Clinic and hospital websites are in constant demand for optimization. Almost every day we see a clinic or hospital site being ranked on the first page of Google, yet most of them fail to rank.
The reasons for this are many, but mainly it is because people do not trust the website enough, or they expect the information to be provided by a human rather than a computer. One way of improving your chances of ranking highly is by hiring a good company to design and develop sites or applications for you that will help you communicate with patients or treat them effectively.
But for now, let us look at some of the useful website tips for clinics and hospitals that you can easily employ to maximize their chance of ranking highly in Google for specific keywords, as well as other search engines such as Yahoo!
#1. HIPAA Compliance in Healthcare Website Design
HIPAA is a set of guidelines and regulations that govern the privacy of medical information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was created to protect health care data from unauthorized access and disclosure. When designing a website for your healthcare organization, you’ll want to consider these guidelines:
Contact information must be displayed on every page of the site, including contact forms so that visitors can easily reach out to you.
You may not store personal information about patients on your site unless it is necessary for treatment or payment purposes. If you do need this information, make sure it is always securely stored off-site following HIPAA standards.
Don’t allow access to any private medical records by anyone other than authorized staff members or contractors who are working on behalf of the organization itself — this includes family members, spouses, and foster children.
#2. Choosing the Right Photos and Imagery
Photos and imagery play an important role in your clinic’s website. Having high-quality photos will help you stand out from the competition and establish trust with your patients.
Photos can also be used to communicate information about your practice, such as services offered and hours of operation. You may also want to include photos that demonstrate how your staff operates or shows off your facilities.
But before you start shooting, there are a few things you should consider:
Make sure your photos are professional-looking. This means taking care when framing the picture so it doesn’t look pixelated. Also make sure all elements (signage, equipment, etc.) are in focus so that they’re visible and not blurry.
Make sure all elements of the shot are properly exposed — this includes lighting and color balance (which affects how light reflects off objects). If you’re using a red carpet, for example, make sure the color looks natural and not unnatural (like black).
If possible, shoot using natural light rather than using artificial lighting — this will make it easier to edit later on!
#3. Include Doctor Reviews
A doctor’s practice should be able to provide a list of all the doctors who are currently practicing there. This can be useful for those who are looking for a new physician or are just curious about the quality of care offered by their current doctor.
This is also a good way for patients to find out more about their current physician and their experience with them. It may also give you insight into how much your insurance company is paying for your visits with your current doctor. If you’re unhappy with how much they’re paying, then perhaps this is an opportunity for you to switch doctors and save money on your health insurance premiums!
#4. Keep On-Page SEO in Mind
When it comes to SEO, the first step is to make sure you’re writing content that will help you rank well. If you’re a clinic, hospital, or health center and you have a website, you should have your dedicated blog. This way, you can blog about the services and products that you offer. You should also use this platform as a place for people to leave reviews of your business if they are happy with the service they received at your clinic or hospital.
You should also consider adding internal links to other pages on your website so that search engines can easily find them. This will help them crawl through all of the pages on your site quickly, which in turn increases their chances of ranking well in search results.
Keep on-page SEO in mind when designing and developing your website. Here are three ways you can optimize your site for search engines:
- Use a keyword-rich domain name.
- Optimize the meta tags of each page on your site.
- Make sure each page has an H1 or H2 tag that contains the most important keywords used throughout the site.
#5. Keep Your Website Patient-Centric
The best way to build a successful website is to keep in mind the needs of your patients. Even if you are a brand new practice or hospital, you can use this information to keep your website patient-centric.
Here are a few tips on how to make your website more user-friendly:
Make it easy for patients to find the information they need. Put search fields at the top of each page and ensure that they are easy to find. If you want visitors to be able to search for specific terms, make sure that the pages with those terms have links directly from those pages so that users don’t have to leave your site to find them.
Keep things simple by using large fonts and simple graphics that won’t distract from what you’re trying to say. Keep the text as short as possible and use images sparingly, if at all.
Make it mobile-friendly. Today’s patients want to be able to access your website no matter where they are — on their phone or tablet, at home, or in the car — so make sure it looks good on all devices!
Conclusion
The website tips for clinics and hospitals discussed here can yield great results if employed effectively. Now, these tips are part of the basic website configurations, you can do all of these by yourself. But if you don’t have enough time or energy to spare then you can always hire a software development company that has expertise in developing healthcare solutions. Now, that would only increase the chances of success by many folds.