Businesses across all industries have come to the realisation that a strong online presence is not only a necessity anymore, but a vital tool to get clients and to engage stakeholders.
In this article, Marc, Alecto’s online marketing expert explains why a GP practice website not only matters to attract patients, but also to get doctors.
According to a survey by doctor.com, 80% of people start their search for a doctor or health provider online. Four out of five respondents used Google and other search engines to find health-related information on the internet. With the rise of smart phones, it has become easier than ever to get information from the internet. It makes sense, because it needs to be convenient and fast.
Attracting new patients and keeping them for the long-term is essential to run a successful GP practice, but in our experience many practices struggle more with finding doctors to keep up with patient demand. Under the current circumstances, fully qualified GPs have a lot of choice. They’ve come to the realisation that practices desperately need doctors and as a result of this, GPs have become pickier in where they want to work, who they want to work with and what hours they choose.
Unless directly referred to a practice by a GP colleague, most doctors start their job search online and many of them go through a GP recruitment company like Alecto to help them find the right fit. Because we know our practice clients really well, we are in a position to advise our GP candidates about a prospective practice and more often than not we are able to find the “perfect match”, but somewhere along the recruitment process, GPs will look at the website of their prospective employer to get a better picture about the practice.
A poorly designed website, the lack of the right information and failing to address the users’ website experience are factors that contribute to a bad first-impression. In our experience, this very first impression matters a lot to GPs who look for a job. Afterall, the website is an extension of your practice. This means if your website is presented poorly, GPs automatically make assumptions about your practice, for example that it doesn’t have many patients or that it’s not managed very well. As a matter of fact, we often get feedback from GP candidates expressing their concerns after exploring practice websites.
We find that many practice websites are presented very poorly and it’s evident that not enough time and budget has been allocated to maintain an excellent online presence.
To help you navigate website questions and issues, we have put together below FAQs that will help you address your practice website.
I’m not a website expert, so how do I know whether my website is good enough the way it’s presented?
It’s advisable to consult with specialists in this field. At Alecto, we offer a website audit that addresses all vital factors, such as design, website structure, information architecture, website content, search engine optimisation, imagery and visuals, conversion optimisation, user experience and much more. What you can expect is a report with a detailed analysis and a set of actionable recommendations. Please get in touch with us for a quote for a website audit.
Our website performs poorly, and the design looks outdated. Do you recommend improving the current website or getting a new website done?
Technologic advances move at a rapid speed and a website can be outdated after a few years. In most cases it makes more sense to invest into an entirely new website. Improving an existing website is not only more complicated, but it can also become more expensive. Often old technologies don’t merge well with new technologies and therefore it’s sometimes better to go with the latest standards.
We are thinking about getting a new website. Who is the best web designer for the job?
There are many avenues you can take to get a website up and running. Generally said, a specialised web design agency is your best bet. But even with agencies, the level of quality ranges from top notch to very poor quality. Just because they claim to be experts, doesn’t mean they really are. It’s important to find the right fit.
A website needs a lot of planning before it’s being designed and developed and that’s where many agencies fail due to budget and time constraints. In our opinion its best to do the website planning with an independent party before you start working with a website agency.
At Alecto, we can help you plan your website and choose the best agency to work with.
Things to avoic for a professional website:
- Use wix or other website builders and do the website yourself
- Use a freelancer that is only specialised in one area such as web development but has no skills in designing and planning a website
- Use a web design provider just because they are cheap
- Build a website without planning
How much should we spend on a new website?
There is no single right answer to this question. Like with anything else, the saying goes “You get what you pay for” and especially in the web design industry, this saying couldn’t be truer. You can get a simple website for as much as $500 or it can go as high as $30k. If you choose a very cheap provider, it’s likely that many vital website factors will not be considered, and your website will be built on a standard template with little customisation.
If you want a high quality website, we recommend working with a professional provider and the budget you would need to plan for could be anywhere between $10-20k.
I have other questions regarding our website or online marketing for our practice.
Please get in touch with us and our digital expert will get back to you to answer all your questions.