This was presented at the 2019 AAO (American Academy of Ophthalmology) meeting in San Francisco.
Launching and maintaining a digital marketing strategy involves many moving parts. At the heart of your marketing strategy is a website. Your website should be up to date and optimized for best performance. Best practices and tips are reviewed for updating and improving the ability of your site to rank.
If you need to start a website, we review the different types of plans, for instance, hosted vs. self-hosted sites. There are free website building platforms, but there are some potential pitfalls you'd like to avoid.
Optimization (SEO) is the process of getting your website to rank. CMS (content management systems) allow the flexibility of turnkey design combined with a platform to best optimize your website.
Other digital marketing strategies are explored as well: Youtube, podcasts and webinars are alternative ways to market your practice...after your website is established.
Randall Wong, M.D.
www.MedicalMarketingEnterprises.com
www.RussandRandy.com
www.SunriseHostingServices.com
randall.v.wong@gmail.com
2. Financial Disclosure
• I have the following financial interests or relationships to
disclose:
• Co-Founder:
• Medical Marketing Enterprises, LLC
• Sunrise Hosting Services, LLC
• RussandRandy.com
3. Randall Wong, M.D.
• Ophthalmologist
• Online Marketing
• Medical Marketing Enterprises, LLC
• Healthcare & Medical Internet Marketing
• SEO
• Reputation Management
• Sunrise Hosting Services, LLC
• Managed website hosting (virtual IT)
4. Goals for Today
• Define Website vs. Blog
• Types of Websites
• Hosting
• GoDaddy
• Bluehost
• Sunrise
• Components of Website
• Content Marketing is the only way to achieve and
maintain high rankings
• What is SEO?
• What Needs to be Optimized
7. Website | “Looks Great”
• Static
• Navigation
• Coded for Appearance (HTML)
• Graphics
• Logos
• “Website” is based upon design – little ability to rank.
8. Blog
• Customized Design
• Coded for Optimization (SEO)
• Dynamically add content, add function gradually
• Has Marketing Value (i.e. ranks with Google)
• ALL websites in 2019 should be constructed on
“blogging software”
9. Content Management System (CMS)
• aka “Blog”
• Has turn-key design, fully customizable
• Templates, inexpensive
• Mobile responsive
• Best of 2 worlds
• Design
• Optimization
10. “Blogs”
• Ability for user to add content
• Question/Comment
• Allows website owner to add content (the doctor)
• Server Based
• Easily add content from anywhere
• Can you use a word processor?
• Mobile phone
19. 3 Types of Websites
• Good - Resource (Static, No SEO) – can’t rank
• Better - Marketing (Dynamic, SEO) – high rankings
• Best - Interactive (Dynamic, SEO, “Blog”) – ranks &
engages
• Websites differ based upon content…….
20. Goal of Website
• Rank
• Grab attention – Engage patient
• Provide Value
• Build Trust
…this takes time, yet when done well, is the key to
growing your practice
21. Design
• Visual Appeal
• Colors
• Graphics
• Video
• Logos
• Ease of Navigation
• Mobile Responsive?
• Website design was obsolete – it may have value for
Google rankings.
22. Best Website?
• Self Hosted
• CMS – e.g. Wordpress.org
• Design
• Content – Optimized (marketing value)
• CMS or “Blogs” offer both design….and the best for
SEO.
Therefore, the “Best” website has customized
designed and is optimized (i.e. gets high rankings
Search Engines.”
23. Best Website?
Choose a platform
which can grow with
your marketing needs.
CMS offer these solutions.
25. What is Optimization?
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• The process of translating the content of your web page
to a format easily understood by search engines (Google,
Bing, Yahoo)
• SEO only applies to websites with content.
• SEO only applies to content marketing.
• SEO is fundamental to anyone marketing a service or
sales.
• Optimization allows your webpage to get ranked so it
may serve as a marketing tool!
26.
27.
28.
29. What Gets “Optimized?”
• Web site
• Web page (each article)
• Off-Page
• Social Media
• Local Search
• Review Sites
30. What Gets Optimized
Primary
• On-Page Sources
• Website
• Content (articles, posts,
pages)
Secondary
• Off-Page Sources
• Aggregator
• Facebook
• Yelp
• Angie’s List
• Healthgrades
• Social Media
• Links (backlinks)
31. Factors Increasing SEO
• Content
• Title Tag
• Inbound Links
• Perceived authority
• Outbound links
• Download speed
• Analytics, Sitemap
• Age of Domain
• Keyword Tool
• Social Media
• Mobile Responsive
32.
33. 3 Rs of Great Copywrite
• Relevant
• Refreshed
• Routinely
• Google (Bing, Yahoo) have separate algorithms for
ranking webpages (SEO algorithm).
• …..all have relevance as a primary variable.
34. What to Write About?
• Answers to health related questions
• Explanations given routinely
• E.g. “Causes of Red Eye”
• Don’t make treatment recommendations
• Observe HIPAA
• Editorial and Opinion are most valuable!
35. The Article
• Length
• Sub-headers
• Bullets
• Break up visually into paragraphs
• Write in 1st person
• Write to level of 8th grader
• Pretend your patient is in front of you.
36. Take Homes
• Title Tag
• Social Media ???
• Review Sites
• Local Search/SEO
• YouTube
• Webinar
• About Page
• Social Media Platforms
• Healthgrades – Claim
• Personal Websites
• Podcasts
37. About You
Who?
• 1st Person
• Hobbies
• Family
• Sports
What?
• 1st Person
• Elite college
• Elite medical school
• Elite training
• Elite diseases
• ..still awake?
41. Social Media
• Website up?
• Website up to date?
• “Always under construction”
• ….Social media is not necessary for a medical office, but
can be an effective way to increase your marketing
outside of ‘search’…..but after your website is up and
running.
Medical Marketing Enterprises, LLC was started to teach and consult for Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing. RussandRandy.com is a podcast focused on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing.
I am a retina specialist practicing in Fairfax, Virginia.
We are going to build a website on Wordpress.org.
We’ll create some content.
Optimize and publish.
Add some 3rd party plugins, too.
At the heart of a modern website is the CMS, aka content management system. It’s basically the “program” which builds websites.
There are free versions such as Wordpress.com and Blogger.
I’ll recommend why the only platform to use is Wordpress.org.
.com vs. .org…..very similar, but .com has more limitations, but is free and is hosted.
123rf
Wordpress.org gives you the most freedom in terms of design and function.
You have to be responsible for hosting versus the .com version is hosted on “their” servers.
Not to worry, buying hosting for a medical practice website is really, really cheap. Say, < $10/month!
One advantage of using a CMS such as WP.org is that you can easily change your website depending upon your needs.
Most practices have a “resource” type site; hours of operation, about pages, directions, insurance information, etc.
No marketing value, but at least a footprint on the web.
With time, you may want to change or add function….no problem with CMS such as Wordpress (really anything blog).
In conclusion, we’ll develop our own site and experience how easy is to create content, design a website and add function. If needed….maybe we can integrate social media too!
20017869s.jpg
123rf.com
SEO is the process of translating your website’s text, or content, into meaningful data understood by the search engines. It allows you to convey the proper information to the search engines so your pages may outrank your competitors. Your website, with proper optimization can become your best marketing tool with the best ROI!