(PRESS RELEASE) The American Optometric Association (AOA) launched a fully redesigned website, offering a more streamlined and modern user experience that will better serve its members, the profession of optometry and the public.
Logging nearly 7 million visits in the past year alone, the AOA.org website is not only a members’ portal for the latest advocacy information, professional education, clinical and practice resources, and optometric news but also a trusted, go-to resource for patients and the public alike seeking to learn more about their eye health and vision care. AOA.org is the face of the AOA and a critical vehicle for helping to promote the leading role that doctors of optometry play in Americans’ primary eye health care.
Beyond a modernized aesthetic, the top-down website redesign utilizes a contemporary platform and incorporates member-requested features and capabilities that promote a greater web experience, including:
- Personalized member experience. The all-new Member Center is a hub of exclusive content, resources and education tailored to AOA member doctors of optometry, organized all in one, easy-to-navigate and centralized space on the website. The new website’s emphasis on consolidated and reorganized pages means it’s easier for members to find the content they’re looking for, when they need it. Additionally, optometry students and paraoptometrics also have member hubs specific to their membership status and needs.
- Enhanced patient, public experience. The Healthy Eyes patient hub tailors content and resources specifically for the public seeking more information about their eye health and vision care. The patient hub reinforces the important health care provided by doctors of optometry and provides greater visibility to the AOA’s doctor locator feature.
- Improved ‘Find a Doctor’ searches. AOA’s state-of-the-art ‘Find a Doctor’ now provides greater search functionality with specific fields to delineate optometric specialties.
- Greater search visibility. Redesigned with an emphasis on the latest search-engine optimization best practices, the AOA.org website will generate greater visibility for optometry—reinforcing the critical role that doctors of optometry provide in Americans’ health care—by making webpages appear higher in internet search results.
In a year that began with such promise for optometry as AOA’s #2020EyeExam campaign launched to encourage all Americans to schedule their in-person, comprehensive eye examination, the COVID-19 public health emergency rightfully shifted the AOA’s focus almost immediately onto how best to support members in such unparalleled times.
As part of that effort, the AOA adapted key elements of the 2020 initiative that would reinforce members’ ability to bounce back from COVID-19-related challenges, including a redesigned website that not only promotes greater visibility to the important primary eye health care provided by AOA family doctors of optometry but also provides enhanced searchability in the ‘Find a Doctor’ tool for new patients to connect with a local doctor.