Custom Web Design for BWIM

If only we could all have an on-call professional web design company to take our hopes and dreams to fruition.  Of course, everyone can have this if you know who to call on for your custom web design needs.  The good people at Baptist Women in Ministry, based in Atlanta, Georgia, knew this when they first came to Stone Soup a few years ago for their first professional website. They were so pleased that they came back again  when they had a vision of giving their website a newer, fresher look to go with the new direction of the organization. They called on Stone Soup to make those dreams a reality.  In addition to wanting a new look, they also were looking for something that would be easy to manage in-house.  Our solution to meet their budget and their level of experience was a website built entirely around WordPress, a popular blogging engine. We used WordPress as the content management system for changes to all pages, and for the actual blog. Were they pleased with the outcome?  Take a look at their new site and we’ll let you take a guess.  (And if you give up – Yes, they love their new website!)

Neurosurgeon Web Design – qualities all successful neurosurgery websites have

Whether you’re an up and coming neurosurgeon who is just beginning your career, or a well-established neurosurgery group looking to continue your successful practice, having a good web presence is essential.

 It’s tempting to take the easy route with your neurosurgeon web design and have a simple website that contains the minimum of what your patients might need to know.  But there are certain qualities that all successful neurosurgery websites should have that can (and will) separate you from the rest.

1. A way to cut down on phone calls – We know that you’re busy people.  Of course the surgeon is busy seeing patients, but office workers are busy with everything else.  Being interrupted with phone calls during the day becomes annoying.  The more information you have on your neurosurgeon website, the more your patients won’t have to bug you. 
2. Have your patients “prepared” before they walk through the door – Having a neurosurgery website that contains all the forms your patient needs saves time for both patients and staff.  Why not give the option for those that choose, to fill out forms prior to their appointment.
3. Provide pertinent information – People coming to see you are obviously coming to you for a reason.  Providing the latest neurosurgery information on your website will give patients the option of staying up-to-date on the latest in neurosurgery, and perhaps their own condition.    
4. Information for other physicians – If most, or all of your patients come to you through referrals, then it would helpful for other doctors to know your referral process. 
5. Ease your patients minds – Surgery…and really anything having to do with going to see a doctor, can be nerve wracking for many people.  For someone anticipating an upcoming surgery, they more than likely are nervous and have tons of questions that no one will have time to answer for them.  Having example videos of surgeries and what a particular surgery entails could help a patient through the anxiety.  Additionally, feeling like you really know your surgeon can make a patient feel more comfortable.  Let your neurosurgery website “do the talking” with your surgeon giving a video testimonial. 
6. Testimonials – Sometimes the best way for a patient to find the right surgeon is through other patients testimonials.  Let others be inspired because nothing speaks louder than personal experience. 

I’m Gonna Update My Blog, Like, At Least Four Times A Day

Having a blog as part of your website is only as valuable as you make it.  If you don’t already, please recognize that the blog is your website’s momentum builder.  You have the necessary static web pages that give the basic information about your business; these pages have, hopefully, been optimized for search engines, but then that’s it… they’re done.  On the other hand, pages that are updated on a regular basis (such as blog pages) are re-analyzed by search engines and newer content ranks higher in search engine results.  Therefore, the more you update your blog, the higher your site will appear in search results.  But wait… there’s more here than meets the eye!

Want to be even more powerful?  Here are some tips to gain an even greater advantage over competitor’s blogs:

• Use your primary keyword in the title of your post. Generally, your blog software creates a unique URL for each individual post that you make based on the post’s title; so, if you title the post “How To Fry An Egg,” it will create a URL like this: www.myblog.com/how-to-fry-an-egg.html  While this may be a witty title for something unrelated to actually frying an egg, it won’t get you many visitors.  If this were a real post, it should literally be one about frying an egg.
• Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post. Pepper your text with the secondary keywords for which you also want to be ranked and sprinkle in a few relevant links as well; just don’t overdo it, you don’t want to come off as “spammy” to your readers.
• Be spider-friendly. Make sure your side navigation bar and archives link are available on ALL pages of your blog.  Update frequently, but…
• “Update Well.” I just made this phrase up: “Update frequently and update well.”  This post does not boil down to the obvious, which is the oversimplified concept of the more you post, the better your site will turn up in search engines and the more readers you’ll have.  Updating three times per day with irrelevant, untimely and useless content won’t win you any search engine or human fans.  They’ll catch on real quick, leave you and never come back.  Don’t post for the sake of posting; make it great.

MELANIE’S SPRINGBOARD*: Problogger Discusses SEO for Blogs

*This is my first post for Stone Soup Technology and I’ve made up this little “featurette.”  I’m calling Melanie’s Springboard; it will always be a link to take you to more information on the subject that I’ve just written about.  It might be another blogger’s post on the topic or some other relevant website that I find interesting.