It’s almost impossible to do anything these days without a website. No matter what business you are in a website is how people can get information about you quickly and easily. It also helps them find you. People don’t look at the phone book anymore, they search on the internet. Whether you have a small medical practice or an independent health specialist office you want to have a proper website or update one that you built a long time ago. Your website is the face of your business so you want it to look beautiful, be easy to use, and easy to find. It not only helps your current patients but it also attracts new patients. Proper web development is key to your business. There are multiple items you need to check off in order to ensure you are building a website you and your patients will love. Determine your domain name If you are brand new to the game, this is very important as your domain name should obviously reflect your company name but it should also be simple for people to remember. Be prepared to end up with one of your backups because many domain names are taken. GoDaddy and Network Solutions are a couple of companies that you can check your domain name with to see if it is taken. Generally, something with your name in it or if your practice name is unique it could be easier. You should use a .com domain because it is the strongest. When people search .com is given priority so you want to ensure you have your main website as a .com. Website Hosting You need a company that can host your website. This means a reliable service company. There are many server companies out there. You can host with the company you choose to host your domain name with or a different one. One thing to keep in mind is that you want your website to work fast so make sure you have the right specs to ensure the load time is less than a couple seconds. Website Design There are a lot of options when it comes to website design. It can be overwhelming. The UI and UX of your website can easily be a mess but it doesn’t have to be. There are many basic items that you have to have and there are unique things that will differentiate you. Overall, a fantastic user experience will win people over. The cost of design varies drastically depending on how many pages and functions you want. If you want to save some money, you can use a medical practice website template. Many companies like Template Monster or the Envato Market have tons of templates with categories. You can find the doctor/medical category to see ready to go designs. There’s not much customization you can do to it but building the website using a template makes development a lot easier which in turn makes the cost lower. There is also the custom route which is more expensive. Everything about your website is custom and can be whatever you want it to be. Colors and layout can be completely customized to work with the types of patients you see and the type of business you do. Content This is very important as you want to provide enough information to your patients or potential patients but not too much because it can overwhelm them. Content isn’t just important for providing information, it’s also a huge factor when it comes to ranking well on search engines like Google. Make sure you talk about yourself and why you started the practice. Give them a little insight into who you are and any achievements you have. Talk about the various services you offer and some basic details that elicit interest. Blogs are also important as it provides constant update to your website every time you post a blog. This means higher search rankings. If you have the time and want more people to find you, this is a very good idea. Marketing Many medical practice websites are not utilized correctly and not marketed well or at all. Part of marketing is ensuring that your website is responsive so that anyone can use your website on any device and have the same easy user experience. Besides just devices, it should also be viewable on any browser such as chrome, firefox, safari, etc. Update your website at least once a month. Change a picture and update some content to ensure you stay on top of your medical or health competitors. It’s amazing how some little design and content updates can affect how people find you. Other items your medical practice website should have: New patient forms – You can have a simple link to a pdf or digital forms to be sent wherever you choose. Appointments – Have a digital calendar set up so that patients can go online and see available times and book it. Even if someone calls in, you can see what times have been booked and which are still open as well. Patient check-in – You can easily provide an option online for them to check in to their appointment. Services – List all the services you offer with some details of each Basic Q&A – You can easily have a section that has answers to common health problems. Any information you have, it should be on there. Contact information – This is pretty basic but you should always have a way for people to get in touch with you through phone, email, or a digital form. Of course, your address is important as well. Staff – People want to know you and who you work with. Provide some friendly faces to help patients get acquainted with you and your team ahead of time. Social media links – It’s good to have at least some social media presence, especially now. Create a couple of accounts and have buttons on the website for people to access easily. You don’t have to post all the time but it is another way for potential patients to find you. It’s also great, free marketing. Amazon Comprehend Medical If you haven’t heard of this, you’re missing out. Integrating this tech into your medical practice website is very important and makes things more convenient for you and your patients. This allows you to gather patients with medical information from various different sources quickly and easily. You would be able to learn about their medical records, and medicine they are taking, what conditions they have, and any other notes their doctors have written about them. This technology is amazing and is something that can help you provide your patients with better care. This can also be used with other features you would like to build for your business. Patients don’t have to fill out any lengthy forms about their medical history anymore. It can all be gathered using natural language processing and machine learning. If you are interested in adding this, definitely talk to your website development company about it. If you don’t have one you can contact SDI. Updating your website If you already have a website you probably have the information you want already. However, at a certain point, it’s time to update the website. As time goes on it gets slower, and is more prone to outside attacks, and more. You want to think about freshening up the design, updates images and content, and adding new technology or features into it. There are a lot of reasons it may be time to update the site. Don’t wait because your website will only get older and less stable. If you want to learn more, you can talk with the industry experts at SDI. You can call us at 408.621.8481 or email at team@sdi.la to discuss your medical practice website needs and she will help you determine the best course of action that suits you and your medical business best.