A website is the visual representation of your practice, and it’s one of the first things a potential patient will view. It is important that your medical practice’s site clearly depicts your brand and what sets you apart from competing practices. Making sure your website provides good user experience puts you one step closer to securing more business. Here are 5 ways to improve your medical practice’s website:
1. Make your Practice Seem More Approachable
Real photos of your practice are always more effective than stock photography. Any way that you can display your practice is an opportunity to invite patients in before they take the plunge into choosing their doctor. This can include incorporating bios of the doctors and staff, as well as video tours of the facility and/or staff.
Blogging is also an effective way to personalize your practice and educate current and future patients. Demonstrate that your practice has knowledgeable medical experts who have something to say, and content that others will want to read.
2. Optimize your Web Content
Web copy is constantly skimmed and scanned, and usually never read in full. With the average person having a shorter attention span than a goldfish, being unable to capture a user’s attention within those first 8 seconds will likely cause you to lose that person forever.
Websites that are extremely word-heavy are not engaging or visually stimulating. To optimize your website content, start by using smarter headlines that include important keywords and summarize your website’s key points. By optimizing your headlines you will also be on the start to improving your site’s SEO rankings and help to drive more relevant organic traffic to the practice’s page.
3. Create Clear Calls to Action
Whether the goal of your website is to have users schedule a free demo, have potential patients contact you or subscribe to your newsletter, you’ll need to define that goal with clear calls to action included in your medical website design. Always tell your user what you want him or her to do, do not assume they can read your mind.
Take a close look at your website and identify what areas could benefit from a call to action. Once you have determined which calls to action you would like to highlight, show them where and how they can do it. What is the point of telling someone to contact you if you don’t provide a phone number or email address?
4. Include Client Testimonials
Establishing proof that your practice is creating positive patient experiences is essential for establishing a credible brand. When looking to book a trip, reviews and testimonials are one of the first things we look at. Real quotes from current and past patients explaining their experience at your practice will help encourage others to visit and learn more about what you have to offer.
5. Make your Site Mobile-Friendly
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Searches made from a mobile device are on the rise, and mobile digital media time in the US is now significantly higher at 51% compared to desktop (42%). Deciding whether to create a mobile site or to use a responsive design depends on what makes the most sense to your medical practice’s website. Not offering a mobile friendly site is not a reasonable option in this day and age, and is a clear sign that you are not putting the user experience of the patient first.
