Key Components

Let’s discuss the essential pages you should have on your website, as an eye care professional.

• Branding
• Appearance
• Visual design
• Navigation
• Usability
• Interaction/engagement
• Call to action

Begin with your branding. We’ve discussed a strong brand in previous courses. You should have a solid understanding of why consistent branding is important. Be sure you are using the same fonts, color scheme, and graphics that meet your brand. You want your website to be a direct reflection of your practice. When they see your website, then come to your location, will they make that connection? The importance of them recognizing your practice branding helps remember you, but also shows your credibility while enhancing the image of your practice.

And since we’re talking about branding, that will lead us into appearance. This could potentially be the first impression you have on your potential patient. On average, it takes about seven seconds to form a first impression. So, you need to capture the attention of whoever is looking at your website within seven seconds of them landing on your page. Appeal to their visual senses with great graphics and captivating headlines. It’s important not to go overboard though. Emphasize who you are and what you do quickly. It doesn’t need to be flashy or over-animated. Focus on your brand colors and fonts to stay consistent with your branding, find simple graphics that are also aligned with your branding.

Your visual design is an essential piece of your website. There are two common layouts you should use to meet the needs of your site visitors to capture their attention and lead them to your end goal of scheduling an appointment with your practice. The first is the Z-pattern layout. You’ve been trained to read left to right, just like the Z-pattern. So, when you open a webpage, you generally graze the header, reading left to right, then dropping down to the next section and again, reading left to right. Typically, your logo will be in the upper left-hand corner as that as the first area your visitor will see. Then scanning across your navigation bar ending on your call to action in the right corner. After they finish the first line, they will drop down to the next eye-catching section reading left to right. The Z-pattern is good for your home page, with minimal text. The F-pattern is good for your content heavy pages, such as the about page. An F-pattern is similar to the Z-pattern in that you read left to right. You’ll skim the navigation bar, drop down to the next section to skim left to right. Since it’s an F-pattern, you’ll want to make your content heavier on the left-hand side to continue to draw the attention to the left side.

Let’s talk about the navigation of your website. The navigation is essential to your website because it will lead the traffic around your site and lead your visitors to your call to action. Keep your navigation bar clean and to the point. Avoid drop down menus, if possible. You’ll want to place your important pages first and last, as that is where the average person will go. The first page is often remembered and clicked the most. With the last page following a close second. What is most important? Well, telling your potential patients who you are and having them schedule an appointment, right? You want to tell visitors what they want; as in why are they looking at your page, they want to know more about you. Then after you’ve provided that information, you can tell them what you want, you want them to schedule an appointment. You can review your analytics to see which pages your visitors are looking at the most.

Now, let’s talk about usability. When someone visits your page, odds are they aren’t there to look at it with a fine-tooth comb and read every line, on every page. They are on your page to get the information they are seeking and then move on. So, make sure the information is easy to access, ensure it is mobile responsive, and cater to the way your visitor will read the information. Think about when you look at a website, you are searching for specific information like the hours or a phone number. Now, when you open your website, are you hours and phone number listed prominently for someone to see right away? This is what I’m referring to when I say make sure the information is easy to access. Mobile responsiveness means when your visitor pulls up your website on their phone, how long does it take to load and does the webpage look the same on mobile as it does on a desktop? On average, over 50% of your website views will come from mobile, so it’s essential to have a mobile responsive site to keep your visitors on your page and lead them to scheduling an appointment.

By having a user-friendly website, you will engage your visitors to spend time on your website. Capture their attention with an interactive website, however, there is a fine line between positive interaction and an annoying website that has too many popups or flashy text. Drive their attention from welcome to conversion with a user-friendly website.

How will you drive their attention from welcome to conversion? You’ll do this with a strong call-to-action. Tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do. You’ve created a captivating website that engages the visitor to read more about you and learn what you have to offer to solve their problems. Now, you need to provide a clear call-to-action so you can actually solve that problem! Be sure your call-to-action is on every page, very prominently so your visitor knows what to do, no matter which page they're on.

Now that you have the key components to making your website capture the attention of your visitors, let’s talk about the pages you should have on your website as an eye care professional.