Creating support groups is a good Idea.
The final destination should be linked to form the body of the page people originally arrived at, and given a much better impresssion of the depth of information your site contains.
I suggest that the Support Group section be merged with Conditions section.
The visitor should be able to visit your home page, click on
Conditions, click on Epilepsy
(See Epilepsy Journals from The Lancet as well), and reach a page that links to all the
info your site has on the topic. When I get to the Epilepsy page, I
would like to see a menu prominently displayed in the center of the
page, that links to:
- Introduction
- Definition
- Causes
- Charateristics
- Diagnosis
- Treatment
- Tips for living with Epilepsy
- Articles
- Myths surrounding epilepsy
- Do's and Don'ts
- Epilepsy & Women
- Famous people with epilepsy
- VNS Therapy
- Support Groups
Fixing the Navigation
---------------------
What needs to be done is this, for each ailment, remedy or general topic:
1. Find every page in your site that is related to it
2. Create an index page for it
3. Link to all the related pages, in a very clear manner. This means
in the main body of the page. Not in side menus, and not split into
multiple menus.
4. When someone gets to the end of the chain, say a page of contact
details for epilepsy support groups, try to only have links in side
menus going to other epilepsy information. This is the reason they are
there, this is the topic that interests them. If they want anything
else, they can return to the home page and start again.
Then test it from a visitors point of view. Think of as many possible
types of information that your visitor is looking for, examples:
- What should I feed my baby?
- How can I relieve the pain of migraine headaches?
- Where is my nearest hospital?
- What is homeopathy?
For each possibility (there are hundreds), start at your home page,
pretend you have never been there before, and see how long it takes to
find information. From following links your ideal should be three
clicks, although for such a large site four is okay.
Compare the ease of navigation, and the quality/quantity of
information with your oppositon (links below).
SiteMap
-------
Create a page like this one:
http://www.healthlinkusa.com/all.asp
Doing so provides an extra way for your visitor to find the
information they want. It also provides you with an overview and
reminder of what your site contains.
Know your limitations
---------------------
There are specialist sites that are better for health-related data
than your site is likely to achieve. For example, I have a
health-related webpage on one of my sites, and I link to the
following:
eMedicine
http://www.emedicine.com/
Health on the Net
http://www.hon.ch/
Drug Resource Center
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8124/8124.html
RxList
http://www.rxlist.com/
Your visitors would appreciate getting information from the above
sites. If it is combined with the knowledge that for an Indian
perspective of things, visiting aarogya.com is their smart first step.
So, your drug database could contain the basic information, plus
anything specific to India (local brand names, suppliers, prices), and
a link to the full information at RxList.com. Alternatively you could
investigate licensing their drug data. An Indian user would, even
though they knew RxList has the most in-depth data, visit your site as
the first step.
Your Opposition
---------------
Sites similar to yours include the following:
EvesIndia
http://www.evesindia.com/health/
India Times
http://health.indiatimes.com/
India Info
http://indiafocus.indiainfo.com/health/
These sites have the advantage of being a sub-section of an
all-encompassing portal. They are more suited to the casual surfer.
They both use Google Ads for revenue, and general ads that appear
throughout the entire portal.
There is also:
Indian Doctors
http://www.indiandoctors.com/
Programming
-----------
There is always a temptation to make the site more dynamic, by using
.asp or .php and databases of information. The suggestion to do so
usually comes from the programming and web design staff, rather than
from users. I do not recommend this for site because:
- Most of the information you provide is static
- Dynamic sites are more prone to errors
- Search engines prefer static pages
If your site becomes popular and attains a PageRank of 8 or higher,
then the vast majority of your visitors will arrive via search
engines. For this reason alone, keep the pages as simple and static as
possible.
Dial-Up Connections
-------------------
The best way of testing your site's speed using dial-up connections
would be from within India, as this is presumably where most of our
target audience resides.
The final destination should be linked to form the body of the page people originally arrived at, and given a much better impresssion of the depth of information your site contains.
I suggest that the Support Group section be merged with Conditions section.
The visitor should be able to visit your home page, click on
Conditions, click on Epilepsy
(See Epilepsy Journals from The Lancet as well), and reach a page that links to all the
info your site has on the topic. When I get to the Epilepsy page, I
would like to see a menu prominently displayed in the center of the
page, that links to:
- Introduction
- Definition
- Causes
- Charateristics
- Diagnosis
- Treatment
- Tips for living with Epilepsy
- Articles
- Myths surrounding epilepsy
- Do's and Don'ts
- Epilepsy & Women
- Famous people with epilepsy
- VNS Therapy
- Support Groups
Fixing the Navigation
---------------------
What needs to be done is this, for each ailment, remedy or general topic:
1. Find every page in your site that is related to it
2. Create an index page for it
3. Link to all the related pages, in a very clear manner. This means
in the main body of the page. Not in side menus, and not split into
multiple menus.
4. When someone gets to the end of the chain, say a page of contact
details for epilepsy support groups, try to only have links in side
menus going to other epilepsy information. This is the reason they are
there, this is the topic that interests them. If they want anything
else, they can return to the home page and start again.
Then test it from a visitors point of view. Think of as many possible
types of information that your visitor is looking for, examples:
- What should I feed my baby?
- How can I relieve the pain of migraine headaches?
- Where is my nearest hospital?
- What is homeopathy?
For each possibility (there are hundreds), start at your home page,
pretend you have never been there before, and see how long it takes to
find information. From following links your ideal should be three
clicks, although for such a large site four is okay.
Compare the ease of navigation, and the quality/quantity of
information with your oppositon (links below).
SiteMap
-------
Create a page like this one:
http://www.healthlinkusa.com/all.asp
Doing so provides an extra way for your visitor to find the
information they want. It also provides you with an overview and
reminder of what your site contains.
Know your limitations
---------------------
There are specialist sites that are better for health-related data
than your site is likely to achieve. For example, I have a
health-related webpage on one of my sites, and I link to the
following:
eMedicine
http://www.emedicine.com/
Health on the Net
http://www.hon.ch/
Drug Resource Center
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8124/8124.html
RxList
http://www.rxlist.com/
Your visitors would appreciate getting information from the above
sites. If it is combined with the knowledge that for an Indian
perspective of things, visiting aarogya.com is their smart first step.
So, your drug database could contain the basic information, plus
anything specific to India (local brand names, suppliers, prices), and
a link to the full information at RxList.com. Alternatively you could
investigate licensing their drug data. An Indian user would, even
though they knew RxList has the most in-depth data, visit your site as
the first step.
Your Opposition
---------------
Sites similar to yours include the following:
EvesIndia
http://www.evesindia.com/health/
India Times
http://health.indiatimes.com/
India Info
http://indiafocus.indiainfo.com/health/
These sites have the advantage of being a sub-section of an
all-encompassing portal. They are more suited to the casual surfer.
They both use Google Ads for revenue, and general ads that appear
throughout the entire portal.
There is also:
Indian Doctors
http://www.indiandoctors.com/
Programming
-----------
There is always a temptation to make the site more dynamic, by using
.asp or .php and databases of information. The suggestion to do so
usually comes from the programming and web design staff, rather than
from users. I do not recommend this for site because:
- Most of the information you provide is static
- Dynamic sites are more prone to errors
- Search engines prefer static pages
If your site becomes popular and attains a PageRank of 8 or higher,
then the vast majority of your visitors will arrive via search
engines. For this reason alone, keep the pages as simple and static as
possible.
Dial-Up Connections
-------------------
The best way of testing your site's speed using dial-up connections
would be from within India, as this is presumably where most of our
target audience resides.
Comments