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[00:00:00]  Saul: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Web Design Brisbane podcast. This is episode number 21. And today's episode is entitled Medical Websites Design Brisbane. My name is Saul Edmonds, and as usual, I'm joined by the lovely Gillian Smith.  

[00:00:13]  Gillian: Good morning soul and Hello, everyone. 

[00:00:15] Saul: Hello, there. We are the co-founders and creative directors of Roundhouse to creative agency, a local business with a passion for helping their clients grow. Over to you, Gill.

[00:00:24]  Gillian: Okay, well, in today's episode, we will talk about medical website design so we focus our discussion on local solutions for small businesses and professional practices in Brisbane. If you're seeking to grow your medical or healthcare practice online,  we can help you learn more about the range of medical website design services, and digital marketing solutions that are available today to help your business grow in new ways. Okay, so what's today's contents, Gill? 

[00:00:54]  Gillian: Okay, we'll talk about the process involved in medical web design, to help you better connect with your patients and promote your special services online. So today, will provide an overview of the recommended approaches, when starting a new medical website and from there will provide some insights to use when planning your medical website content, plus recommendations for marketing, development and launch. Well, that's a lot to cover here. 

[00:01:22]  Saul: Nuh, okay, let's get started then.

[00:01:24] Gillian: Okay, medical website design. So you've designed quite a few medical websites over the years, what is the best way to begin your project?

[00:01:33]  Saul: Okay, so to begin your project isn't necessarily that different to other websites, or to other services so it comes down to knowing exactly who your patients are, as well as an example, an example might be like, a quick example is if most of your patients are older paid, all the all the people who need to have specific information on your website about how to get the via public transport as well, like that. That's a small point, but things to consider more specific things about what people actually need to know in order to add value to your services.

[00:02:22]  Gillian: So you need to build your website, first and foremost, for your patients and your users.

[00:02:26]  Saul: Yeah, that's right. So that could be more structured, maybe then other sites around education and information that people need to know, before they come for a visit to your practice. 

[00:02:41]  Gillian: And I think it's important to focus on the positive. So what positive experiences and outcomes that can you offer to your patients? 

[00:02:48]  Saul: Yeah, that's right.

[00:02:48]  Gillian:  Okay, well, let's go into medical website planning. So what are some key points here? So when you're planning out your medical website? 

[00:02:56]  Saul: Okay,  we've got a few key things to target audience research, which talks a little bit into what we were just saying, discussion and feedback between stakeholders and your website agency that you're going to choose. You might have a number of people in your practice who equally share in that practice, to create a sitemap, obviously, with the sort of information you're going to have on it, they'll be more specific to the requirements for the site, and to optimize for search engines as well as always.

[00:03:31]  Gillian: Okay, from here, we'll go into talking about the medical website content, okay, the content is very important so from your experience, so what types of content do you recommend including in an effective medical website?

[00:03:44]  Saul: Okay, so there are certain things that I guess every medical practice would, would then not have on their site there. Which are to do with legal record events and other things that they can and can't say, but a primary thing would be educational content around for those things that they can say, about to information about before people come in for some sort of operations, training or procedures, anything, and that would not necessarily have to reside, so everyone can see it, if required, that could be on a private part of the site where people have to log in. If that's a specific requirement, of course, a description of services, information about the healthcare providers, and the practitioners within the practice. It could also have things like infographics that very simply explain, explain those services, if required medical illustrations as well, which once again, may be on the side for everyone to see, or for early for patients as well, and video content were required to.

[00:05:08]  Gillian: Okay, so you've planned your medical website, you've got your medical website content together. Okay, from there, do we go into design and development?

[00:05:17]  Saul: Yeah, well, that's right. But yeah, let's just take a step back. First, if we're going to everything, once again, starts with your brand. In my experience, a lot of people starting up their practice, generally, don't always have a brand at the standing of a brand-new practice, if they've finished their studies, or they've been in another area, and then moving into say, being a specialist. Many of those people don't have haven't thought about that so that needs to be a consideration. For the first..

[00:05:51]  Gillian: So your branding includes your logo, design your company colours?

[00:05:55]  Saul: That's right, and where required them to brand guidelines. And then also, like any good set of brand guidelines, being able to establish largely for internally, but so that it can roll out across any future marketing material, the value proposition, and the general core ideals that bind that whole business altogether.

[00:06:24]  Gillian: So when your branding is in place, you move on to developing the visual mock-ups and wireframe to the website in preparation for development?

[00:06:32]  Saul: Yeah, that's right. So you started to think about the site map and the type of content that's going to be on the and then the initial layout for the website so that's in line with your branding. 

[00:06:44]  Gillian: So do you recommend that people use WordPress websites is so generally used to medical websites, Squarespace or a custom solutions was more appropriate here for medical web solution?

[00:06:56]  Saul: Yeah, well, you would never if it's just purely an informational site, which most medical websites are, then using either WordPress or something like Squarespace is fine. But generally speaking, if you're going to want even if you don't need it now. But if you want to have more flexibility, in the long term, for options to add other different sorts of features, even if you don't know what those features are, then I would always use something like WordPress, because that gives you the flexibility to change quite easily, and then when it comes to hosting. If it is a specific requirement for some for a medical practice to use their own hosting their own web hosting, if they have an IT person who's helping them out, they've already got their own hosting, then us something like Squarespace you won't be able to do because it's got its own hosting already so you can use them WordPress, that would be the way to go. 

[00:08:10]  Gillian: Should people aim to work closely with their web agency and partner with them during this process, is how the recommended approach here?

[00:00:18]  Saul: Well, yeah, it's always that that just gets back to good communication, doesn't it is ideally the case. That's ideally the case. But let's be real, too, is that a lot of people, especially if they're specialists, and people don't necessarily have the time to do that, even if they want to, if they do, it's great, there’s usually always time to have an initial meeting and go over everything that they need to, but whoever else is involved, to help out through that process, still have a close relationship with whoever that person or people are always important. 

[00:09:04]  Gillian: Okay, well, after development, of course, that brings us to the launch of your new medical website. So what can you tell us about the launching process and the marketing thereafter?

[00:09:13  Saul: Okay, so if you've got, ideally, right at the beginning of this whole process, you would have identified that  some level of marketing or otherwise is a part of the scope of the project. If that is the case, then you may have time that launch also with the start of any marketing as well. It's time at the same time, as you're going to do that. If that's not the case, then launching any side, including these sorts of sites, there's a level of being able to test that just before launch after launch as well, just to make sure everything is working exactly how it should, and everybody knows how to receive information from it as well. Anyone internally has also had some level of training, which we always have for our clients about how to use their, your website if they wish to, and thank you so much, guys yet again, for listening to this podcast. That's it for today regarding medical websites, before we go, please don't forget to rate review and subscribe to this podcast. We'd love to hear your feedback. Also, if you'd like to read the transcript of this episode, please visit our website at roundhouse.cc/web-design. We're on a journey to help local businesses grow the opportunities online and exceed their goals. Thanks for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye

[00:010:52]  Gillian: Bye.