Anyone can build a medical website, but without proper planning and precise execution, a medical website is a waste of time and money. Spending time thinking through your strategy ahead of time means you’ll have a website designed to do exactly what you need it to. These questions will help you define the purpose and goals of your website so your time will be spent on the right things, and your website will function with purpose. Here’s what you need to consider.Â
1. What do I want my website to do?
Sure, your website is a digital business card. But it’s more than just that! By defining the primary purpose of your medical website, you will be able to build the essential digital assets around your concept and create a strategy to reach your practice goals. Do you want your website to be an appointment generator for your practice? Or do you want to create a community for existing patients and use it as a retention tool? Do you want the site to be a place for potential patients to learn about your services? The answers to these questions define the assets you’ll need on your website, including content about your services, conversion elements like forms and click to call buttons, and your About Us pages.Â
Once you’ve defined the purpose, you can work with your medical website agency to create the tools and content necessary to achieve your business objectives.
2. Who am I building the website for?
Once you’ve established the purpose of your site, you know what content you’ll need, but next you’ll need to tailor that content to the people who will be viewing it. Before you can do this, you need to define your target audience. Your target audience is made up of your current and prospective patients.
The easiest way to develop a detailed description of your target audience is to observe and document the characteristics of your current patients. Who are they? Where do they live? Are they married? How old are they? Before you can create a medical website concept, you must personify your current patient base. Then, make sure your content is speaking to this audience.
3. Do I have the right people on my team?
It takes a whole team of talented people to design, develop and maintain a beautiful medical website. Before hiring an agency, make sure they have assembled the right designers, developers, clinical content writers and account managers for your project.
In addition, if you do not plan to oversee the project yourself, you should assign or entrust it to a capable person on your team. With the right people in place, communication should be fluid and open throughout the project.
4. Am I committed to the time it takes to build a website?
Even if you only serve as a decision-maker, your time will be consumed by multiple consultations –– branding decisions, design preferences, site consultation, content reviews, etc. Before jumping into a lengthy project, you need to examine your schedule and determine if you have time for regular meetings. Be honest with yourself and don’t underestimate the amount of time that will be involved.
5. What is my content strategy?
You can have the most beautiful medical website on the Internet, but if it lacks quality content, your website will not be able to compete against more robust sites. Content strategy is a necessary component of the medical website development process; content strategy is the planning, creation and delivery of content. While your website is being designed and structured by the development team, a clinical content writer should simultaneously craft the written copy against the overarching business objectives.
Typically, medical websites include a page about the practice, common conditions, treatment options, and any other important facts that set the practice apart from competitors. The content on your site should reflect the practice’s goals and the needs of your target patients. It should be written in a way that potential patients will understand; the content should be useful and easily digestible. Another best practice is to follow a predefined style guide so that your content remains consistent throughout the site. Most importantly, the strategy should consider SEO so that your content is optimized for search engines.
We Can Help
Need help with your medical website? MyAdvice has been building medical websites for practices just like yours for more than 20 years! Contact one of our marketing experts for a complimentary consultation today to see how we can make your website beautiful and powerful.
