Four Mistakes that Plague Medical Websites

Posted in Digital Healthcare Insights

We need to talk about your medical website. Maybe it’s years old or has just been polished up and released to the world. Whatever the case, you’d NEVER have it live and online if you knew it featured design errors or functionality problems that could cost you 20 million euro. And yet this is exactly what might be happening if your website makes these four critical mistakes… 

1. You’re Using Stock Images Instead of Real Photos of Your People

Trust is important for any business, but it’s perhaps no more important than in the medical industry. When you use stock images, your audience knows you’re faking it.

See stock image Sally? Sally works for everyone. She’s not going to inspire trust. Use real pictures of your team. Better yet, include rich sources of media that you’ve created yourself (think team member video interviews and an industry podcast).

Worst that Could Happen?

Your visitors leave without converting, with only a poor impression of your brand to take away with them.

2. You’re Breaching GDPR Without Even Realising

From non-compliant contact forms to a missing cookie message, the risk of a GDPR misfire on your medical website is EVERYWHERE. Our best advice? You need a website expert who works in the medical world. Our second best advice is to be aware of what your website must have in order to be compliant, briefly summarised as…

• Creating a thorough privacy policy
• Obtaining clear consent to use cookies
• Ensuring your plugins comply with GDPR
• Limiting the data you collect and store via form submissions to ONLY the data required for the request
• Cleaning up your mailing lists

Worst that Could Happen? A fine of up to  €20 million, or up to 4% of the annual worldwide turnover of the preceding financial year (whichever is greater).

3. You’ve Focused on Being Pixel Perfect (Rather Than on Your Visitors)

Your website looks exceptionally good. Real imagery, GDPR compliant, brand-new branding, the works. But you’ve neglected to focus on the main tasks that your visitors hope to achieve by visiting your website, like booking an appointment, learning about your services or ‘meeting’ your team. 

Worst that Could Happen?

You frustrate your visitors, who clog up your phone lines with inquiries that should be handled by your website (best case).

Worst case, they leave, never to be seen again (are you seeing a running theme here?).

4. Your Copy – It Either Bores Visitors to Death or Misinforms Them

There are two main problems that often apply to the copy of medical websites. 

One – they ARE written by medical professionals, but the result puts your visitors to keep.

OR two – they are written by a pro copywriter. The content is engaging and keeps your visitors reading. But it also gives out misleading medical advice. 

Worst that Could Happen?

Your visitors follow incorrect medical guidance and their condition worsens (legal wranglings will be just around the corner).

OR your visitors up and leave (better).