This program is an all inclusive solution that not only includes web design, development, content management and hosting, but use of patient education content, developed by Endogastric Solutions, and syndicated through Encounter Health.

To view an online demo of this exciting new program please visit http://egs.practisinc.com.

Let’s start with the domain name

Chances are at some point, someone from your group registered a domain name through a domain registrar such as GoDaddy or Network Solutions, or through the IT company you do business with.

When its time to develop or redesign your website, one of the first questions your website developer will ask you is the log-in information to the registrar of your domain name. If you’re like some groups, you’ve may have not done a good job at keeping your registration information current.

What may be even worse is that whoever originally registered your domain name may not have listed you as the registrant and administrative contacts – the way that registrars confirm who owns and has access to the domain. This contact can make changes to it, such as updating passwords and where your domain name points.

What you can do

• Find out how your domain is currently registered and what the contact information is by visiting www.whois.sc.

• Regardless of who registers your domain, insist that the contact information for both the registrant and administrative record for the domain is the legal owner of the domain. Do not allow your IT vendor, or anyone else, be listed as the registrant or administrative contact.

• Be sure to utilize a generic email address such as info@ or admin@. This will ensure that if someone leaves the practice, control over the domain name doesn’t go with them.

• Keep track of your domain name’s expiration date and who the registrar is. There are many registration services that solicit you into migrate your domain without your knowledge.

Website maintenance

One of the most asked questions we hear from potential clients is how they can make changes to their website themselves. Most firms today provide a content management tool that allows clients to easily manage website updates themselves without contacting their website developer. Since this is a crucial part of your website, it is a good idea to know what type of content management system they are using – a database driven application or website editor.

What you should know

Be sure to ask what content management system (CMS) your developer uses. Also take time to familiarize yourself with how easy (or not!) it is to make changes using this application. While all CMS’s allow you to make changes to your website, there may be some limitations based on the type of application used.

Open-Source CMS

There are many database driven applications available – Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, to name a few. However, these popular open-source CMS programs tend to be a target for hackers. Generally there are updates (software) available to minimize the risk of an attack. Be sure to budget for these updates.

On the host server, there are also software version updates. This may also dictate that you update your CMS or your website may not work properly. Bottom line, you can’t just set it and forget it. These types of applications require ongoing maintenance.

Finally, keep in mind that because the applications rely on server configurations, they may not be as easy to migrate (move) to a different host without some additional development time. This can get costly, depending on what reconfiguration is needed.

Website Editors

There are also a number of website editors, such as Adobe Contribute. These applications may run client-side (from your desk-top) or through a hosted provider via the web.

Some scripting is added to website pages during development. This allows you to make website changes to editable regions. Since these pages are files that sit on your account on the server, you can migrate existing website files to a new host without much reconfiguration.

However, as new browser versions are made available, older editors may not be compliant. This does not mean your website will not display properly, only that you may not be able to continue to make changes using that application.

Don’t overlook content

Take this opportunity to re-evaluate your website structure (information architecture) and content. Think of this like moving. Wouldn’t you be cleaning out your closets, donating things to good will and, perhaps, buying that new refrigerator?

Chances are that over time, content has been added to your existing site without giving much thought to where and how best to add it.  You may not even know what content is on your current website. Now is the right time to take an inventory of that content, re-organize it and clean up your copy. Also, come up with a plan for how to best add content in the future.

Let’s talk about search engine optimization

There are many online marketing firms who will vie for your business. While they may provide much needed advice in how to better position your website on search engines, much of what needs to happen is driven off proper and compliant development practices.

A few things to consider:

• Is there ample content? It all starts with having good keyword rich, deep content on your site. Without content, there isn’t much a developer can work with to optimize.

• How is your website coded? Chances are that if it’s an older website, it may not be XHTML compliant and set-up for optimal load time. These elements may play a roll in how well your website is ranked. Be sure that if you’re developing a new website, that these good practices are used.

• Does your website have keyword rich file-naming conventions, relevant meta tags and valid mark-up? It’s best if your developer updates these items as they know your website and how it was originally coded. If you authorize an outside firm to do this, they may break something on your website. When redesigning your website, be sure that these items are there upon development.

One final thought – don’t forget to have some fun! Its your opportunity to be creative.

• Free, or organic placement, lives in the body of a search engine result page (SERP).
• Paid placement (i.e. Google Adwords) lives at the top and right side of a search result page.
• Search engine placement, or rank, is ever changing.
• When it comes to organic search engine placement, there is never a guarantee of how or if a site will rank.
• For new sites, or sites that have had very little content on them, it takes time to be recognized (indexed) by search engines – often up to 4-6 weeks.
• The longer a site lives on the web, the better it will rank because search engines see that the site has stood the test of time.

Best practices mean enhanced rankings

Even though there is no guarantee on organic placement, there are certain “best practices” that can be done to ensure that sites are set up for success. All properly optimized websites should include the following:

• Submission of the site URL and some meta-data to directories such as Google, Yahoo and OpenDirectory. This prompts those search engines to recognize there is a new site to index.
• Search engines will send their “spiders” or “bots” to automatically crawl these sites. This means they take inventory of site pages and the content within those pages.
• During the development of all of program sites, we build in “best practices”. These items make it easier for search engines to properly index your site and crawl its content. To give you a better idea on what to look for:
  • Keyword rich and dense text. Search engines love lots of text and relevant content.
  • Unique and accurate meta-data including descriptions, keywords, page titles that are relevant to the content within the site. This information should accurately describe the content of a given web page.
  • Text that is in your titles and headings throughout the site will get more weight that what is in the page body. There are varying levels of headings to distinguish importance (H1, H2, H3, etc.) that we apply.
  • Well-structured web site architecture that is easy to navigate allows search engines to crawl a site with greater ease. This helps them to identify text and relevancy needed to correlate information with user search queries.
  • Domain/URL. A descriptive URL that reflects the page content is likely to do well as it shows relevance and consistency.
  • Using accurate and descriptive file names for documents, again relevant to the content within the page and making it human readable.
  • Optimize “alt” text for images so that descriptive keywords are used to indicate what images show.
  • Using good, clean and well-formatted code (syntactically valid code).
  • Fresh content. Keeping content fresh is important. Adding a blog is a good option to consider.
  • Web optimized pages that load quickly and reliably. This makes it easier for search engines to recognize.
• Organic search results reward for relevant content. When we develop a web site, we highlight and summarize the content to make it easier for search engines to find. Keep in mind that it is truly the relevance of the content that will determine its organic placement.

So what else can I do to enhance my ranking?

There are things that you can also do to help with SEO.

• Invite credible web sites (associations, societies or organizations they are members of,  hospital affiliations, etc.) to link to your website. This is referred to as “link juice”.
• Add content! Search engines understand the Internet is dynamic and changing, so they constantly re-evaluate the pages. That’s why content is so important. Keeping content fresh and up-to-date by having lots of keyword rich and deep information will set your site up to be recognized in user search queries.
• To help index your site faster, submit an XML sitemap.
• Keep it local. We all know that healthcare is local. Submit your site to Google local. These are generally the first organic results found on a page.

In our ongoing effort towards transparency, we put together some useful tips.

• The answer is not always found in the bottom line. I know it’s hard to say but look beyond cost. Be sure that you’re comparing apples to apples and ask questions. What one firm considers as part of development, others will not. The devil is in the details and these projects are wrought with many of them! Be sure to inquire if there is:
  1. content provided as part of the project
  2. the ability to make site updates yourself
  3. ongoing maintenance charges and what the charges are for
  4. training and support included or available
  5. supporting documentation provided such as a site map to detail site architecture, content checklist, and go live materials
  6. source files provided once the site is live

• Be sure to look under the hood. All sites today should be using CSS to control layout and stylization (also known as tableless layout), and tested to work in many of the latest browsers including Internet Explorer (IE) v6.0, v7.0, v8.0, Firefox, Opera and Safari. Supporting IE 6.0 is important within the healthcare industry as many hospital based applications require older versions of IE. If you on a hospital network, chances are you’re apt to be using IE 6.

• Content is king. At Practis, you’ll hear us make this claim over and over. Designing and developing a website is the easy part. Writing content is the challenge. Ask for specifics – what content will be provided by the company and what will you be expected to provide. Someone who has worked in the industry is going to better know and understand what content and functional requirements you’ll need. They may also have licensed materials to make your life easier and project come to closure sooner.

• Who is running the show. Project management is an overlooked, but extremely important, aspect of a successful project. For your website, are there dedicated resources, i.e., a project manager, allocated to oversee your project, provide guidance, check on questionable details and ensure timely completion of tasks. If there isn’t a project manager, chances are you, the client, will take on more of this role.

• It’s not a one person, one skill set type of job. Developing a solid website that stands the test of time requires a diverse skill set. It’s difficult to find someone who is the best at architecture, graphic and interactive design, coding, application development, search engine optimization and project management- all at the same time. Be sure to know the limitations of those you select to work with.

• Do they have a track record. Over and above knowing how long someone has been in business, do a little digging and get more facts. Has this firm produced award-winning sites, what do their customers say about them, do they offer resources for collecting feedback from their clients as well as ongoing support? Chances are you’ll be with this firm for a long time. Make sure you do your due diligence.

• Proud to be American made. If you find comfort in knowing that you can pick up a phone and speak to someone state-side whether it be about your project under development or, in the future, site enhancements, then you should avoid companies who only offer web or email only based support. Be sure to ask who is working on your site as it’s a plus if you can pick up the phone and contact them directly.