With hundreds of millions of websites on the Internet and more popping up every day, you have to get creative if you want yours to stand above the rest. If you want to advertise your medical practice as effectively as possible, you undoubtedly want a website with a sleek design that brings in new patients. Actually reaching that goal, however, can be pretty difficult if you don’t have the right help. At Crystal Clear Digital Marketing, we’re well-versed in everything it takes to draw your readers in and turn them into patients. Here are a few key things to keep in mind when it comes to medical website design that really stands out.
Medical Website Design That Works on All Platforms
Did you know that your website’s mobile responsiveness determines how well it will rank in Google search results? It only took a few years for smartphones and tablets to take over; almost everyone has one or the other with them at some point during the day. This means that a big percentage of your website visitors will be using mobile devices. If your medical website design isn’t mobile-friendly, these visitors won’t be staying for long.
You’ve likely noticed that the mobile versions of websites are set up differently than their desktop counterparts. A website that reads the same way on a mobile device as it would on a computer will quickly lead to quite a few navigation difficulties.
Thankfully, it’s easy to make sure your website works seamlessly across all platforms with the right tools. Our professional team knows exactly how to use those tools to create a website that’s both beautiful and functional no matter how you’re viewing it.
Medical Website Design That Works for Every User
While medical website design falls into a category of its own and comes with a unique set of challenges, it shares a common goal with other websites: it needs to make sense to the reader. This can be achieved in many different ways, from keeping the design sophisticated and simple to keeping the message of your practice clear from the first click a visitor makes. In general, the essentials of seamless web design can be broken down into a few different parts:
• Simple and minimalistic design. You don’t want any of your pages to look cluttered. This is one of the easiest ways to convolute your message and confuse your readers. Instead, opt for a visually pleasing design that draws the user in.
• Responsive design. Essentially, a flexible website that literally responds to the actions a user performs will keep the most visitors for longer periods of time. It should easily adjust to different browsers and platforms, changes in screen size, and requests to visit different pages via functioning links.
• A website that works. This is one of the most important factors to keep in mind when it comes to effective medical website design. Above all else, you want a website that works. This means things like no broken links, a clear and direct menu, an easily navigable site, and pages that load quickly, to name just a few.
• Seamless form and function. It’s entirely possible to make sure your site can load pages quickly regardless of Internet speeds or volume of visitors.
• Testing, testing. The most surefire way to make sure your website works flawlessly is to test it for yourself. Taking some time away from the design process itself and looking at it from the user’s point of view is vital to finding out what areas might need more attention.
Grab Their Attention with the Right Words
We know that even though an aesthetically pleasing website is a big part of effective medical website design, it’s still only one piece of the puzzle. Just as important as the website itself is the content that goes on it. With engaging content on every page of your website, you can be sure you’re doing the most to turn your visitors into loyal patients.
What do we mean by engaging content? Essentially, engaging content is anything that grabs your readers’ attention from the very first word they read by having any—and ideally all—of the following traits:
• Is written in an entertaining and readable style
• Gets the point across clearly and concisely
• Resonates with potential patients and their needs
• Reflects your values as a medical practice
• Is completely unique; no content is replicated
That last point is especially important. For quality’s sake, we already know it’s better to write your own content than to copy and paste it from another source. On a deeper level, however, keeping your web content unique comes with the added benefit of telling Google that your website is worth the visit in the first place.
Additionally, your content should speak to patients on a personal level. Potential patients want to know that their concerns are being heard and their questions will be answered. This is most easily accomplished by writing content that relates to readers and what they may be going through. In short, you should always write for your audience. When you can communicate that you understand their needs, they’re much more likely to choose you as their provider.
Don’t Forget About SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is what drives new visitors to your website. When it comes to getting your site to the top of Google rankings, custom content and SEO will always go hand-in-hand. While SEO may not be the first thing that pops into someone’s head when they think of effective medical website design, it’s what helps you make sure your website gets seen in the first place.
Here are some things that every web page should have to rank as high as possible in search engines:
• Keywords. Part of helping a website rise to the top of the search engine ranks involves including the right keywords in the right numbers. When you work with our SEO team, you’ll get to see firsthand what types of services your potential patients are searching for. This makes it much easier to promote the services you offer in your area, making your website far more visible in both the short and long-term.
• Images and videos. Did you know that Google even looks for keywords within the images and videos included on a page? As you learn about SEO, you’ll hear the term “alt tag” more and more. Alt tags tell browsers what an image is supposed to display if it can’t be properly loaded for any reason. More importantly, including the keyword into images boosts your web page’s ranking in Google image search results. While images and videos come with many other benefits, this is enough reason alone to add at least one image to every page on your site.
• An appropriate word count. Even something as simple as word count has an impact on search engine results. While you want your content to be impactful and engaging, you also want to make sure there’s enough of it. Writing all that content on your own can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone. Our experienced team is ready to help.
Keeping an active blog is another great way to boost your website’s search results. In addition to unique content, search engines like Google also look for fresh content that is regularly updated and added. Once you’ve published a page on your site, you probably won’t be spending any time editing or adding new content to it. To keep a website relevant despite this, we’ve found that the best way is to set up and maintain consistent blog posts.
Blogs not only make your site more visible on Google, but they also help you highlight services that might need more attention. Blog posts can focus on anything from a new product you want to promote to a lesser known treatment you offer.
An active blog tells search engines that your website is well-maintained and can help users with the most relevant information. This help your website as a whole perform better in online searches, making blog posts an important part of SEO.
If that seems like a lot of unnecessary work, don’t worry; we’ve got it covered. At Crystal Clear Digital Marketing, we spend every day helping doctors and medical practices make their websites truly stand out with medical website design that works. Call us today to get professional, hands-on help with your digital marketing needs.
