Skilled nursing providers may have a new cohort in urgent need of rehabilitation: their own websites.
A startling 97% of skilled nursing websites were rated as “needing improvement” after a new audit from DBS Interactive.
The findings showed that, in particular, many of those websites — selected from 200 randomly sampled skilled nursing companies — demonstrated poor performance and accessibility.
The latter could be a particular issue for skilled nursing’s target audience, as many individuals recovering from surgery or stroke, or with vision issues, could struggle to read or view information about possible facilities they may need to go to, DBS Digital Marketing Director Steve Fowler told McKnight’s Friday.
“Think about someone who is blind, using a special screen-reader,” Fowler said. “If they can’t look up your SNF on the internet as a possibility to manage their care, how are they going to find you? What does it say [about your company] if you’re not catering to these groups? As a company, you have to be thinking about your brand and your audience.”
Certain issues, such as internet connectivity, may require outside assistance. In addition, search engine optimization evaluations are becoming increasingly sophisticated, Fowler noted. Still, there are ways that SNF staff members and administrators can improve their websites without needing to become SEO and coding experts.
Google’s website analyzer tool is “as easy as it gets,” Fowler noted, and it includes guidance tutorials for auditing what one already has.
In addition, legacy companies should make sure that their websites for desktop and mobile interfaces are similar, if not completely the same, as Google now only ranks for the mobile version, due to the fact that the majority of internet users now are searching the web via their phones, Fowler said.
The report looked at websites across four specific metrics: performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO, ranking each website on a 1-to-100 scale in those categories. Although only 7% of websites audited had outright “poor” connectivity, the study found that 70% of SNF websites could improve how fast their pages load.
Despite some of the website concerns, the report did call out several providers for having strong websites. Six scored “good” or better — at least 91 out of 100 — in all four categories:
- Forest Street Compassionate Care Center, Denver
- The Terraces at Skyline, Seattle
- Pioneer House: The Riverview, Sacramento, CA
- Ignite Medical Resort Kansas City, Kansas City, MO
- Gregory Ridge Healthcare Center, Kansas City, MO
- Regency Integrated Health Services, Victoria, TX
More information on the DBS report can be found here.
