Your Essential Chiropractic Website Navigation Checklist
Choosing what titles to use for your top website navigation might seem like a no-brainer. However, this choice has a large impact on the success of your website in terms of both site traffic and turning visitors into patients.
- Site Traffic - You might rank lower in search simply because you are not following “best practices” for website navigation
- Site visitor to Patient Conversion - Those who do visit your site may be confused by your layout and decide to seek care from a different practice.
1 Simple Tip to Website Navigation "Best Practices"
Keep it Simple - 7 or Less!
Keep your website navigation to a maximum of 7! It’s been proven that humans are only capable of holding 5 - 9 items in their short term memory. So, keeping it to 7 will give you a good chance for visitors to absorb and retain the information they see on your site. Currently, sites are trending to go down to as few as 3. However, since you are a medical practice this is likely not realistic. Try to keep it to 6. It’s not necessary or productive to have every page on your site accessible from your top navigation. Your footer is a great place to put this additional information.
The Checklist - 6 Simple Website Navigation Titles
1. Home
Have you ever been to a site where you had to back arrow to the page you were at previously? Thankfully it doesn’t happen very often, but it does still happen. Make it simple for users to get back to your homepage.
2. About Us
This is where you need to talk about who you are and what you do. You should also include information about your staff. High quality, high-resolution professional photos are essential. In a follow-up post we will cover how to write a powerful and effective “About Us”. Your original content is not only the way to inform your patients and potential patients about you, your office and your staff it’s also a powerful tool for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Be sure to take advantage of all opportunities to boost your search results!
3. "How We Can Help"
Be descriptive here. Perhaps you offer help with a variety of injuries or also offer massage or other treatments. Rather than simply listing “Services” you want your navigation title regarding your services to be very descriptive. Since your patients and potential patients will be seeking care/help this navigation item gives them an obvious path to find their answer. In short, it should satisfy them because they didn't need to look around to find out whether or not you can help them.
4. Location
- Name, Address, Phone (NAP)
You should list your address in the same exact format anywhere on this page and in your footer. Be 110% sure you are consistent with this format across any property, directory, social network, etc. you have your NAP information listed on. NAP (name, address, phone) Discrepancies are a killer for local search results. Do yourself a huge favor and be meticulous about this. You can check your NAP results here with a tool from Moz.com. - Map
You will need to include a Map. Do your patients a favor and use Google Maps. Among a myriad of good reasons, it’s beyond helpful for anyone who uses the Google Maps app for their GPS when getting to your location. - Hours
Consistency is also important here. Be meticulous to make sure your hours are easy to read and exactly the same any place you have them listed. This is the same for any of your offline listings as well. Your hours set expectations. Don’t disappoint patients and potential patients by not being available when it states you will be.
5. Contact Us
- Appointments and/or Contact Form
Make it simple for someone to schedule with you. Whether you have a tool integrated into your website or you have a simple contact form you need to have a way for people to connect with you directly from your website. Don’t just post your email address and expect them to email you. Offer a form where they can fill out their name, email address, phone number and a text field to write custom comments and/or questions. - Hours
For obvious reasons, it’s best to list your hours here as well. Again, make sure they are consistent.
6. Blog
A regularly updated Blog is a powerful marketing tool. You can convey the nature of your individual practice, be a positive advocate for Chiropractic care, and health and wellness. In short, your credibility will be noticed. However, it’s absolutely understandable you might not have time to post very frequently. You can certainly utilize services to automatically feed into your Blog page. If you commit to a weekly or even monthly personalized post you will be ahead of the game.
Remember you can always go back and edit your website...and you should. Staying on top of your website content to keep it fresh and updated is key to your digital success. If you would like to speak to us about website navigation best practices or to discuss our results based N8 Chiropractic Websites and other Marketing Services please feel free to schedule a 1-on-1 call with us to discuss. We are not a pushy sales organization. We are happy to simply answer your questions and point you in the right direction to meet and exceed your web site goals.
Thanks!
ChiroHosting Team
