We're committed to being a good citizen of the world wide web and we think others should be, too. Following the recommendations of search engine companies about how to organize and present information, often referred to as "search engine optimization", or SEO, is an important part of our commitment. Not only is this the best long-term strategy for doing well in searches, it's also in the best interests of information consumers.

The following is a summary of the major components of a program of good net citizenship for healthcare providers, with a special emphasis on hyperbaric oxygen therapy facilities. We follow these practices ourselves, and we want HyperbaricLink to be a good case study for their successful application.

Build an effective website

A website is a great way to provide information about your practice, facilities, staff expertise and experience, and the distinctive portfolio of services your treatment center provides. It’s also a great place to announce newsworthy developments like new equipment or capabilities, additions to staff, and special events.

Some parts of the internet still feel like the wild west, but the web has matured a lot since the frontier days. Standards and conventions continue to grow in scope and sophistication. Patients have come to expect certain features from healthcare information websites:

• Diseases and conditions treated;
• Facilities and equipment, with photographs;
• Staff training, certifications, and experience;
• Hours of operation;
• Location and directions;
• Contact information, including an info@ e-mail address.

You can include other information to distinguish your treatment center and your medical staff:

• Case studies
• Physician statements,
• Total care package description,
• Accreditations and certifications,
• Information for referring physicians,
• News.

If your treatment center is based in a hospital, or is part of a larger institution, your organization’s website may not be set up to handle all this information. Don’t fret. You can still provide it by enrolling in our directory. Our most complete directory listings give you the opportunity to make all this information available to patients and referring physicians.

Get found in web searches

Your great new (or revised) website is still a tiny island in a vast ocean of information. The visitors you want most are those who don’t already know you or your web coordinates. So how do they find you?

The best way is to practice something known as “organic” search engine optimization (SEO). This is also known as “white hat SEO” because these are the practices recommended by search engine companies like Google and Microsoft—and because they are the practices that best serves the interest of the internet users who are the potential patients you want to find your island of information.

You can go about this without any special technical knowledge. The key is to build well structured web pages written with their audience in mind. Three considerations make a big difference in how effective your web pages will be in search results:

Relevance – make the page title, description, headings, and content relevant to the keywords patients will use to search for treatment centers like yours.

Importance – link to other pages that are relevant and meaningful, both within your own site and on other websites. When appropriate, get these other websites to link back to you.

Geography – information about healthcare services becomes more relevant as it gets closer to the user. Be sure the location of services is well integrated with the content describing the services.

Avoid the dark side of the web

We highly recommend you do not employ search engine optimization companies or consultants. If you feel compelled to, we strongly urge you to vet them very carefully for strict compliance with internet best practices. Even companies that claim they are practicing “white hat SEO” often are not, and their guarantees that they can get you front page ranking are worthless. They may be able to get you a brief moment in the sun, but you’ll end up feeling burned when your page rank drops into the basement and stays there.

If search engine companies discover that you are using black hat techniques your website will be punished in search engine results. It has happened to some of the largest companies in the United States. Google and other search engines are constantly working to refine their indexing algorithms to detect and demote sites practicing black hat techniques. Black hat SEO has the potential to ruin the internet and few people would agree underhanded behavior is appropriate to a healthcare organization.

At HyperbaricLink we work with Google and other major search engine companies to police the knowledge domains with which we’re involved and report clear and egregious cases of poor internet citizenship. We’re committed making the internet a better place for healthcare information and we encourage you to work with us in that effort.

Work with us

Our mission is to be the best internet resource for healthcare consumers and referring physicians seeking information about hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Our website and directory listings are designed to complement and enhance a treatment center’s existing internet presence.

• We practice what we preach with respect to website design and keep our design clean, advertising-free, and focused on the patient.
• We attain our high page ranking naturally by following search company guidelines for organic search engine optimization.
• Our editorial policy is to support evidenced-based medicine and to provide healthcare consumers with a superlative breadth and depth of information on our own site and through carefully curated links to other websites.

For more information on building and effective web presence and being a good internet citizen, request a copy of our white paper, Internet Best Practices for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Treatment Centers, or get in touch with us directly at info@hyperbariclink.com. We’d be happy to discuss your individual requirements.