The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 hit the healthcare industry badly. It affected the front-liners responding to the call of duty to the point of burnout. It also affected healthcare professionals and wellness centers who had to close their offices for safety reasons. It drove rapid and unexpected changes in the healthcare industry.
Consumers, patients, or clients become more reliant on information to keep up. Personalized services, access to telemedicine, and online health tools became more important to these types of consumers.
Today, it is important that healthcare organizations and businesses have an online presence. A website creates brand awareness, brings your business into the spotlight, or reduces foot traffic congestion.
Yet, there are still businesses like doctors, dentists, veterinarians, pharmacies, medical laboratories, etc. that don’t have a website because they still doubt their potential. Healthcare businesses are missing out on opportunities to take their business to great heights.
Did you know that 83% of patients check the hospital website before scheduling an appointment? In this age and time, when Google is not just a noun but also a verb, it pays to have a website.
What are the Benefits of Having a Website?
There is no doubt that a website is one of the most powerful tools to promote your healthcare business. You can drive most sales if you opted for a customized healthcare web design. Not only a customized website helps you target your customers, but it will also help your business stand out.
24/7 Online Presence
A health professional should be like an entrepreneur. Having a website is like opening your business’ front door. You may have a physical office building but a web page serves as your virtual office space.
With a website, patients can find you irrespective of business hours. They can get information about your healthcare services whenever they want. Your website serves in rendering quality help to patients and acquiring new ones. It also provides convenience by gaining information in the comfort of their homes.
Builds Credibility
Healthcare consumers expect reputable hospitals and other facilities to have an effective online presence. They always seek answers to their health-related questions. Having a website with this valuable information may highlight your services to your potential patients or clients. This will then build your credibility and capture more views, web visitors, and clients.
Another issue about having a website is the domain name. Although anyone could set up a website for free, the domain name will be like yourname.website.com. Not only it is long, but it also gives an impression that you have not invested enough in your brand.
If you want your website to be more professional, invest in a domain name like yourname.com. (or .net, .org, .co, etc.). Paying for a domain name lasts for a year or even more. Make sure you pay the dues so others may not get it once it becomes available in the domain name market.
Since your name becomes the domain name of your website, it becomes the brand. It now gives you and your profession (or business) a face. This is something that will differentiate you from others.
You may think that social media can do the trick. Here’s the thing: you don’t own the domain name of the social media. So if you have a Facebook page, for example, any content that you put on your page is stored on Facebook’s servers and you do not have control over their servers. What if Facebook no longer exists? Where will your content be?
Extends Your Reach
Your healthcare website has the ability to reach out globally. Potential customers, patients, or clients sitting from anywhere in the world can access your healthcare webpage any time of the day. This provides global exposure that paves the way for expansion.
Also, your website can act as a marketing tool. Most people tend to remember the brand or the person’s name so there is a tendency to Google it. How could a potential patient find you if you don’t have a website?
And speaking of marketing tools, you may also promote your book, or announce an event. With different e-commerce features, having these can go into your website. Or you could link them back to another website like Amazon if you don’t know how to set up a web store.
Provides Online Quality Customer Service Experience
When websites were not yet popular, people have to queue for hours to book their appointment. Once they booked their slot, they have to wait for their number to turn up for the check-up. The entire process is quite time-consuming. But with a healthcare website, the burden will be lighter. Your website will provide all the relevant information to them which will save them time. It’s like having a home where you can entertain your visitors even if it’s during off-office hours.
Gains Insights Into Patients
With a website, you can find out who your visitors are by using analytic tools. You will also get to know about their preferences so you can adapt. You will also be able to explore the type of treatments that people are searching for online. This will aid you in adding that treatment to your service offerings.
Websites Are Easy to Set Up
A healthcare web page has three important elements which I will call the ABC: About, Blog, and Contact You can set up a simple website with WordPress or Wix. With so many themes (templates) to choose from, designing a healthcare website comes easy.
So if you’re interested in having a website, we can discuss your web development project at your convenient time.
What Goes Into Your Website?
I have observed many healthcare websites and noticed that most of them have too much or too many that require a major revamp. I’ve met my current client in February 2021 when she asked me to revise her website. Basically, here are what I will discuss with you when doing a web design and administration project.
Branding
In the healthcare industry, most likely the name of the person is the brand itself. Others would prefer the name of the clinic. Either way, it is important what the branding is because this will encompass your vision, mission, values, logo, color scheme, typeface, and even your target market. Within the healthcare sector, the focus should be on building a powerful brand by creating visual content to convey your brand message to your web visitors.
Type of Website
The type of your healthcare website depends on the reason why you put it up in the first place. Will you be selling something (e-commerce)? Will you be promoting your brand (marketing)? Will you be blogging (blog)? Will you be teaching (education)? Or will you just present yourself (portfolio)?
Pages and Navigation
Once you have decided what type of website you would like to have, you need to decide what pages should be included.
Home
This is the first page your web visitors will see upon landing. And if you believe in the saying that first impressions last, then the Home page should grab their attention and stay on the page to learn more about you.
About
You may not believe it but the About page is one of the most visited pages of almost all websites. It is here that people get to know the website’s owner (either a company or a person) before they put their trust.
Contact
The contact page is also one of the web pages to be visited most because people would like to know how to reach you. Therefore, a physical address, phone number, email, and office hours are important. A map, a contact form, and an online chat are important and helpful as well. A button that leads to your appointment calendar will be helpful, too.
Services and Pricing
Potential patients, customers, or clients would like to know what you specialize in or the services that you offer and how much would it cost them. Although you might not be comfortable in telling your prices, it would be better for your customers to know them at the onset.
Blog
People would like to be informed. They want to be updated. Thus, it is normal for a website to have a blog where you can show detailed information about a health topic. If you think that you can share your expertise with the public, why not share it through the blog section of your website? Don’t worry if you can’t write or don’t have the time to write. You can always hire a freelance writer to create medical articles that laypeople may understand.
Other Pages
There are pages that people don’t seem to care about much more to read. However, these pages are important for a website, especially for healthcare websites. The Terms and Conditions page and the Privacy Policy page are just a few examples. These two pages may not be required by law but it is still a good thing to include on your website. The legal terms contained in these two pages can limit your liability should someone take you to court, as well as protect your rights to the content contained in your website.
People who are probably suffering from an ailment will not invest much time in looking for the information they want from your website. Therefore, you have to ensure that your healthcare website is easy to navigate. This feature should be discussed during the initial stages of web development.
Call-to-Action Buttons
The basic purpose of any website is to encourage visitors to take a specific action. Whether to book a consultation, enroll in a program, or subscribe to your newsletter, calls to action should be prominent on your healthcare website. People would like to share information thus social media links should be present, too.
Due to the increase of active internet users during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become a necessity to invest in a healthcare website. It is an indispensable marketing tool to flourish in the online marketplace and drive sales for healthcare businesses.
If you don’t have an online face for your healthcare business yet, then you should hire someone who knows web development. I’ve been creating WordPress and Wix websites since 2012 and still continue to do so. Feel free to contact me and inquire. Who knows? I may be the write right person to do your web content.
