Google Calendar is a free online service for managing busy schedules. Its ease-of-use and versatility have made it very popular. You can try it by visiting www.google.com/calendar.

Managing Appointments

Only booked slots are shown for one office (King St. office). This calendar can be shared with staff and doctors, or even embedded in the practice's website to help patients book.

Many optometrists already use electronic appointment scheduling. Google Calendar can manage blocks of time, showing when an optometrist is busy/booked or has breaks.  This schedule can be viewed (or changed) by the optometrist from their home or exam room, using any computer, BlackBerry, iPad, or other mobile device.

Scheduling Doctors and Offices

A complete staff schedule for the King St. office.

Google Calendar can also be used to schedule when different doctors or staff should be at an office, or even at different offices.  For example, a different “calendar” can be made for each optometrist and staff member. These calendars can be overlaid on the same schedule with each shown in a different colour, giving a clear view of where everyone should be. Each calendar can be shared separately, so that each person may only see their own schedule from their home computers.

For Online Booking

If the calendar is being used to show “busy” slots and open time, it can be embedded into the practice’s website so that visitors can see what times are currently available. That can help them choose a time if your website has an online booking form, and reduce your receptionist’s time on the phone with them.

Self-booking with Google Calendar

Available booking slots are shown, with one appointment self-booked for 11 am Tuesday.

Google Calendar has a new feature that allows other people to book on your calendar. Bookable hours can be defined, and the slot durations set (for example, 20 minute slots). If this calendar is embedded in the office’s website, website visitors can book a slot. The office receives an email when a booking is made, the calendar is automatically updated, and the booked slot becomes unavailable for others.

While this is an interesting feature, we don’t believe it’s ready for use by optometrists. That’s because visitors must have a Google account to book a slot, and because more information about the patient’s condition and history is needed to confidently book a slot.

This brief tutorial explains how to use Google’s Local Business Center to improve your online visibility. Don’t be alarmed if you’ve never heard of the Local Business Center; most other business owners haven’t either. It’s a relatively-new system that lets you update and enhance the profile that Google already has on your practice.

Claiming your listing has four main benefits:

1. Your practice will rank higher in local Google searches.
2. You can add information to your profile such as business hours and your website.
3. You can see how many people view your listing.
4. You prevent others from modifying or claiming your profile first.

About Google’s Local Results

Google is becoming very important to small business owners. Many people use the Internet as their primary source of local information, and Google is by far the most popular search engine.

If you do a Google.ca search for “optometrists in ottawa”, Google understands you’re doing a local search, and so it provides a map as the first result, followed by the ten regular search results. This map is very important because people make their choices based on which listings are nearby, and on the websites of each listed optometrist.

Google results for "optometrist in ottawa"

But notice there are only seven mapped results when there are over 40 optometrists in Ottawa. How does Google decide which optometrists to list first?

Ranking order is determined by two main factors:

1. How relevant your listing is to the search query
2. How “important” Google thinks your business is

There are specific ways to improve both your listing’s relevance and your importance, but the first step is to claim your listing.

Claiming Your Listing

Step 1: Create a Google user account

You can make a new Google account here. Note that if you already have a GMail account (Google’s email system), you already have a Google account.

Click "more info" to see your listing details

Step 2: Find your business listing

Visit maps.google.ca and search for your business by typing your business name and city. If you can’t find it, try typing it exactly as it’s printed in the Yellow Pages and include the street address.

After searching you will see a large map in the right panel, and a list of businesses in the left panel. Click "more info" next to your listing, as shown in the image to the right.

Step 3: Claim your listing

After clicking "more info" you will see a listing details page similar to the image below. Now you can see what information Google has already collected about your business. Because Google collected it automatically from various sources, there may be errors which you’ll want to correct.

Click on the "Claim your business" link. Use your new Google account username and password from Step 1 if you’re asked to log in.

Claim your listing

Step 4: Add or correct information

Now that you’re in Google’s Local Business Center you should have no trouble adding or correcting your listing details. Make your listing more complete by adding as much information as you can including business hours, payment methods, parking, business categories, and photos.

Step 5: Verify your listing by phone

Before you save your changes, Google needs to verify that you are the actual business owner. You have the choice of receiving either a postcard or a phone call from Google. If you choose the phone call you need to be at your office or have someone there who can answer for you.

The procedure is very simple: an automated voice will tell you a numeric code which you enter in your Local Business Center account. See Google’s User Guide for more information on this final step.

Congratulations!

By updating and verifying your listing, Google now has more information and more trust in your business. In our experience your listing will be fully updated in about one week, after which you should begin ranking higher in local search results.

Example (closeup) of search statistics

You can return any time to edit your listing by visiting here. Remember to return after a few weeks and review the search statistics. This is a new feature that shows you how many times your listing has been displayed, how many times it’s been clicked, and what those people searched for to find you.

There are many things you can do to make your practice rank even higher in Google results. Please join our email newsletter to receive regular articles on optometry marketing, and see our article on 15 Ways to Acquire New Patients Online.

Assistance

If you have questions or comments about claiming your Google listing, please leave a comment on this article or contact us here. Claiming and creating business listings is one service provided to Visible Optometry clients.

Every element of your site that does not meet their expectations—for example they expect to see blue and your site is red—elevates their anxiety because of dissonance with their preconceptions. If your site underperforms in enough areas it can hurt your image and make a negative first impression.

Are your visitors stressed about their vision problem? Are they concerned about cost? A good website design harmonizes with their emotions to reduce anxiety, and make patients comfortable enough to call or visit your office.

This article briefly examines the most common optometry website problems that we’ve seen. If you already have a website, we hope this list can help you to optimize it for better performance.

Design

Design Principles: A modern look is important, but don’t let the design dominate your content. Over-design examples include too many images, unconnected blocks of text which disrupt the eye-path, distracting colours, and even tacky “3D” menu buttons.

Colour: Colours have a subtle but definite emotional influence on visitors. If you want visitors to feel calm, relaxed, and safe, consider cool pastel colours. It’s no surprise that eight of the top ten medical websites have light-blue colour schemes. Certainly avoid colours that are depressing or aggravating.

Site Navigation: The site menu should be very simple and clear. The best placement is along the top, or sometimes in a sidebar.

Fonts: To assist low-vision patients, the text size should be slightly larger than usual and should contrast well against the background.

Multimedia

Images: Photos are fantastic for adding visual interest and setting the site’s mood. There are many guidelines for choosing appropriate photos, but most importantly make sure they look professional.

Sound and Music: Optometry sites do not need sound tracks. If an element does need sound (such as a video), it should never play automatically. Consider people who may be browsing your site while at work.

Animations: Animations only distract from your important content, and can be an annoyance on mobile browsers (cell phones) and with slow Internet connections.

Splash Page: A page that loads before the homepage is known as a splash page. They often have large images or animations, and require the user to “click here” to enter the site. While acceptable on entertainment websites, on medical sites they present an accessibility barrier and can damage your website’s search engine ranking.

Site Copy (Written Content)

Tone: The tone should be professional but friendly.

Language: Some websites read like a medical textbook. Consider using commonly-understood terminology, and adding definitions where appropriate. Avoid slang and always double-check for spelling and grammar.

Keywords: Keep your important keywords in mind while crafting your copy. Neglecting this will impair your search engine ranking. See Point 4 of this article for more information on keywords.

Note: Writing quality site content is challenging, so don’t be discouraged if you have trouble doing it yourself. Professional copywriters are often employed for commercial website development.

If you have any questions about optometry website design, please leave a comment below or contact us directly!

As some optometrists have discovered, the Internet can be a substantial source of new patients. That’s because Canadians are increasingly using search engines—Google, Yahoo!, Bing and others—as a quick way to find information about local businesses.

Below are five things Canadian optometrists can do to get more exposure by improving their ranking in search engines. If you would like clarifications on these points, please contact us or post your question at the bottom of this article.

1. Claim Your Google Listing

Have you ever done a Google search and noticed a map on the results page? Every business gets an automatic free listing in Google, but it’s important to "claim" it so that you control it. Once you’ve claimed your listing you can add details such as your business hours, payment methods, photos, and your website.

A claimed profile can bring you more businesses because it often ranks higher in the search results. When someone does a Google search for local optometrists, they may see your information on the map and visit your website for more details. For instructions, see our article How to Claim Your Optometry Business Listing in Google.

2. Verify Your Maps

When looking for an optometrist online, search engines will often show a city map with different offices plotted on it. The map is very useful for choosing a nearby optometrist and for getting directions there. But sometimes the map is wrong, as it was with one of our clients. Google showed her office to be several blocks away from the actual location, which could cause obvious problems for patients.

Verify your map by visiting maps.google.ca and searching for your business name and city. If your map is wrong, claim your listing (see tip #1 above) and follow the instructions for adjusting your location.

3. Keep Your Website Updated—for Both Your Audiences

This is more important than it may seem. Your website actually has two distinct audiences: your patients, and the search engines. Naturally, you want your site to look up-to-date (no old new, old photos, or out-dated designs) because it conveys to visitors that you run an active, modern practice.

But the search engines also read your website, and they reward sites that have fresh and current content. That’s because an updated site is more likely to have useful information than a stale site, and so it will be ranked higher on the search engine results page. You don’t have to make major changes to your website; consider just updating your site’s news section, or adding more information about your services.

4. Think About Keywords

If the text on your website closely matches what is typed into a search engine, your site is more likely to appear in the top search results. Try to guess the keywords people would type when looking for your services. We’ve founded hundreds of common keywords and keyphrases during our research, so you can start by including these common ones into your site’s text: "Optometrist in {your city name}", "eye exam", "eye doctor", "eye clinic", "vision test", and "eye disease", and "prescription glasses".

5. Get Free Online Promotion

There are plenty of websites where you can place a free link to your website. This is important for two reasons: first, some people may find your website by these links. But more importantly, the search engines count these links and use it as an indicator of how important your site is. While getting links to your site is important, you should consider what type of links you get, and how local and relevant the sites are that link to you. If you get too many links too fast, or links from the wrong types of websites, it can actually damage your site’s ranking.

Because the issue of "link building" is an important one, we’re preparing a more detailed article on how you can do it yourself should you choose, and what mistakes to avoid. Link building is also a component of Visible Optometry’s Local Online Ranking service.

Please join our email newsletter list to be notified when parts 2 and 3 of this article are published.

If you’re working with a web designer who is unfamiliar with optometric websites, you should review the following design steps so you can make better-informed decisions. Mistakes made in planning can be difficult to correct later on.

1. Choose a Designer and Host

Web designers can be found in every city from Nanaimo to Charlottetown, and some will produce a basic site for as little as $1000. It’s important to find one who will take the time to learn about your business, how visitors find optometrist websites, and what website features are professional and appropriate.

Most designers will also host your site, meaning they keep the necessary files running on their computer (web server) for a monthly fee. You get what you pay for with hosting, and a lower fee usually translates to less technical support and assistance with maintaining your website.

2. Choose a Domain Name

The domain name is what people type to access your site, for example www.myoptometryclinic.ca. We could write several articles on this topic alone, but the important tips are:

• Choose carefully: you can’t easily change your domain name later.
• Most domains are already taken, so brainstorm several options.
• It’s preferable for Canadian Optometrists to use a .ca extension. Make sure the .com extension of the same domain isn’t already being used for something embarrassing should your patients visit it by mistake. If possible, register both the .ca and .com domains.
• Pick something easy to remember and easy to spell.
• Try to include either your name, your business name, or your city name. This will help it rank better in search engine results.
• Use only letters. Avoid using hyphens and numbers.
• Keep it short. No more than 20 letters.
• Registering a domain name costs no more than $20 per year. Most designers will charge more for helping you choose one and registering it.
• The domain name must be renewed periodically. This should be done by your host.

3. Plan Your Email

It’s important to have a flexible and reliable email system. Telephone is still the preferred method of contacting optometrists, but email continues to gain favour. A recent Visible Optometry survey found that Canadians prefer the following methods when contacting an Optometrist for general information:

• Telephone: 47.9% (percentage that prefer the telephone)
• A contact form on the Optometrist’s website: 23.3% *
• Visit in person: 17.8%
• Email: 11.0%

* Note that a contact form still requires the optometrist to use email to receive and respond to the message.

The domain name you choose will be part of your email address, and you can have as many addresses as you need: for example info@myoptometryclinic.ca and appointments@myoptometryclinic.ca.

4. Define Your Purpose

When preparing a presentation, it’s important to know exactly who your audience is. Your website is an important presentation so think carefully about who you expect to visit it. Will you have many online resources for current patients? Do you primarily want to attract new patients? Your answer will guide the rest of the design process.

5. Research Your Keywords

This is important if you intend to attract new patients using your website. The idea is simple: people search for optometrists online by typing keywords in a search engine, such as Google. The closer the match between those keywords and the text on your site, the higher your site will appear in the search results.

It’s difficult to properly write your website content if you don’t know what keywords and keyphrases people are using to search. Keyword research typically involves using online statistical tools and surveying people in your market. Often times the results are unexpected, for example our surveys have revealed:

• Only 19% of Canadians include the word “optometrist” when searching for optometrists.
• Only 67% of those spelled “optometrist” correctly.
• At least 10% of Canadians are confused between optometrists, ophthalmologists, and opticians.

Quality Keyword research can cost several thousand dollars, which is why small businesses typically don’t request it. If you are writing your own content without it, simply incorporate keywords and keyphrases that you believe are important.

If you’d like to be informed when Part 2 of this article is published, please subscribe to our email newsletter.