Check your website for these five healthcare website design must-haves for clinical success
If you want to stand out online, you’ll want to look at your website from two perspectives. Is your practice website delighting potential new patients? Does it address your concerns better than a competitor’s website? Does it provide enough trust signals to reassure Google? Or succumb to the pitfalls of poor healthcare website design?
Without becoming a webmaster, here are five must-have websites for your chiropractic practice. Deploy these strategies if you want to maximize growth and attract more potential patients.
#1 must-have: mobile-friendly design
These days, designers are adapting to the idea of mobile-friendly design because more than 60% of website visits are done on mobile devices.
What does mobile design mean? Consider the most important elements:
Responsive Healthcare Website Design. Your website should detect the visitor’s screen size and adapt automatically. Visitors don’t want to scroll left to right on a mobile device.
Fast loading time. How quickly your website loads is a ranking factor with Google. Long load times can negatively affect your visibility in search results.
Simple navigation. User experience is increasingly important ¾ and difficult when working with very few properties. Helping visitors find what they want should be easy and intuitive.
Readable font size. In addition to adjusting to the size of the visitor’s screen, the design should offer text of 12 points or more for easy reading.
Tap Target Spacing. Are clickable words and buttons spaced sufficiently to prevent unintended responses?
A work call button Naturally, as long as your phone number is displayed, clicking on it should initiate a phone call.
Mobile-friendly healthcare website design requires thoughtful discipline, creative design, and light programming for your website to produce an optimal user experience.
Must #2: Demonstrate EAT and YMYL
Formally announced in 2019, Google added two refinements to its search algorithm that directly affect chiropractors.
YMYL, which stands for Your Money or Your Life, refers to websites that provide information that could “potentially affect users’ future happiness, health, or wealth.” These include sites that offer financial advice or health information, like yours. These websites receive additional scrutiny. Google has a 160-page set of written guidelines to help real humans assess the veracity of information using EAT: Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust:
expertise Make sure your website describes your educational achievements and details any special training you’ve received, such as advanced studies or certifications that make you an expert in your field. Don’t forget your annual continuing education. Do you have high levels of success with certain types of cases? Or a special protocol? Provide proof that you are an expert.
authority A related criterion is to present yourself as an informed, reliable and consistent authority. This is where you can include the number of years in practice, the number of adjustments performed, or maybe even how many patients you’ve helped. Credible testimonials and relevant case studies can help make your case. It’s not about bragging, it’s about proving your credentials and being seen as a leader.
trust This is the essential quality that patients, as well as Google’s quality raters, are looking for. Naturally, provide evidence whenever possible for any claim you make. Use trusted outbound links to corroborate the information you provide, such as technique websites, your chiropractic college, or other sites that are well-recognized authorities.
Healthcare Website Design Must-Have #1 3: reviews
This is an obvious must, as reviews are a form of social proof often as trusted as a referral from a friend. Be sure to claim your listing with Yelp and other review sites. The key is to have a steady flow of feedback. Slow and steady wins the race. This means using a systematic approach so you always receive new reviews.
Of course, don’t solicit reviews from non-patients or offer prizes or compensation. And while you may need to teach patients how to leave a review, never provide a computer in your office for that purpose.
Must #4: Local SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a local business is very different than for a national business or a well-known brand.
Get started by claiming your Google Business Profile. This profile can be even more important than having a website. Complete the listing, confirm your practice location, upload your logo, and provide your practice hours, photos, and other details to fully complete your listing.
The other local SEO strategy is to get relevant and high quality links to your website.
Think of each link from a local radiology group, attorney, or allied health care provider as a “vote” that checks your trustworthiness. The goal is to reassure Google that they should be putting their reputation on the line with yours.
Must-have #5: Conversion
If your website is going to be an effective marketing tool for your practice, it’s important that it converts visitors into new patients. Simply checking the “have a website” box isn’t enough. Here are some of the most important elements of high-converting healthcare website designs:
Know your audience. Simply put, your website is not for you. It must create an emotional connection with your conception of an ideal patient. Trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for darkness.
Practice accessibility. Also, consider the large percentage of people with low vision and other disabilities. Incorporate appropriate contrast ratios between text and backgrounds to make your content accessible.
Don’t make me think. Use well-accepted conventions, such as placing your logo in the upper left corner with a link to your home page. Place your contact page in the top right corner. Use contrasting colors for linkable text.
Answer a new patient’s questions. Anticipate what a new patient would want to know. This includes those who have been to chiropractors before. Ask your front desk chiropractic assistant the most common questions new patients ask. Then make sure these questions are answered on your website.
Make it navigable. Make text easy to scan. Large blocks of gray text are an invitation to move on to something more easily accessible. Use short sentences. Be aware of multi-syllable words that can make reading difficult. The general rule of thumb is to target website text written at an eighth-grade reading level. Use short paragraphs, subheadings, quotes, and other techniques to help visitors find what they’re looking for.
Call to action. Make sure there is a suggested action on each page. What do you want the visitor to do next? Learn more about what to expect on your first visit? Schedule an appointment? Subscribe to our newsletter? Do you read patient testimonials? Drive the visitor.
Use photography. One of the most powerful conversion elements is custom photography. Make sure to show “people” over “things”. And avoid the “neutron bomb effect”. Empty reception rooms and empty fitting tables might work for a spread in Architectural Digest, but not on an internship website.
These five essential websites have changed over the years as the Internet has evolved and matured. They are likely to change again in the future. Keeping up with new trends in website design is a full-time job. You require a trusted digital marketing partner who can provide leadership, trusted advice and continuous updates.
BILL ESTEB is the co-founder of the web service Perfect Patients. Since 2006, this team of digital marketing experts (who love chiropractic) has been helping practices around the world get and keep more new patients. More information at PerfectPatients.com.
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