Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

1. How would a patient/consumer find this site?

2. The benefit is not clear/explicit ... possibly because the header image/copy changes too quickly. Need to focus on communicating the benefit, not on "theatrics."

You say that most of your visitors will be referrals. That both limits you and makes your job a lot easier. However your site is still lacking in the sort of detail that their doctor cannot go into. You have the skills in your teams to write some sensible effective - and interesting - pages that tell your prospects exactly what you do and how you do it. What's more, they'll enjoy reading it and the temptation to sign up for your e-book will be overwhelming.

You don't need a developer - you need someone who can communicate what you do to who you need to communicate it to. Don't look at me, I'm in the Netherlands - there will be one of us who is nearby and can take the patient's view and has the skills to turn your technical language into effective copy.

There is another aspect to this too. If someone is online with a bladder problem they're not typing in the answers to their problem. That's why they're searching after all - they're asking questions. So look at your site from their point of view. Ask the questions they're asking and post them on your site - go into a little more detail and then give them your answer. After that, the rest of the site will make a lot more sense to them.

Plus it's likely to be the only search result that actually reflects the question they're asking.

Your homepage makes a statement "care beyond your expectations" - yet this rather bland statement goes without any explanation. Either people believe you, or they don't. In our cynical age, they'll just think it's another corny tagline and move on. Give us more info and this diverse gaggle of marketers here will maul it and come up with something that will really hit home.

In short, your website follows the standard university-graduate marketer's approach. Brand yourself, publicize what you do and make it public. Then sit down and wait. Only you've forgotten who's looking. Your prospects. Focus on them and their needs instead - and your website will rock.

If you were to write a new creative brief today for the website, would it be substantially different from the brief you wrote when you initially hired the web developers? If so, it's a good time to start anew - since a completed website based on old goals won't serve you today. Whether you start with a new team or not is based on a number of issues that only you can judge (responsiveness, trust, accuracy, etc.).

As a critique, the key comment I have is that the benefits you offer (in the "slider area") aren't SEO-friendly. The text is invisible to search engines, which means that you've missed a big opportunity - to be discovered by people who are looking for you.

You'd do well to research keywords and key phrases and then incorporate them into your pages.

The scrolling images move too quickly to allow your reader to read the text AND the scroll overlaps the opt in box.

Visually there's a LOT going on on your main page, which probably isn't helping you: I suspect your bounce rate is rather high.

It may be wise to review the content of every page and to be brutally honest in questions about what's working and what's not. Anything that helps is worth keeping. Anything that's hindering conversions has no place on your site: nuke it.

Think of your ideal readers and put their best interests front and center. You may want a dedicated portal for doctors. It's ESSENTIAL that doctors feel valued and that you assure them that they'll retain control or involvement over their patients. You may also want to offer palliative care options.