Web presence

Websites are a powerful tool and serve as a crucial resource for patients seeking initial information before seeing a doctor in person. A comprehensive, easy-to-navigate website can inform and guide prospective patients about the treatments you offer.

User experience (UX)

The most important question you should continually ask when creating a website is how the intended user – a prospective patient – will consume the information. The user experience, or UX, of a website encompasses all aspects of a user’s interaction from first visit to completing the action they intended, such as scheduling a visit. The overall UX should be intuitive, functional, and positive for the user.

Some main components of website UX include:

Usability

How easy is it for your users to find what they need and complete the task they came there for? Ensure that information like your practice location, phone number, and web forms to schedule appointments are prominent on the page and simple to find.

Functionality

How well does your website perform its intended tasks? Does your appointment scheduler work as planned? Is your phone number linked correctly for users to click to call?

Navigation

How easy is it to move around your website to find the information the user needs? Make sure your pages are easy to locate in the drop-down menu across both desktop and mobile devices, and prioritize featured pages that patients access the most.

Engagement

How well does your website capture and hold the user’s attention? Utilizing color palettes that are visually appealing, avoiding too many moving components, and having an easy-to-navigate website will increase engagement.

Accessibility

Is your website usable for people with disabilities, such as visual impairments? Make sure fonts are large enough to view on both desktop and mobile devices.

Content

The content on your website refers to all text, images, videos, and any other media that make up the information you want to showcase to a user. Your website is typically the first place a prospective patient will visit before contacting your office – what questions can you answer for them and what do you want them to know before reaching out? Start by putting yourself in the shoes of a patient. This mindset will help you create content that resonates with their needs and concerns:

What are things you would like to know about a new doctor or practice prior to visiting?
What questions do you typically receive at the front desk that you can include on your website?
How can you make this information visually appealing to a user?
What action do you want them to take?

Copy on the website should be concise and easy to follow. It should emphasize important details in a way that is easy to understand, giving the users the information they need to make decisions or guide them to take next steps.
Imagery on your website is a crucial element to enhance your website’s appearance and convey information for prospective patients. This can include your practice logo, pictures of your staff, and any graphs or illustrations to bring your content to life.
“Feature pages” on your website are dedicated pages that highlight specific information that is important for the user. Try to pack in all the information you want to provide a potential patient, and break that information into different feature pages to make it easier to consume. For instance, having a dedicated staff page will help users get to know who they can expect to see when they walk into your office. Separating this from a page dedicated to treatment options will help different users find the specific information they are looking for and make your website easier to navigate.

Pro tip

Including feature pages like an FAQ and location information of your practice may improve your SEO ranking and allow users to find you more easily – which is addressed in the next section.

Navigation refers to how users find their way to the various pages and information on your website. The navigation bar should include all of your feature pages with short, easy-to-read titles that indicate what content is included on that page. The navigation bar should be easily found at the top of your page and function on both desktop and mobile devices.
Links can help you consolidate the information on each feature page and allow users to jump from one page to the next. If a specific topic can be expanded, you can include a link to that feature page so the user can navigate the website more easily and engage with additional content as needed. For example, if you are on the dedicated page talking about weight loss and mention endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) as a treatment option, you can link ESG to the “treatment options” page and dive deeper into the subject. This can help keep your website concise, while also making it easily navigable for the user. Links can also be utilized to drive additional resources outside of your practice website or to individual documents to download, like a patient questionnaire.
Calls to action, or CTAs, are the next step you want a prospective patient to take after they are well informed. Your CTAs may include prompts such as scheduling a consultation, downloading a form, or signing up for email updates. CTAs should be visible in the form of a button or link of a different color to differentiate from the page content and often appear multiple times throughout the website.

Execution

Creation

There are plenty of free resources, including templates and tools, that can assist you in creating a strong and effective website. Check out the following resources to get you started:

Web hosting

After you have designed your website, you will need to make it accessible to the public by hosting it online. This involves selecting a web hosting provider, registering a domain name (the URL), and uploading the files you created to the platform. An alternative route is selecting from a provider that offers both web hosting services as well as website design templates and tools for ease of process. Analytics are often included to help guide you in optimizing your website based on user engagement.