Top Five Tips for Healthcare Practitioners to Increase their Website Conversions

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The Connect the Doc Team
June 14, 2023
5
min. read

Your goal, as a healthcare clinic owner, is to find or create opportunities to better your practice. This should begin with the first impression your patients have of you, which 9 out of 10 times will begin with an information search on your website. Here are some need-to-know tips on how to convert transactional users on your website.

1) Intuitive and Basic Site Layout

Your website is a direct reflection of your practice. Your competition is actively investing in their websites, so it is important to differentiate and be one step ahead, while still following three basic rules of web design:

  • Your online visitor must be able to navigate through your website with ease.
  • The website must be user-friendly with simple communication and messaging between your website and the user.
  • Visuals can be an excellent form of communicating a message, but if used excessively, it could be detrimental to your user’s experience. Your graphics should appropriately convey your message without leading to sensory overload.

2) Easy, Attainable and Trustworthy Information

Contact information should not be a difficult find. Don't lose a lead from an inconveniently placed piece of information. Traditionally, you should have your clinic address, email, and phone number in your header on your homepage, or easily accessible in your “Contact Us” portion of your website.

Testimonials are an excellent way to instill trust and overcome user skepticism. Though not many people view their healthcare-going experience as “being sold something”, at the end of the day, you as a practitioner are still selling a service, and testimonials can typically alleviate this negative stigma towards sales.

Choosing the right testimonial for your clinic’s website may not be an easy task. You will want to provide your viewers with a positive testimonial with relatable substance. For example, a testimonial such as:

This clinic is GREAT! As soon as I walked through the door, the receptionist warmly greeted me BY NAME, and offered me a glass of water. What great customer service! I’m so glad I came to your clinic!” 

may not evoke the same emotion as:

Dr. Smith is an excellent practitioner. I’ve been to three other clinics for my pain, with no luck. She diagnosed me within the first ten minutes of her consultation, and fixed my problem within minutes. My pain is officially gone!”

The first testimonial is warm, and bubbly (which could definitely appeal to a certain demographic), but the second testimonial clearly substantiates your claims as a healthcare practitioner that states that you help your patients get healthy. A good testimonial gives you credibility, is comparative, and highlights your skills as a practitioner. Good luck choosing! 

3) Speed Up Load Times for your Website

In this increasingly more time conscious world, it is important to be mindful of the load-time for your website. Our research has shown that even a one second delay on your website can significantly decrease online conversions. The losses incurred are:

  • 16% decrease in user satisfaction
  • 11% fewer page views
  • 7% loss in conversions

(source: Aberdeen Group)

The Yahoo Developer Network states that 80% of the loading time process is spent downloading images, scripts, Flash, etc. If you decrease the number of components to the page, you will directly reduce the time required to render your webpage. When creating or recreating your website, always stick to a lean methodology, which means consider compressing files, reducing the number of plug-ins, optimizing images, and combining files. With the implementation of these techniques, you will inevitably see your webpage load quicker, which will lead to a more desirable conversion rate.

4) Social Media Integration (Good or Bad?)

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are all excellent (free) tools that will target your prospective users network, and we definitely encourage you to take advantage of these options. But what is the best way to capitalize on these tools?

If a user on your website has a positive experience, they may possess the propensity to share their experience. If you provide your prospects with the tools to simply and efficiently redistribute their experience to their peers, for example, via a Facebook share button, then they would be more inclined to do so, thus exposing your practice to a plethora of relevant convert potentials. In theory, this sounds terrific!

However, what if your website has poor online visibility and thus low traffic? If a user comes to yourow volume of likes or shares, it will negatively impact the perception of your practice. Additionally, these social media icons could distract the user from the end-goal, which is to book an appointment with your clinic.

Overall, social media has its pros and cons, but in order to mitigate the cons, it is important to have a strong social media strategy that considers both ends of the spectrum.

5) Clarity with Value Messaging

To reiterate, one of your main business goals is to have a clear and concise message on your website, because a strong value proposition is fundamental for a successful conversion rate. This being said, what should you implement in a value proposition?

  • Specificity will help differentiate yourself from your competitors
  • Clarity and precision will quickly convey the point of your message to the viewer
  • Avoid slogans: For example, “We Heal”, or “Life’s Good Now” does not effectively communicate the information
  • Concrete and quantifiable results such as number of years practicing and number of patients being treated will have an effective impact

Key Takeaway

Create a positive experience with your website and your prospective patient by capitalizing on these five main steps. This will generate trust, credibility, opportunity and most importantly influence with your prospect, which will then lead to a stronger conversion rate with your website, and will inevitably help your clinic start treating more patients!

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