If you’re a practicing healthcare provider and don’t have a medical practice website yet, the time has come: you need a website!
An online presence is no longer optional for healthcare providers. Patients are constantly seeking health information and searching for new doctors online. Plus, having a medical practice website can help streamline patient check-ins, make a patient portal easily accessible, and help educate patients about common health issues.
As the online face of your practice, your website’s content and design need to both attract and inform new and current patients.
So where do you start?
Building a practice website can seem overwhelming, but the good news is there are plenty of affordable, user-friendly website creation tools out there for you! Creating a simple website today is within reach for anyone with a small budget and a free weekend.
Here’s our quick-start guide to building your practice website – in six easy steps.
Find a website host.
Chances are, if you’ve searched for website hosting, you’ve heard of WordPress. It’s arguably the best-known website host, and it offers two options to get you started.
- Wordpress.com – Purchase domain through Wordpress.com and design and operate your site through a basic, limited platform online. (The easier option for beginners.)
- Wordpress.org – Purchase a domain through external site (Think: GoDaddy) and pay monthly or annual hosting fees while having more freedom and ownership over the creation and design of your website.
You have plenty of other options, but if you’re looking for fast and easy, these are two of the best ways to go.
Choose a domain name.
Your domain name needs to be relevant, easy to remember, and associated with your practice. But keep in mind that the Internet has about one billion websites already, so some of your first choices may already be taken.
Brainstorm your domain name with these prompts:
- Personal name. Ex: drtomjones.com or www.tomjonesmd.com
- Practice name. Ex: healthcare-associates.com
- Specialty. Ex: www.pediatricorthopedistcare.com
- Location. Ex: www.yourtownophthalmologist.com
You can even combine any of these if your first tries aren’t working out—just don’t make the domain name too long.
Pick a website design template.
Choosing the right template can mean everything in terms of functionality and an attractive, professional style. WordPress offers many free and inexpensive templates (WP calls them “themes”) you can use. These are a great place to start if you’re just putting up a basic website.
If you do have a little marketing spend to invest, I’d recommend paying a little extra for something that looks professional and unique.
Check out these sites for ideas:
A decent template might run you between $20 and $200, but the right template can be well worth the investment.
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