In a world where people expect to be able to do everything online, optimizing your practice’s website for a great user experience is a good way to delight your patients and help differentiate your practice from the competition. Here are a few simple things you can do.

Make your website easy to find

Most internet users use Google search to find your website rather than typing in your web address. No matter how easy your web address is to remember and type, you still need to rank well on the search results. To increase the chance that your page pops up towards the top of search results, consider doing the following:

• Fill out your full business profile on Google My Business (Google’s directory of local businesses. You can think of this as the new Yellow Pages.)
• Fill out your business profile on a few other major local and healthcare directories, such as Bing, Yahoo, Yelp and HealthGrades
• Complete some basic SEO optimization on your website, such as including keywords in your site content

Contact information is complete and easy to find

Many patients who land on your website are only looking for your address, phone number or email. Make it easily accessible and list it on every page (in the header or footer of your website template.)

Engage visitors visually

Videos, photos and infographics are more likely to capture attention than text alone. Use media to make your page more visually appealing. Optimize images and videos to load quickly. This is especially important when patients are looking at your website on smartphones via cellular data.

Be creative but not too creative

You don’t want your website to be too fancy or too boring. Strike a balance between eye-catching and informational. Patients should be able to find the information they need quickly and easily without your page looking like a textbook.

Keep the navigation simple

Make sure your navigation bar isn’t overly complex. Use categories and subcategories to organize topics in a way that makes sense to your patients. Extra web pages don’t cost a thing. Don’t confuse patients by trying to cram too much information onto a single page.

Stay true to one marketing message

A single and focused marketing message is more effective. While there will always be secondary messages and selling points in your copy, be sure that the overarching theme adheres to your practice’s mission. Figure out who you are as a practice and center your website’s content around that vision.