10 Healthcare Website Design Tips that Deliver Patients

By Stewart Gandolf, Chief Executive Officer

Doctor sitting at a low wooden table with laptop open to a webpage Today, most patients in need of a healthcare provider will begin their search online. Even if your organization is primarily physician referred, people are searching for your website before following through with an appointment. A poor web presence could be a deal breaker. Recently, we’ve written a lot about what kind of websites deliver patients. That’s why we’re breaking down our top 10 healthcare website design tips.

#1. HIPAA Compliance in Healthcare Website Design

First and foremost, your website must be HIPPA compliant. Before you can focus on which healthcare website design elements get patients through your doors, you have to ensure the safety of all patients, new and existing. Make sure your web designer specializes in healthcare in order to ensure HIPAA compliant form fills and more, and learn more in the link below.

Full article: Is Your Medical Website HIPAA Compliant?

#2. Choosing the Right Photos and Imagery

There’s an art to choosing the right photos and images for various sections and pages of your healthcare website. At Healthcare Success, we employ both web designers and art directors to select and fine-tune imagery patients can identify with. Often, an onsite photoshoot at the client’s office is required in order to make the most impact. Read the full article below to learn about the top problems we see on healthcare websites (as well as how to correct them).

Full article: 6 Glaring Photography Mistakes We See on Hospital and Practice Websites

#3. Looks Aren’t Everything

Your website might look exactly as you’d hoped—but that doesn’t mean it’s ready to go live. Too often, a good-looking website is missing some of the key marketing aspects that convince patients to call your office. Read more about why the best-looking healthcare web designs can still fail in the blog below.

Full article: Why the Best-Looking Medical Website Designs Still Fail

#4. What REALLY Makes Your Website Marketing Friendly

Need to know which elements do help a website convert patients? As mentioned above, a website is about more than design. In the next blog, we go over 8 of the key elements (though there are many more) that help prospective patients to find your website, see your services, call your team, and schedule an appointment.

Full article: What Makes for a Marketing-Based Website?

#5. One Design Trick that Really Works

Here it is: in this blog, we give away one of our biggest design secrets. In 2018, most of your prospective patients are searching for healthcare options on their smartphones. With the rise of mobile devices, web design has changed to adapt to the way people use their phones. And the “long-scroll” secret is one of the best adaptations we’ve seen. Get the scoop in the blog below.

Full article: The Long-Scroll Secret for Website Design

#6. Your Copywriting Can Cost You Patients (and More)

Healthcare website design is about a lot more than imagery. An eye-catching headline can keep a prospective patient on your website for longer. But a headline that falls flat can cost you patients. Even worse, poor copywriting choices or misleading copy could get you into some legal trouble, which you want to avoid at all costs.

Full article: Don’t Let Your Copywriting Cost You

#7. Include Doctor Reviews

Patients can leave doctor reviews on multiple off-site locations. You have little or no control over the types of reviews displayed on these sites, but you can have a system for leaving qualified reviews on your own website. Automated systems are available (through agencies like Healthcare Success) to manage your online reviews without much extra effort for your staff. See why doctor reviews are so important to your practice or hospital website in the guide below.

Full article: 5 Ways Online Doctor Reviews Can Help Your Practice

#8. Keep On-Page SEO in Mind

A good website design incorporates elements that help your healthcare website rank higher in the search engines. This is called search engine optimization, or SEO, and there’s an art and science to it that requires a lot more effort than you may realize. It’s about more than using the right keywords—get all the info in the link below.

Full article: SEO Tips For Organizations That Want to Get Bigger and Better

#9. Keep Your Website Patient-Centric

When it comes to your healthcare website design, patient behavior and expectations should always come first. Sometimes, doctors write or design websites with their own preferences in mind. But always remember: you are not the patient. We compiled some best practices to design your website for your patients in a recent blog.

Full article: 10 Best Practices to Create a Patient-Centric Website

#10. Don’t Skip the “Small” Stuff

Finally, the details matter when it comes to delivering patients from your healthcare website design. Don’t skip the “small” stuff. Something as seemingly small as a phone number on a single page, a missing form, or a misworded page can send patients to your competitors. If any of these things are missing from your website, it’s time to reevaluate your design.

Full article: 6 Little Things Missing from Your Healthcare Website (That Make a Huge Difference)

For more information or to schedule a free consultation about your digital marketing, contact a digital strategist Healthcare Success by calling 800-656-0907.