In today’s high-speed, tech-driven world, your website is a window into your business – it’s often the first interaction a visitor will have with your brand, and provides an insight into your company and what you do. Of course, bricks and mortar places still exist, but we often make our decision to visit a specific one prior to going.
Think about how you want a customer to feel when they walk into your business – that’s exactly what you need to convey through your website. You need to create the right setting for both potential and actual customers.
The Internet is now a vital tool for health care organizations. Along with the important role it plays in connecting providers and patients through electronic information systems, it is also an important marketing tool to help you grow your business and achieve competitive advantage.
[related_content]
The design components of a website, and in particular medical website design, are powerful components that immediately give visitors an impression of your business. That first impression usually happens before a single word is read. Furthermore, visitors are unlikely to read the content on your website if they have a poor first impression.
Medical web design must be viewed as the primary brand touch-point for customers and critical to brand identity, with its impact affecting other important areas of your business such as conversion rates and SEO.
In simple terms, conversion rates signify business – the ability to turn a potential customer into a paying customer. How can you achieve better conversion rates? Here are a few important points to pay attention to.
- Make sure your website is easy for customers to navigate and use. A good medical web design structure needs to be intuitive and help your visitors easily find what they are looking for.
- Word choice and content should be informative and resonate with users. Healthcare organizations are in a unique position to help educate consumers and patients and to better understand their options.
- Colors and visual aspects (such as images, buttons, white spaces) all affect how a customer feels when they interact with your site and ultimately their decision to trust and further engage with your business.
- Conversion-centric design features, such as strategic placement of content above the fold and pages that load fast have a direct influence on conversions.
Another key element to consider in medical website design is Search Engine Optimization, a process that has greatly evolved in recent years. The ability of your website to display prominently on the results page when users search via Google is determined by Google’s algorithm. Nowadays, a comprehensive, long-term strategy is required to rank well and ensure you develop a strong, online presence.
Other important aspects to consider when designing your website include:
- HIPAA compliance – Medical Web Experts has Certified HIPAA Professionals (CHPs) on staff and works with third-party companies to guarantee compliance. Our hosting software is HIPAA compliant plus we can provide a HIPAA compliant email system that meets the requirements for Email Archiving and Security.
- SSL certificates are also required to comply with HIPAA and to enable a secure online environment. Medical Web Experts offers SSL certificates to encrypt and secure sensitive information.
- Our Bridge Patient Portal connects providers and patients and is completely customizable depending on your business’ requirements. A portal enhances communication and relationships with your patients, providing easy access to information such as billing, appointment requests, health history and refill requests.
- If you want the ability to change content and pictures on your website, you need a Content Management System – this process can be resource laden and requires a certain amount of internet-savvy – Medical Web Experts can help guide you through this process.
- HTML is basically the language that websites are written in – HTML5 is the latest version that helps organize content in new and meaningful ways and helps strengthen SEO efforts through stronger links to information contained in your site. We utilize this technology to ensure your site gets indexed properly and increases its discoverability.
The possibilities for website design for doctors are endless and the role it plays in how your brand is perceived cannot be underestimated. It’s important to choose a team who understands this and who can help you yield maximum effectiveness to reach and appeal to patients and customers.
To see how the team at Medical Web Experts can help, click here.
