Where to start

Plan. Start by determining what you’re trying to accomplish. This will set the course for what you need to improve upon with your website. For example, if you feel that your website isn’t coming up when searching for vague terms such as “hysterectomy”, or “ent doctor”, realize you’re asking for the impossible. Be sure to be specific (and realistic) on what you’re trying to do well with in terms of search engine results.  Are your trying to be found for a particular service in a certain geographical area? Remember – health care is for the most part local.. Be sure to include those words or phrases within the content and markup of your website. Give some thought about what your business metrics need to be to determine success? Are they based on conversions, pageviews, patients or some other measure? Strategy should identify the tactical, not the other way around.

Research. Determine what your visitors are searching for online, how it relates to you and create content that is relevant. It’s important to consider how patients will be searching for this information and not necessarily how you think they should be searching.

Write Content. Yes it’s true … content is king. Without relevant website content there’s little, if any, SEO can improve. Bottom line – create useful accessible content to earn links and references from relevant, credible sources that ultimately lead to higher search engine rankings and greater traffic.

Measure Accessibility. Make your website pages and materials accessible and optimized for search engines so they can properly display it when relevant searches are performed. Here’s where you may need to rely on your web developer for some help.

Next Steps

So now you have a sense of what needs to be done, its time to identify who is going to get it done.

Website content. If you’re adding content (and hopefully you are), consider whether to use someone internal or external to write copy. Regardless of who is writing your content, be sure that they follow a content model.  You’ll want a consistent tone and an organized approach. Random content that doesn’t enhance usability nor convey the right message will impair your visitor’s experience. Another key consideration – is this person familiar with SEO? Since optimization starts with good content, not having the right person develop this content with SEO in mind may mean redoing things.

Updating website code. While many firms provide SEO guidance, the reality is that your current website developer will most likely need to implement those changes. You don’t want an SEO firm mirroring your website simply to make coding changes. This can negatively impact your desired results. Also if you’re on a content management system, some of the suggestions made may require recoding that can typically be done with your current website developer. Its not to say that someone else cannot make these changes but they will need to get up to speed on your application, host environment and your website. Additional time spent will likely mean a higher budget to implement. And if the SEO expert breaks something in the process, you’ll need to contact your current website developer to get it fixed. Finally, keep in mind that you’ll need to provide ftp access to this outside company in order for them to make changes. If you offer any secure services on your website, you may not want to give this information out.

Link building. Bottom line it’s the quality of your inbound links, not the quantity. Google, and other search engines, see inbound links as a vote of popularity. Be sure to have your website listed on online directories that are relevant to health care, and more importantly your specialty.  Search engines reward websites that provide relevant search query results. Simply by listing your site on multiple unrelated directories will have little, if any, SEO value.

Keep in mind, it’s the tried and true, that wins the SEO race.

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.

The following ideas should help get you started.

Advertise your website to patients

• Put your URL on all appointment reminder cards, encounter forms, practice stationery, patient education material, etc.
• Put you URL as a billing message on all patient statements.
• Put a promo for your web site on your “on hold” phone message.
• Advertise your web site using other forms of marketing – local newspapers, on the radio, practice brochure, etc.
• List your URL (your web site address) in your local phone book listing or advertisement.

Promote Your Site in Your Waiting & Exam Rooms

• Display promotional signs for your web site in your waiting and exam rooms indicating site address as well as key features – patient education materials, mailing lists, etc.
• Display informational flyers that include your URL at your front and check-out desks.
• Hand out business card-sized web address cards.
• Feature your web site on a waiting room computer that will allow patients to explore your site and sign up for interactive features such as a mailing list.

Promote Your Web Site On-Line

• Establish a patient mailing list on your site and generate monthly on-line newsletters.
• To encourage patients to register with your listserv (mailing list), run a give-a-way promotion (i.e. gift certificate) in your office.
• Determine and set practice policy on email communication with patients. Communicate the specific “do’s & don’ts” of office email policy, process and confidentiality issues by distributing a flyer or card to inform patients.
• Establish web site links with your referring physician web sites, hospitals, doctor finder services, community health directories.
• Provide access and links to valuable local healthcare resources for your patients.
• Post on-line disease, age or gender-specific electronic information and links to credible and reliable health information sites.
• Periodically re-register your site with major search engines as existing listings may drop off engine databases.
• Work with a web development company to optimize your rankings.
• Establish a Paid Placement advertising campaign.

Make your site content relevant. Content is definitely king. Make sure that your site has information that is relevant to the code that SE spiders see.

Remember consistency. Consistent use of keywords or keyword phrases with page titling, file naming, header tags and site content begets favorable results.

Involve your visitors. Build a community on your site. If possible, allow site users to leave comments or blog. This practice helps to drive repeat visitors.

Submit a sitemap. Not coming up at all? Consider submitting a sitemap. Google will look at those pages and any linked to them. A sitemap generator can be found by going to Google’s Webmaster Central.

Remember its quality, not quanity. Get quality inbound links from quality sites. Slow and steady wins the race as this process takes time. Don’t fall prey to the temptation of getting links from link farms or your site can get dropped all together.