Last month’s AVID Insight e-newsletter feature story introduced our audience to the typical hospital Web site life cycle process.

Sign up to receive our monthly e-newsletter, AVID Insight.

This month we aim to tackle the “Green Phase” of the life cycle, with emphasis on creating a solid foundation to maximize your hospital’s strategy and goals in order to lengthen the green.

Learn about these five key areas we recommend in order to maximize the green:

• Having a sound strategy and tactical implementation plan

• Expandable content architecture and Web platform technology

• Consistent actionable analytics

• Becoming a Web leader for your organization

• Web governance policies and dispersed authorship

Our May edition of AVID Insight hits inboxes later this week, so be on the lookout. Or, if you are not a subscriber to our monthly e-newsletter, sign up today and get all the latest and greatest information on healthcare marketing advice, trends, seminars and more.

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Last week, accusations of black hat SEO practices by JC Penney (or more specifically, their SEO consultant) was the hot topic at many SEO-related blogs, tweets and chats. As a hospital SEO consultant, the topic was certainly of considerable interest to us.

It’s funny when Airplane’s Johnny says “There’s a sale at Penney’s!” But it’s not funny when Penney’s gets caught for allegedly using “black hat SEO” practices to promote its company.

First, let’s define “black hat SEO.” There are no laws for how to or how not to do SEO. And for what it’s worth, there’s no clearly defined “code of ethics” for SEO.

Still, there are ways to “cheat,” and the temptation to do so is always high, especially considering how challenging SEO can be and the justifiable client demand for demonstrable results and ROI—both of which very likely applied for the SEO consultant handling a client as big as JC Penney.

So, most simply, “black hat SEO” is perhaps best defined as SEO practices that manipulate the system to produce results that are perhaps not entirely deserved. In the case of JCP, one example of possibly using black hat SEO occurred when they ranked higher for “Samsonite suitcase” than the actual Samsonite Company’s Website!

As with breaking most any crime or rule, there are often quick gains that come at the risk of punishment, and that’s precisely what’s happening to JCP. Once Google got word of potential black hat SEO practices, they opened a “manual action” that essentially re-evaluated rankings and quickly sunk JCP’s ranking for certain keywords.

As mentioned, SEO is a challenging endeavor, and the highly competitive realm of hospital SEO is no exception. As an SEO specialist at AVID Design for almost three years, I can go on the record and say that we don’t practice or condone “black hat SEO”…but not entirely for ethical reasons. Instead, it’s just bad business.

JCP will very likely never recover their top rankings. Of course, it seems that they shouldn’t have had top rankings in the first place. But now that Google has penalized their Page rankings, it’s going to take quite some time—and some very hard work—to climb back up. And forget about the accused SEO consultant; their reputation is totally damaged.

Weight Loss, Crash Diet Plans and SEO

We often tell our hospital SEO clients that there’s no “trick” to SEO or getting top rankings for keywords…or at least any that we’ll employ, much less any that will keep you at the top.

SEO is a careful, methodical and sometimes tedious process. It’s not at all unlike losing weight. Sure, there are crash diets that might quickly knock off some pounds, but without the proper discipline and healthy habits, that unwanted weight will come right back.

SEO is no different.

So, if you are shopping for an SEO consultant—or if you are currently contracted with one to do SEO for your hospital—ask them their opinion about black hat practices.

And if you SEO consultant has somehow produced results that might be a little too good, definitely be suspicious. Because if they are indeed doing black hat SEO and you get caught, guess what? Yup, that’s your page rankings that are going to tank.

No, you might not get raked over the coals in the press the way JCP is, but that would be the least of your problems. Not only did you lose the financial investment you made in your SEO efforts, but you will now have even more of an uphill battle to achieve high hospital SEO page rankings.

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Remember the crazy survey lady from the hilarious cartoon hit of the 90s, Animaniacs?

Yesterday I spent nearly 15 minutes completing a survey for Adobe. It was all about their creative products. I admit, the only reason that I took the time to do it was because I have a glimmer of hope that I could win a giveaway that they were offering. By the time I was done with it (because it didn’t tell me to set aside 15 minutes when I started) I felt like Adobe should just out right PAY for the information that I was giving back.

But the other reason I filled it out was because I knew that we were about to send out our own survey to the masses… and I figured that I could glean some survey creation wisdom from the good folks at Adobe. My takeaway = Make the survey short and simple.

In our last AVID Insight newsletter we hinted that the January feature story was going to be all about Hospital Intranets and Employee Communication. We’ve had many conversations with our clients in recent days/months about this topic. It also seemed to be a topic that many were talking about at the 14th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference.  As we’ve been preparing for next month’s feature, we decided that it would be interesting to reach out to you, our healthcare marketing followers, for your input into the discussion.

I promise you that it won’t take 15 minutes to complete.

I can’t offer you a prize pack for your participation, but I can offer you the assurance that your answers will be kept anonymous (we’ve seen some of your intranets.)

So… Would you like to take our hospital intranet survey?

While you’re at it, if you’re not signed up for the AVID Insight eNewsletter, now is a great time to do so.

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Well, another year has come and gone. So long 2010, hello 2011!

We’ve put together a compilation of this past year’s featured stories and hot topics from our newsletter, AVID Insight. If you are not an AVID Insight e-newsletter subscriber (which I strongly suggest you be), then here’s what you missed…

January 2010 – Hospital Website Patient Portals: Where to Begin

Offering advantages to both physicians and patients, patient portals are increasingly becoming a popular service for managing health.

• What are some features and functions of patient portals?

• What are the advantages of having a patient portal?

• How do you start a patient portal?

February 2010 – Six Essential Hospital Digital Signage Uses: the 2010 Edition

Digital signage is becoming more of a universal communication platform for healthcare facilities—both large and small, and becoming an integral part of hospital’s overall communication strategies.

• What is the value of digital signage?

• How is digital signage growing?

• How can digital signage be used at hospitals?

March 2010 – Traditional vs. Online Hospital Marketing: Erasing the Lines in the Sand

Times are a-changin’ in hospital marketing dividing “old school” traditional hospital marketers and “new school” online hospital marketers.

• What is causing this erosion?

• What new hospital marketing paradigms are emerging?

• What hospital marketing obstacles remain?

April 2010 – Six Best Practices for Hospital INTRANET Usability

The value of having an intranet is significant, and is continually becoming embraced by hospitals and healthcare systems.

• What are the challenges in identifying an intranet strategy for hospitals?

• How do intranets improve the workforce?

• What are some intranet best practices hospitals should consider?

May 2010 – Emotion vs. Intellect: Quality of Care Content and Hospital Website Marketing

There are two types of writing styles when writing hospital Website quality of care content. These two types—emotional and intellectual—can be challenging to write in order to satisfy these sensibilities.

• What are the challenges for writing quality of care content?

• How do you properly prepare and balance quality of care content?

• How do you deploy quality information on your hospital’s Website?

June 2010 – The Magic Metric: How to Improve Hospital Website Conversion Rates

Conversion rates are the most critical metric when analyzing Website performance and ROI for online healthcare marketing analytics.

• What is a Website conversion and how do they affect hospitals?

• What are some types of hospital Website conversions?

• How do you build a successful conversion strategy for you hospital’s Website?

July 2010 – All Hands on Deck: Five Ways to Educate Your Internal Workforce to Promote Your Hospital Website

Marketing your brand internally is essential in promoting your brand externally, so maintaining a well informed workforce to enhance external perceptions of your hospital’s brand is crucial.

• Why should your hospital’s workforce be informed about your brand?

• Why should your hospital’s workforce harness their influence with hospital patients and visitors?

• What are some concepts to consider as you improve your hospital’s marketing potential?

August 2010 – Is Your Hospital’s Website Ready for Caffeine?

With Google Caffeine being released this past year, the landscape for traditional SEO and indexing is surely going to change significantly.

• How will Caffeine index relevant content?

• How will Caffeine affect healthcare and hospital SEO?

• How will hospital and healthcare Website content managers prepare for the change of your hospital’s Website SEO?

September 2010 – Your Hospital Can Can’t Afford to Not Attend Healthcare Marketing Conferences

It’s no surprise that healthcare marketing budgets are tight, especially this past year. Don’t let economic conditions diminish the value of attending a healthcare marketing that is focused on what you do for the hospital.

• What is the value in attending a healthcare marketing conference?

• How do you get expenses approved to attend a conference by hospital marketing leadership?

• How do you really afford to attend a healthcare marketing conference?

October 2010 – Overcoming the Healthcare Marketer and Hospital Foundation Disconnect

Sometimes there is a bizarre disconnect between hospital marketing departments and their hospital foundations, which one would think would have a remarkably integrated relationship since they both share similar objectives for the hospital.

• Why is there sometimes a bizarre disconnect between the two?

• What are some advantages of integrating both departments?

• Read about how Tanner Health System and MCGHealth integrate their marketing and foundation departments.

November 2010 – Fanning the Flames: Reviewing Predictions for Hot Healthcare Marketing Topics in 2010

Last year we made predictions as to what we thought were going to be the hot healthcare marketing topics for 2010.

• What were some of 2010’s hot healthcare marketing topics?

• Were some of our predictions correct?

• Which healthcare marketing topics from 2010 will still be on fire in 2011?

December 2010 – AVID Design’s Annual Internet Healthcare Marketing Predictions: 2011 Edition

Since the year is coming to a close, we’ve come up with a few topics that are on the top of our list as far as what we believe is in store for online healthcare marketers and experts in 2011.

• What are our predictions for online healthcare marketing technologies in 2011?

• Is social media still hot? Is mobile technology still hot?

• Will increased spending for rich media continue?

Coming in January’s edition of AVID Insight: Hospital intranets and employee communication. Sign up today!

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Remember the transitive property from grade school Algebra? If a=b and b=c, then a=c. Also known more colloquially as the “bask in the glory of your clients” formula…which is precisely what we will be doing in today’s blog.

U.S. News and World Report recently published its prestigious “Best Hospitals” List for 2010–11, and we want to highlight the hospitals that not only made the cut, but also happen to be clients of ours. Congratulations, everybody!

Mayo Clinic Jacksonville (Florida)

•  #40 in Gastroenterology

• #44 in Neurology and Neurosurgery

Medical University of South Carolina

•  #17 in Rheumatology

•  #20 in Pediatrics: Heart & Heart Surgery

New York–Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell

•  #4 in Kidney Disorders

•  #4 in Neurology & Neurosurgery

AVID Design is an award-winning hospital marketing strategy consultant. Contact us to learn more about having your internal and external hospital brand awareness strategies evaluated.

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