By David M. PearceOver the past several years, I have
seen eyecare practice web sites go
from four page, basic information
sites to 100-page, here’s everything
you need to know about eyecare
sites. Conventional wisdom (and the
recommendations from more than a
few consultants) said that patients
want information and by making that
information available on your practice
web site, you strengthened your position
as an expert and trusted source.
Most private eyecare practitioners
have an idea of how they want people
to use their eyecare practice web site.
It would be great if your patients and
potential patients used your site as the
definitive resource for all eye
health/vision-related questions. This
would solidify your position as a leading
expert in your market, which
should help bring in new patients.
In theory, this would seem to make
sense. However, my experience tells me
otherwise. As an editor for the Open
Directory Project, the largest, most comprehensive
human-edited Internet directory—
www.dmoz.org, I have reviewed
hundreds of eyecare practice web sites. So,
in order to get a better understanding of
how visitors actually use an eyecare practitioner’s
web site, I recently completed an
analysis of the web traffic reports from five
different, unrelated eyecare practice web
sites.
The web sites were all practice sites for one
to two OD, single-location private practices
located in geographically dispersed suburban
communities. My analysis covered more
than 500,000 page views over a two-year
period. For comparative purposes, I also
analyzed the traffic patterns of more than
500,000 visits to an online retail consumergoods
seller over a two-year period. My conclusions
are likely to surprise a few people.
The average visit consisted of three page
views. This number by no means implies
that the average visitor viewed three pages.
The overwhelming majority of visits consisted
of a single page view—the visitor
clicked on a link that took them to the site
and then they immediately hit the back
button. Either the link didn’t take the visitor
where they expected it to or the landing
page didn’t seem to have what they
were looking for. Either way, this result has
important implications.
Most web site owners are focused on getting
more traffic to their site. Generally
speaking, more traffic is better than less traffic.
However, it is important not to lose sight
of the quality of the traffic and how you are
converting the traffic you already have.
Tracking web site visitor activity is essential
to improving a site’s functionality and subsequently
its usefulness.
New visitors (potential new patients) usually
come to an ECP site looking for information
to help them make a selection decision:
Where is the practice located; what are
its hours; what insurance is taken; how experienced
is the doctor. Once they’ve reviewed
this basic information, most visitor leave the
site. Few return for multiple visits.
On average, the five sites I studied received
65 visits per day (based on a seven-day
week), with approximately 70 percent of the
visits coming from new/first-time visitors.
Imagine getting 45 prospective new patient
phone calls every day—including Saturdays
and Sundays. While these visitor numbers
are not bad, a well-planned, well-executed
Internet marketing strategy could double visitors
and visits.
Remember though, that approximately 70
percent of these visitors visited only one page
and spent less than 30 seconds on that page.
The three most visited pages, aside from the
“Home” page, were “About Us,” “Hours
and Locations” and “Our Doctors/Staff.” In
total, less than 1 percent of the page views I
reviewed were visits to condition-specific,
vision encyclopedia-type pages.
My research indicates the macro-level consumer-
initiated medical research is indeed
done online, but generally at web sites such
as Wikipedia, All About Vision or the Mayo
Clinic. While I do not discourage the inclusion
of these type of encyclopedic pages into
your practice web site, I do not agree that
these pages are a must have… particularly
for the relatively low ROI they will provide.
Consider treating your practice web site as
if it was a retail site and a “visitor conversion”
directly resulted in a profitable sale. Equate a
new site visitor that submits an online form
giving you contact information for that potential
new patient with a qualified lead that you
can cultivate and convert to a revenue-generating
patient. By focusing on “conversions”
you can more effectively manage the visitor
flow through your site and create funnels to
get visitors to the “action items” in a manner
that encourages them to convert.
To fully optimize the online conversion, it
takes dedicated offline follow-up. Part of my
research for this project included filling out
various online contact forms from the practices
in my study. Three never responded in
any way to my request for contact. I image
they must be booked solid or in desperate
need of help. On the other extreme, I had
one practice that called me back within 15
minutes. Wow! Now that is what I call a
great first impression.
So, while getting more traffic to your site is
important, getting the most from the traffic
you already have should take top priority.
Focus on visitor conversion improvements
first, then and only then should you worry
about increasing traffic -
LT
David M. Pearce, NCLEC, is president of
Responsible Marketing Consulting Services in
Plattsburg, N.Y. He is a well-known eyecare
industry author, lecturer and Internet marketing
expert. For more information on marketing
your eyecare practice on the Internet, go to
www.resmarkconsulting.com. Mr. Pearce can be
reached at dpearce@ResMarkConsulting.com.
