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How to Make Your Readers Read

May 24, 2022 by Randall Wong, M.D.

Your readers do not naturally want to read every word you write. You must format your articles, or posts, in such a way that your readers want to read the entire article and not…click away. Grabbing the attention of your readers AND maximizing your SEO is easy!

Readers vs. Skimmers

There are those that read and those that “look” or skim.

Readers are those that start from the top of a page and read every word from top to bottom and from beginning to end. I personally can’t do that.

I love to skim the entire page in search of clues as to where to read and what to read. I don’t want have to read an entire article. I’ll read highlighted areas, captions, headings and subheadings.

Great copywriting will satisfy both types of visitors, both the readers and the skimmers.

Reading Behavior

Most readers scan in the following manner;

1. Headline: Read from left to right

2. Vertical Scan: Scan down the page looking for subheaders

3. Read the first line of the opening paragraph

Headline

While careers are made developing catchy headlines, grab their attention by giving them a clue about your awesome content. Remember: readers on the Internet are looking for answers, your headline should grab their attention by quickly telling them what lies within your article.

Sub Headers

Sub headers have three functions. It quickly clues in the reader about points you will be making urging the reader to continue!

Sub headers are also indexed (as is the title/header) by the search engines to improve your SEO. While it is true that the search engines catalog every text file and .pdf on the Internet, headers and subheaders receive slightly higher priority than text for SEO purposes.

Sub headers also physically break up what can be a long ominous looking paragraph into sizeable “chunks” of reading!

Bullets and Lists

Bullets and lists can not be overemphasized. The eye naturally gravitates to bulleted lists. Make the list about 3-5 items long. In this way your point is quickly made. It is a simple tool to motivate your reader to continue reading.

Short “Paragraphs”

Avoid long sentences and lengthy paragraphs. Sometimes you can’t avoid a long sentence, and I’d suggest curtailing any paragraph to 3-4 “lines.” So too, with the paragraph, keep them brief and no more than 3 sentences or so.

Smaller blocks of text are easier to read, give the feeling of brevity and speed to the reader.

Remember, you’ve spent a lot of time on your copywriting. You’ve written some powerful articles. Make sure that you give your readers every opportunity to read your content!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Websites Have Two Goals | What’s Your Call To Action?

November 17, 2016 by Randall Wong, M.D.

Call to ActionA “Call to Action” is an instruction, commonly on a clickable button or hyperlink, to get your reader to initiate an action.

In order to effectively grow your practice, your website has two simple goals.  These Calls to Action simply invite your readers to subscribe to your email list or call for an appointment.

In web design, Call to Action examples appear as a clickable banner, button or some type of graphic.  A CTA is integral to inbound marketing and is a common way to coax a reader to “take the next step.”

Some examples of common “Calls to Action”;

Click Here
Download
Call Now
Purchase
Free Trial
Free Consultation

In medicine, we just need two Calls to Action.  Read on.

Why Everyone Needs a Call to Action

The purpose of your website is to grow your practice.  Get your potential readers to follow through on 2 tasks and you will succeed.

Your website is to build your practice, therefore, your website’s Call to Action will be to either;

  1. Subscribe to your email list
  2. Call to make an appointment

Subscribe Now

Potential patients are likely to subscribe to your email list to receive your updates on your website.  These patient education articles will build trust…and eventually your potential patient may call and make an appointment.

Call to Action Subscription Optin

Your “Subscribe Now” opt in box should be somewhere in the upper right quadrant of your home page and “above the fold,” that is, you should be able to see it on the top half of your website when viewed on a desktop or laptop.

Call Now

Readers should be encouraged to “Call Now” to make an appointment.

The “Call Now” CTA can be a simple button on your mobile screen which can initiate a phone call.  For your laptops and desktop versions, you have a CTA with visible phone number at the end of your articles and also on your “Contact” page, etc.

For WordPress users, Call Now Button is a plugin that creates a “call” button on the smartphone versions of your website.  By simply pushing this button, your next potential patient can call and make an appointment.

In healthcare and medicine, we simply need to our readers to follow 2 Calls to Action.  Make sure your website ask them to do so.

Randy

 

 

Filed Under: Marketing, Uncategorized, Website Tagged With: call to action, cta

What is a Domain?

May 4, 2016 by Randall Wong, M.D.

What is a Domain?The domain, or domain name, is part of your website address (URL) which uniquely identifies your website.

For our purposes, the domain, or domain name, of your website is the same as the URL or web address.  Your domain is technically the portion of your web address which sits inbetween “www.” and the “.com.”

Domains are “purchased” and registered through a registrar.  Popular registrars include GoDaddy.com, Bluehost.com or Hostgator.com (our 3 favorites).

Purpose of a Domain

The purpose of the domain is to allow your new website to be located using a name rather than numerals.  It is through this domain name that others will be able to view your new website.  Your domain represents the exact location of the files which constitute your website.

The domain represents the physical location of your website according to the IP address, which is the numeric equivalent of your address.

Because it’s easier to remember a name compared to a series of numbers, we use the domain name.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) oversees the coordination IP addresses and domains on the Internet.

Domain Registrar

Most registrars also offer hosting and other services.  For instance, it is easiest to purchase your domain, host your website and setup email all at the same registrar.

If you have multiple websites and domains, it is easiest to use the same company.  At the very least, it is more efficient to organize renewals through one single company.

Purchasing Domain

You are not actually purchasing your domain.  You are renting your domain on a yearly basis.  Domain “ownership” expires and needs to be renewed.

You may purchase your domain from a registrar.  Popular registrars are places such as GoDaddy.com, Bluehost.com and Hostgator.com.  All domain registrars will register your new domain with the central governing agency called ICANN (see above).

Regardless of where or who you use as your registrar, all domains are registered at ICANN.  One registrar is no better than another, but prices may vary.

For SEO (search engine optimization) purposes, we recommend purchasing your domain for multiple years.  Search engines such as Google are able to determine the length of time you have registered your domain.  Blackhat sites are untrusted sites, are shunned by search engines and generally do not register more  than 1 year at a time.

Your New Website

Once you have purchased your domain, your next step is to create your brand new website.  This is not done automatically, but is easily handled with your registrar.  Most registrars can also host your website.

If you have questions or concerns, please leave a comment below!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Building a Website? | 3 Things Not to Do

January 19, 2016 by Randall Wong, M.D.

happy-new-year-1092457_640Looking forward to the new year?  Building a new website?  Here are 3 things NOT to do when building your site.  This will also help you understand which products to choose and which products to avoid when choosing hosting, selecting a URL and building a website.

Avoid Free Hosting

One of the first decisions you need to make is where to store, or host, your website.  The files which make up your website need to be stored somewhere.  There are really just 2 possibilities;

  1. Free hosting (e.g. Blogger, WordPress.com)
  2. Self-hosted (pay a 3rd party)
  3. Buy your own server (not really feasible for most of us)

Blogger and WordPress.com offer free hosting.  You can set up an account, choose a URL and start creating your website right away.

Advantages of Blogger/Wordpress.com are that they are free.  You don’t have to worry about any maintenance issues with your website as the Blogger and WordPress.com will maintain the servers for you, etc.

The disadvantages of free-hosting sites, however are; you don’t have control over your content, there are limited design options and limited function.  Most importantly, these websites are more difficult to optimize or perform SEO.  Hence, it will be difficult to rank.  You also have to take some extra steps, or pay, for a fully customized URL (without the words “blogger.com or wordpress.com” in the URL).

Avoid Free Website Builders

To add to the complexity of your decision, there are services offering free website builders along with hosting.  Some may charge for hosting.

Wix and Squarespace offer website building and hosting…for free.  These “ajax’ systems are quite versatile with regard to designing a website, but, unfortunately, they are limited in the ability to be optimized, and therefore, to be ranked with Google, Bing and Yahoo.

There are at least two reasons why indexing these types of sites is difficult.  First, there are simply fewer options to optimize your content.  Second, webpages are not easily indexed by the search engines.  Your ability to get your website ranked with these builders becomes tougher.

In general, these website builders have a heavy emphasis on design and very little ability to be optimized (hard to perform SEO), thus, they will not rank as well as a website built on a WordPress.org platform.

WordPress.org is the only platform which maximizes SEO and offers customized themes.

Don’t Pay Ransom

Many of our clients have been trapped in a situation where they have paid for a website to be designed and then are leveraged for a hefty monthly fee to “maintain and host” the website.  Almost always, the website ranks poorly and the doctor has no perceptible benefit for this monthly fee.

It gets worse.

In addition, most of these sites are built on proprietary software (i.e. unique website builder software and can’t be run by any other company) and it is impossible to move the site to another hosting company because the programs used to create the site are unique.

Similarly, avoid situations where a company offers to build a “free” website, but has recurring service fees.

Happy 2016

We wish you the best for 2016 and all the best to moving your optimization project forward.  If nothing else, think of ways you can improve your website by improving the content.  It’s the content that will get you the website rankings you want.

If you don’t have a website, then take steps to move forward.  In this modern age of communication, your patients now expect you to be found online.

All the best.

Randy

Filed Under: Do it Yourself, Marketing, Uncategorized, Website

Courses From the American Academy of Ophthalmology | AAO 2015

December 3, 2015 by Randall Wong, M.D.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology was held in Las Vegas just before Thanksgiving.  Here are the talks I presented as either courses or at the Technology Pavilion.

As always, if you have questions, please either comment at the end of this post or email me.

Randy

Optimizing Your Web Presence on the Internet | Randall Wong M.D. | AAO 2015 from Randall Wong, M.D.

Live Website Analysis | Randall Wong, M.D. | AAO 2015 from Randall Wong, M.D.

Retaining Your Old Patients in a New Practice | Randall Wong, M.D. | AAO 2015 from Randall Wong, M.D.

Managing Your Online Reputation | For Physicians from Randall Wong, M.D.

Crash Couse in SEO | Randall Wong, M.D. | AAO 2015 from Randall Wong, M.D.

Essential SEO Tools for Your Website | AAO 2015 | Randall Wong, M.D. from Randall Wong, M.D.

Use Blogging and Social Networking to Super Charge Your Website | Randall Wong, M.D. | AAO 2015 from Randall Wong, M.D.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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Do you really need social media? It may not be the right time to consider social media, or, it may not be right for your practice...but it can be a powerful tool.
_____________________________________

Randall Wong, M.D., Allergan, Allergan Access, Ophthalmology, Social Media and Medicine

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