Issue #17 - July 2010
How to Optimize Your Website
When I suggest optimizing your website, I don’t necessarily mean Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Google Analytics or any other external optimization tools. Internal optimization is just as important as the fancy external optimization. For the most part, you (or your staff) may not even be the one designing, building, and upholding your own website, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to make sure it’s up to the highest standards and is easily viewed and available to patients and potential patients.
First, check the design of your website. How many colors does it have? If your website uses more than 3 primary and 2-3 minor colors (for links and highlighting), you may need to reevaluate the color-scheme of the site. The design of your website must be easy to read and must look professional. If your website looks like a child’s toy, with lots of bright, saturated colors, then it will deter people from your site. You must have instant readability. How many different fonts are used on your website? If it’s more than 2 different fonts, then you should reevaluate the use of text and fonts style within your website. The key to a successful website is leaving the site uncluttered by too many different things going on at once. Everything boils down to readability. In addition to these design tips, keep the most important content, images, information, etc. near the top of the page. This doesn’t mean clutter up the top third of your website with everything. Instead, it means that things like your practice’s name, contact info, links to important pages, and key information should be read first.
After you have checked the design of your website, it is time to check the content. Are you using keywords within your content (the text of the main area) that have to do with your practice, chiropractic, and you? For example, if your practice is in San Marcos, then you should have sentences and phrases within your content that reflect this such as “Family Chiropractor is the leading San Marcos Chiropractic care facility serving patients throughout San Diego County”. Along those lines, all of your text links should be words or phrases that directly relate to their links. For example instead of having the “Click Here” part of the text linked to your contact page, use the phrase “Contact Family Chiropractic”. The reason to do this is so search engines like Google and Yahoo can connect those links and phrases with keywords people use to search for your website.
Is your content relevant? Does the content explain who you and your staff are? Does it explain what services you provide? How about why people should choose you over any other chiropractor? Does it provide information on chiropractic and its importance? Does it have your hours of operation and contact info like a phone number, clinic address, and an email? Make sure the information is readily available to those on the web because a person online will move on to the next website that can provide them with the information they need if yours does not.
