A Closer Look At Web Design For The Healthcare Industry
Ever wondered what the process of healthcare web design entails? As a healthcare professional, you’re likely well-versed in patient-centred care, clinical skills and more, but maybe the idea of marketing and website design is a completely foreign concept to you. If you’ve heard of the term but haven’t quite grasped the true elements of its nature, keep reading to learn more.
Before you even begin designing your website, it’s important to create a brand that’s unique to your professional goals and standards. Start by configuring your logo design that will be prominent amongst a crowd of similar business structures. For example, if you’re a physiotherapist looking to expand your professional services by opening a new clinic, it’s pertinent to establish unique branding guidelines that will help elevate your marketable assets. This can include things like colour schemes, content-specific guidelines, and much more.
Setting goals can be used as a tool to help keep you aligned with your integral values and prospective business outcomes. When writing your business goals, it’s always helpful to be highly specific about what you want to achieve, how you’re going to implement steps and what your measure of success is. Finally, to get you started with your website, finding the right website designer is essential to success!
This article will outline our simple four-step process for website design. For personalised information or to launch your website design journey, contact our team today.
There are four steps that can be followed when designing your website:
Step 1: Create Your Content
The first step when designing your website involves collating and organising your content. Deciding how your website is going to be structurally designed, such as a sitemap and page structure, is critical for many things, including user experience. Ensuring that new and continuing clients have a relatively easy and positive experience when using your website will result in favourable outcomes. On a more explicit level, content also relates to your written and visual material. This involves organising your tone of voice, services provided and overall communication style. These materials will relate directly to your brand guidelines and deciphered business goals. If you’re having difficulty deciding on what content you’d like to purposely display on your website, always refer back to your business goals.
Step 2: Style Your Site
The second step when designing your website relates to design. To some, design and style may seem to be a superficial step in the website design process; however, this is an essential element to consider. It’s a good idea to find a skilled website designer who understands your business model and can help guide you to produce effective results. Some useful quick tips for your website design are to keep it simplistic and ensure a logical cohesive flow between written material. This will help users to stay engaged with your content and not become distracted by irrelevant details.
Step 3: Development Time
The third step in website design involves web development. Web development involves bringing your site to life and making sure the design is functional as well as stylish. A great website designer will also assess things like site speed and responsiveness during this process. Did you know that page speed is essential for website ranking and the level of traffic your site receives? Google has indicated that page speed is one of their measurement tools used when creating their ranking algorithms, so it’s essential to check that your page is functioning optimally.
Step 4: Launch and Live!
You’ve now made it to the fourth and final step! It’s time to officially launch your website and make it live. This is one of the more intriguing parts of the design process as you can begin to spread the word about your newly formed business. You’ve worked hard up until this point; therefore, it’s important that your website reaches as many of your targeted audience as possible. This can be achieved through effective marketing strategies.
Our Healthcare Web Design Advice
Creating a website is a fine balance between aesthetics and practicality. Whilst having a perfectly displayed web page is important, it’s also essential to optimise traffic flow through other strategies such as conversion rate optimisation (CRO). This somewhat technical term simply refers to how many people (or potential patients) are visiting your site, how they move through your site and what may be inhibiting bookings. This data can be monitored and improved through simple strategies. If you’d like to learn more about this in detail, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to learn more.
As a health professional, it’s your core responsibility to abide by ethical standards. It’s important to adhere to guidelines that are embedded into professional practice to help keep everyone involved safe and ensure your patients receive the best care possible.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is a professional body that ensures all health practitioners are working within their specified roles. When designing your website, it’s integral to ensure your website complies with all current advertising standards. Working with a website designer who specialises in healthcare can assist you in remaining AHPRA-compliant and assist you in avoiding the costly consequences of non-compliance.
If you’ve got the skills and motivation, why not get started on your healthcare website today? You’ve now learned more about the fundamental elements that go into website design, it’s time to capitalise on that momentum and get creating. If you’re interested and would like to get your foot in the door, book a strategy call with one of our helpful team members.
