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Deciding on Your Web Presence

Having concluded that there are valid business or organizational needs and decided that your department, unit, or practice needs a web presence—what are the options?
 

(1) Partner with Existing Website

  • Does a DUHS website already exist that either provides the information that you hope to share or that you could partner with?
    • DHTS or DHMC may be able to help you identify such an option.

Contact: Should you wish to discuss the possibility of working within an existing DUHS website please contact Séamus O’Reilly at DHMC or Aaron Nelson at DHTS to explore the possible options.

(2) Intranet Portal

Is your web presence for Duke Health staff eyes only?

  • If you require a private / internal website, please consider using the DUHS Intranet.
  • A dedicated Duke Health intranet site can offer extensive functionality options and is completely secure from non-Duke engagement.

Contact: Should you wish to discuss creating an intranet portal please contact the service owner for DHTS Public Site Hosting Aaron Nelson to explore this option.

(3) Integration with dukehealth.org

If you need a public-facing site, integration with dukehealth.org might be a better option. Consider that dukehealth.org is a consumer-facing website with content aimed at patients and referring providers. The advantages that a presence on dukehealth.org offers include:

  • Established site traffic
  • Constant and dynamic updates
  • Web maintenance and marketing team
  • SEO
  • In-built analytics and tracking
  • Constant monitoring of site for relevance and accuracy
  • Blog
  • Mobile optimization

Contact: Should you wish to discuss the possibility of a presence on dukehealth.org please contact Seamus O’Reilly at DHMC.

(4) Stand-alone Website

Should you decide on a stand-alone website, some things you’ll need to consider are:

  • Cost - The main costs associated with developing a new website are:
    • Web development costs – actually having your website designed and built.
    • Ongoing we development and maintenance – making sure your website stays online and functional.
    • Ongoing resources to update the website and to create new content - to best serve users and to assist in Google rankings, a website should be an evolving and changing resource. Someone within your unit will need to be responsible for keeping current content accurate and up-to-date and for adding new content.
       
  • SEO / Search Engine Optimization
    • The best website in the world is only useful if people can find it. Optimizing the code and content of your site to make it more easily found by search engines is a constant and ongoing activity.
    • Google monitors health sites (and financial services sites) in a different way than other consumer sites. Google labels them YMYL sites (Your Money or Your Life) and looks for expert content contributors but also quality site design “Amateurish website design is less acceptable for YMYL websites, such as legal, financial, and medical websites.”

Contact: Should you wish to proceed with a stand-alone website please complete the Duke Website Request Form found on the Duke Health Customer portal.