5 Reasons Your Medical Practice Website Needs an Update

The website for your medical practice hasn’t been updated in how long? Few medical professionals have a sufficient amount of time to devote to advertising. However, your medical practice website is the cornerstone of your marketing strategy. Because of this, we must pay close attention to it. Take a look at these 5 reasons that it may be time to refresh your medical practice’s online presence.

1. It’s been two years since you updated your practice website

Website redesigns every few years are considered standard best practices. Redesigning a website can be costly, and most companies would rather avoid the hassle. They either don’t care enough to get their act together or don’t have the time to coordinate with internal stakeholders on topics like design and copy.

As doctors are busier than most other executives, medical practices tend to go even behind schedule.

The time to act is now.
Your site’s problems will increase in severity as time goes on.
Used and out-of-date add-ons.
Inadequately maintained site technology could be affecting the user experience of your website.
Unfortunately, design trends have moved on and your website will now appear dated.

2. You need to work on your online reputation because it doesn’t do justice to your standing as a medical professional

This is crucial in every way. The internet has become the new “storefront” for your business. Patients who have come upon your site or who have been referred to you by other doctors are checking it out to learn more about you and your services.

Your site’s layout, user-friendliness, and content all speak volumes about your level of expertise, compassion, and experience with patients. I can’t tell you how often medical professional websites I visit fail to accomplish this.

There’s a problem if you’re not proud to show off your website to coworkers because that means it’s not doing its job.

3. How you train the mobile version of the website doesn’t work

Unless you’ve recently updated your site, it probably won’t render properly on a mobile device. The vast majority of site visits nowadays come via mobile devices, making this a crucial consideration for most practices. Even still, a surprising number of websites still ignore mobile users in favor of those on desktop computers. This could potentially lead to a subpar experience for mobile users accessing your site.

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, users may encounter problems like these:

Contents of the navigation menu that are not currently visible.
Buttons are too small for human fingertips.
Impossible to read text.
The inability to submit a form successfully.

These problems not only reflect adversely on your reputation but also make it harder for prospective patients to achieve their goals. And usually, this means looking up your clinic’s information and making an appointment.

But it affects more than simply the future patient’s comfort level. Sites that don’t work well on mobile devices will be penalized in search results, as Google has started highlighting such problems. Since the vast majority of website traffic is now generated by mobile devices, Google has made optimizing for mobile a top priority for all websites. Visit your site from a mobile device and imagine being a potential patient to see if it works well for them. The difficulties are usually obvious right away. Additionally, you may check if your site is mobile-friendly by using Google’s own Mobile-Friendly Test tool. This free app inspects the mobile site for serious UX issues.

medical practice website is slow on mobile

4. The speed of your medical practice website is slow

A slow-loading website can be as frustrating for users on mobile devices as it is for them on desktop computers. If your website takes too long to load, potential patients will go elsewhere.

Google found that if a page takes longer than three seconds to load, 53% of visitors will abandon it. If your website loads too slowly, you will see a drop in crucial performance metrics.

Visitors spend less time on the website.
Reduced number of form submissions.
Telephoning has decreased.

When we improve the site’s speed, we usually observe a corresponding rise in phone calls and completed forms.

Search engine optimization and Google ad campaigns rely heavily on a fast page load time, which also has an effect on the user experience for patients. Google is “grading” the landing pages where your advertising sends potential patients when they click on them. As a result, page performance can have a significant monetary impact on your practice because slower websites translate to a greater cost-per-click.

In most cases, a boost in page performance can be achieved in addition to making your site mobile-friendly. But Google’s Page Speed Insights tool can help you determine how quickly your site currently loads.

5. The services you offer are not fully covered by the information on your medical practice website

Your site’s content is where people learn. One of the biggest mistakes I see clinics make is failing to adequately convey the full scope of ailments they treat and the services they provide.

Patients are likely to actively seek out such details. If they don’t find information on their illness or the treatments they’re interested in, though, they may reject the possibility that they have it all together. Don’t take chances; instead, create separate documents for each of the ailments and therapies that are most important to you.

Do not procrastinate revamping your clinic’s online presence

Considerable emphasis should be placed on your website as the central hub of your advertising efforts. Because of this, you can’t afford to make any mistakes. Don’t wait if you think your site has any of the problems mentioned above. The time spent on website design may seem like a waste, but consider the alternative: the loss of customers or credibility.

Contact us today for a free consultation if you want to learn more about how to modernize your medical practice in line with industry standards and win over more patients.