Your Healthcare Website

Your Healthcare Website Home Page is the front door to your clinical practice or hospital in the digital world. Your home page will receive more traffic than any other page on your website. And yet, for most healthcare websites, this page is not optimized for their visitors’ experience. Just as the patient experience is your Brand, the visitor experience will determine whether visitors will follow through on your ultimate Call-to-Action: to call you for an appointment.

If you are considering a website redesign, or at least a home page redesign, keep these elements in mind:

 

1. Headline

Given today’s rapid pace, you have less than three seconds to tell visitors to your healthcare website what you’re about. Keep your headline clear and simple!

2. Sub-head

Offer a brief description. Add the information that you were tempted to include in your original Headline. And remember…it’s not about you, it’s about them. You’re not “selling” anything…you’re providing a trustworthy, caring relationship.

3. Call-to-Action

3a. Your primary, ultimate CTA for a clinical practice or hospital is simple: you want them to call for an appointment. Make it easy. Make it obvious. Make it above-the-fold.

3b. Your secondary CTA, for those not yet ready to make an appointment, is to connect by email to build a long-term relationship: make it easy for them to sign up for email updates. Your secondary CTA can be below the fold as they scroll down your page.

Click HERE to Listen to the Russ & Randy Podcast
Episode on Using Your Call-to-Action

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Call-to-Action Tutorial, Using Cleveland Clinic as Model

As with all things healthcare and digital, Cleveland Clinic provides a great model for Best Practices. This 4-min video reviews how the Cleveland Clinic narrows their Calls-to-Action to bring patients to their hospital and clinics. Come learn from the best…

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4. Content Value Offer

Consider offering a “lead magnet” or “value offer,” to incentivize opting in to your email list. Healthcare lead magnets have unique qualities: Think about content that your prospective patients might value: a checklist, guide, or eBook.

Click HERE to Listen to the Russ & Randy Podcast
Episode on Healthcare Leadmagnets

5. Descriptive Image

Most of us are visual: include an image that illustrates what your practice is about. Try to avoid images that are obvious, generic stock photos.

6. Benefits

Describe what your visitors get from your website, you and your practice. Do NOT describe where you attended medical school or where you trained. Do NOT describe your latest medical technology. DO tell them how they will benefit. Remember…it’s not about you, it’s about them.

7. Social Proof and Sharing

Humans are a social species. We give great weight and credibility to testimonials by others. If possible, try to include a quote or two from delighted patients, describing their exceptional patient experience. Adding a name and photo lends even greater cred.

Include Social Share buttons so that visitors can share your great content and their experience to their social media accounts. If you have professional social media accounts, also include Social Follow buttons so that visitors can follow you there.

8. Navigation

Give visitors to your home page clear navigation tabs. Provide a clear path into key areas of you site. This will decrease the “bounce rate” and improve engagement. Add the navigation tabs at the top of your home page – where visitors will expect them.

9. Search

Include a search box if possible. Make it easy for visitors to find the information – the content – they are seeking!

As with all things relating to healthcare, Cleveland Clinic provides the best-practices model for how to do it right:

Resources

Hubspot infographic