Healthcare Web Design

A Comprehensive Healthcare Web Design Checklist: 7 Key Steps 

An updated and optimized healthcare web design is essential for converting leads in almost all industries, especially in the B2B healthcare field. In fact, over 70% of marketing leaders report that they redesign their websites every one to three years. [I] Consumers have little patience for old, outdated user experiences.

But if the idea of designing or redesigning your healthcare website sounds overwhelming, there’s no need to worry. We have developed a comprehensive checklist to help you prepare for building or updating a powerful and effective website with ease. Following these steps can help you have everything covered before embarking on your new website build or redesign.

Step #1: Establish Clear Goals

Developing and even redesigning a website can take significant time and money; you want to make sure you have clear goals in place so that you can get the most out of your investment.

Having unclear goals from the start will make it difficult to make informed and strategic decisions moving forward. The more specific your goals are, the easier it will be to make choices that align with those goals and to eventually measure whether you are meeting them down the line.

Some examples of specific healthcare web design or redesign goals might be to:

  •  Reach a wider audience
  •   Increase rankings
  •  Convert more leads
  •  Increase blog traffic
  •  Improve brand credibility

Step #2: Measure Existing Analytics (If Redesigning)

If you already have a website in place and have decided to redesign it, one of the very first things you should do is look at your existing analytics. According to HubSpot, some of the current performance metrics you should be looking at include overall site traffic, bounce rates, time on site, SEO rankings for certain keywords, and the number of new leads. [ii]

While regularly monitoring these metrics should already be a part of your overall marketing strategy, it is especially important to examine them closely when considering the objectives of your redesign. These current analytics can help you narrow in on even more specific goals and give you a benchmark to evaluate your redesign against moving forward.

If you are building a completely new website and don’t have any existing metrics to explore, you still need to consider what analytics tools you will use to monitor your site and measure your goals once developed.

Step #3: Evaluate Your Competitors

The next step to cross off on your healthcare web design or redesign preparation checklist is to spend some time evaluating your competitors’ websites.

While it’s helpful to see what is working well for them, the real aim of this step is to figure out how you can differentiate yourself as a brand. What is your unique selling proposition (USP), and how can you highlight it on your website?

You don’t want to spend thousands of dollars building or redesigning a website that is indistinguishable from dozens of other healthcare brands. Instead, use your competitors for insight into best practices while also simultaneously figuring out how to stand out from the crowd.

Step 4: Identify Buyer Personas

According to HubSpot, buyer personas are “semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on data and research. They help you focus your time on qualified prospects, guide product development to suit the needs of your target customers and align all work across your organization (from marketing to sales to service)”. [iii]

Creating buyer personas can help you target the content and messaging on your website to the right kinds of leads. If you’re redesigning your website and already have buyer personas in place, this could be a good opportunity to compare your buyer personas with actual customer data and to see how well they align. While it’s completely acceptable to have more than one persona, you want to make sure you are intentional with each of them and that they are all reflective of your ideal target audience.

If you are developing buyer personas from scratch, spend some time thinking about your customers’ frustrations, desires, and other relevant characteristics such as decision-making capabilities (particularly important in the B2B space). You can then use these personas to create more personalized and engaging content that will resonate with your leads.

Download our free Buyer Persona Template

Step 5: Create a Budget

The cost of developing (or even redesigning) a website can vary greatly depending upon many factors such as size, functionality, and features. It’s important to have a set budget in place that aligns with your needs and expectations before any building begins. You don’t want to find yourself halfway through the development process without any funds left.

According to 2022 data from Upwork, building a small business website can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $9,000 and a large one from $10,000 to $35,000. [iv] E-commerce and database websites generally cost even more. Researching costs upfront can give you a good picture of what can be done design-wise within your budget.

Check out our latest Smart Web-Design Plans.

Step 6: Develop a Sitemap

Once you have a budget in place and have a good understanding of what you want accomplished design-wise, your next step should be to create a sitemap. A sitemap is essentially a blueprint of all the different pages of your website and their corresponding hierarchy.

Not only can sitemaps help you keep your web pages and content organized, but they also act as a roadmap for search engines to better understand your website as a whole. [v] Building a sitemap can help ensure that the way you organize your pages will further your overall goals and objectives strategically.

Step 7: Find the Right Partner

Finally, the last step you need to take to prepare for your website design or redesign is to find the right web-design and development partner. While some companies choose to build their websites in-house, many healthcare brands outsource web development to agencies that specialize in web design and marketing.

Our team of experts at ArchKATect would love to partner with you to bring your website design ideas to life. As a dedicated healthcare marketing agency, we can help ensure that your website follows the latest trends and best practices in healthcare branding. From SEO to vision-focused messaging, we can help you fully develop or redesign your healthcare website to meet your unique goals.

References AND RESOURCES

  1. Gartner. (n.d.). How to Assess Your Website Before Launching a Redesign. [online] Available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/daily-insights/how-to-assess-your-website-before-launching-a-redesign [Accessed 18 May 2022].
  1. Vaughan, P. (2022). How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business. [online] Hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-research.
  1. www.upwork.com. (n.d.). How Much Does It Cost To Build a Website? (2022 Data) | Upwork. [online] Available at: https://www.upwork.com/resources/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-website.
  1. Kolowich, L. (2018). The Plain English Guide to XML Sitemaps. [online] Hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/build-sitemap-website.

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