Follow These Tips to Keep Your Website Patient-Centered
Designing a website in general can be a daunting task, and when it comes to designing one for your medical practice, you need to make sure you include a few key elements that ensure its patient-centered functionality. Patients have vast options when choosing a doctor, and if your website fails to meet their criteria, they may pass you up for another practice. Today’s online users want convenience, especially when navigating medical websites, as well as a sense of trust in your practice.
To help you run a website that works to attract new patients instead of pushing them away, we listed out a few of those key elements you may just be missing. A patient-centered medical website should be:
Accessible at All Times
Your website should have a phone number, and if applicable, an email displayed distinctly on every page so that patients don’t have to waste time searching for contact information. It could be as simple as including it in the header with highly visible text. You may even consider including a live chat feature on your website, as long as you have someone to continually operate the chat during business hours. Making you staff available to patient requests is just as important as having the communication methods in the first place. Remember to always follow up with any phone calls or emails received after hours as ignoring any outreach can cause poor patient relationships.
Another aspect of your patient-centered website that falls into accessibility is the ease in navigation throughout each page. Be sure to arrange information in a patient-first manner, with content important to them in the forefront. Focus on their needs or common search goals rather than self-promotion of your practice. You may even want to include a calendar right on the homepage or contact page that allows patients to book an appointment without having to call.
Fast and Mobile Friendly
People often make their doctors’ appointments on-the-go, whether in between lunchbreaks or taking the kids to soccer practice. That means speed and mobile-friendly sites are a must. Your web pages should load instantly (on desktop and mobile!), as even a few seconds too long will deter them from your site. You don’t want to lose out to the competition because of slow speeds.
This on-the-go lifestyle also means your medical practice’s website will often be viewed on mobile devices. Make sure the site is formatted correctly and is still easy to navigate on a smartphone.
Bonus Tip: Make sure your local SEO information is updated, including your practice name, phone number, address, and hours of operation. This helps improve your ranking for local searches and allows those on mobile devices contact you with one simple click.
Emotionally Sensitive
When potential patients are browsing your website, they aren’t looking for a Wikipedia page on medical conditions or clinical achievements, but instead want answers to their questions and hope in finding a solution. As we mentioned earlier, it is essential that you build trust with your patients as a doctor’s visit can be a vulnerable situation for many. Incorporate supportive and compassionate wording into your copy and avoid any forceful medical jargon or acronyms they won’t understand.
Keep your copy positive and avoid overcomplicating it. List your services clearly and create calls to action that influence potential patients to reach out for an appointment.
Is your website in need of an update that allows for a more patient-centered flow? Contact the Dermatology Marketing Agency, a full service digital marketing agency, that specializes in web design to help bring your practice to the forefront of the competition.
