HOW TO JUDGE A GOOD MEDICAL WEBSITE
You may need to evaluate your own website or review those of your competitors. This tool is designed to use as a checklist against current industry gold standards and can also assist if you are having your own website developed to ensure you get the best results.
Design
What is the purpose of this website, and is the design accomplishing it?
Does the design immediately say that this is a professional medical website with trusted content or does it say this is a homemade site designed without due attention and consideration to detail.
Ask: what message does this website give to potential patients?
Does the website’s style align with the brand in terms of colours, feel, graphics, etc?
The brand is king and the website needs to adhere to the brand’s look and feel, as well as it’s positioning and key messages.
Are the fonts I’ve chosen readable?
The best fonts to choose from are Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, Lucida Sans and Verdana (Verdana was designed specifically for the web). The website’s font should be complementary to the brands font and work cohesively.
Are the colours on the website right?
Colours set moods and responses and are an important part of website design.
Is there enough contrast between background colours and font colours?
Don’t let design takeover if it impacts on the content being easily readable, keep focused on the purpose of the website.
Does the imagery add credibility and is it reflective of the practice as a whole?
Is the visitor able to experience the look and feel of the practice and be introduced to the doctor and staff? Or are they seeing ‘fake’ stock shots that bear no relation to the services offered and have no ability to generate a feeling of familiarity and trust.
Is the value of the home page being maximised?
Banners are an ideal way of grabbing the visitor’s attention and communicating key messages, as well as making it easy to navigate to areas of interest through clickable links.
Functionality
How long does it take for the pages to load?
Be sure visitors are not going to get bored and move on, test the website speed using Google Page Speed Insights.
How easy is it to find information?
Visitors should be able to see the contact details and a map at an easy glance on the home page.
Do all the links work?
Attention to detail is important. People will become frustrated and leave a site with broken links. Especially ensure that all social media icons link correctly.
Does the site work on mobile devices?
Nearly 60% of all searches are now carried out on mobile devices. Google penalises websites that are not mobile responsive.
Is the phone number ‘click to call’?
This is handy for people accessing the website via a mobile device, enabling them to place a call easily, without having to dial the number.
Content
Am I able to get the answers I want quickly and easily
Navigating around the website content should be simple and easy. For larger websites, inclusion of a search function or mega menu is ideal.
Is the news section and blog articles up to date?
An out of date blog makes the website look old and uncared for, reflects poorly on the practice as a whole and won’t assist with improving google rankings.
Is the content on the home page assisting the website to rank well?
Google values the content on the home page highly, so ideally your home page needs a minimum of 400 words, preferably more, peppered with your targeted keywords to assist with ranking on search engines.
CJU’s specific industry knowledge and full service approach means we will develop your unique medical website that will achieve results that fit your business needs. Call us today to arrange to discuss your new website or for an audit of your existing website on 1300 941 250.
