A Doctor Website: 10 commonly seen mistakes
The power of a website comes from the people using it, not the people making it, is your’s, people-friendly?
Gone are the times when patients used to look for a specific aid through healthcare professionals; meaning, they now seek more value-added experiences along with medical assistance. Needless to mention the driving force of today’s world- the digital space, it has made doctor websites a prerequisite in terms or both- healthcare marketing for business and to enhance doctor patient communication.
Role of the Doctor’s website in today’s time
A doctor website is the internet real estate, a rewarding possession.
A doctor website has become the foundational infrastructure when it comes to healthcare marketing. It is a window through which your business says hello to the world providing real-time mode of communication through thorough information.
A website helps generate efficient patient data when they visit your page, allows you to build a patient feedback system to assess patient experience and most importantly create visibility of your service where it is searched- On the web!
Having considered the advantage of doctor websites, the main question still remains as whether only booking a domain and having a page created is enough for effective healthcare marketing?
It is observed that many healthcare professionals fall into this trap that having a website for name sake is enough. Owing to this notion, a set of mistakes they commit puts a disappointing first impression of the doctor in front of potential patients. This could have serious business outcomes for the doctors. Here is a list of some commonly seen mistakes on a doctor website, let us understand them one at a time.
10 avoidable mistakes every healthcare professional should know -
- No ‘Book Appointment’ option
It is said that’ A website should be designed such that a visitor should go to the cart with confidence and not to your contact page with confusion’.
A patient is on your page to seek medical assistance with convenience. If there’s no access given like ‘book appointment’ or ‘talk to our consultant’, what is the patient supposed to do? Go and look for another doctor? Obviously! So consider convenience to convert your potential patients.
2. Unpleasant user experience
Colours and tone of communication plays a crucial role. Many times, website aesthetic essentials like the colors, font of the text, and texture of the pages do not adequately represent the visual, and psychological needs of the patients. It is also seen that some doctor websites are designed with content that has the connotation of a ‘sales pitch’ rather than being emotionally empathetic to the patient.
This dissociates the doctor from the patient and makes an emotionally detached negative experience for the patient. He is there to seek help, make sure your first impression makes him feel that he is contacting the right doctor.
3. No HIPAA compliance considered
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets the standard for sensitive patient data protection. Doctors that deal with protected health information (PHI) must have physical, network, and process security measures in place and follow them to ensure HIPAA Compliance.
Lack of HIPAA compliance can put doctors (in USA) in danger of getting charged with serious and high legal penalties and punishments, sending a negative message to the patients that your medical practice doesn’t give importance to the privacy of the sensitive information of patients. This can go against patient experience and impact patient footfall as well.
4. No Social Media links
No social media links included is a mega ‘missed opportunity’. It robs patients from staying in touch with the doctor for the future/ access to valuable medical information.
5. No live chat/Phone number present straight up
Even though it is through AI, a patient feels valued when he can interact with someone from the doctor’s side online. No live chat option creates serious limitations especially in times like the Covid-19 pandemic when people are enclosed in their houses due to lockdown and cannot access face-to-face doctor’s appointments. Phone number is another fundamental information that simply no doctor can afford to miss.
6. No Disclaimer of your response timelines
Absence of a disclaimer that mentions the timeline of your response to the patient, say in 24–48 hours, keeps patients in a dilemma about whether they will get a call from the doctor’s office or not. Such dilemmas and misinformation create a negative patient experience.
It can further complicate the medical emergency of the patient. This substantially reduces the chances of the patient considering your service in the future.An emergency helpline number can be a plus point here.
7. No special mention of the Bio of Doctor
A piece of information that highlights the degrees and experience of a doctor directly impacts the patient’s experience as it builds trust in their minds.
Absence of practising licence, degrees, and super specialisation certification mentioned hampers the credibility of the doctor.(Professional Image of Doctor is a big plus!)
8. Too many pictures and videos dumped
The functionality of a website is highly impacted by the size of the files at the backend. More and larger the audio/video/picture files, slower the loading speed. Imagine you found a perfect page while shopping online but just when you are about to proceed with the cart, the website starts buffering! No patience right?
You will look for another option. Same goes with a patient when he finds a slow working doctor website; as he is already distressed with his illness! Such a missed opportunity! The world is all about experiences, make sure you create a positive one.
9. Ignored Mobile friendliness
Even if your website is superlative on desktop, it has to be mobile-friendly. The world surfs on the palm size gadget and if your website is not convenient to them there, it is again a missed opportunity! Make sure you have thoroughly mobile tested.
10. Not SEO optimised
SEO=Visibility. To boost the website traffic, make it more relevant, bring in qualified leads, build greater credibility and authority, and, ultimately, attract more patients, SEO is the key.
Way to cure these common doctor website mistakes
We bet you must have pointed out some of these misses on your website too! But that is understood as it is not expected for doctors to be technical experts. The problem occurs when this task is handed over to developers who are expert in technicality but are less aware of the nitty gritties of healthcare marketing.
And as a result there is a miss in the mix of technical as well as empathetic need in the doctor website. However, a patient engagement solutions provider like Nth Sense who also has an expertise in developing doctor websites can be a wise decision.
Ready to take your medical website to the next level?
With its expert team of website developers and content creators, Nth Sense ensures that no stones will be unturned to provide a website that will create a strategic advantage for healthcare providers in today’s competitive healthcare market.
A Doctor website developed by the Nth Sense acts as a proactive bridge of communication, information exchange, and point of contact for all the stakeholders who are healthcare seekers and health providers.
In a nutshell, Nth Sense is an expert & friendly support system that can strengthen the very foundation of a medical practitioner’s prosperous businesses. So, are you that Doctor who needs to develop and update your website? Then, you know whom to connect with now!
