Optometry Websites
Are you upgrading your Practice Website? Want to get it on track straight away?
Building or upgrading your website is like designing a new home. It has a few of your touches to it. It’s exciting when you can move in.
Let’s pause for a moment… Why do we have websites in the first place? Or, more importantly, why do patients try to find your Practice Online?
Always-On Search
Patients are increasingly turning to Google or Social Media to find answers to their problems. Maybe this is at 2am on a Saturday night. Or maybe in the middle of their lunch break.
Your website is your ‘always-on’ solution for providing useful information for patients.
The Yellow Pages has shrunk, both in size and popularity. Who wants to dig out the Yellow Pages in the middle of the night?
What do patients look for on your website?
New patients may have found you through a Google Search. They might have found an article on your site about flashes and floaters. After browsing the article, they might check out your ‘About Us’ page, to find out more about your qualifications and experience. Then they might look up your Practice Address and decide to make contact via phone, email or social media (e.g. Facebook Messenger).
Existing patients might have misplaced their recall letter, and Googled you to find your phone number.
Now lets get back to your new website….
How can we get your website off to the best start?
Let’s say that your web designer has just sent you a link your brand new site. You click on it, and it takes you to your new page. You might see a new logo, a swish new background, or a couple of photos from your practice.
Put more You into your Website
Think about your practice culture. These are all the little things that you currently do, that set your practice apart from the two-for-one stores. Maybe you spend extra time with patients. Maybe you offer them a coffee while they’re waiting. Maybe your patients are like friends to you. Make your website ‘feel’ like your practice. Give patients a taste for what it’s like to have you look after them.
Get feedback from your Team
Importantly, your practice staff may a significant amount of time with patients. Find out what they like or dislike about the new site. Ask them about the common questions from patients. Ask your practice staff see how the website looks on their mobiles and tablets. Make sure that your phone number and address are easy to lookup.
Feed this information back to your web designer.
How will you track how many visitors are coming to your site?
Ask your web designer to set up Google Tag Manager for you. Whenever someone lands on your page or interacts with your site, Google Tag Manager can track it. You can also use it for tracking the number of people who call you directly from your website.
Maybe you’ve had a ‘bare bones’ website for a while. With your new site, you have a chance to begin telling Google about your services. This can help you to leap over others on Google Searches.
Think about your key services. Do you want to promote ‘behavioural optometry’, ‘contact lenses’, ‘myopia control’ or ‘low vision’?
One of the best ways to rank for these keywords is to write short articles on your blog. Don’t write them just for Google. Write them for your patients. After all, they are the ones who may find them online.
Additional Search Engine Optimisation
There are things that you can do to optimise your site for search too. Fill in extra information like Headings, Alt-text and others. Being intentional about this extra information helps.
Sharing your articles on social media helps too. Not only do your existing followers get to know you better. But Google counts traffic coming from your Social Media Pages in it’s ranking. Put simply, more visitors to your website from Facebook means better ranking from Google.
Encourage your suppliers to give you a link online. Google already trusts them, and links to your site can help boost your reputation.
You could go even further and pay someone to do Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) for you. This can be useful if you’re trying to rank for a really competitive keyword (like ‘prescription sunglasses’ in the whole of Australia).
But it’s important to remember that Google Search is made to help people find what they need. The more you provide this, the better Google will rank you.
Social Media Traffic back to your Website
Link your website to your social media profiles. Make it easy for patients to follow you, and add you to their trusted circles.
Have your web designer set up a plugin on your website. This allows you to automatically post to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others when you post a new article. As we’ve discussed earlier, your practice website is like your home base. Bring your followers to your website.
Update your practice website address on these channels too. Make sure that the contact information is consistent for each of these. Also, add your practice to Google My Business.
Set up Facebook Retargeting
One more thing to get set up is a little bit of code from Facebook. This is called their Retargeting Pixel. Later on, this code allows you to show an ad to entice people to come back to your website. Not only do these people know a little about you, but Facebook charges less for these ads.
Conclusion
Make the most of your investment in a new website. Allow it to put your best foot forward, all the time. Celebrate your new home!
