WHAT TO START WITH?

Start by working out the structure of the site: what sections and pages should be, what information should be present.

The standard generalised backbone of the structure of the clinic’s website looks like this:

  • Home page
  • About us (or About the clinic)
  • Services (Directions, Diagnostics, Procedures, etc.)
  • Specialists
  • Prices (Price)
  • Blog or News
  • Contacts

If the site already exists, but requires improvement, then the algorithm is as follows:

1. Analyse the current structure of the site: the presence of pages, the presence of subdomains, the names of links, filling pages.

2. Develop a new structure of the site, which takes into account the addition of the necessary new pages, has the correct hierarchy, the correct names of links and pages.

The correct structure of the clinic’s website (ideal) is quite extensive, assuming the presence of a blog.

WHAT’S FURTHER

Prepare prototypes of pages of your future site. It is important to immediately work out the texts taking into account SEO-optimisation and provide for content blocks.

Figure 1. Site page layouts developed in Figma

The secret of success: The main thing is to start. And then you can expand and add on.

This is a really key piece of advice. Creating a design, working out the functionality, developing a website is not a quick job. Often owners want to get a ready, perfect site in a week or a month, but do not take into account that in such a time frame everything suffers: the quality of the site, its content, technical implementation, admin settings, etc.

Competent development of the site, which will be properly indexed by search engines, organically promoted in Google, pleasing to the eye and bring real benefit to potential customers while presenting in the best light and “promoting” the clinic — requires time.

Our fly hack: immediately work out and implement at the start the key pages (home, contacts, price for private medical centres), as well as mini-versions of other pages (e.g. pages of services or directions). That is, you first create pages with basic information, and then finalise them by working on extended versions.

Fig. 2. The first version of the “About Us” page

Fig. 3. Mini version of the direction page

Fig.4. Extended version of the referral page

As for the main reasons for choosing a particular doctor, the majority of respondents consider the doctor’s qualifications, recommendations of acquaintances, and quality of service to be the most important criteria.

This data can be interpreted as the importance of having a good reputation of the clinic, brand advocates, as well as a high level of service and qualifications of specialists in order to have a steady flow of patients.

WHAT SHOULD BE ON THE WEBSITE?

First and foremost is an enticing homepage.

Remember that your website is, in fact, the official representation of the medical centre on the Internet. Therefore, the home page should have:

  • A front screen with the mandatory clinic name, logo, slogan and/or positioning. Well-known medical centres often add
  • banners of promotions, new services, complex offers to the first screen. But if we are talking about creating a new site from scratch for a new or “young” clinic, we suggest to stop at the option “positioning, slogan, photography”.
  • List of directions in the medical centre.
  • Doctors of the clinic.

You can highlight the leading specialists, you can show all of them at once (if there are few of them or by using a carousel of cards).

  • Block of recent news or articles
  • Contacts

“About Us” page

Users should form a general opinion about the clinic: positioning, advantages compared to competitors, number of years on the market, condition (repairs, equipment). For many people it is important to have awards, certificates, necessary documents and licences. People also like to see pictures of the clinic and videos.

In general, the practice shows that information about clinics is not provided in full and of insufficient quality. For example, 43% of clinics on the Ukrainian market tell about the number of years on the market (number of patients, doctors). Without detailed information it is difficult to make a decision whether patients would like to visit such a clinic or not. It is especially important to create the right impression for a new medical centre.

But we remind you: for the start and launch of a new site is suitable and a minimum of information. The main thing is not to forget to add and expand the page after a while.

Services

It is important to have and qualitative description of all the services of the medical centre. Ideal: with an indication of the cost, appointments (with what to address, with what symptoms), listing of specialists who provide specific services, the opportunity to leave a review.

You don’t have to make a separate page with a full list of referrals (if it is not a large multidisciplinary medical centre) but link to specific pages in the site menu.

We have already shown examples of mini-versions (for the first stage of the site launch) and extended versions of the site pages (for further better content). Meanwhile, our significant recommendation for the future (for the next stage of site refinement): make special landing pages, where it is appropriate and possible.

We show an example of an ultrasound diagnostics page.

The general ultrasound page provides basic information about ultrasound services, presents prices for all types of ultrasound specialists, adds user reviews, mentions the advantages of undergoing diagnostics in this clinic.

Figure 5. General Ultrasound Page

Why create more other pages?

For the purpose of SEO-optimisation for key queries, symptoms and diseases, to ensure user-friendliness and provide complete information, user retention (potential customers will read all the information they are interested in on this site, rather than going to a search engine and then on to another site).

When creating landing pages, it is important to follow proper linking and make these links to additional pages prominent.

Figure 6. Ultrasound-specific pages (landing pages)

It is also necessary to carefully work out and present “special products of the clinic” on separate pages: it is important to properly package complex offers, additional services (e.g. ambulance call, on-site consultation, insurance medicine), programmes for corporate clients, special projects (including educational). They have the lowest share of use among clinics, but a high degree of attractiveness for customers — surprise and interest the user, offer an additional service or value.

And you will be happy.

Specialists

90% of clinics have separate pages for doctors, which contain their full name, photo, information about their specialisation, experience, category and education.

A common page with all doctors allows to present all specialists of the clinic and show the professional level of the clinic.

But even more important are the pages (or cards) of specialists. Their presence has a good effect if you are not looking for a service, but for a particular doctor. For example, clients have already visited this doctor, liked everything and want to book an appointment with him – in this case such a search simplifies the task and saves time.

Before a patient makes an appointment at a clinic, there are many factors that influence him or her. The main ones are the experience of the doctor and reviews about him. Also, additional bonuses will be information about the doctor’s participation in associations, the presence of scientific titles and active medical activity. and active medical practice. If the doctor has prestigious certificates and awards – generously share them with people and present them on the doctors’ pages.

Figure 7. Example of a doctor’s page

Blog

You don’t necessarily have to set a goal to write and post 1 article every week. Also it is not necessary to expect super results. A blog is needed to broadcast expert content, to provide added value to your customers.

A blog is a working tool and an important aspect in demonstrating expertise. The presence of a blog shows awareness in a certain area, and competently configured SEO optimisation of blog articles helps to attract real customers.

However, our Healthcare Provider Market Study found that clinics make little or no use or poor use of trusted and useful content. 33% of healthcare providers neglect blogging. We believe this needs to be corrected.

Figure 8. An example of a clinic blog

It is important not to take stock images for articles.

Firstly, they are easily recognisable, which in the perception of a potential client automatically reduces their value and the credibility of the medical centre. Secondly, the overall visual of the blog because of the disparate images begins to resemble a “yellow online newspaper”.

The selection of topics is also important. Medicine — a fairly specific industry. Therefore, even if you have the necessary professional knowledge, there is a question: “What to write about?”.

The first rule of blogging is usefulness. You need to think about it and define it right away:

  • Who is our customer?
  • What is interesting to the customer?
  • What useful points can he draw from our articles?

Keep in mind that expertise and authority should be within your industry. For example, if you have a specialised clinic for an adult audience, you should not attract topics related to the treatment of children. Using examples of successful case studies of healthcare providers, we’ve highlighted blog topics that successfully “hook” users:

– When you should go to … (otolaryngologist, cardiologist, etc.).

– What a … (specialist) does.

Such topics provide opportunities for writing materials with SEO in mind, allow you to mention common diseases, list symptoms, reveal the peculiarities of the activities of a specialist of a certain profile, etc.

– “Seasonal content”

– Innovations in medicine

Tracking current topics on customer requests, seasonal diseases (allergies, acute respiratory viral infections, flu, sunstroke and heatstroke), articles about interesting discoveries and important changes in medicine (coronavirus, 3D printing of organs).

– Cases — stories of treatment of a complex disease, unusual diagnostics

– Scientific articles and researches of specialists

– Medical myths

Useful and interesting articles for readers – this is the key to a successful blog in any field.

Contacts

The Contacts page shows visitors how to contact the clinic and book an appointment, where it is located and how to get there.

The more contact details and ways to get in touch with the clinic, the more convenient it will be, regardless of whether patients prefer to call or text.

Mandatory elements are:

  • Phone numbers (100% of clinics have them).
  • Work schedule. Surprisingly, but it is not indicated by all medical institutions – 20% consider this information not important, in connection with which they increase the load on the call centre or lose a potential client altogether.
  • Address. Maps make the search on the map more convenient and faster, so now they are considered a must have for the contact page. That said, almost all clinics use Google maps.
  • Links to social networks (Facebook, Instagram as mandatory attributes of a self-respecting company) and messengers (if used in the clinic; this includes chat-bot, etc.).
  • An appointment form. This makes it more convenient and quicker to book an appointment, and easier to track how the lead was received.

It does not necessarily have to be a complex form with the ability to select a service, doctor or time. A short standardised form with the following fields is enough: full name (or first and last name), phone number for contact and a block for customer message (optional field).

Summary

It is important to remember: The main task of filling the site is to attract and retain the attention of users, their conversion into customers. When a lot of effort and money has been invested to attract users to the site, it is unwise to lose them because of deficiencies in this or that section. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the development of the structure of the site and its content with a focus on providing benefits for the potential customer.