Patients may browse their doctor’s website before meeting them. The articles and other resources they read, including explanations of conditions and treatments, help shape expectations before the first appointment. Some practice websites have been written by marketers or outside vendors, without a clinician reviewing the pages, and then left unchanged for years.
This disparity exists in two areas. First, as a matter of patient education, inaccurate or outdated health-related information is being disseminated to individuals making health decisions. Second, leaving the authorship and review of health content unclear also misses an opportunity to demonstrate the expertise behind the page.
Why search engines care who wrote the page
Google’s guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content explains that its systems give extra weight to signals of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust for topics that can affect a person’s health. Additionally, Google suggests that publishers indicate clearly who was responsible for creating the webpage and that they include bylines where applicable. Furthermore, Google recommends that content relating to health topics be developed or reviewed by an individual with knowledge of the topic. As such, for a medical practice, the most authoritative reviewer is typically already available — the practicing clinician. If a clinician’s name and credentials are displayed along with a review date for a condition page, patients can see who reviewed the page and when. A name alone does not guarantee a search ranking.
While the amount of work required to complete this is relatively minor, what is typically lacking is not expertise but rather a process that allows experts to review webpages.
Divide the work by role
As is true for almost everything else in a practice, the key to successfully addressing online presence lies in dividing the responsibility appropriately among existing roles:
| Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Physician/Clinical Lead | Ensure that medical information is accurate and give final approval to condition, treatment and procedure pages. |
| Practice Manager | Maintain consistency across the website regarding the hours and location of the practice, accepted insurances and providers listed as part of the practice. This information must remain up-to-date on both the website and all relevant directory entries. |
| Front Desk/Patient Coordinators | Develop a database of common questions asked by patients during phone conversations. These questions become the basis for developing content. |
| Marketing Staff/Agency | Create drafts of webpages; develop organizational structure and layout for webpages; ensure that the technical aspects of the website are healthy; and monitor performance metrics associated with search engine optimization. |
| Privacy Officer/Compliance Officer | Manage forms, tracking tools and any other software that could potentially access patient data. |
Nobody in these roles needs to become a marketer. The physicians and clinicians are reviewing for accuracy, while marketing handles style. The practice manager protects the facts that patients depend upon in order to locate and schedule appointments with physicians/practitioners. The front desk/patient coordinators identify the questions that repeatedly confuse patients.
Build a shared content calendar with a clinical review step
Developing a shared content calendar facilitates communication and accountability throughout all phases of development for each webpage. Each webpage follows the same brief lifecycle: draft from marketing; clinical review; privacy review (where necessary); publication; and scheduled review for accuracy. Treatment/procedure pages deserve to be reviewed at least annually as a working schedule, and sooner when clinical guidelines change.
Ensure that the clinical review phase is lightweight enough that clinicians actually follow through with completing it. Limit requests made of clinicians to factual or clinical concerns only, and provide them with sufficient time to respond (one week).
Marketing staff/agencies are responsible for wording/style/formatting of each webpage. A 15-minute review task with a due date is easier to fit into the schedule, though complex pages may need longer. However, when it is simply requested that clinicians “review the website,” it often does not occur.
Keep practice information consistent everywhere
Patients and search algorithms verify basic information about a practice through multiple platforms. Examples of basic information include:
- Name
- Address
- Phone Number
- Hours of Operation
- Provider Names
Small discrepancies in any of the above items (e.g., a provider who has not worked there for several years, or incorrect suite number) reduce credibility with patients and confuse search algorithmic systems attempting to connect patients with appropriate medical/dental professionals in close proximity. Assign one person (usually the practice manager) as the owner of all basic information regarding the practice, and establish quarterly reminders to conduct audits.
Protect patient privacy in the process
Careless configuration of online tracking and advertising tools on forms, patient portals or condition pages can expose sensitive information. The HHS Office for Civil Rights has published guidance on online tracking technologies used by covered entities. Those guidelines were subsequently narrowed by a federal court decision; therefore, please consult with your organization’s Privacy Officer rather than relying solely on summaries.
A privacy review begins with identifying all tools utilized on the website; establishing policies that prohibit adding any new tools without obtaining prior consent from your organization’s Privacy Officer; conducting regular reviews of what each form collects and where that data ultimately ends up. Incorporate this into your shared content calendar. These checks are a starting point for review, rather than proof of HIPAA compliance.
Know when to bring in outside help
Many medical practices can manage clinical review internally. Technical aspects (such as site architecture, local search engine optimization, structured data, page speed and performance monitoring) frequently require specialized assistance. When that work outgrows the team, many practices turn to outside medical SEO services, and the right partner should fit into the clinical review step rather than bypass it.
When evaluating potential partners, several questions differentiate between good partners and risky ones. Do clinicians approve health content before it is published? How does the partner handle analytics, forms and patient data? What will they report, how often, and in language understandable by non-experts? Avoid companies that promise specific search rankings or timelines; no reputable company can guarantee exactly where a page will rank.
Start with one page
Clinical review does not require a large-scale initiative to begin. Identify the most commonly visited condition/treatment page; have a clinician review that page this month; display the clinician’s name, credentials and review date on the page; and place the next page on the shared calendar. Over time, this routine helps keep the information useful and shows patients who has reviewed it.