1. You Get What You Pay For – Effective web design is specialty work. The best choice is to contract a professional design company who will ensure that you objectively and effectively get the best site possible.
If you decide to hire a cheap contractor or make one yourself using templates, etc, your site may soon become a whole lot more trouble than its worth and you will wish that you had just made that initial investment in a quality site.
2. SEO, SEO, and more SEO – Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are techniques that ensure that your site is as search engine friendly as possible. Being proficient in SEO goes hand in hand with your page rankings and are the key factor in bringing new visitors to your site.
3. Avoid Flash if Possible – Unfortunately, IPhones and IPads, a significant chunk of the mobile device market, cannot run Flash content. The patient in the waiting room or the doctor outside a patient’s room might run into a big blank box on a medical website design that relies on Flash. Similarly, for mobile users of other devices that can run Flash, Flash can be a battery drain and time consuming to load over a wireless network. Besides the audience of mobile users affecting the website’s design, search engines prefer content made without Flash. Although limited support for Flash content exists in search engines like Google, it is far better to avoid Flash.
4. Use Original Photos and Graphics when Possible – Avoid stock photos, which will do nothing to set you apart from your competition. You only have one chance to make a first impression, and often times your pictures on your website will serve as just that. Consider making the extra investment and hiring a professional photographer. In this way you can ensure that the potential customer will get the best possible online presentation and showcase of your office. Remember that your potential customers need a strong degree of comfortability!
5. Don’t Hide From Your Customers! – You could have the most functional website on the planet, but if your potential customers cannot connect with you, what is the point? Make it easy for your potential patients to find your contact information. Your email, address, and especially phone number should be very prominent on each web page and very easy to read.