responsive websites for doctors
How responsive websites for doctors are a must-have
You have a website as a doctor and you wonder why it’s not delivering daily new patient leads? One of the things to inspect is its responsiveness. Non-responsive medical websites make you lose patients instead of attracting new leads.
responsive websites for doctors
Why responsive websites for doctors attract more patients
Kris Borgraeve
May 13, 2022
The quick facts & a demo
making your medical website responsive
A disclaimer first: making your medical website responsive is not something you fix by sending an email to the IT people.
Responsive development means that your website shows up in the most optimal way on various screen sizes. We all think of mobiles, but there are many sizes. And then there are tablets, phablets and entire ranges of small and bigger laptops and large desktop screens.
Ideally, every patient who needs your treatment sees your information in the most comfortable way. If not? Well, data shows they might just end up seeing a different specialist. When we look at the latest research, we can safely establish that a non-responsive website makes you lose patients.
The bizarre disconnect between medical and digital
mobile websites for doctors
Let’s face it: mobile websites for doctors are not on the curriculum of any Medical School or part of your fellowship training. The total focus on the complexities of medical content is the cause of a disconnect.
As a doctor, you use and create innovation that involves some of the most advanced precision technology a medical theatre can use. Quite often, the same specialist declares herself ‘non-tech-savvy’ when it comes to making decisions about;
- Reliable, safe and effective medical website development
- Contemporary, user-friendly web design
- Patient searches on Google
- AHPRA-compliant social media strategies
- Using video to convert more patient leads
- LinkedIn GP-referral marketing
In our magazine, we cover those topics across our daily articles and the aspect I wanted to unpack for you today is responsiveness.
"The responsiveness of your medical website is its ability to present the information in different ways depending on the screen size that the patient is using. By offering the best user experience on mobiles, tablets and larger screens, you increase the quality of your first impression and you increase your conversion rate. But there is more!"
Building or ordering a mobile-friendly medical website is not just about offering a nice experience. There is a remarkable financial bottom-line consequence that we will share in a moment.
The dry facts about patients and their smartphones
business growth as a doctor
An important part of your business growth as a doctor in private practice – not surprisingly – happens on mobiles. Wouldn’t you agree that as you look around in the hospital, in your waiting room and in your own environment, people seem to spend quite a lot of time on their smartphones?
"The myth that a specialist in private practice only needs to focus on GP education and networking events to keep their practice running is losing momentum. This is the 2020s and the majority of people spend hours on medical websites before locking in their treatment with a specialist."
Responsiveness is not a boring aspect of your IT management. It’s as important an aspect of your first impression as;
- The ironed shirt you choose to wear during a consultation, instead of a crumpled football t-shirt
- The designer brand pen you keep on your desk to write prescriptions, instead of a chewed off pencil
- The Tasmanian Mahogany desk you keep that silver pen on, instead of a shabby table you picked up from Gumtree
More raw facts and it’s not good news
the doctor’s web design
‘You know, I don’t believe the internet makes any difference to my business’. I have often thought that I was witnessing the very very last instance of that statement and that, in a matter of 1-2 years, I was not going to hear it ever again.
The online space, digital communication and the use of online media are not going anywhere.
Statements about ‘online’ being a thing of young people only are quite amusing because, since the first generation of internet users got online in the mid-1990s, we have a bunch of quite internet-savvy 70+ consumers out there, clicking away on Google Search results, Facetiming their grandchildren en capturing videos for their Instagram profile.
On a more relevant note, talking about the doctor’s web design as a key pillar for their reputation management:
"75% of patients judge a doctor based on their website design. They will either experience trust and rapport and high levels of credibility, or they will go somewhere else. We see it reflected in the conversion increases after we revamp a medical website, time and time again."
If you have been postponing a digital makeover, this is not good news. It means that the longer you keep an online profile that is not up to standard, the more you may be missing out on additional patient leads. Missing out on growth opportunities that give you leverage to form new alliances, get better theatre lists, take on more staff or create your own group brand down the track.
In that regard, this article is good news because now you know what you can do to take your practice to the next level.
Why responsive means more profitable
SEO and responsiveness
Let’s look at the link between responsiveness and SEO, Search Engine Optimisation.
Of course, Google knows how often it gets users coming from a mobile. It won’t come as a surprise that Google wants these smartphone users to have a good experience when they do a Google search from their phone.
What is a good Google experience when it comes to browsing medical content?
- The content is medically relevant and actually covers the topic the consumer/patient was googling for.
- The content is optimised and has a good text-image ratio, loads fast on a healthy website and has relevant incoming and outgoing links.
- The content is visually compelling and has a good structure using headers, titles and paragraphs.
- The content is optimised for mobile and provides a good experience on a phone.
SEO and responsiveness go together. Making good content responsive is essential because Google flags it as mobile-friendly. And because Google – of all people- knows that over 50% of medical googling happens on mobiles, it will rank great mobile-friendly pages even higher than pages that are built only for desktop computers.
When you bring it all together, you can safely assume that the more great content you present on a responsive website, the more you will create Google visibility for your amazing content, attract more patients and convert more leads. Responsive medical websites are one of the pillars to making your private practice more successful and ultimately, more profitable.
Let’s talk about business
business session for doctors
Your patient wants clear information, simplicity, trust and rapport. Google wants responsive web pages with information that gives patients what they want. As a doctor in private practice, you want to be successful and control all aspects of your business growth. That’s where we come in, bringing these worlds together and demonstrating the highest level of attention to detail when we help you manage your online reputation. We offer an obligation-free business session for doctors via Zoom, so book a call today, and let’s talk about your business growth.
- Tags: Web design
