How to Know if Your Healthcare Website is Outdated

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How to Know if Your Healthcare Website is Outdated
According to Google, 5 of all search queries are
healthcare related. Even that small percentage
amounts to over 1 billion searches per day.
Knowing what specific questions and queries these
users are looking for is extremely important to
the success of your website. But it wont be
enough if your website is outdated. People
frequently visit healthcare websites because they
want information about health conditions and
treatments, or they are looking for a new
provider. Your website is their first impression
of your practice. If your site is outdated,
visitors might view your practice as being out of
touch, poorly managed, disorganized, or stuck in
a bygone era. So, what are the most obvious
signs that your website is outdated? In this
article, well take a closer look at those signs
and offer some suggestions about improvements you
can make to bring your website into the 21st
century. Is Your Website Unresponsive with
Slow-Loading Pages? A website unresponsive to
different devices and screen sizes makes it
difficult to read and leads to an unsatisfactory
user experience. A modern website must
automatically adjust to desktops, laptops,
tablets, and mobile phones. An outdated website
will also have slow-loading pages. Websites built
using older code are naturally more sluggish.
Unfortunately, todays healthcare consumers are
impatient and often pressed for time. If it takes
longer than three seconds for your pages to load,
nearly half of
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your visitors will leave your site immediately.
Up-to-date websites use HTML 5 coding to store
data locally on a users browser, eliminating the
need for HTTP cookies so content loads faster.
HTML 5 allows for a faster, smoother experience
due to its focus on mobile device
compatibility. Does Your Site Have a Bad Overall
Appearance? Your healthcare website should have a
clean, uncluttered, modern appearance. It should
avoid older type fonts and colored backgrounds
that make reading your content difficult. Use
easy-to-read fonts and content formatted with
headings and subheads to separate different
sections and topics. Avoid long content that
fills your pages without breaks and overwhelms
readers.
To improve your overall appearance, use a content
management system (CMS) such as Squarespace or
WordPress. Squarespace is a good option for
designers who arent tech-savvy and can afford a
more expensive service. WordPress is less costly
and more customizable with more design themes and
useful widgets. Is Your Site Mobile-Friendly? Ac
cording to DataReportal.com, 92.4 percent of the
worlds internet visitors now use mobile phones
to go online at least some of the time. In
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fact, mobile phones now account for more than
half of our total online time. If your website is
not mobile-friendly it will alienate users and
hurt your Google ranking. Google knows that
user-preferred mobile phones are convenient for
accessing health services on the go. Thats why
your website needs a mobile-friendly interface.
Without it, your visitors are forced to pinch-
zoom in and out just to read your content, which
is frustrating, time- consuming, and
inconvenient, not to mention a clear sign that
your site is outdated. Does Your Website Have
Missing Links and Buttons? Have you checked your
website lately to ensure that your buttons and
links work as you intended? Broken links on your
pages will make them look old, especially if they
are unresponsive or lead to error pages. This
negatively affects the visitor experience and
makes it nearly impossible for your site to rank
on Googles first page. Buttons will look
different on a computer than on a small phone
screen. If users must zoom in on their phones to
read and click a button, they will feel that user
friendliness simply isnt a priority at your
practice. Buttons shouldnt appear to link to
something if they dont. For example, your social
media icons should link back to your social media
pages. If you use underlined and/or colored text,
it should link to another web page with
additional or similar information. If something
looks like it will take the user to another page
when clicked, then it should. Failure to do so is
not only a clear sign your site is outdated, but
Google also considers it malicious and will
remove you from their database entirely. Does
Your Site Have an SSL Certificate?
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Most users today can tell if a website is secure
simply by looking at its URL. A URL that includes
https and a lock icon indicates that it
contains a secure socket layer (SSL) certificate.
An SSL certificate authenticates and confirms
your sites identity and encrypts the data it
sends to a server. This makes getting an SSL
certificate for websites critically important
it shows you want to protect your web
visitors. With so many cybersecurity risks,
online businesses should have SSL certificates.
If your site doesnt have one, itll seem
outdated and not focused on users security. Do
You Have SEO-Friendly Website Structure? Having
an SEO-friendly website structure is another
critical factor if you want your site to avoid
being labeled as outdated. Is your site easy to
navigate? Is it logically structured to
facilitate a positive user experience (UX)? This
is important because Google knows that 88 of
online users are unlikely to return to a site
after a bad experience. Boosting your UX need not
be difficult. For example, lets say you use a
Back to Top button in your page content. This
button allows users to jump to the beginning of a
page. Its convenient and much faster than
scrolling, especially with long content
pages. Whether your navigation bar is at the top
of your pages or on the side, it can enhance the
UX by making it easier for visitors to find what
theyre looking for. Having too many options can
be overwhelming, so it pays to simplify with
easily digestible navigation menus. Does Your
Website Lack Up-To-Date Content? While overall
design attracts users to your pages, good content
is what keeps them there. If you dont have
accurate, up-to-date content on your site, search
engines will view it as being inactive. By
ignoring your
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content and letting it sit there unchanged for
years, youll surely get less traffic over
time. Make sure your content is informative and
relevant to visitors interests and includes the
most recently available information about health
conditions and treatments. Make sure your
statistics are up to date. Remember that your
website is a dynamic tool that needs regular
updates to avoid being relegated to the outdated
junk heap. On an updated website, visitors wont
have to waste time trying to find the most
relevant content. The most relevant and current
information should be the easiest for visitors to
find. Avoid sending your visitors on a scavenger
hunt to find the content they need. Is Your Site
Missing Patient Testimonials? Patient
testimonials are more critical than ever. They
show that your practice updates your content
while highlighting your expertise through
patients feedback. Past and current patient
testimonials help you attract more new patients.
Prospective patients typically look for reviews
and testimonials before deciding whether they
should choose a particular provider. By
regularly adding new testimonials, youre making
a concerted effort toward updating your content.
If you dont update your testimonials, new
visitors will assume that your patients arent
giving you positive reviews. They might even
think your practice is no longer in
business. Does Your Site Include Online
Scheduling and Bill Pay Options? Younger patient
prospects value convenience and digital options.
They also prefer avoiding personal contact. Your
website will appear outdated if you do not offer
contactless online scheduling and payment options.
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The practice they choose should offer quick,
easily accessible online scheduling options. Most
younger patients are more likely to choose a
practice where they can quickly schedule an
appointment with just a few mouse clicks at any
time and from anywhere. When it comes to
bill-paying options, the notion of writing a
check and mailing a payment or calling a practice
to pay over the phone is severely outdated.
Instead, offer online bill-pay options for
time-saving convenience. Does Your Site Offer
Chat Messaging? Todays healthcare consumers
value convenience more than ever. If a patient
has a quick question, they shouldnt have to call
your practice or send you an email. Communication
with a real person takes too long when you
consider hold times on the phone or waiting for
an email response. They might also have questions
after office hours when no one can take their
call. Thats why more health practices now
include online features such as instant messaging
or chatbots. These features enable visitors to
get their questions answered quickly. You should
know that 67 of consumers used chatbots in the
last year. If your website doesnt offer instant
communication, visitors will think youre
outdated. Does Your Site Offer Online Access to
Electronic Medical Records? Now that most
practices have moved toward using electronic
medical records instead of paper records,
patients should be able to access portions of
their records online. Some practice websites use
a secure
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patient portal or password protected MyChart
system much like the one used by the
world-renowned Cleveland Clinic. Patients can
view their test results, current health issues,
immunizations, and more. Secure systems like
these are accessible 24/7 for patient
convenience. The MyChart system also lets
patients schedule appointments and message their
providers directly. If your website does not
provide this convenience, youre outdated. It
also means you may have privacy issues when
sending patient information electronically such
as through email.
Do You Remember the Last Time You Updated Your
Website? If not, your website is probably old
and outdated. The healthcare industry is
constantly changing. If your practice is changing
then your website should be changing, too. For
example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all
healthcare websites posted alerts announcing how
they were responding and handling patient visits.
If your website didnt include this messaging,
visitors were likely to perceive your practice as
insensitive to this important health issue and
out of touch with reality. If your practice does
anything that affects your patients, you must
include it on your website. Its one of the
easiest ways to keep patients informed. Do You
Have a HIPAA Compliance Website? Its extremely
important that you have a HIPAA-compliant
website. There are hefty fines for
non-compliance, so it is important to make sure
your website is compliant and that your patients
personal records are
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fully protected. That way, you can ensure that
youre following government mandates while
maintaining patient privacy and keeping your
visitors minds at ease. Conclusion Since so
many patients use the internet for finding health
information, they may end up on your practices
website at some point. To boost your traffic and
increase your appointment rate, youll need to
impress visitors with your modern design,
relevant content, fast-loading pages,
conveniences, and time-saving amenities, not to
mention HIPAA compliance. None of that will
happen if you have an outdated website. Visitors
will get frustrated and go elsewhere. To avoid
being perceived as outdated, you must use current
features and relevant information for your
healthcare practice online. You can start by
running an audit on your website. Visit your own
pages and see how long it takes for them to load.
Re-read content you published two years ago to
ensure its accuracy and click on your links to
make sure they work. Look for other outdated
website examples and compare whats outdated on
your own website. Then, fix it or get
professional help. If you need help updating your
website, look to the healthcare marketing and web
development specialists at Practice Builders. To
learn more, visit practicebuilders.com or call
855.898.2710.