Most hospitals and healthcare systems were created well before the emergence of the Internet, nevermind related concepts such as search engine optimization that are crucial for hospital brand awareness.

Still, that doesn’t mean hospital marketers aren’t occasionally provided with new opportunities to create brand names for new hospital services, features, fundraising groups, blogs and more. Rather than simply giving a name that might sound nice, hospital branding must now assess the challenges of creating a brand name that is SEO-friendly.

On one hand, there’s the challenge of not being unique enough. LA Weekly recently listed the top five least-Google-friendly restaurants in Los Angeles. These included LA Market, 24/7, Bar Kitchen, Local and Food. No matter how great their quality and popularity might be, they are all virtually impossible to find via search engines unless the search phrase is somehow qualified, modified or longtailed.

On the other hand, there is a new trend in online branding that has apparently become popular with music groups that are striving to maintain “indie” credibility by not ranking at the top of Google. That might seem counterproductive for anybody trying to build a following of their brand, whether it’s bands or hospitals.

This month’s Wired discussed this peculiar practice of bands using “unintelligible monikers” that use character substitutions and alternatives. For instance, “hospital” might be “spelled” the way it was in the headline above…or even more cryptically and harder to remember and type.

Of course, a hospital would likely never go to that extreme, but it’s an interesting notion to ponder, especially when using people’s names, such as those given in honor of a hospital foundation, or particularly when using a hospital’s doctor’s names as a meaning of increasing Website traffic.

Paging Dr. Jerry Brown, or Is Dr. Geri Browne or Gov. Jerry Brown?

As patients continue to become more sophisticated in their use of the Internet to research hospitals and physicians, the names of surgeons, doctors and specialists are increasingly proving to be keywords that are just as effective as a carefully researched long-tail keyword for a medical condition or procedure.

However, some names—such as Jerry Brown—create certain dilemmas. First, there’s the reality that both “Jerry” and “Brown” are both very common names and words (such as using “brown” to describe a color). Then there’s the fact that searches for “Jerry Brown” are most likely going to return results for the governor of California, rather than a doctor at your hospital.

On the other hand, homonyms and spelling variations of Jerry Brown—such as “Gerry Braun” or “Geri Browne”—can very easily result in patients searching for the more common spelling.

Ultimately, the answer—whether for organic SEO or pay-per-click—is to carefully analyze your keywords. For instance, a name such as mine (Derek Rudnak), is not very common, so chances are that optimizing for it wouldn’t require much (if any) additional work.

But in the “Jerry Brown” example, careful consideration and research (and perhaps testing) would be crucial for its success. This could include:

• Geography: For instance, if you are located in Topeka, Kansas, “jerry brown topeka doctor” might be a solution.

• Specialty: If your Dr. Jerry Brown is a pediatrician, “jerry brown topeka podiatry” might be a more precise solution.

• Hospital Name: Of course, be sure to not exclude one of your most value keywords: your hospital’s name!

Remember, every page on your Website has the potential to be a “home page.”  If patients are more likely to find you by searching for a physician’s name or specialty, take advantage of it.

Derek Rudnak | Healthcare Marketing Communications Specialist | AVID Design

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Imagine that your hospital or healthcare system was a hotel. Independent, franchise, chain, doesn’t matter—like hospitals, hotels come in all shapes and sizes.

Now imagine that you are at a customer review Website such as TripAdvisor.com—and not only do you discover some extremely unpleasant reviews, but one of the authors is currently one of your admitted patients. Would you respond? How would you respond? Would you call the police and throw the patient out?

As extreme as the last question sounded, that is precisely what happened to a couple after using TripAdvior.com to criticized a hotel in Blackpool, England, despite having pre-paid for a multiple night visit. (Ironically, there is a medical twist to the story: It was the couple’s first vacation since one of them had been diagnosed with cancer 18 months earlier).

The circumstances are almost irrelevant: Even if the hotel was somehow a fully innocent victim of an attack by a maleovelent guest, the damage is done—to wit, the USA Today article (and others like it) linked in the last paragraph.

Hospitals vs. Hotels: Is There a Difference?

An argument can be made that hospitals are remarkably similar to hospitals:

• First, there is the fact that they both host overnight guests.

• Second, hospitals are regularly judged by the quality of their facilities and services.

• Third hospital guests have choices in where they go—and are increasingly using the Internet to do research before they make a decision on where to go.

And those are just the most obvious similarities.

Of course, there are TripAdvisor.com equivalents for hospitals. A simple Google search for “hospital review” delivers page after page of links to Websites where people can review, rank, comment, criticize and express virtually any type of opinion about your hospital, physicians and more.

Don’t think it can’t happen to you. When people feel slighted—regardless if they are justified in their feelings—they want immediate remedy. And when their demand for remedy seems ignored or marginalized, they’ll find ways to be heard…and the Internet is one of the best venues to do so.

Do you regularly review these sites? Which ones? And have you seen negative sentiments about your facilities, services or staff?

But perhaps just as importantly, what are your policies for responding to unfavorable feedback? Do you let it slide? Do you engage with it? And what if that feedback was being written by a patient that is admitted to your hospital at the moment you read it?

Derek Rudnak | Communciations Specialist | AVID Design

AVID Design is highly experienced with best practices for drafting hospital governance policies that address issues involving the Internet, Websites, social media and more. Contact us today to learn how we can help your hospital establish winning policies that reduce and mitigate risk.

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