Being a writer, I know there are many different techniques for specific facets of writing—something many people who aren’t writers are unaware of, which makes total sense.

Quick PPC ad writing tips.

When writing for PPC (pay-per click) ads there is a certain technique and somewhat formula to it.

Firstly, it’s important to do your keyword research before you start writing a PPC ad. Much like for SEO, you must use relevant keywords in your ads.

Here are some techniques (or things) to keep in mind when writing PPC ads:

• Think conversions. But be wary of high click rates which can lead to low conversions.

• Organize keywords appropriately. Make them relevant to your destination page’s goals. You wouldn’t send a cancer boutique ad selling chemotherapy wigs to your gift shop or to another, unrelated service line, or even your home page.

• Don’t promote value or exaggerate. For example don’t compose something like this: “the BEST value in town for cancer wigs.” Instead, use clear, concise language.

• PPC ads generally consist of four lines.

o Line 1: Keyword rich title

o Line 2: Benefit statement/question

o Line 3: Feature statement or call-to-action

o Line 4: URL

After you’ve written your ads, be sure to engage in A/B testing and monitor your ads’ metrics so you can adjust and/or polish accordingly.

Did you know that AVID Design offers PPC ad writing services for hospital and healthcare systems? Contact us to learn more.

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I have been working with AVID Design for a couple of months now, learning the art of social networking and effective Websites.

It’s been a really good experience for me, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot more practical talents that can be applied to both my professional and my personal life, so I thought I’d share some of the most important things that I’ve learned.

• Keywords are essential, and they need to be relevant because search engines like Google are getting smarter every day. Having a correct and contextually rich set of keywords helps you and your customer by making it easy for them to come to you for the information that they’re looking for.

• You have roughly a 15 second window to get a potential customer’s attention. If what they’re looking for isn’t immediately apparent, they will almost always go somewhere else. It’s important not to overwhelm your customer with a load of information to search through.

• There is such a thing as too much interaction. Don’t get me wrong, every page on your Website should have some call-to-action/conversion. But a Website with too many graphics, videos, buttons and information can become confusing and difficult to navigate.

• Make sure your information has value to the customer. Some Websites are guilty of producing a mountain of content to give the appearance having a wealth of information. Art in brevity is key to a successful Website, and concise content with legitimate information is much more valuable.

• Keywords are like cilantro. Use enough of it and your salsa is delicious. Too much makes it taste like soap, and no one likes that. Similarly the overuse of keywords on a Web page looks and reads unnaturally. When you write content, you should keep your language natural and put keywords in where they make sense instead of adding them everywhere they will technically fit.

We now live in a world that runs on the Web. There’s an insane number of Websites available for everything you can imagine, so if you want your Website to be successful, it’s time to learn to embrace it as your most vital marketing and sales tool.

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My boyfriend and I have both been looking at grad schools. I’m looking to get a Masters in English Lit, while he is going into Material Sciences with a focus on nanotechnology.

Long keyword phrases can play to your strengths.

What we’ve found with his degree is that a lot of people use the words “nanotechnology” and “nanomaterials” because the technology is new and attention-grabbing, so the use of these terms may or may not have any bearing on whether a school or business actually has anything to do with nanotechnology.

As such, we’ve started having to use longer keyword phrases when we do this research to find schools that focus specifically on the area that my boyfriend wants to study.

That being said, here are a few ideas about equipping your Web pages with long keyword phrases that are relevant to your organization.

• Using overly common keywords will not get you on page one of a Web search. The competition for most common keywords is already high, so a basic keyword like “cancer,” is going to produce tons of results from Yahoo answers to horoscopes, and your Website might not show up for pages. But “breast cancer minimally invasive services,” is likely to lead your sought-after demographic right to you.

• With any business, especially hospitals and medical facilities, including your location in your keyword bank will attract more of the people that you are looking for. When people are searching for a specific condition or service pertaining to that condition, they are more often than not looking for a facility in their area that provides that service they need.

• Using long keyword phrases allows you to showcase unique services and specializations. Use long keyword phrases as an opportunity to tell your potential clients about what makes your organization stand out. Whether it’s minimally invasive surgery, or a new treatment method, this is a good way to show people what makes you different.

• Search engine algorithms are improving all the time. When you start typing a keyword into a Google Search, it already begins to predict what you’re searching for. Having long keyword phrases available will get your customers more specific information and may encourage them to look up a keyword phrase that they would not have thought of themselves.

Using long keyword phrases will ultimately get better results by allowing customers to find their specific needs and allowing you to reach out to the demographic group that you are marketing toward.

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Although I have a few phobias, like my alarming fear of heights and flying in airplanes, Friggatriskaidekaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th) is not one of them. We all hear about myths and superstitions associated with this particular date, so with that day being today, I thought I’d compile a short list of myths relating to hospital Website design, SEO and the like.

Happy Friday the 13th from Jason Voorhees and AVID Design.

Since a list of 13 myths would be more apropos for this date, I thought I’d spare the folks out there who too suffer from phobias, like triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).

1.) Website Design – A hospital (or any) Website redesign will solve all my Web problems.

Many hospital marketers believe that a redesign is simply the “cure” for solving any and all Website problems because a fresh design is all that is needed. This is untrue. These same people don’t take into consideration that the strategy that goes into a redesign can sometimes be as important, if not more important, than the actual design itself.

2.) Content— If users are going to be guided to my hospital’s Website to read up on procedures and services offered, then posting every bit of information I have online is the only way to go.

First things first…users don’t read on the Web, they simply scan, so it’s best to write relevant, bite-sized chunks of optimized copy that are easier to read (e.g. bulleted lists). Secondly, content is not just written text, it is also images, videos, etc. And don’t be fooled about trying to fit all information on one page, it is okay to have a few pages as long as the copy is relevant and includes at least one call-to-action and effective anchor text to navigate through the pages.

3.) Social Media and Web 2.0 – If I build a Facebook fan page for my hospital or I start a hospital CEO blog, it will accumulate numerous fans and page hits overnight.

This doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time and effort to cultivate an audience, and a good social media and Web 2.0 strategy should be put into place before embarking on this trip.

4.) Website Design – I have to do my hospital’s Website redesign all at once.

Truth be told, redesigns take an extended period of time to fully complete, so it’s best to break down the redesign process into phases where each phase allows you to concentrate in a particular area, like focusing one phase on your hospital’s specialties and content and another phase on examining rich media. Also, change is received better with your employees and users when made in increments rather than all at once.

5.) Search Engine Optimization—Once you optimize your hosptial’s Website, then you are good to go and should be ranking well in the major search engines from here on out.

SEO is an ongoing process and is never finished (much like that of your hospital Website). What your hospital ranks today for pediatric cancer quite possibly not be the same three months from now. It’s best to have a professional (like AVID Design) provide you with an SEO assessment (that’s FREE) of your hospital’s Website to get the ball rolling on developing a proper search engine marketing (SEM) campaign.

Don’t let your hospital’s Website fall under a spell of bad luck, make sure your hospital Website design and optimized content doesn’t suck!  Call AVID Design today to speak with our hospital marketing strategy consultants to get you on the right path(without that black cat crossing it) toward achieving your online marketing goals.

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Last week on my Tuesday tip, I shared the neat Web application called Pixlr, which can be used not only to do quick and simple photo edits, but it can also be used to create complex graphics using layers and tools…much like Photoshop can.

This week I want to continue talking about images, but discuss the importance of how images on the Web need to be optimized for both size and for Website indexing purposes.

Check out this example of good ALT text for an image on your Website: Highlight the image, right click, select view selection source and voilá!

Optimize Images for Size on Web

If you are currently taking a raw photo off your camera and posting it directly to your Website, you are doing it all wrong. The first thing you should do is resize the image so that it is sized for the Web. The fact is, even inexpensive digital cameras these days are capable of capturing high resolution photography. You have to get  in the habit of opening up the image file and resizing it to best match your needs for your content page.

Most of the time I see images that have been scaled within the HTML code itself. Just because you can scale the pixel width and height within your content management system (CMS) or HTML page, it will probably not affect the file size. A 300×200 pixel image will still load slowly if it is 6MB large. While I think about it, this should be a reminder that all files that are loaded to the Web should be optimized where possible. Many PDFs can also be resized and decrease download time for the end user.

Optimize Images for Greater Accessibility

In addition to physical image size optimization, you also should pay close attention to ALT text. As soon as you upload your image to your Website you need to include appropriate ALT text.

ALT text is important because search engines look at it for content relevancy and ranking purposes, therefore it’s crucial to have properly optimize keywords and content within the text (see example within the above image).  In addition, having ALT text can help you achieve a higher ranking for image searches. ALT text also serves the purpose of  helping those that are visually impaired identify images (if using text-to-speech software) and helps those with browsers that don’t support images understand what image they would see if their browser supported it.

AVID Design is a leader in cutting-edge hospital Website design and SEO. Contact us today for a free 10-point SEO evaluation of your Website!

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