As a doctor, dentist, therapist, or anything in between, keeping your doors open and your practice prosperous is a must. Like corporate retailers, you need to ensure that your business has patients, helps people with their medical issues, and makes the world a better place. 

One way that the world’s medical professionals can bring in new clients is with a well-designed website, and that’s where we come in. We’ll tell you about the newest design trends and the bells and whistles that can turn website visitors into paying patients.

Design Ideas

Start your website with an attention-grabbing theme. Whether you use WordPress or another hosting service, you’ll see many theme options. You might also hire a web designer to make one from scratch. Don’t rush with this decision because changing your theme will be very time-consuming once your website is up and running.

With that said, it’s wise to complete some research and look at the current web design trends to take advantage of what’s new and try to separate your site from the crowd. Lately, some trends include adding 3D illustrations, loading animations to take away some of the frustration when loading videos and pages, and customizable viewing experiences for each visitor.

While many folks have the urge to add a lot of videos, images, and multiple pages to their websites, medical professionals may want to take advantage of another trend: the creation of more lightweight and efficient websites. Patients looking for doctors and dentists may not have time to wait for long loading times, so efficiency can help them to find what they need and get into your office ASAP.

There are other graphic design trends that change with the times, including those that show themes of representation and belonging. If you want your medical practice to succeed, you should advertise the fact that you welcome patients of all races, cultures, and abilities. Show your dedication to diversity by displaying pictures of patients of diverse backgrounds and by making it known in the “about us” section that you welcome all patients. Other graphic design trends that can catch a patient’s eye include geometric shapes and simple hand-drawn illustrations. 

Good SEO Is Key

Next, you need to bring patients to your attractive new website, and you can do that by implementing SEO strategies. Search engine optimization is a collection of techniques that help to raise your website higher in search engine rankings. Since there’s a lot of competition among doctors, it’s wise to get the most visibility possible. Begin to create that visibility by building a Google business profile that will show up when patients search for a doctor in their area. It’s a way to show folks that they should trust your business.

While you can build a good SEO strategy in many ways, the most impactful step is creating smart keywords. Add keywords that patients should expect while including more targeted keywords depending on what you do, whether it’s “LASIK,” “dental surgery,” or anything in between. Make sure to use the keywords organically and avoid stuffing them in, or the search engines could penalize you for doing so.

Although patients may now be able to find your site, they won’t stick around if the website is slow, has broken links, or has other issues that make it hard to use. Once you have your design in place, test the website regularly. Verify that all links go where they should, that videos play without delay, and that your website is always up and running without outages. 

Make It Easy To Navigate

It’s also essential to choose a design that is easy for patients to navigate so they can find the information they need and make an appointment with as few clicks as possible. Don’t over-complicate your menu. Put it at the top of the site and make it obvious. Add no more than seven menu items and avoid drop-down menus because they can often come down too far and obscure the information the patient wants to read on the page.

The general rule of good design and navigation is to make it so visitors have to click as few times as possible to find what they need. This is especially important when helping them find the best way to contact you to make an appointment or ask questions before their visit. A recent trend in the medical world is the rise of doctors who are emailing and texting patients to give them appointment info, prescriptions, and more. This is a way to prevent phone tag and avoid delay when sharing information that is essential to a patient’s health.

You can also create a faster route of communication via lead generation plugins. These plugins might take the form of a chat box that pops up on the corner of the screen so patients can start a conversation in real time and make an appointment then and there. Another idea is to add an opt-in form to the site. It would allow visitors to sign up for a newsletter or mailing list so you can email them later with news about your clinic to encourage them to try out your services.

These are just a few design elements medical professionals can use to bring in more patients, and it’s really the tip of the iceberg. If you’re creating a website, research online and find the best innovative design for your needs.