to interact with your current and future customers/patients. The key to social media is that you want to appear that you are there to help them with whatever needs they may have, although you do not want to cross the patient/personal life border as you may do with your friends and peers.

3. Blogging

   Blogging was on a downfall this past year, but it is still one of the best ways to build your Search Engine Optimization and to gain loyal subscribers to your website. DoctorWebsight provides every website we build with a fully functional blog. We provide plans where we will blog for you, or we can give you access to do it yourself.

With the utilization of these 3 types of internet marketing tools, your business will be ready for the year 2012.