They were both designed by our company, so we’re not looking for kudos; what we want is for you to take your fingers and move the image on sweye.com. Easy, right? Now try it on stahlny.com. A pointless effort, correct? Now review these websites on your desktop computer and you will see a major difference.
Now you know what responsive means — mostly.
Does your website have a responsive design that adjusts to the screen resolution for your patients’ viewing pleasure?
THE WHAT — BEHIND RESPONSIVE
A responsive web design allows the viewer to look at the same website on any device at any screen resolution, including HDTV, and the text, images and navigation will adjust to fit the screen. With a responsive site, your content will react to the exact resolution of that screen. There is no need for a separate mobile site anymore. Moreover, content management is centralized, eliminating the need to update separate sites.
As you already found out, when a visitor switches from a laptop to smartphone, the website will automatically adapt to the screen resolution while still delivering a positive, readable impression of your practice.
THE WHY — BEHIND RESPONSIVE
If patients find you online and interact with your practice online, you should consider a responsive website redesign. Most of our clients are moving in this direction for these reasons.
1. Increases in mobile views. Our company conducted a 2015 Glacial Multimedia Google Analytics study of more than 200 ophthalmology practices and found that mobile views account for almost 40% of website traffic. According to KPCB mobile technology trends, mobile digital media time is 51% higher than desktop usage.1,2
2. Search engines prefer responsive website design and it can be a ranking factor in SEO. Google announced in a recent mobile search update that it is judging how mobile friendly a website is and including that metric as weight in search results served to mobile.
3. Responsive sites have a better user experience, and content is easier to find. With the recent push of content marketing and importance of user experience, a responsive website is a far better alternative. Creating a solid user experience assists with patient acquisition or lead generation.
THE HOW — TO GET RESPONSIVE
Navigation and content planning
Planning must be a top priority. Items such as header design, top engagement objects, considerations above the fold, priority content, slideshow themes and messaging all need to be clearly thought-out prior to starting the navigation, design or content creation.
Above the fold
The new Google Analytics plug-ins have shown that the area above the fold (what you see before you have to scroll) clearly get the most clicks. So, you want your most important engagement objects in this part of the homepage.
Recent medical website design trends are skewing more and more minimal — look at sweye.com as a perfect example. Use content sparingly above the fold and focus on what is most important in communicating your patient-care philosophy. Yes, your first instinct is to include all pertinent information, but remember that this is what patients see first. You need to convince them to click into the site or scroll down.
Critical content review
A responsive site conversion is a great time to review your content. Check Google Analytics to be sure you know what viewers look at on your current website. Think about what your patients ask, and answer the questions they might have about your practice and prioritize these when planning content strategy.
We are entering a new dawn of content marketing — how you say what you want to say matters. Do patients want encyclopedic content, or do they respond better to storytelling? You need to strike a balance between content volume and content that patients will need or will read. Content is vital to search engine ranking, so avoid using duplicate content provided by medical device companies or copied from other websites.
Parallax scrolling
Parallax scrolling is a new design trend that appears primarily in responsive website design. Here, the rear images on the screen move slower than those in the front. As you scroll down, a 3D effect is created.
Parallax scrolling can contribute a “wow” factor to your site, allowing you to stand out from your competition.
Minimal design aesthetic
As already discussed, the minimalists reign on the web. If you want better website engagement, remove any non-essential clutter to improve user experience and page load time. (I know this works: our firm has designed hundreds of websites for ophthalmic practices.)
Browser testing
The days of a one-day website launch are over. Various launch planning steps are critical for success. Do not underestimate the importance of these steps and rush a launch, because whatever mistakes are made are extremely difficult to undo.
Go over the possible launch issues, and make sure your team has done the appropriate pre-launch testing. There are testing considerations on various browsers and devices, so check this thoroughly.
IT’S HERE TO STAY
Responsive website design has been around long enough for most of the early adopter issues to have been worked through. Google suggests this method of design for a variety of reasons and it holds many advantages for your website visitors. Make sure to go responsive, and plan accordingly.
REFERENCES
1. Google Analytics 2015 Benchmarking Study (200 Ophthalmology Practices). Unpublished.
Michael Dobkowski is a senior partner, managing director of search strategy and Internet Marketing at Glacial Multimedia Inc. He is a digital marketing veteran with 17 + years of experience helping ophthalmologists. A popular speaker at medical conferences, Michael provides vital education about digital medical marketing concepts. 207.878.5900 or michael@glacial.com.
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