Keeping Your Eye on VitalSite Search Metrics

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Michael ONeill

Search is the means by which people find the content they’re looking for. When it comes to a healthcare site, this might be a consumer looking for a doctor who specializes in their condition(s), a mom looking for the nearest urgent care clinic for her son’s earache, or a patient looking for the login page to the portal to renew a prescription.

While we typically look at search to assess how visitors find our site from big search providers (such as Google), understanding how visitors are using VitalSite’s built-in search engine is important too. Keep in mind, search doesn’t end at your doorstep! Understanding how your site visitors use VitalSite search can help inform decisions on where and how to tweak your site to respond to visitor needs and behavior by:

Diagnosing navigation problems
Identifying content gaps
Refining keywords
Refining navigation labels

Fortunately, VitalSite makes site search easy to monitor. Since it’s designed to work with Google Analytics’ Site Search reporting, the details of what visitors search for once they reach your site are easy to review. Let’s look at an example from a healthcare organization:

Notice anything interesting? I’m intrigued by the fact that four out of the top five search terms appear related to the client’s patient portal¹. If I saw this on one of my sites, I’d investigate a bit and ask myself a few questions:

Is the patient portal accessible/discoverable by searching the terms that actual site visitors use?
Are there clusters of pages where people tend to conduct these searches from?
Are there ways we can make the portal login more apparent to our visitors without having to search?
Do the search results for these terms bring me to pages that are helpful?

A few minutes of investigation reveals some promising areas to examine, and possibly improve.

Let’s take a look at another example:

Wow! Over 70% of the queries for the top ten search terms are baby related, and quite likely relevant to the Baby Photos module². Variants of “nursery” alone account for nearly 43% of top 10 search queries… and a little poking at this revealed the overwhelming majority of searches for these terms originated from the site’s home page…

The site’s home page… where there are no immediately apparent links to baby, nursery or baby gallery related content.

Is this a problem? Well, I’m tempted to say, “Of course!” But here’s where the art of interpretation comes into play. While I’d be suspicious of something like this and suggest a webmaster consider linking to the baby gallery from the home page, there could be valid reasons why they wouldn’t want to do this.

This leads us to an important point: use site search analytics to investigate, but don’t assume that every high-frequency search term reflects a problem with your site’s Information Architecture (IA) or usability. Remember, it’s just one signal of many, and you need to determine which signals are the most valuable to respond to at any given moment.

How to Track

VitalSite is designed to work with Google Analytics to ensure that site search information is captured. However, this functionality is not turned on by default in Google Analytics. If you work with Geonetric to manage your Google Analytics, we’ve likely turned it on for you already. If you manage your own Google Analytics account, we’ve provided instructions on GeoCentral (our client knowledge base) that outline how to begin tracking VitalSite searches in Google Analytics.

Footnotes

Of course, this assertion implies that “portal” searches represent site visitors who are looking for a patient portal and not an employee portal. This is something that would warrant additional investigation.
The assumption we’d want to investigate here is that traffic for the term “nursery” (all variants) is related to the baby gallery.

How Metrics and Transparency Will Make You a Better Digital Marketer

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Ben Dillon

“You can only manage what you can measure.”

– Peter Drucker

It’s easy to get obsessed with numbers and metrics when you’re working with the Web. There’s no shortage of information about what’s happening with your website, app or campaign. The cup of data overfloweth.

For a certain set of people, and I count myself in this category, data is just fascinating. I find myself getting lost in spreadsheets and databases while attempting to tease out just one more insight.

But the point of data isn’t in the data. It’s often not even in the insights that come from the data. The point is the act of measurement itself.

Measurement creates focus. This is really the reason why we do it. This is really why it matters.

If you’re doing your metrics properly the process starts with defining goals. Aiming only matters if you know what your target looks like. So you start with goals and the goals lead to metrics.

If you don’t approach the problem from this direction, it’s easy to get into trouble. I was recently reviewing the pay per click (PPC) campaign work that a client was having done with a third party. Initially they were thrilled with the numbers they were seeing – a large numbers of clicks, with a low cost per click. As we talked about why they were making the investment and what their goals were – questions that they were never asked and hadn’t considered before starting the PPC campaign – it became clear that there were many issues:

Traffic was going to the wrong pages – generic service line pages rather than campaign landing pages
They needed offers associated with the campaign that didn’t exist
The quality of the traffic (complete with near 100 percent bounce rates) was terrible
They were paying for many brand keywords that were not specific to the campaign and which they already owned from an organic search perspective
And, in some cases, they were promoting offerings for which patients rarely choose providers of have much input

Where was the problem in this? They never defined the ultimate goals of the effort! And they confused operational metrics with goal targets. Beginning with a goal of scheduled procedures rather than the general tactical charge of “promote this service line” would naturally have led to questions about converting browsers to patients, targeting audience segments, messaging needs, and a just a more holistic view of the process.

Instead, they’d been feeling good about money that they were throwing away.

Setting up a process for goal-driven marketing is not hard to do. To learn how to do this, and to learn more about how metrics and transparency will make you a better digital marketer, join us on April 18, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. CST for a complimentary webinar Translating Site Data Into Action.

Three Ways to Improve Your Landing Page

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Casey Hansen

It doesn’t take long for website visitors to make decisions. Within a few seconds, they’re either taking the next step to interact with your organization or(gasp!) moving to the next site.

Your landing page plays a huge role in which choice your visitors make.

Here are three easy things you can do right now to improve your landing pages:

Match Creative Pieces – Does your landing page coordinate with your ad? Do you use similar creative, with logos and imagery? Is the content related? Keep the experience coherent. Logos, imagery and text all matter.
Remove Extra Navigation – Your landing page should focus on one goal: conversions. If you include multiple links that allow visitors to wander off, your conversions will suffer.
Add a Strong Call to Action – What do you want users to do next? Think long and hard before asking them to fill out a four-page form. Short forms, phone numbers and easy downloads are excellent ways to encourage immediate action. Bonus tip: keep your call to action near the top of the page! Don’t bury it.

If your landing pages break any of these rules, it’s time to get to work. These easy changes can boost your conversion rate significantly!

Google Announces Enhanced AdWords Campaigns

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Casey Hansen

Pay-per-click advertising (and specifically, Google AdWords) is making it easier than ever to target users where and when it matters to them. Google Adwords is launching Enhanced Campaigns – a new way to manage ad campaigns in today’s multi-device world. This is making it even easier to drive targeted traffic to your site, no matter where visitors are or what device they’re using (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.).

How Do Enhanced Campaigns Work?

Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns allow you, the advertiser, to create ads that capitalize on the context of someone’s search… things like time of day, device they’re using, and location.

For example, to promote your emergency room, you may want visitors on a mobile device to see an ad with clickable phone number and driving directions, while visitors on a desktop computer view an ad that drives them to a landing page with an online form to reserve a spot. Your ad may even change depending on what time of day it is, or how far the visitor is from your hospital.

Rather than creating several ads for multiple different scenarios, Google will be able to detect the situations, and use your criteria to automatically tailor your one ad to fit the visitors’ specific needs.

The possibilities are endless.

Better Conversion Tracking

Since the new campaigns allow users to interact with your ads in a variety of new ways (e.g., click-to-call, visit a landing page, download an app, etc.), Google will also provide ways to measure and act on the data you can collect. Ultimately, this means better conversion rates and easier ROI information.

Next Steps

Google plans to convert all campaigns to Enhanced Campaigns by mid-2013. No worries, though. The AdWords gurus at Geonetric are on it.

If you’re not currently working with us for your pay-per-click campaigns, now may be the perfect time to contact us. We love making pay-per-click advertising work for our clients and can do the same for you.

Analytics Analysis: Time for Action?

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Casey Hansen

Have you ever logged into Google Analytics and noticed a surprising shift in your metrics or traffic? When you notice large shifts (up or down), it’s probably time for some investigation.

You can start by asking some simple questions:

Have you made any major content changes that would change your numbers?
Do you have new marketing campaigns driving traffic to your site?
Have the search engines made any significant changes that would change your inbound traffic for better or worse?
Have you done any maintenance on the site that may have changed your tracking code?

Sometimes, you need to dig deep into your analytics for the answers. For example, you may investigate your top referrers to see where traffic is coming from. Is your organic search traffic on the rise? Hmm… maybe your visibility in Google has improved!

Once You Have Some Insight

Once you’ve done some investigation, it’s time to act on what you’ve found.

You can quickly make adjustments. For example:

If your search traffic has dropped, you may invest in a search engine optimization strategy to boost your visibility.
If you notice an increase in traffic coming from social media sites, can you take advantage of that with a campaign to build on that traffic?
If you’re benefiting from someone linking to your content, maybe it’s time to partner with that new friend and get some more exposure.

Don’t Make Assumptions

The key is to not make assumptions or have knee-jerk reactions when traffic shifts. Shifts are normal and will happen.

Often, they may be predictable (a marketing campaign, SEO efforts) or unpredictable (a major blogger linking to your content or a dip in your search engine rankings), but it pays to investigate and then act.

Always be aware of your data and how you can use it to your advantage from day-to-day. It’s an easy way to get your website to give you results.

The Case for Content

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Ben Dillon

When we began helping hospitals develop websites more than a dozen years ago, content was just something that had to get done. It was written at the last minute. Copy and pasted as-is from brochures. Developed by a summer intern without a lot of thought.

Fortunately, this is changing. Healthcare organizations are realizing content is one of the most important assets on a website. Here are a few reasons why:

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine rankings and search traffic are probably a top goal for you. You want to be found, and Google is the gatekeeper. Google lets us know what drives its hundreds of algorithm changes. At the top of its list is content quality. Google wants original content that’s well written and presented in a readable fashion without many ads. Google also likes content other people like. It tracks links and other “social cues” such as how many people share it on Twitter. Bottom line: Poor content doesn’t get shared.

Permission-Based

Content needs to be more than well written and factually accurate. It also needs to be interesting. In our permission-based world, you need to earn your way onto consumers’ radars. Your content should provide information people want in a way that encourages them to share it through social media. Or better yet, your content should be so interesting and reliable that consumers want to follow it directly.

Site Visitor Needs

When someone arrives at your site, they want information from you. They’re looking for education about disease, assistance with making decisions and information that sells them on your organization and services. Good content helps them make those decisions, while bad content just might encourage them to go elsewhere – like to your competitor’s site.

Well-constructed content reinforces the visitor’s decision to come to the site, grabs their attention and leads them to engage with the site further or to take an action. Remember that the goal isn’t to get visitors TO your site but to get them to USE your services and become a patient!

Duration

So much of what we do in marketing is gone in an instant if you don’t keep feeding it. That PPC campaign may be great, but if you stop putting money behind it, the benefit goes away. Social media can be effective, but that post from today drops off the radar in the blink of an eye.

Website content on the other hand is an investment with a long shelf-life. Creating a great piece of content delivers SEO benefits and value to visitors for years to come.

Foundation

It’s easy to get wrapped up in interactive site capabilities, calls to action, videos and campaigns. There’s a lot of fun stuff we do online. Whereas writing thousands of pages of content is not exciting. It’s hard work. But that doesn’t mean it should be ignored!

The content on your website is a foundation – the bedrock on which great experiences happen. Organizations that launch creative campaigns without a solid foundation of content to back it up often don’t see the value they expected. There’s no substitute for having solid content on your site. Once you have that in place you can do great things!

I hope this gives you some insight into why great content matters. To learn about how to get great content and use it effectively, join us for a free webinar event – The Content Conundrum on Feb 21 at 3:00 p.m. CT.

How the New Facebook Graph Search Impacts Your Healthcare Organization’s Fan Page

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Casey Hansen

Photo: Facebook

Another day, another social media announcement. This time, it’s our friends at Facebook making news with the announcement of their new “Graph Search.”

Essentially, this announcement means better search functionality within Facebook. You’ll be able to easily find friends (and fan pages) that have liked certain things, have visited certain places or know certain people. That’s just a few examples of what will be easily found.

Your Fan Page

Over 1,200 healthcare organizations have official Facebook fan pages that they manage. What do the new changes mean for fan page admins?

The most important way you can use this new feature is to give your fan page content more visibility. Searchers will be able to find your status updates, photos, videos and other content via the Facebook search function. Your Facebook content just got a whole lot more visible and became an even larger tool for spreading your message and services on the Facebook platform.

Quick Tips

It’s safe to say content creation continues to be key. Just as we optimize our website content for searchers, how should you optimize your Facebook content for searchers?

Think strategically about what you’re posting and how it might be shared throughout Facebook.
Utilize keywords where possible (and where it feels “natural”).
Use a variety of content types – status updates, notes, videos and photos are a great start.

In the end, it still comes down to the usual message we share at Geonetric: content is king. We’ll know more in the coming days as the feature is slowly rolled out to users and we get a feel for how it works exactly.

Stay tuned more for strategy ideas surrounding Facebook’s new search functionality.

Geonetric and Google: Partners in Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Casey Hansen

We’ve been pay-per-click advertising gurus at Geonetric for many years. We’ve helped clients build their brand awareness, drive registrations for events at their hospitals and push memberships at their fitness facilities – just to name a few.

Today we are happy to announce our new status as a “Google AdWords Certified Partner.” This status is given to companies that manage a certain amount of ad spend and have qualified individuals on staff that specialize in Google AdWords advertising techniques.

It Just Keeps Getting Better

When you put this latest achievement together with our on-staff individuals who are also “Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professionals;” you can see that Geonetric continues to be dedicated to pushing the envelope in online marketing with both Google and Microsoft/Bing.

Our unique understanding of pay-per-click principles and the healthcare scene give us the background we need to put your organization’s message in front of the Web users who need to hear it. Or, more accurately, see it.

Whether you’re marketing your heart care services or getting the message out about a fundraising effort, pay-per-click advertising can be an effective part of that marketing plan.

If you’re interested in seeing first-hand how this new partner status with Google AdWords is just another way Geonetric continues to push ourselves and our clients forward, give us a call.

Exclusive Interview with Our Guest Product Owner

Posted on September 5, 2012 by David Sturtz

We work hard to ensure our VitalSite content management system is the best on the market. And we’re lucky enough to work with experts in many disciplines – not just software development. We routinely reach out to our internal experts to get advice and recommendations to ensure our software meets evolving needs.

For one of our recent development sprints we invited Casey Hansen, Geonetric’s expert on all things Google, to join the VitalSite team as a guest product owner. Casey brought a backlog of ideas for enhancing the search engine optimization features of VitalSite. I sat down with him to find out how it went.

DS: Thanks for being part of the development team this sprint. Could you explain which part of the development process you were included in?

CH: I was involved in the planning process and the daily standups to see how the product team works through a sprint and overcomes obstacles. It was eye-opening to see how all the different pieces affect each other.

DS: It’s a constant process of prioritization. Were there other surprising aspects of the development process?

CH: The biggest surprise was to see how something that seems simple can actually be quite complex. What will that change affect here? There? Across the product? What do we do if this happens? What do we do if that happens? When you’re the one with the idea, you don’t think about all of the details. The simplest little feature can have waterfall effects. It’s really enlightening to understand the process.

DS: One of the features that you worked on was an enhancement to encourage authors to provide good metadata for the content they create. How do you think the feature will boost search engine optimization?

CH: It’s going to help make sure that some of the basics are on the pages, that they don’t get left out, and that they conform to standards. In my experience, clients have multiple people putting content in and it’s easy for pages to get published with no metadata, or inconsistent metadata. This feature is going to help guide that process.

Continue reading →

Content, SEO and Closets

Posted on September 5, 2012 by GeoVoices

We ask a lot of questions here at Geonetric – especially at the onset of a new project. And we ask because in order to knock a redesign out of the park, maximize conversions, or even build you the best form, we need to understand the foundation we are building on. We ask questions like…

“How’s your content?”

“Do you know what content you have?”

“Are you ranking with the search engines for the keywords you are targeting?”

These aren’t easy questions to answer. I’ll be the first to admit that content – both understanding what you have and whether or not it’s optimized for organic search – is overwhelming. That’s because it’s not something you can touch once and then check off your list. Creating content, maintaining it, and the practice of optimizing it are living, breathing tasks that need periodic, if not constant attention in order to fully maximize your website’s effectiveness (that’s why we have an entire floor of people dedicated to all things content!)

And that’s where the audit comes in. Auditing your site is like cleaning out a closet. It’s an opportunity to take a look at what’s in there and determine what stays, what goes and what you’ve outgrown. It’s a good time to ask questions like: “Why is this in here?” “Why can’t I find anything?”

But you can’t just focus on content. It’s critical today that the audit you perform also looks at SEO. At Geonetric our audit process examines both disciplines as they relate to your business goals.

The content audit is the overall assessment of your website from both a quantitative (How much content is on the site?) and qualitative (Is the content good?) perspective.

The SEO audit then comes in to ensure that your site is receiving the full benefit of your link building strategy, and it also helps identify any potential issues your site may have in the search engines.

Both culminate in recommendations by our team of experts; we never rely on a boilerplate list and we don’t use generic software to spit out a report. Real people (real smart people!) analyze your site as a team and work together to identify your specific issues. Then we sit down with you and share actionable recommendations to grow and improve.

So what are you waiting for – contact us today to learn more about our audit process. Just like cleaning a closet, it can be a lot of work … but you’ll feel so much better when it’s done. And the good news? No one at Geonetric is going to make you try on your old coats or match mittens.

SEO Optimization – Go Long Or Divide And Conquer?

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Ben Dillon

Our webinar last week – Intermediate Writing for the Web – was well attended with lots of model students! We had many questions than we didn’t have time to address during the session. So, we’re tackling another one of those questions today in our blog.

Instead of using accordions, why not split the content into several pages? Wouldn’t that be better for SEO?

Great question and I can say with confidence that it depends.

When creating Web content, writers are advised to use an inverted pyramid style. Important points are presented first with supporting detail after. So you can’t hold that zinger of a point for the end – you need to lead with it. In addition, visual cues like headers are used to help readers skim the article efficiently.

I mentioned in the webinar that it’s also common to use accordions instead of headers. They’re like headers with the subordinate section collapsed underneath. Clicking the heading opens and closes the section. The advantage is that the headings are easy and quick to skim without scrolling, effectively allowing you to have longer pages without some of the penalties of longer pages.

But, as the webinar viewer pointed out, separating independent topics into separate pages can help with SEO and make those pages more effective to end users.

So should we “go long” with our pages or “divide and conquer”?

This topic, in varying forms, has been a source of some debate at Geonetric. Our official stance is that you need to assess this on a case-by-case basis. What are the points of consideration?

Are the sub-topics something that people search for?
Is there enough material to make a substantive page if the subject were split out? Pages should be at least a few hundred words minimum, or more than one paragraph.
Is the consolidated page too long? Keep it under about 2,000 words or the length of a typical magazine article (not a feature article).

So let’s say you’ve got content on your multi-disciplinary approach to your addiction treatment program? Make it a section on the addiction treatment program page. Content on occupational therapy, recreational therapy, physical therapy and play therapy? Split those out – people search for them independently and they’re worth having their own page of content.

For some great examples of content that uses accordions well, have a look at http://amgdoctors.com/service/. And if you still don’t know if you should use accordions or not, contact us.

Is it Better to License a Health Library or Write One?

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Ben Dillon

We received lots of great questions during the webinar. More questions than we were able to answer in the hour we had. A few, like this one on licensing or writing health content, were worth answering in a blog post of their own. You’ll see a few more of these trickle out in the next week, but for now let’s tackle this one.

There are some great advantages to utilizing your own, unique, high-quality health content on your website rather than licensing a syndicated content library from a vendor. For starters, the content showcases your expertise as an organization, specifically represents your organization’s approach to specific conditions and protocols for treatment or management, and it’s much more effective from a search engine optimization perspective.

However, my first thought when receiving this question during our recent webinar Intermediate Writing for the Web was – are you nuts?

One of the biggest challenges the health systems we work with face when launching and managing their online presence is content. Tapping the expertise in the organization, getting a clinical review process in place (a must-have for health library content), and building the thousands of pages needed for coverage of general health topics is a tremendous undertaking. One that most healthcare organizations will choose not to take on.

I think the underlying question being asked here is better phrased as, “What is the role of a licensed health library on my website?” So let’s dig into that question in a little more detail.

Few organizations are going to take on the task of writing a reference guide for diseases, conditions, symptoms and treatments. It is done from time to time, but it’s rare. Mayo Clinic’s done it and, as they so often do, have worked to monetize that asset in a variety of ways (through their consumer site and by licensing), but most of our organizations don’t have the resources of Mayo Clinic.

National Jewish Health in Denver has done it as well. It made sense for them for two reasons – first, they’ve been the #1 ranked respiratory hospital for 15 years so they felt that licensing content from a third-party talking about those areas where they are the world’s top experts seemed to undermine the brand. Secondly, and just as importantly, this approach was possible because they are a specialty facility with a manageable number of conditions to cover. So the task, while large, was far more reasonable an undertaking than what a traditional community health system would need to tackle.

Continue reading →

Effective Tactics or Catchy Buzzwords? The Lowdown on Inbound, Content and Search Marketing.

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Ben Dillon

Don’t you just looove buzzwords? They have a certain ring when you hear them and they make you feel ever so “in-the-know” when you can break them out in conversation. They’re viral, penetrating, consumer-focused, value-driven, easy to syndicate and very findable due to their Panda-friendliness. Right?

Wrong! They’re not any of those things. Buzzwords are kind of clever at first and then quickly become annoying both through their over-use and growing fuzziness.

You see, when a word or phrase gets “buzz” lots of folks try to apply it to what they’re doing, building or selling. The result is that the meaning of the term gradually grows, becomes a lot less distinct, and therefore a lot less meaningful.

I see that happening with a lot of terms in the online marketing universe at the moment. Let’s look at three marketing strategy buzz-phrases that are at risk of losing their distinctive meaning. These are some very important concepts that every digital marketer, both inside and outside of healthcare, should be thinking about.

Inbound marketing – Remember “push marketing?” Interrupting someone to tell them all about your organization or product? Inbound marketing is largely the opposite of that, employing a wide range of techniques to get consumers to come to you by offering valuable information and entertainment, building relationships and establishing your organization as being credible and trustworthy. Inbound marketing uses the broadest possible set of resources including techniques to be found through search engines, social media, email, blogging, and a range of paid marketing tools. This approach is fundamentally centered on consumer attraction strategies, pulling consumers to you and then creating positive consumer engagement which moves them towards conversion to a customer.
Content marketing – While I sometimes see the term content marketing used interchangeably with inbound marketing, that’s not accurate. Content marketing encompasses a set of strategies under the inbound marketing umbrella. High quality information resources are valuable to consumers and they are willing to begin to engage with your organization in exchange for receiving such resources (typically for free). Content – in written, video, interactive, and other formats – is created to support the various stages of the consumer buying process and is then promoted through a wide range of different channels. Consumers looking for certain content – say diabetic-friendly recipes – will likely share their contact information in exchange for the resources. So in other words, they’ll provide their email address so they can receive recipes sent directly to them. This usually means the consumers agree to receive additional communications that the organization can use to further engage them, moving them through their selection process.
Search marketing – Another term that is increasingly being used synonymously with inbound marketing is search marketing (or search engine marketing/SEM). SEM encompasses the range of techniques used by marketers to be found when consumers are searching online. This includes both organic strategies commonly referred to as search engine optimization (SEO) as well as search engine-based pay-per-click (PPC) advertising tactics. The key to understanding SEM is to know that it takes place at a search engine and is meant to connect with consumers as they are actively looking for information. Marketing in this ways allows you to reach the audience during a search, as opposed to advertising on consumer sites such as Facebook or WebMD where the consumer’s experience with those sites is interrupted by your attempt to get a message in front of them. The result is generally higher click-through rates and strong ROI.

It’s important to understand how each of these tactics is distinct and how they fit together. Each can have a role to play in your online marketing efforts. But don’t adopt these new approaches because they’re getting a lot of buzz in the market – take them on because they’re great techniques to attract and engage health consumers and can be effective tools to accomplish your marketing goals.

Ignore Your Home Page

Posted on August 2, 2012 by David Sturtz

Last week Jonah Peretti, co-founder of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post, shared his advice for Marissa Mayer, the former Google executive who was recently appointed president and CEO of Yahoo!:

“It is amazing how having a huge home page can be a curse. People start fighting over existing traffic instead of trying to make awesome new things that are exciting enough to attract their own audience. Marissa Mayer should exclude home page traffic from all metrics used to evaluate performance…”

It’s a great thought experiment. If the product you’re promoting – whether that’s a service line, facility, care provider, event, or simply information – isn’t enough to draw visits on its own, then putting a link on the home page isn’t the solution.

In short: if you’re still focused on driving traffic to your home page, you’re missing the point.

Check the stats for your site and, if you’re like most Geonetric clients, you’ll find that 80-95% of pageviews are for pages other than the home page. So how do you make the most of traffic that is distributed across thousands of pages?

Geonetric’s VitalSite content management system has a great answer to this question – it’s something we call SmartPanels. All content in VitalSite can be tagged, organizing it for navigation and searching. Using these tags, site administrators can efficiently show links to highly relevant content in multiple ways across thousands of pages. And because it’s all driven by VitalSite, keeping all of those links up-to-date happens automatically.

SmartPanels can be used to drive calls-to-action, promote care providers, highlight upcoming events, and more. They interconnect all of the non-home page content on your site, making the most of all of those pageviews.

Learn more about VitalSite’s SmartPanels in this short video, then contact us for a demo.