What pages must a healthcare professional’s website contain? There are several ways to look at the question. Find your website’s goal below and see what pages you’ll need.
Internet necessities
For a basic website, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a doctor, a dentist, or a dog trainer. You need a Home Page. You need About Us and Contact pages to look trustworthy, and because patients will look there for a map and perhaps for forms to download and insurance information. You need a blog for SEO. You need Services pages, and you might need Products pages, too.
The standard business navigation bar has become standard for a reason.
Meaningful use
If you’re using a patient portal for Electronic Health Records, you need an engaging place for it to live. It has to be easy for patients to find, and it needs to be on a web page that has enough information for patients to be able to figure out how to use it.
New patients should be able to figure out whether they want to make an appointment, too. It should be easy for them to make that appointment, and to find your office.
That means you’ll still need a Home Page and an About Us page to provide a trustworthy home for your portal. You’ll need a Contact page so new patients can make an appointment, and to contain the map so they can find you. If you’re seeking new patients, you’ll want to let them know what services you offer, so they won’t be calling and asking for things your practice doesn’t do, so you’ll need a Services page. You can put a link to your patient portal on your Home Page, but you might choose to give it a separate page, perhaps along with forms to download before a first visit.
You’ll want to provide patient education, of course, and a Blog is perfect for that. In the example below, it’s called “News.”
Streamlined patient service
It might be that your goal is not to increase your electronic offerings nor to help new patients find you, but simply to streamline patient care. If so, you’ll want a Home Page that provides basic information, as well as a Contact Us page with a map and easy ways to communicate with the office. You’ll want an About Us section and a Blog to answer common questions and provide frequently needed information — so you can reduce staff time spent answering those questions directly with each patient.
You will want to offer forms patients can download, fill out, and bring or email to the office. If there are a number of different forms that go with different services, you might choose to use Services pages to provide needed information and forms.
The pages you need
In the final analysis, your wellness website should include the same basic pages that any business or professional website should include.
We often add other pages. You might choose to have a special page for videos, or a page just for insurance information. You might want a page specially for new patients, or a Resources page with helpful links.
But you’ll probably need to start with the five standard pages for business:
- Home Page
- Services or Products
- Blog
- About Us
- Contact
You can add two more spots to your basic navigation, and you can have sub pages. Many websites have thousands of pages. There is no limit to the number of pages you can have. But think in terms of those first five when you first build your website. You can’t really do with less.
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