Your Fix for Information Junkies
Cliff Wright, O.D.
Pretty much everybody and their dog has a web site these days, but
it’s not easy getting one. A good web site takes planning.
The best web designers spend twice as much time planning their sites
as they do producing them. If you plan well, implementation is easy. These
four steps can get you there.
1. Identify your audience.
Create a list of the three most important target audiences for your site.
They might be existing patients or those with a specific eye problem, or
people moving into your area. Envision your site through their eyes.
2. What do I want to communicate?
Now that you know something about your audience, use it. Imagine what they’d
like to find when they come to your site, the presentation they would enjoy,
the special services, conveniences or products they would want. The more
you understand about their day-to-day reality and reflect it back to them,
the more likely they’ll accept your expertise.
List the most important things your site has to provide either visually
or with text, and keep the list short. Categorize these items in a sensible
format, like "Products and Services," or "Administrative," or "Practice
Information." Offer only these essential choices on your first page. Avoid
long lists of sub-pages and lengthy descriptions.
Start with what you already have—brochures, product literature and specifications,
letters, advertisements, patient testimonials, press releases and photographs.
Ask your staff what features would make your patients’ lives easier, such
as a map to the office or a biographical sketch of each employee. Provide
pages for FAQs (frequently asked questions) and product information. If
someone can describe the idea with "Wouldn’t it be cool if ...," then it’s
worth considering.
How about e-mail recalls? Or, allowing your patients to book an appointment
by e-mail or over the web? How about letting them check the status of their
glasses or contact lens order online? Some of these tasks may seem daunting
right now, but think about adding them later. E-commerce is becoming increasingly
easy to add to a web site. You could now allow your patients to re-order
contacts, sunglasses and accessories from your site. Even if patients don’t
use these features right away, offering them shows you’re on the cutting
edge.
3. Choose your software and build your site.
If you’re going to produce your own web site, I recommend using web-authoring
software. My top three choices are Microsoft’s FrontPage (least expensive
and easiest to use), Net Object’s Fusion (in the middle of the pack) and
Macromedia’s Dreamweaver (most costly but most capable). Take the tutorial
that comes with your software, and use the design templates.
Spelling errors are common, so be sure to use the spell checker. Check
for mixed fonts on a page, too, and keep colors and graphic elements in
mind as you lay out your pages. It’s critical that you adopt and then follow
a consistent look and feel for your site. Remember this tip when you add
new pages later on.
After you’ve built your web site, your authoring software will explain
the process of sending your files to a host computer. This will make your
site visible to the world. Registering your site with search engines and
directories—Yahoo, Lycos, AltaVista, Go, etc.—will drive people there.
Tell your patients, civic club members, religious group and everyone else
about it. Put your URL on your business cards and letterhead. Heck, send
your local newspaper a press release about it.
4. Maintain and improve your site.
Add something new at least once a month. Update your calendar of events,
add awards, freshen up photos, and post seasonal tips. Check for broken
links to external web sites since these change often.
Your patients today are information junkies. They want to know the latest
thinking and gain access to authoritative resources around the clock. A
well-executed web site feeds on that mind-set. And, it shows that you are
a modern doctor on the cutting edge of technology.
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