In our test, doctors rated Google’s homepage on health care searches as more useful and relevant than the other top sites. Doctors usually click healthcare.google.com link 40% more frequently than the next most popular website, Facebook, in terms of page views.
Medical students, too, find the rankings of the top medical sites reassuring and helpful. “I am not sure why, but after I see the actual websites it makes me feel better,” says Dr. Susan Millward, a medical student at the University of Michigan. “I do not think doctors trust Google for the way they treat patients; Google only is better than the rest because doctors trust doctors,” says Dr. Mark Lipps, a patient advocate at the California Healthcare Foundation.
More doctors find websites linking to Google more authenticate. For example, the searches on healthcare.google.com is more frequent than the healthmedicine.org (the website for Doctors Hospital)
Doctors are not necessarily the most technologically savvy people, and, despite their high ratings for the websites of their own doctors, do not trust healthcare websites overall because they do not make it easy to change doctors. Indeed, 75% of doctors in our survey do not actively change their doctors; and, without that feedback, they do not know what is working for their patients.
Doctors should share what they know with patients, of course. But, increasingly, patients are sharing their thoughts about their doctors and the medical field itself online, and information providers and providers alike are leveraging those online comments to improve the value of their services and increase the relevance of their webpages.
Therefore, in the future, doctors will be more inclined to open up about their opinions online. As a result, websites will rank higher, and, hopefully, patients will get better and more relevant advice. And, in the end, a website that ranks in the top 25% of websites will likely be more relevant and useful to doctors and patients alike.
Instead of pressuring doctors to make websites work for doctors, we would like to see websites work for doctors. We would also like to see doctors share what they know with patients, and that patient feedback can create and maintain a more honest and transparent space where patients can get useful feedback.
While this blog does not focus on doctors or healthcare, it is possible to find better examples of websites, such as medicalcarefacts.net, which rank at the top of Google for search terms like “my doctor”. Additionally, all the websites ranked as top medical sites are covered by doctors in clinical trials, and all the top ones (even those that may seem somewhat unnecessary to the lay person) are up-to-date and transparent to the doctors, providers, and patients themselves.
These examples show that websites can be developed with the appropriate amount of care and effort, the right level of authenticity, and the necessary SEO can be helpful to doctors, patients, and the general public.
You can also read more about our services to help doctors develop websites and improve SEO.
Let us know how you think healthcare websites can be improved, and we would be happy to help you improve your website and SEO for your doctors.
Optimize Techno Is A Leading SEO, PPC, SMO, WordPress Web Development, Logo Designing And Content Optimization Company. Our Operations Are Based In Kolkata, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, Darjeeling, Coochbehar And Alipurduar.