Did you know that 5% of all Google searches are health-related? Despite being told numerous times not to Google our symptoms, this search engine remains a trusted resource for people worldwide to get answers to health-related questions. As Google gets smarter, it serves us expert and trustworthy content where we can investigate further or contact the best health provider.
Patients who book healthcare appointments tend to do three times more searches than those who don’t. This is because the healthcare consumer journey often involves extensive research, and consumers evaluate numerous providers before taking action.
Do you want your website to appear in the search result pages as a doctor or health practice? If the answer is yes, you need a functional website and a professional and effective website design.
It’s all about the user experience. We know how important the role of patient experience and patient satisfaction is in today’s healthcare marketing.
Patients demand a website design that’s:
- Mobile-friendly
- User-friendly
- Easy to navigate
- Has social media elements
Here are several tips to follow when designing a website for healthcare providers.
1. Offers Accessibility
How do you make your website accessible?
One recommendation is to use health literacy principles, like plain language, in developing content for your blogs. As a result, your content will be readable and understandable to patients who are not health literate.
Here are other ways to make your blogs accessible to those without any medical background or health knowledge:
- Use layman’s terms and define medical terms when used
- Write in an active voice, not passive
- Use short sentences instead of long ones
- Include relevant and up-to-date statistics
- Infographics for users to digest information easier
Here’s a blog on why your website should be accessible for more helpful tips.
2. Represents Your Brand
What kind of image does your medical group want to portray?
If you’re a hormone doctor, you may want to show your authority by discussing signs and symptoms and post lots of informative blogs that would help explain your typical patients’ conditions.
Read this blog and understand how establishing your authority could impact your brand.
Your website design can also make or break patient appointments. For example, a haphazardly done website may make your patients doubt your authority. Will they also receive the same kind of treatment during the consultation?
You may want to opt for a medical website that looks uncluttered, streamlined, clean, and professional to reflect on how you conduct your practice. You can choose a light background with plenty of white spaces. Choose photos that are clear and crisp. Make each page work for whatever purpose you created it for.
3. Is Content-Driven
What kind of content would you like to appear on your home page?
Early on, the information architecture of your website should trickle in an organized fashion. Highlight the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) of your practice on the front page.
Then elaborate on it on the succeeding pages. But don’t overdo the need for button clicking. This can impact loading time and may make your potential patients navigate away.
In developing content, you can also use the strategy described in the Storybrand Program. This will guide you through a seven-step formula on how to create content that supports your marketing campaign.
Creating engaging content goes beyond blogs and vlogs. Please read our blog on Using Digital Marketing to Boost Patient Engagement and learn other strategies to create engaging content. This would include conducting patient satisfaction surveys, asking for their input in advisory councils and safety committees, and getting patient feedback.
4. Has Dynamic Elements
How often did you wish that your primary health care provider’s website could book, change, or cancel appointments? Or, if you work for a concierge doctor, how often do you wish to send reminder emails and text messages or send prescriptions digitally to your patient’s pharmacy?
Today, many websites have patient portals that provide means for patients to view their laboratory results and even communicate with their providers with secure emails.
In the last decade, we’ve seen a rise in the use of smartphones at 81%. In addition, most adults (51%) read about health information online. So, the demand for a dynamic website has increased.
The more functionality the medical website offers, the more value the patients find in it. That’s why websites have played significant roles in marketing and advertising medical practices.
Nowadays, 88% of healthcare appointments are scheduled by phone. Prospective patients who first research online prefer to call the healthcare provider they’ve chosen because their health is personal and private.
People tend to book healthcare appointments for themselves, their children, or other family members and want to speak to a real human being. This means that you should have a clear Call to Action button throughout your entire website where clients can get in touch in just one click.
5. Follows Your State’s Rules
However, knowing these useful tips is not enough. Unlike many other websites, a healthcare provider’s website must adhere to specific rules and professional standards.
For example, in Texas, an administrative code lists the kind of information that doctors are allowed to advertise on their websites.
Providers can advertise:
- The practice’s name
- Where they are located
- Their hours of operation
- Their fees for services and products they provide
- What type of insurance do they accept or payment mode
- The services they offer
- The kind of equipment they use
- The tests they can do for diagnosis
- How many practitioners they have
- How many staff members they have
- The credentials of their providers
- The rates of success and complications as accurately as possible
- How many patients they’ve treated for a given condition
- Which hospitals they are affiliated with
Because the profession is highly regulated, the Medical Practice Act serves as guidance for providers to know what advertisements are prohibited and allowed on their websites.
For more information on advertising restrictions, please visit the Texas Medical Association’s website for your guidance.
With the many nuances attached to building and maintaining a website, many medical practices now opt to hire third-party experts to do this to focus on their medical expertise.
We Can Help with Website Design for Healthcare Providers
What about you? Do you think it’s wise to invest in a professional-looking custom website? Schedule your free review here, and we’ll show you the website design that works for your practice.
