Health communication: what makes an optimized website?

Today, any hospital or successful practice should maintain a website so that patients can easily find it and learn something about the services and services provided. You might think that a highly effective site is only a bonus but from the point of view of Digital Marketing this is far from the truth.

You can't expect to simply open a website and see patients line up at your door. Ongoing marketing is a fundamental part of managing any hospital or practice in the world today, and this depends heavily on your website. Although good web design is definitely part of it, a successful strategy needs a lot more.

Let's look at some fundamental aspects:

1. Contact information on each page

This may seem simple enough, but too often overlooked. The address of a hospital or clinic, the telephone number, the timetable and the e-mail address must be located on each page of the website in an easy to find place.

Ideally, there should be a contact form on the site that potential patients can easily fill out to obtain information or request an appointment. This module can be linked at the top of the page or incorporated into the design of each page.

2. Build a responsive site

Responsive design is the basis of modern marketing but a busy practice may not realize that their site is out of date. Having a responsive site means it will look the same when viewed on a desktop, mobile or tablet. Google actually indexes responsive sites higher than unresponsive (obsolete) ones, so if you haven't done an update, your website can actually hurt you.

The site must be responsive, it must adapt to display in a mobile as in a PC. Today 74% of users connected to the network use mobile to search for information on the network, if your site does not adapt to the different devices (PC, tablet, mobile) your users will not deepen the content present on the site, even if it is high interest.

3. Ease of use

A further important aspect is the structure of the information : it must be developed so that it can be reached at any time during navigation. The published content must use simple and very clear language, terms that only specialists would understand should be avoided since we must communicate with people who have different levels of knowledge of the subject.

You should always think about what patients are looking for and how easy it is to find information. Some questions to consider are:

• Could the patient know what services you offer within 10 seconds of viewing the home page?
• Is your contact information near the top of the page?
• Is the navigation bar at the top easy to understand and click?
• Is the site accessible to people with disabilities?
• Could a slow site speed prevent someone from staying on your site?

User experience is something that marketers always keep in mind to develop clear Healthcare Communication. An elegant design is only part of the equation, it must be simple to navigate.

4. High-quality, relevant and personalized images

If you want to make your website attractive, using images and graphics will help your reader remember your business. Choose an image that attracts attention and that is relevant to the services provided. Remember, however, that beautiful photos taken inside the healthcare facilities, the staff and the medical devices used increasingly attract the attention of patients because they tell the place and its history.

High quality images are important for any website and should be as relevant as possible to your medical facility or services provided by the study.

You should also try to target your typical or ideal patient. Finding images that represent the typical patient by age, appearance or gender is particularly important in healthcare website marketing, where patients want to know that a hospital or practice is inclusive.

5. Use simple jargon, avoid technicalities

• People often have a tendency to write at their level of understanding rather than what the average reader expects. Always try to focus on.
• Short and simple sentences.
• Short paragraphs with clear headings for each section.
• Bulleted lists to simplify the description of the services and services provided, common questions, etc.
• The descriptions should focus on the patient's needs in the second person, which means that the word "you" should be used frequently.
• Simple vocabulary, avoid too many technicalities.

If you are going to use technical, academic or medical terms, it must be for a reason and it should be defined. Patients do not want to know how endoscopes are used but simply what services you offer and how you can cure certain clinical pathologies. Always consider this aspect when you decide to develop your website: think about the terms that patients use when they talk to you, these could change based on the target audience you focus on.

Digital communication consultant. I deal with Strategy and Digital Communication. Web & Digital Manager, SEO, eCommerce, Content, Social Media. Songwriter, Guitar Player, and then anyway I look at everything.