This lecture was delivered at the AAO (American Academy of Ophthalmology) 2018 in Chicago, Ill. This course has evolved over the past 10 years and reviews the basics of creating, maintaining and ranking your website. SEO, using the concepts of content marketing, is the process where search engines compare and rank webpages. Each search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) has its own SEO algorithm, a formula to rank webpages. Though each search engine has a unique algorithm, all heavily weight the content (words, articles, pages, posts) of your website to be the most important variable in ranking sites. Content is usually in the form of text (words) for most websites. Healthcare and medical websites are no different. Other types of content can include: podcasts (audio), images (visual), video, music, etc. At this time, SEO has developed to best rank sites containing text. Using different types of content to appeal to different learners is a method to broaden your digital exposure. Social media can be used to enhance digital identity. Not all platforms appeal to all users. Identify the platforms which may appeal to your patients before starting a particular social media campaign. Local SEO allows your practice to rank when patients are filtering a search by location. Ranking well depends upon several factors: consistency and number of claimed review sites, SEO of your website and reviews. Healthy and active websites which rank well have heavy influence on your practice ranking with local search. All the best! Randall Wong MedicalMarketingEnterprises.com SunriseHostingServices.com randall.v.wong@gmail.com

1. MARKETING 101
KICKSTART YOUR
WEBSITE, SOCIAL MEDIA & BLOG
Randall V. Wong, M.D.
AAO 2018 | Chicago | SPEO9

2. Financial Disclosure
• I have the following financial interests or relationships to
disclose:
• Co-Founder:
• Medical Marketing Enterprises, LLC
• Sunrise Hosting Services, LLC
• RussandRandy.com

3. Goals for Today
• Define Website vs. Blog
• Types of Websites
• Components of Website
• Content Marketing is the only way to achieve and
maintain high rankings
• What is SEO?
• What Needs to be Optimized

4. Marketing
Solving the problems or answering the needs of your
customers/patients

6. Website | “Looks Great”
• Static
• Navigation
• Coded for Appearance (HTML)
• Graphics
• Logos
• “Website” is based upon design – little ability to rank.
• NOTE: “Live Website Analysis” Sunday
• 2:00 PM S103D
• Randall.V.Wong@gmail.com

7. Blog
• Customized Design
• Coded for Optimization (SEO)
• Dynamically add content, add function gradually
• Has Marketing Value (i.e. ranks with Google)
• ALL websites in 2018 should be constructed on
“blogging software”

8. Content Management System (CMS)
• aka “Blog”
• Has turn-key design, fully customizable
• Templates, inexpensive
• Mobile responsive
• Best of 2 worlds
• Design
• Optimization

9. “Blogs”
• Ability for user to add content
• Question/Comment
• Allows website owner to add content (the doctor)
• Server Based
• Easily add content from anywhere
• Can you use a word processor?
• Mobile phone

10. Wordpress.org
• Best CMS
• Largest
• Inexpensive
• Most function
• Free

11. Wordpress.org
• Largest and most widely used CMS
• Extreme flexibility
• Best for SEO
• Plugins
• Open-source

12. Content Management System (CMS)
• CMS = “Blogging Software”
• Wordpress.com
• Wordpress.org – the best
• Blogger
• Drupal, Joomla

13. Caution | Beware of Free
• Wordpress.com
• Blogger/Blogspot
• Wix
• SquareSpace

14. Hosted vs. Self-Hosted
• Wordpress.org: The most popular CMS
• Self-hosted
• GoDaddy, Bluehost, Host Gator
• Hosted Programs
• Wordpress.com
• Blogger
• Managed Hosting
• Sunrise Hosting
• Virtual IT

15. 3 Types of Websites
• Good - Resource (Static, No SEO) – can’t rank
• Better - Marketing (Dynamic, SEO) – high rankings
• Best - Interactive (Dynamic, SEO, “Blog”) – ranks &
engages
• Websites differ based upon content…….

16. Goal of Website
• Rank
• Grab attention – Engage patient
• Provide Value
• Build Trust
…this takes time, yet when done well, is the key to
growing your practice

17. Design
• Visual Appeal
• Colors
• Graphics
• Video
• Logos
• Ease of Navigation
• Mobile Responsive?
• Website design was obsolete – it may have value for
Google rankings.

18. Best Website?
• Self Hosted
• CMS – e.g. Wordpress.org
• Design
• Content – Optimized (marketing value)
• CMS or “Blogs” offer both design….and the best for
SEO.
Therefore, the “Best” website has customized
designed and is optimized (i.e. gets high rankings
Search Engines.”

19. Best Website?
Choose a platform
which can grow with
your marketing needs.
CMS offer these solutions.

20. What is Optimization?
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• The process of translating the content of your web page
to a format easily understood by search engines (Google,
Bing, Yahoo)
• SEO only applies to websites with content.
• SEO only applies to content marketing.
• SEO is fundamental to anyone marketing a service or
sales.
• Optimization allows your webpage to get ranked so it
may serve as a marketing tool!

24. What Gets “Optimized?”
• Web site
• Web page (each article)
• Off-Page
• Social Media
• Local Search
• Review Sites

25. What Gets Optimized
Primary
• On-Page Sources
• Website
• Content (articles, posts,
pages)
Secondary
• Off-Page Sources
• Aggregator
• Facebook
• Yelp
• Angie’s List
• Healthgrades
• Social Media
• Links (backlinks)

26. Factors Increasing SEO
• Content
• Title Tag
• Inbound Links
• Perceived authority
• Outbound links
• Download speed
• Analytics, Sitemap
• Age of Domain
• Keyword Tool
• Social Media
• Mobile Responsive

28. 3 Rs of Great Copywrite
• Relevant
• Refreshed
• Routinely
• Google (Bing, Yahoo) have separate algorithms for
ranking webpages (SEO algorithm).
• …..all have relevance as a primary variable.

29. What to Write About?
• Answers to health related questions
• Explanations given routinely
• E.g. “Causes of Red Eye”
• Don’t make treatment recommendations
• Observe HIPAA
• Editorial and Opinion are most valuable!

30. The Article
• Length
• Sub-headers
• Bullets
• Break up visually into paragraphs
• Write in 1st person
• Write to level of 8th grader
• Pretend your patient is in front of you.

31. Take Homes
• Title Tag
• Social Media ???
• Review Sites
• Local Search/SEO
• YouTube
• Webinar
• About Page
• Social Media Platforms
• Healthgrades – Claim
• Personal Websites
• Podcasts

32. About You
Who?
• 1st Person
• Hobbies
• Family
• Sports
What?
• 1st Person
• Elite college
• Elite medical school
• Elite training
• Elite diseases
• ..still awake?

33. Title Tag
<title>Board Certified Retina Specialist </title>

34. Social Media
• Website up?
• Website up to date?
• “Always under construction”
• ….Social media is not necessary for a medical office, but
can be an effective way to increase your marketing
outside of ‘search’…..but after your website is up and
running.

35. Platforms
• Facebook
• Google Plus
• Healthgrades (aggregators)
• Yelp
• Angie’s List
• Linked In?
• Twitter?

36. Healthgrades
• Aggregator
• Claim
• Use Healthgrades to your advantage for SEO

39. Local Search – Off Page SEO
• Aggregators
• Local Search
• Reputation
• Improve SEO
• Improve local SEO

40. Personal Website
• Increase your brand
• Differentiate yourself from partners
• Portable
• Eat what you kill

41. YouTube
• Video
• 2nd largest search engine
• Appeals to different learners
• Cost effective (cheap)
• Personal
• Avoid Professional Production

42. Podcast
• Appeals to different
learners
• Audio
• Very portable
• Grow exposure

43. Webinar

44. AAO 2018 | Saturday
Monitoring Your Online Reputation
11:45 – 12:15 PM
Location: Tech Pav
“Marketing 101
Kickstart Your Website, Social Media and
Blog”
1:00 -4:00 PM
Location: N427D
Course SPE 09

45. AAO 2018 | Sunday
New Online Regulations that Affect You
11:45 – 12:15 PM
Location: Tech Pav
220 – Live Website Analysis
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Location: S103D

46. AAO 2018 | Monday & Tuesday
Monday | October 29, 2018
Creating Effective Content
3:00-4:00 PM
Location: Tech Pav
Tuesday | October 30, 2018
633 – Protect Your Online Reputation/Improve Local SEO
10:15 – 11:15 AM
Location: S106B

47. To Your Success!
Randall V. Wong
Randall.V.Wong@gmail.com