Create a Website for Your Medical Practice: 4 Different Ways

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Like most things, the first place people look these days when they want to visit a doctor is the Internet. If you'd like your practice to reach new patients, there's nothing more important than a website.

In this article, we'll let you know what advantages a website offers physicians and medical professionals, which options are available, and what you'll need to pay attention to.

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What Are the Advantages of a Medical Practice Website?

While databases and directories are popular, they rarely allow physicians to describe all of their services in detail. A dedicated website serves as a hub that both existing and new patients can use to find out more about your practice and utilize your services. They can:

  • Find important information such as your hours of operation, services, and whether your office is closed.

  • Book appointments online.

  • Read up on you and your team and make a personal connection.

  • Learn about illnesses, courses of therapy, medication, and other treatment options.

A website also helps to relieve your staff. If a new patient wants to know what to bring to their first appointment, you can provide answers here in an FAQ section. Since your staff will have to answer the phone less, they'll be able to focus on other, more important tasks.

What Does a Medical Practice Website Need?

Before you design your medical practice's website, you'll need to ask yourself some questions. First, what sets you and your team apart from everyone else? Regardless of whether you're a cardiologist or an ENT, your website should reflect your personality and represent you. With that said, there are some things that should always be on a medical practice website:

Homepage

Your practice's homepage is like its digital waiting room. In real life, your waiting room should be sleek, clean, and comfortable, and the same goes for its virtual counterpart. Make sure that it doesn't look outdated or have an old-fashioned design.

Beyond that, new and existing patients should be able to find any important information here, or after a few clicks. The following elements are absolute musts for any medical practice's homepage:

  • Practice's name, address, telephone number, and email address

  • Hours of operation

  • Directions (for example, with a Google Map), to help new patients find your office

  • Team photo

  • Summary of your specialties (short and snappy)

  • Other relevant information for patients to know (such as whether you accept insurance, and which kinds)

This dentist's office looks trustworthy and modern. (Source: My Dental Clinic)

While more information is generally better, don't overload your homepage. Too much text can scare away new patients, as can bright colors, flashing fonts, and other special effects. Since many people will visit your website on their smartphone, pay close attention to its mobile-friendliness.

Clear navigation is another important aspect of a medical practice's website. Try to have no more than eight menu headings. Submenus should not exceed 4-6 options. Visitors should be able to quickly and easily find your "About Us", "Services", and "Contact" pages.

About Us

On this page, you and your team can go into greater detail than the homepage. Try to relay your compassion and empathy, along with your experience and competence. Ask yourself these questions and base your content on the corresponding answers:

  • Why did you become a doctor and choose your specialty?

  • What are your guiding principles? What's important to you as a medical professional?

  • How long have you practiced medicine and what sort of experience do you have?

For the second part of the last question, don't exhaustively list every post you've held. Instead, mention those that have shaped or significantly influenced your medical career.

Use the "About Us" page to discuss your qualifications and career highlights. (Source: London Orthopaedic Clinic)

It's also recommended to include a high-quality photograph of you and your team here. The minimal cost of a professional photographer for both a group picture and headshots will pay for itself many times over. Regardless of whether your colleagues are physicians or specialists, they should also briefly introduce themselves here.

Services

Now that you've provided important information about your practice and your team, it's time to let visitors know what you can do for them in greater detail. Make sure that your "Services" page is highly visible. The goal isn't to impress colleagues with your knowledge, but rather, to give new and existing patients an informative overview of how you can assist them. Some important aspects include:

  • The practice's focus/specialization – If you have multiple specializations, give each its own submenu.

  • Offered tests, procedures, and therapies – Should you collaborate with a lab, mention it here. Patients should also be able to see which services you accept insurance for, and which need to be paid for out of pocket.

  • On-site screening devices and tools – Do you have a 3-D ultrasound, an MRI, or an electrocardiograph? If so, mention it here.

This medical practice clearly lists the services it offers. (Source: Women Wellness)

If you don't accept insurance and offer concierge medical services, you might want to weigh the benefits of including a price list. Many physicians are opposed to this because their services are too individualized to set specific prices. All the same, it can significantly help patients.

Appointment Scheduling

User-friendly online appointment scheduling is a win-win: It saves your patients time and makes life easier for your practice's staff. If it isn't possible to integrate a relevant plugin directly onto your website, most databases have buttons that you can add to your website and directly forward patients to your scheduling calendar.

Add an online scheduling app or widget to make life easier for both your patients and your staff. (Source: Dr. Med. Görlitz-Novakovic)

With many apps and widgets, patients receive an email or text reminder shortly before their next visit.

Pay Attention to Data Privacy

If you add an online appointment calendar to your practice's website, you'll need to accept responsibility for the security of your patients' data. Make sure that it is safely stored and not accessible by third parties.

Contact

Even if you've provided your contact details on your practice's homepage, list them again on a separate "Contact" page.

Include your hours of operation, address, telephone number, and a Google Map view of your location. It's also recommended to provide directions, or, if in a large city, nearby public transport stops.

Extras and Nice-to-Haves for Your Medical Practice

Once you've finished with the most important components of your website, you can add more tools and features. In large cities, for example, it can be useful to offer multiple language localizations (for example, in English and Spanish), to appeal to international patients. At the same time, make sure that you or a trusted member of your staff can actually communicate with patients in whatever language you add.

Some physicians also add blogs to their websites and use them to discuss their daily routine, voice their opinions about new therapies, or discuss aspects of certain diseases. If you have the time for it, this will definitely help to indirectly market your practice.

This doctor has successfully added podcasts to her website (Source: Dr. Kamm McKenzie)

If you have a public Facebook or Instagram page, add the appropriate social media button so that your patients can find and follow you there.

Some developers specialize in digital services for medical practices. These include telehealth modules that you can use to remotely meet with your patients if they're out of town or unable to come to your office.

4 Ways to Create a Medical Practice Website

Have we convinced you that your practice needs a website? Good! All that's left to do is to make it. There are many different options, all of which depend on how much time and money you're willing to invest, as well as what your requirements are. Below, we'll highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each.

1.

Self-Program a Medical Practice Website

If you self-program your medical practice's website, you won't be tied to any templates and can freely customize its elements and design. Keep in mind though that even if you're familiar with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, creating a website from scratch can take quite a bit of time. For a pro, at least three weeks are needed.

On the other hand, if you took a few coding classes in college, we advise against this method. It's nearly impossible for someone who isn't a professional programmer to quickly create a high-quality website. Even if you manage to allocate a significant amount of time to it, the result will be disproportionate to your effort.

Advantages and Disadvantages

  • Inexpensive

  • Maximum flexibility and design options

  • Substantial programming knowledge required

  • Time-intensive

2.

Have a Medical Practice Website Programmed

If you'd like a high-quality, custom website, but aren't ready or able to invest time into its design, you can hire a freelance web designer/developer or an agency to do it for you. These specialists won't just design your website but also take care of its SEO and page speed. There are also web designers who focus on medical websites and know how to enhance a practice's online presence

Some agencies even specialize in medical web design (Source: intrepy).

However, this solution does come at a price: Expect to pay around $1,000 for a basic website with 3-4 subpages if you decide to work with a freelancer. Should you opt for an agency, you can double the price. Extras, like detailed graphics or interactive forms, can quickly push overall costs to $10,000 or more. There are "deals" to be had online, however, the quality of these is often questionable.

All the same, it's good to think of website costs as an investment and part of your marketing budget. In some countries, (business) website costs are even tax-deductible. So long as funds are available, you won't lose money with a custom website.

Advantages and Disadvantages

  • Custom-designed, professional website

  • Doesn't take up your time

  • Relatively expensive

  • Quality varies

3.

Create a Medical Practice Website With a Content Management System

Do you have some IT know-how, but not enough to self-program an entire website? In that case, a content management system, like WordPress, might be an interesting option.

With a CMS, you'll select from a large variety of ready-made templates, among which are many options designed specifically for physicians. After that, you'll be able to customize the template to your specifications and add individual elements like text blocks, a Google Map with a marker, or an image gallery.

The WordPress community has plenty of plugins for medical professionals.

Another advantage WordPress offers is its selection of plugins, which enhance the platform's functionality. Here too, there are plenty of options for doctors and healthcare professionals. In the picture above, you can see a plugin that makes it easier to schedule appointments online with a calendar. Keep in mind that not all plugins are free.

Even though it's less work to create a medical practice website with WordPress than to self-program one, it will still take a few days. This is especially true if you've never used a CMS before, since you'll need to familiarize yourself with the platform and its features. Even though WordPress itself is free (unlike a website builder), you will need to purchase a domain name and hosting.

Still, as long as you can set aside a few days or weeks to build your practice's website, WordPress is a great tool.

Advantages and Disadvantages

  • No programming knowledge required

  • Lots of flexibility thanks to plugins

  • Plenty of designs for doctors and medical professionals

  • Free, however,...

  • ...you need to pay separately for plugins, themes, a domain, and hosting

  • Can be time-intensive

4.

Create a Medical Practice Website With a Website Builder

Or perhaps you've never done any web design but would like to create your own online presence. If CMSs sound too complex, you can try a website builder. Just as with WordPress, you'll choose from a range of different templates, some of which are specifically for medical websites.

Website builders are even easier to use than a CMS: Menus, images, and other elements are added and placed by dragging and dropping them in the platform's editor. These are very beginner-friendly and don't require any programming or web design skills. As a result, it's possible to create a professional-looking website in a matter of hours.

Subscriptions, which are charged monthly, include hosting, security updates, backups, and at least one domain. Expect to pay anywhere from $10-$50 a month for these.

The biggest downside to website builders, especially in comparison to the other options we've listed above, is the limit they place on creativity. You'll only be able to use the design elements and features that are included and have to work within the constraints of what's offered.

Advantages and Disadvantages

  • Easy to use

  • Not time intensive

  • All-inclusive subscriptions (domain and hosting)

  • Limited options and flexibility

  • Charged per month/subscription required

You can find out more about website builders here:

Top 3 Website Builders

In our website builder comparison, we tested 12 popular platforms. Below, we'll introduce you to our Top 3:

1.

EXPERTE.com's Winner: Wix

Best Overall 2024
Wix Website Builder
Wix Website Builder
(106,803 )
Wix offers the best balance of user-friendliness, flexibility, and features in the website builder market: If you want to create a dynamic, personalized website without any coding skills, Wix is a great choice.
800+ versatile templates
intuitive drag-and-drop editor
huge range of features
more flexible than other website builders
includes free plan
9.9
excellent
Space
0.5 - ∞
Domains
0 - 1
Pages
unlimited
Contract Period
0 - 36 months
Wix Free
 $0.00
monthly price
Try for Free

Wix impresses with its ease of use, high-quality templates, and a huge selection of apps that enhance the functionality of your medical practice's website. When you register, Wix will ask what kind of website you're creating. Click on "doctor" and the tool will suggest a few practical elements for your practice's website. These include a chat tool and an appointment scheduling module.

With Wix, you can easily add useful features to your practice's website, such as an appointment scheduling app.

There are also plenty of templates that are ideal for the world of healthcare. In Wix's App Market, you'll find extensions that enhance your website's functionality. For example, patients can use an extension to contact you through WhatsApp or leave comments on certain areas of your website.

Review
9.9
excellent
Check Review
Templates & Design (30%)
10 / 10
Advanced features (25%)
10 / 10
Support (10%)
10 / 10
Ease of use (25%)
9.3 / 10
Pricing (10%)
7.6 / 10
2.

Squarespace: High-Quality Designs for Your Medical Practice

Squarespace Website Builder
Squarespace Website Builder
(29,568 )
Squarespace scores with high-quality templates that serve as a foundation for elegant and modern websites. Additionally, there is a wide variety of pre-designed sections for different content, purposes, and industries.
150+ stylish templates
numerous pre-designed sections
flexible design tools
solid ecommerce platform
no free plan
9.4
excellent
Space
unlimited
Domains
1 domain
Pages
unlimited
Contract Period
1 - 12 months
Squarespace Personal
 $16.00
monthly price
14 Days Trial Period

Second place in our test went to Squarespace. The New York-based website builder has made a name for itself thanks to its high-quality templates and has plenty to offer for doctors and medical professionals. This includes online appointment scheduling tools and a chat plugin.

Squarespace also has plenty of elegant templates for doctors and medical professionals.

Review
9.4
excellent
Check Review
Templates & Design (30%)
10 / 10
Ease of use (25%)
9.9 / 10
Advanced features (25%)
9.8 / 10
Pricing (10%)
7.6 / 10
Support (10%)
7.2 / 10
3.

Jimdo: Straightforward Builder for Medical Websites

Jimdo Website Builder
Jimdo Website Builder
(41,768 )
With Jimdo's AI website builder, creating a website becomes almost automatic. However, its design options are nearly nonexistent, and basic features like blogging are missing.
easy to use
practical AI assistant
free plan
no blogging
limited design freedom
7.2
good
Space
0.5 - ∞
Domains
0 - 1
Pages
5 - ∞
Contract Period
0 - 12 months
Jimdo Play
 $0.00
monthly price
Try for Free

Jimdo scores with its straightforward editor that anyone can use. The number of designs and options is more limited in comparison to Wix and Squarespace, however, the site creation process is definitely faster and easier.

This doesn't mean that you won't have options, since Jimdo appears to have done its best to cater to doctors: For example, you can use its integrated appointment scheduling tool, or integrate Google Business entries, and direct patients to your practice with a Google Map.

Jimdo also offers a number of features that were developed for doctors.

The same goes for "Team", "Services", and "Contact" page templates. If you'd like to create a professional website with as little effort as possible, Jimdo should be near the top of your list.

Review
7.2
good
Check Review
Ease of use (25%)
10 / 10
Support (10%)
9.1 / 10
Pricing (10%)
8.6 / 10
Templates & Design (30%)
6.1 / 10
Advanced features (25%)
4.4 / 10

Alternatives

There are plenty of other powerful website builders apart from Wix, Squarespace, and Jimdo. For example, Weebly, GoDaddy, and 1&1 IONOS all offer a number of advantages. You can find detailed reviews of all of these platforms and others, as well as information about their user-friendliness, features, and pricing, in our website builder test.

1.
Wix
9.9
Review
excellent
2.
Squarespace
9.4
Review
excellent
3.
Webflow
8.8
Review
good
4.
Duda.co
8.6
Review
good
5.
Strikingly
8.3
Review
good
6.
SITE123
8.3
Review
good
7.
Webador
8.2
Review
good
8.
Framer
8.0
Review
good
9.
Hostinger
8.0
Review
good
10.
Webnode
7.9
Review
good
11.
Weebly
7.6
Review
good
12.
Jimdo
7.2
Review
good
13.
IONOS
7.1
Review
good
14.
GoDaddy
6.9
Review
satisfactory

Conclusion

If you'd like your medical practice to have an online presence, it's going to need a professional website. Use it to introduce yourself, your team, and your services. A website can help you do much more than that though: It greatly simplifies appointment scheduling and appeals to younger patients who use the Internet for just about everything. With the right apps, you can even offer telehealth and video consultations.

Should you want to create the website yourself, but do not have a degree in web design, you can use a CMS like WordPress or a website builder, such as Wix or Squarespace. With a CMS, you'll have more options and features, but, this requires both time and some know-how (the more coding familiarity you have, the better). Website builders, on the other hand, offer a relatively simple way to quickly create a high-quality website.

For those who wish to be more hands-off, there are other options: You can hire a freelancer or web agency to design your website for you. However, this is likely the most expensive route and can cost anywhere from $1,000-$10,000.

FAQs

What does a medical practice website need?

One of the most important elements of a physician's website is an "About Us" page where you introduce yourself and your team. Also, include a "Services" page to specify what you do and (optionally) how much it costs. A "Contact" page with your practice's physical address, phone number, and email address is another must. An interactive calendar that patients can use to book appointments online can be very useful.

How can I make a medical practice website?

If you don't know how to code but want to make a website for your medical practice, you can use a CMS like WordPress or a website builder. The latter is easier to and offers high-quality templates, however, the former provides more options, plugins, and flexibility. Alternatively, you can hire a web designer or agency to create your website for you, however, this is the priciest option.

Can I make a free website for my practice?

A number of website builders offer free trials, and WordPress is free to use. None of these include a domain, however. To make the most professional impression, your medical practice's website should have a unique domain. WordPress hosting packages start at around $5 per month.

Top Website Builder 2024
Sponsored
from  $0.00
per month
Wix
from  $16.00
per month
Squarespace
from  $0.00
per month
Webflow
from  $19.00
per month
Duda.co
show all
After her studies in physical engineering, Silvia Benetti was active in the development of wind turbines. She has been writing about technical subjects as a freelance author for several years. Her focus areas include IT, artificial intelligence, industry 4.0 and renewable energies.
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Best Overall 2024
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800+ versatile templates
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huge range of features
more flexible than other website builders
includes free plan
9.9
Review
excellent
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