If you are a doctor, dentist, or other healthcare professional, you have probably encountered patients who have visited your website before coming to you for a consultation.
The numbers speak for themselves…87% of American adults use the Internet and about 72% have searched the Internet for health-related information.
Your healthcare website is your most important property, to be leveraged effectively and efficiently. Your website will determine whether your potential patients become actual conversions (actual patients) and whether they recommend you to their friends and family. There are certain distinct trends to keep in mind when designing healthcare websites. Here are some of them…
- Engage potential patients with a flat, simple design: Complex designs, busy graphics, and distracting animations interfere with the usability of your website and do not translate well into smaller mobile screens. In the medical field, cool colors promote feelings of calmness and peace, as opposed to bright reds and yellows that communicate urgency, even panic. You can also use large photos as background images and optimize white space, wherever possible.
- Let your website tell people about your practice and what it has to offer: Use blogging to include narrative-based content on your website. Storytelling is what you should aim to do with your website by choosing images that communicate hope for an active, healthy lifestyle. Almost 25% of patients look up doctor reviews to hear other patients’ opinions when seeking a new healthcare provider. Post testimonials by staff, patients and their families on your website to continue your storytelling.
- Ensure that your website is responsive on all devices: Patient and potential patients are increasingly using their smartphones and tablets more than their laptops or desktops to look up information on the web. About 62% of smartphone owners have looked up health information in the past year. It is important that your website be formatted in a way that can be easily interpreted at any screen size. You can incorporate single-page scrolling to make it more convenient for patients to navigate the website on their mobile phones.
- Design your website to be interactive: When potential and current patients encounter a modern, updated website for information, they have more confidence in you than they would otherwise. This ensures that they engage more with your website with frequent and longer visits. You can ensure that they can find all the information they need regarding a particular doctor or a particular condition, so that they do not leave your website to search elsewhere. Your goal should be to create a website that is a destination for information that your patients can successfully navigate with ease and then share with their friends and family.
- Let your website make your practice more efficient: You can provide patients and potential patients with secure, online health history and registration forms. You can also provide them with a way to communicate with your office staff online, saving everyone time. You can even let patients request an appointment online. Patients can also fill out the pre-appointment forms online so that this information can be entered into the office computer before the actual appointment. All of this ensures that patients are not waiting in your office while your staff is on the phone or new patients are on waiting for an appointment with the doctor.
- Ensure that your website posts videos to tell a story: Today, videos tell a compelling story. You should ensure that your website features at least a few high-quality videos that talk about the main procedures that your practice provides. You can also feature videos that introduces the doctor in your practice. This will ensure that your patients are well-informed and reassured even before they schedule an appointment with your practice.
- Link your website to your social media pages: Social media is something that every professional should leverage, including healthcare providers. Ensure that your website links to your social media pages and that these pages feature social media posts that are interesting and informative for potential patients. Try to impart as much information as possible using social media and you will notice that patients remain on your website page longer than usual.
- Ensure that your website is top of the page in Google rank: Make sure that you use the right keywords when designing and writing your website. Utilizing SEO techniques to maximize your rank is also important and a reputable marketing firm is able to keep up with the latest change in the Google algorithm. This will ensure that your website features top of the page during Google ranking. It will also help distinguish your website from other healthcare providers who could be your competitors.
So, these are some of the top trends when designing a website for doctors, dentists, veterinarians, and chiropractors…It is easy to delay updating your website but the large majority of patients expect that your website reflects upon the other areas of the service you provide. I hope this helps get you started.
For more information on how you can design an interactive, efficient and responsive website for your healthcare practice, contact Kristine Grace DDS, MS, MBA at kristineg@intellahealth.net.
by Kristine Grace, Nov-23-2016