Passport Health New Website - April 2012 FAQ's



Passport Health New Website - April 2012 FAQ's

Now that you've all had some introduction to the news and/or details surrounding the launch of Passport Health's new website we would like to provide you with some FAQ's that complement the information you've seen so far. The goal of this document, in tandem with the guidebooks, training sessions and videos, is to provide you with a succinct reference guide to the new site and how to use it to enhance your marketing. As additional questions arise and we expand the scope and functionality of the site (a process of continuous improvement) we will update the training tools, guides and these FAQ's. In addition, we will individually discuss specific challenges as each of you use the new site platform to enhance your own franchise presence within the site.

Ultimately, the success of a franchise’s local site(s) will be based on the effort put into creating unique (especially local) content. This will increase local search rankings of each site and strengthen the “local company with a national footprint” brand image we continue to create. As a franchisee, you have the choice of how much effort you put into your site(s). Updating daily or even weekly is not absolutely necessary, although periodic review of your site and additions of local content will keep your site fresh and interesting to both your potential customers and the search engines.

New Website Rollout Timeline:

Site Launch- April 9, 2012

Background

In May of 2011 the Franchise Marketing Committee (MC) met to begin outlining strategic and tactical planning initiatives to support the marketing of Passport Health. The scope of these sessions and the subsequent work ranged from exploring our competitive position (uniqueness, strengths and weaknesses) to discussing the state of our brand image and identifying specific top priority items for investment with the limited resources of the committee and corporate team. The MC clearly identified that the top business need was to update the website to maintain and improve Passport Health's market position. As a result, several specific items were identified as requirements of a new website:

•The-desired functions:

–Direct as much traffic as possible directly to the local offices resulting in an increase in business (more butts in the seats).

–Refreshed look

–Upgrade professional image

–Clarify navigation and reduce steps to key functions (find a location)

–Convey depth and expertise (deeper content on destinations, vaccinations, etc.)

–Convey scale of business (locations)

–Integrate social media (integrated blog, automated social media)

–Ease of content creation and distribution

–Mobile friendly site

•Integration with business processes might include:

–Email – enhance opt-in (and perhaps preference management)

–Customer portal (B2B and B2C)

–Franchisee – staff portal / communications (internal marketing, training)

–Materials order/generation

–Facilitate user-generated content

 

NOTE: An executive summary presentation of the complete outcome of the MC's plan was presented to all attendees of the annual meeting in New Orleans in March. In addition to contacting the corporate team for specific FAQ's and site administration needs, you can contact your franchise owner and/or the MC for additional details and questions regarding the MC's work and outputs.

Beginning in August 2011, once a detailed approach to the new site/platform had been developed, the MC retained outside strategy, design, development and SEO expertise (search engine optimization so customers can find PPH through Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines) in order to meet the challenge of building a new website and platform for driving the expansion of the Passport Health business. These outside partners worked in tandem with the internal marketing and IT team to develop the new website and supporting infrastructure. 

The Result

Among the desired functions listed above (in "Background"), each has been addressed through the development of the new site. In addition, some of the integration items are now complete, while others can be implemented on top of the new platform much more easily than with the previous website. In summary, the new website is "better" than the old website in some very important ways. 

• Design - updated to contemporary standards, improved customer/patient usability, and depth of specific, high quality information. In addition to being generally received as a more attractive, professional looking site, the new site eliminates the now outdated duplicative content that appeared on the old site via the copies of pages across all daughter sites (where copies of the same vaccination pages, for example, appeared on every daughter site). This is now a big "no no," or negative ranking condition, since the Spring 2011 Google "Panda" algorithm search engine update. Google (two thirds of all search volume) has slowly applied this new search ranking algorithm to all sites on the web, forcing sites with duplicative content well down the ranking results for all keyword searches. 

• Infrastructure - Passageware is now integrated into the back-end of the website and PPH staff now have direct control of the website and its hosting infrastructure with little to no need for outside assistance. This allows us to make changes to franchise information, clinic information, (future) destination advice/itinerary information in one place (Passageware) and have it populate the website automatically. This reduces workload and error as we expand our content (a key to search engine relevancy, ranking and more customers finding out about PPH) and the scale of our business. While the group had originally been concerned about offering destination specific information on the website, we found that consumers were going elsewhere for that information and our ultimate goal is to have them stay on our site. The providing of this information will enhance our credibility as a trusted provider of travel medical information, encourage them to come to us for answers/service and provide additional SEO rich content.

• Scalability and Flexibility - The site is easy to use (by the customer and for administration), easy to expand with more high quality multimedia content, easier to share (via social media) and performs better (technology practices, reducing number or clicks to find information, speed/responsiveness of the site) when compared to the old site. Importantly, franchisees can now directly and dramatically expand their own sites (daughter sites) with locally relevant content that is unique to their territory and business. Example: short-term, the overview of each local operation will be applied to each franchise home page, but over time we'd like to have a page customized for every clinic location. This will enable customers to find us more easily via search engines and mobile/smartphones while enhancing our natural/organic and paid search options in the future with additional landing pages for targeted, high value keywords. 

• Usability (Administration) - Content, Content, Content. As many of you may have heard, the key to getting noticed online is being able to be "found" by those searching for specific information or referred to by others that pass along, or share, the high quality information we produce on the PPH site. In short, content is king for the search engines since content is king for the customer that values a high quality, first class service. The new site enables all of us to contribute to this first class information through each franchise site as well as the new on-site blog. NOTE: each franchise will be responsible for the depth of their quality content as only each can "know" its business, market and customers well enough to create unique content not found on any of the other pages in the entire website, across all franchisees.

• Brand Integration - The new site look has also been applied to a forthcoming html email template (for PPH email broadcasts and operational emails sent/triggered within Passageware), the corporate Facebook page, the corporate Twitter profile and the corporate YouTube channel. Brand consistency, as of the launch in mid-April, is now the norm across our important marketing and service channels.

Over time, additional improvements will be made to the website and updates will be maintained for the various training and support materials. We look forward to your feedback and help in maintaining Passport Health's leading market position. 

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Wordpress Website FAQ

 

>> Where did my local pages go?

As referenced in the "Background" and "Result" sections at the beginning of this document, the search engines are now heavily penalizing the previous structure of the site, where everyone had copies of the same pages. They see duplicative content as "gaming" the search engines in order to improve rankings without adding any true value to the user of one's site/pages. They now compare all pages of information on the web to each other (on the same domain, or elsewhere on the web) and determine that all copies, or near copies/derivatives, are redundant and the result of poor website practice or intent (the "gaming" assumption). They will attempt to pick the single best site/page for the topic/keyword and rank it to the top, eliminating or pushing similar pages down the ranking results. We now see the early indications of these changes in our relatively poor search engine rankings as found by our outside consultants per a recently completed baseline keyword research analysis. 

NOTE: There is a wealth of information and thousands of cases/stories online where businesses' rankings have suffered overnight as the "Panda" update rolled across these sites. Even this week (late March, 2012, about one year into "Panda"), Google reported that their latest "Panda" update impacted an additional 1.6% of all search rankings. Do some searching and reading on it yourself if you'd like to learn more about how you can create your own unique, high quality content for your franchise daughter site. 

Q-How often should I update my website?

A- There aren’t any set expectations for how often a website should be updated. However it is suggested that you perform updates as frequently as possible in order to prevent your website from looking dated and losing your valuable web traffic. It is recommended that you try to update your website at least 1 to 2 times a month (once a week for your news page). When asked, most webmasters and search engine marketers agree that the more you update your current content the more impact it will have on your search engine optimization.

Q- There are wellness pages on the new site, but my franchise does not offer wellness services.

A-Wellness is a new division in which several franchises in the Passport Health network have had success. Because it is a growing part of our business it is necessary to have it featured on our website. The wellness pages contain a clause stating that the wellness is not available in all areas and the national toll free number should be called to check availability. We work nationally with other wellness companies, so anyone calling with questions about wellness can be referred to one of our trusted wellness partners. If you have questions about wellness partnerships you can contact Guillermo Giraldo at 410-727-0556.

Q- Do I still get credit for the travel insurance if it is purchased through my daughter page?

A- Yes. If someone purchases the Liaison or Roundtrip Travel insurance directly after visiting any of your local webpages, they will be directed to a link that is unique to your franchise. That link will be tracked and your franchise will receive the credit if insurance is purchased. If you have more questions about Travel Insurance please contact Mark Noble at 301-793-3192.

Q-Can I add more than 5 pages to my website?

A- Yes. If you would like to add in extra pages, a submenu can be created. If you would like a submenu created please contact Caitlin Bradford or Katie Waterhouse at the Corporate office in Baltimore for further questions about adding and organizing your pages in a submenu. 410-727-0556

Q-What Happens to My Paid Search Efforts?

A- If you use Reach Local we are working with them to ensure a smooth transition to the new site. Their process of supplanting specific phone numbers that direct to your office is not affected by the technical improvements we have made. We’ve done as much as we can to utilize the same URLs and sub-URLs as the old site so any local paid search (Google, Yahoo!, etc.) should simply load the new pages when the link is clicked. You should review the URLs you have loaded with your paid search providers and test the paid links once the switch to the new site has been made to ensure everything is working correctly.

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