As a doctor, you know that specialization leads to better results. The same is true in website design. That is why we focus exclusively on building medical websites for doctors and healthcare practices.
There are specific requirements for medical websites, such as HIPAA compliance regulations, Online Patient Forms, creating medical content and more.
Additionally, if you intend on promoting your website online with Google Ads for Doctors or Facebook Ads for Doctors, then you need to be sure that your website is fully compliant and not promoting any healthcare products or services that fall outside of advertisers' strict healthcare advertising policies—otherwise your entire ad account could be blocked.
So do you really want a generalist building your medical website? No! You should work with a Website Design Agency that specializes in medical website design for doctors.
As with medical doctors, not all medical web design agencies are the same. The type of agency you need will depend on the specific needs of your medical practice. In order to help elicit these needs, we have listed below 9 questions you should ask before choosing a medical web design agency.
Doctor, ask yourself this: If you left your digital marketing agency today, would they allow you to take your domain name and website files with you?
Unfortunately, there are some agencies out there that do not. PatientPop, for example, provides medical practices with a website, but doctors are not allowed to keep the site in the event that they cut ties with the company.
From an SEO perspective, this is disastrous. What is the point of investing in an SEO campaign—for example creating backlinks and optimizing on-page content—if all your work is lost the moment you leave your agency?
For this reason, be sure to think through about site ownership before jumping into bed with any healthcare web design agency.
The price of medical website design ranges from almost free to thousands of dollars.
At the lower end of the scale, there are very affordable platforms with drag-and-drop options allowing you to create a website yourself. However, these often come with limitations, such as a lack of customizability, poor optimization for search engines, plus no guarantee that the site is HIPAA compliant.
At the higher end, bespoke agencies can charge over $30,000 for a new website. While they can offer a site with all the bells and whistles, such a price often falls outside the marketing budget of an average physician practice.
Here at Red Castle Services, we provide customized HIPAA-compliant medical website design—with high-speed hosting for optimum SEO performance—for just $129 / month.
Creating a new medical website can take anywhere between a few hours and a few months, depending on factors such as urgency, availability of existing content and images, the capacity of the digital agency, as well as login access to pre-existing website files and hosting.
If you are like most medical practices we work with, then you want your new website ready 'as soon as possible'. So be sure to ask your medical web design agency how long it will take them. And beware—when it comes to web developers, there is a general rule that you should take the timeframe they quote and double it as there are often delays.
That being said, it is often possible to launch a new site in a matter of days. The same goes for revamping an existing website—assuming you have the login information, making updates and improvements can be done relatively quickly.
Before getting started with building a new medical website for your practice, it's important to first consider what functionality you require. Possible medical website functions include:
What's the point of having one of the best medical websites if no one can find it?
For this reason, we specialize not only in building medical websites but also performing online marketing for doctors and medical practices. One of the best digital marketing strategies is medical SEO. This is the process of positioning a medical website at the top of search results on search engines—such as Google.
In addition to SEO, you may also consider the following ways to promote your medical website:
As with any business, medical practices are not static—they change over time and often need to update their website to reflect these changes. Such changes typically include:
Most web developers charge a fee per hour for making such edits. This can add up. But with Red Castle Services, all ongoing changes are included in the monthly fee.
Ok, so imagine your website is live. What next? How do you know how well the site is 'performing'? This is where healthcare analytics come into play. Be sure to ask your agency to set this up. Data points you may want to monitor include the following:
Read more about Medical Marketing Analytics.
As with medical doctors, not all medical web design agencies are the same. The type of agency you need will depend on the specific needs of your medical practice. In order to help elicit these needs, we have listed below 6 questions you should ask before choosing a medical web design agency.
The price of medical website design ranges from almost free to thousands of dollars.
At the lower end of the scale, there are very affordable platforms with drag-and-drop options allowing you to create a website yourself. However, these often come with limitations, such as a lack of customizability, poor optimization for search engines, plus no guarantee that the site is HIPAA compliant.
At the higher end, bespoke agencies can charge over $30,000 for a new website. While they can offer a site with all the bells and whistles, such a price often falls outside the marketing budget of an average physician practice.
Here at Red Castle Services, we provide customized HIPAA-compliant medical website design—with high-speed hosting for optimum SEO performance—for just $129 / month.
Creating a new medical website can take anywhere between a few hours and a few months, depending on factors such as urgency, availability of existing content and images, the capacity of the digital agency, as well as login access to pre-existing website files and hosting.
If you are like most medical practices we work with, then you want your new website ready 'as soon as possible'. So be sure to ask your medical web design agency how long it will take them. And beware—when it comes to web developers, there is a general rule that you should take the timeframe they quote and double it as there are often delays.
That being said, it is often possible to launch a new site in a matter of days. The same goes for revamping an existing website—assuming you have the login information, making updates and improvements can be done relatively quickly.
Before getting started with building a new medical website for your practice, it's important to first consider what functionality you require. Possible medical website functions include:
What's the point of having one of the best medical websites if no one can find it?
For this reason, we specialize not only in building medical websites but also performing online marketing for doctors and medical practices. One of the best digital marketing strategies is medical SEO. This is the process of positioning a medical website at the top of search results on search engines—such as Google.
In addition to SEO, you may also consider the following ways to promote your medical website:
As with any business, medical practices are not static—they change over time and often need to update their website to reflect these changes. Such changes typically include:
Most web developers charge a fee per hour for making such edits. This can add up. But with Red Castle Services, all ongoing changes are included in the monthly fee.
Ok, so imagine your website is live. What next? How do you know how well the site is 'performing'? This is where healthcare analytics come into play. Be sure to ask your agency to set this up. Data points you may want to monitor include the following:
Read more about Medical Marketing Analytics.
All websites, including medical websites, need to be ADA (American Disabilities Act) Compliant. Specifically, websites need to ensure that they are accessible to people with disabilities.
In practice, this means adding descriptive tags to your website content, so that people with visual disabilities can use audio tools to hear the description in lieu of seeing the content.
Yes, it is sometimes quicker, easier, and cheaper to update an existing website rather than build a brand-new site. That being said, you should consider the long-term goals of your practice and decide accordingly. For example, if your current site is loading slowly and has low conversion rates, it may be wise to switch to a template that is proven to generate high rates of patient conversion.
Please note also that, even if you choose to build a new site, much of your current content can still be salvaged. The content is simply repackaged in a better-looking and faster-loading template.
Red Castle is Here for You. Check out our New, Mobile-Friendly Website Starter Package for only
Here at Red Castle Services, we believe that creating a medical website is a two-stage process. First, there is the stage of creating an amazing website that meets all of your practice's needs. That is the easy part.
Second, there is the stage of digital marketing for the website—to ensure that patients can find it. After all, what is the point of an amazing website if no one can find it?
If you are a doctor who likes to keep the end goal (more patients!) in mind, then we would love to work with you. Read more about us—including WHO WE ARE and WHAT WE BELIEVE.
Want more patients? Get your FREE e-book guide and find out how to get your medical practice TOP of Google and grow your practice.
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