Lasik Web Marketing

The Google Sandbox Theory states that new sites are given a sort of penalty after initially being created. The sandbox is often referred to as a filter placed by Google to make sure a site is what it says it is. For the early portion of the site’s existence, it will experience poor rankings for its most important keywords, no matter how much optimization work has been put into it. The length of time often associated with the sandbox is between 90 – 120 days. Google monitors the site during that time frame to observe if the site is genuinely what it claims to be or if it’s just spam.

The existence of the sandbox has never been verified by anyone at Google. No mention has been made of a filter that specifically penalizes new sites for being new. However, it is known that Google will look at the inception date and expiration of a domain name. They will also look at the date a particular page was added to a site. Patent excerpts show examples of how Google uses specific historical data of domain names to determine ranking:

“…a document’s inception date may be used to generate (or later) a score associated with that document…”

and

“… the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain…”

It is evidenced that Google will look at historical information about a site. They don’t, however, specifically say a site will be penalized because it is new. Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” This can’t be done if every website gets automatically ranked and positioned today, tomorrow, or even this month.

A lot of advice is thrown around about how to get around the sandbox. And although, initially, some of these loopholes or exploits might work, it can be a slippery slope and one should use caution in employing them. If the sandbox is an actual filter, or just the results of Google’s algorithms and how their site is setup, in the end, it is Google’s goal to show the best results for any particular search. If that’s Google’s goal, then pander to it.

When it comes to Google, if you produce a quality website, attention will be brought to it naturally. Trying to force results tempts the fates, and can result in an all out ban on your site – something much worse than a filter.

In the end, it comes down to patience, natural link building, site optimization and further development of the site by adding new and useful (read informative) pages. Google will pay attention. The hard work and patience will pay off because your site will be built upon a proven foundation and not on a house of cards.

Aaron Gerblich
Account Manager
Page 1 Solutions

Google has decided to try out a test and will begin to move the position of the sponsored ads at the top of the screen, in the blue, to the right side of the screen. This is dependant on the behavior of the user. This happens when a user performs multiple searches and does not click on an ad. Google comes to the rationale that the user does not want to see the ads and by moving the ad, lowers the chances of a poor prospect clicking the ad. The user will have to clear their cookies to go back to a normal viewing of the results.

So if you are checking up on your keywords and start to see your ads moving to the right hand side of the screen, it is because Google thinks that you are not interested in those ads. If you want to get around this and still check your ads without having to constantly clear your cookies, using Google’s ad preview tool (www.google.com/adpreview) can help you accomplish this. This will show you the position of your ads without affecting the impressions, or the amount of times your ad is shown. This will keep your ads more relevant and at a better ranking.

Alex Juel
SEO Specialist
Page 1 Solutions

Search engine marketing should incorporate both optimization-related results (free listings) and sponsored listings (pay-per-click advertising). Although more LASIK website marketers prefer 1st-page listings in the organic or natural listings, paid sponsor listings, which can become expensive, still offer a good ROI if done strategically. One element to increase your PPC ROI is to develop effective Landing Pages.

Expensive Paid Listings Demand ROI

Since you are paying for every visitor who clicks on your paid sponsor listing, the important point is this: PPC programs have to more than pay for themselves in order for your website to remain a viable marketing effort. To accomplish that, you need a well-planned, engaging landing page or pages. Otherwise, visitors, which you paid for, have to do work to find relevant information and won’t hang around long enough to find or read your relevant pages. Thus, you have little chance they will contact you.

The Purpose of Landing Pages

Unlike sending visitors only to the home page of your website, sending potential patients to a landing page gets them to a target destination, without requiring them to make additional clicks. You will lose visitors with every click you require them to make. The key is to determine your most desired action (MDA) and design everything, including your headlines, graphics / images, text and layout to drive visitors to complete your MDA.

Ideally, keep each landing page limited to one MDA, since each landing page has a specific purpose. Extraneous information, overwhelming number of links/options, time consuming videos and an unclear calls-to-action are distractions. Having affiliate links, text links and unnecessary animations are other distractions that keep your visitor from taking your MDA.

Landing Page Design Principles

1. Your headline should accomplish the following objectives:
– Make your visitor realize they have reached the right page;
– Clearly state the most desired action and purpose of the landing page;
– Engage your visitor and encourage them to continue.

2 .Your headlines should grab readers and it should appear “above the fold” or at the top of your landing page. It’s the most visible, and thus, the most valuable area on your website.

3. Write your content using short chucks of text and single sentences. Try to surround it with negative space (white). Visitors generally start by scanning a page, rather than jumping right into reading large paragraphs and pages.

4. And because readers initially scan instead of intently read website text, utilize a lot of headers, sub-headings and bullet-point lists.

5. The lead sentence of each chunk of text should give the critical information you want to get across, if you want to engage visitors and get them to read deeper.

6. Promote an unambiguous call to action – Schedule your consultation, email a request for a telephone consultation. Leave no doubt what action is expected of the visitor. Calls to action can appear throughout the landing page text and a call to action should be the last thing visitors read.

7. Choose a type font that is easy on the eyes and very readable. Avoid script-style fonts and
fonts with lots of curly-Qs that diminish the readability of your content.

Bill Fukui
Page 1 Solutions

I wanted to warn you about yet another scam being sent out in an attempt to “pirate” your domain name. These companies are sometimes just trying to trick you into transferring your domain to their registrar so that they can make money off of your domain renewal, but other companies are less innocuous and actually take control of your domain name. The image below contains a notice that says, “We have to receive payment within 21 days, otherwise your domain registration will be deleted.” Unfortunately, some of our clients have fallen prey to these scams and end up paying these companies only to have their domain transferred away from their control. If you receive a notice of renewal, expiration, cancellation regarding your domain name, please forward it to the person in charge of your internet marketing. They can advise you as to whether it’s a bona fide renewal notice or a scam.

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Page 1 Solutions

We all know that it is important to create inbound links – e.g., pages from other sites that link to pages within your ophthalmology website. Several ways frequently used to do this include reciprocal linking and purchasing text links. Both are frowned upon by the search engines including Google.

However, there are a lot of websites that will gladly publish articles or press releases that you write. If you write a substantive article about a very specific area of your practice or about a specific procedure, it will be unique content that other sites will want to post on their website. There are a number of websites that publish articles of this nature. The key is to make the article interesting and original. Finally, make sure that you include links back to the specific page or pages of your website that are relevant to the subject covered in the article. If you have those links in your article and the article is published, you will have automatically created links back to your website.

The best possible scenario is that the article will be noticed by other webmasters who also want the same content on their website and will republish the article -with the links – on their website. One well-written article may turn into multiple webpages with links back to your practice’s website.

Always make sure that you have good content on your website first, however.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Our newest search engine optimization specialist recently commented on what he learned from our staff and research materials that we gave him. Here is a little tidbit from someone who came to us with “previous SEO experience” –

“As far as what I’ve learned so far, I’d say the biggest SEO misconception[s] I had before this week revolved around how Google regards links. I’ve gotten straightened out on the following ideas:

- reciprocal links are far less valuable than one-way links- the older the link, the more weight it carries- a few inbound links from authoritative sites are more valuable than dozens of links from less-important sites- Google prefers to find pages on its own from outside links rather than from direct submission- inbound link count should increase gradually so it appears natural to Google.”

Good advice for anybody who wants to get better search engine results on Google. Visit this page for more information about link popularity.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Occasionally, I will secret shop some of my clients- and by secret shop I mean I will send an inquiry through their contact form and see how they respond.

One of the biggest reasons I secret shop them is I want to make sure my clients aren’t losing out on valuable business because of the way they respond. Sometimes I will get complaints about lack of lead generation. The first thing I will do is secret shop them.

What I look for is:

1. How soon they respond to my inquiry
2. If they answer my question
3. If they provide additional information that I did not ask for, but is helpful to know
4. If they link back to their website
5. If they provide their contact information in the email

Recently I secret shopped a client who was saying that he was not getting any conversions from his web leads. He said he gets leads, but none of them ever respond back after he contacts them.

I secret shopped him, sending him some basic information on why I was contacting him.

This was his response:

“Thank you for your inquiry. We’d be happy to discuss your specific LASIK question. However, we would need a phone number to contact you.”

WHAT!??! You need a phone number to contact me? I can’t even begin to tell you what is wrong with that.

Don’t lose prospective clients. If you are not answering your email leads, secret shop yourself and make sure whoever is answering them is doing a good job. Web marketing can be one of the most cost-effective ways to generate business. Make sure you are cashing in.

Noël Otten
Account Manager
Page 1 Solutions

Long-term search engine optimization basically means that your website will receive ongoing optimization on a regular basis. This is something that Page 1 Solutions strives to do.

We are constantly researching new keywords that generate results for our clients and will incorporate those keywords into our clients’ websites through updated content. In order to succeed, your website needs to be graphically up to date and most importantly, have frequently updated content. This helps the search engines to see that your website is always being updated and kept fresh, which encourages the search engines to come back to the site more frequently. This helps the website to obtain higher rankings.

Long term SEO also includes monthly site submissions, link building and doing ongoing analysis and maintenance of the website.

We provide reporting of our analysis to our clients so that they are always kept in the loop. We also provide continuous link building efforts. Our link building strategies include constant research into finding the most qualified and relevant links for your particular site, which can help to raise your ranking with all of the search engines.

With constant research of your website along with the competitors, we are able to find the best ways for your site to reach the top and remain there.

Alex Juel
SEO Specialist
Page 1 Solutions

It’s everyone’s wish – Getting page 1 rankings on the major search engines and staying there! In the face of the constantly evolving SEO techniques and the ever-changing search engine algorithms, how do you become number one and stay there?

The key words are perseverance, consistency and adopting a well- rounded strategy.

First, it’s important that the product and the site be relevant to the consumer, not just the search engine.

Focus on very few specific keywords and to put those keywords in the title, description and keyword lists.

Build user-friendly content and update it on a regular basis.

Get quality, incoming links one at a time.

While these guidelines may be just the beginning of search engine optimization, following these keys on a consistent basis will help get your site get a page 1 ranking and will ensure it stays there!

Debby D’silva
SEO Specialist
Page 1 Solutions