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In relation to running a medical practice, think of website development as the closest thing to actually performing the procedures or treatments on your patients. Without medical education and training, there are many aspects of running a medical practice that a person can reasonably accomplish such as business operations, staffing, billing, and more. But when it comes to performing the procedures or treatments, a person must have the proper education and training for successful results. The same goes for website development when it comes to the different aspects of digital marketing, it’s the one piece of the mix that you should always leave to a professional with the proper training and education, here are the reasons why:
1. Responsiveness
A growing number of patients are using smartphones and tablets to browse the web. In fact, mobile browsing now accounts for over half of all web traffic. Therefore, it’s critical that your business’s website is compatible with today’s mobile technologies. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your audience will simply “bounce off” of the website if they find the experience not to be user-friendly. Every lost visitor on your website is potentially a lost patient.
2. SEO
What’s the point of having a website if none of your potential patients can find it? Every website should be built with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind throughout the entire web building process. Professional developers understand this and know how to properly code for SEO, how to properly upload and optimize content, and create each page of a site in the most favorable way to keep search engines happy.
3. Site speed
In today’s age of instant gratification, it’s important that a website loads as quickly as possible. A slow-loading website can mean the difference between keeping or losing a visitor which can also mean the difference between gaining or losing a potential patient. Professional web developers know how to optimize your website and every piece of content in it to load as quickly as possible and creates a great user experience.
4. User experience
Having a website with great user experience is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. In the same way that website speed is important for a website visitor’s first impression, UX is important for the remainder of their time on a website. If a website is difficult to navigate or understand, it’s very likely that you can lose a visitor. Professional web developers understand how to build a website so it has a seamless and pleasant user experience.
5. Saves time
One of the more obvious advantages of hiring a professional (for any portion of your practice’s marketing) is saving time. When it comes to website development, that amount of time can be extremely considerable. From the time it takes to learn how to properly build a website, to the time it takes to actually do the work of building it, producing content, updating the site, fixing bugs, and more. It’s an extremely time-consuming undertaking that should be left to the pros so you can save that time for your patients.
6. Design and branding
An often-overlooked aspect of a professional website developer’s job is to ensure the design is not only up-to-date with the latest design and UX trends, but also has consistent branding and messaging throughout. A website with an outdated design or messy branding can leave a bad impression on a visitor and likely lead to a rather sizeable drop in patient conversion on your website.
7. Support
“Oh no! There’s a 404 page on my website, what do I do? What does 404 even mean? Help!”
There is a never-ending barrage of technical issues that can occur during the lifespan of a website. Sometimes those issues can be so intricate that a developer has to spend hours digging into the code to find solutions or figure out what was broken. It’s important to have a professional developer on call for support if and likely when something goes wrong. Remember, every second your website is down, you’re losing potential patients.
Save the DIY for Pinterest, not your medical website
It may be tempting to try to save a few dollars by building your medical website yourself, but at the end of the day it will end up costing you exponentially more in lost revenue. The “drag and drop” website builders of the world are poorly optimized, lack customization, and most importantly they don’t have a professional at the helm to built the website for optimal conversion. And don’t even try to learn to code yourself by taking some online “Coding 101” courses – you’ll never be able to do a fraction as well as a professional with years of education, training, and practice. Your time should be spent focusing on helping the patients in your medical practice.