Grand River Medical Group was founded in 2016 when three clinics merged to ensure the Dubuque, Iowa community continued to have access to high-quality medical care. When the three physician groups merged, the website no longer represented the growing organization, which continues to add more providers and facilities each year.

That’s why Grand River Medical Group turned to Geonetric and the VitalSite Essentials content management system (CMS) to help this new and evolving system build a strong digital foundation.

Finding a CMS built for medical groups

After vetting potential partners and platforms, Grand River Medical Group decided on Geonetric’s VitalSite. The healthcare-specific CMS comes with all the functionality Grand River Medical Group needed out of the box.

The Provider Directory offers a robust search feature that allows users to search by name, city, gender, specialties, ZIP code, and radius. Each provider also has a profile that shares images, contact information with a map, where they practice, and the ability to request an appointment. The helpful A-Z link in the Services Directory and the mega menu featuring top service lines make it for site visitors to find the care they need.

Best of all, content on the site is cross-promoted through SmartPanels, making it easy for potential patients to stay on a path to conversion, regardless of how they enter the site.

In addition to the directories, the site offers many enhanced features, including:

• Responsive design that provides an excellent user experience on all devices.
• Streamlined main navigation and secondary navigation with quick links and icons that direct site visitors to top tasks.
• Eye-catching calls-to-action that encourage conversion and are easily managed through panels.
• A global alert panel that was easy to activate when the COVID-19 pandemic hit soon after launch.

Developing user-focused content

Grand River Medical Group also took the redesign as an opportunity to review and develop new content. This was the first time the service departments intentionally reviewed what content was out on the web. Geonetric performed a content inventory and identified gaps in service lines not represented.

Geonetric’s expert writers also provided Grand River Medical Group with a content template that provided a structure based on best practices for what copy should go on a service page and in what order. The team also reviewed a page of content and provided recommendations for improvement.

Engaging site visitors and beating industry averages

Since launch, the site has seen a 13.4% increase in users and an 18.2% increase in sessions to services content. The new content and faster site speed have translated to a 67.5% improvement in average SERP click-through rate and a 30.6% improvement in average Google ranking.

When comparing the site to industry averages, Grand River Medical Group’s site has longer session duration by 9 seconds and longer provider session duration by 1:12 minutes. The new site also enjoys a 15% lower overall bounce rate and a 27.8% lower bounce rate for providers.