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Your practice website is terrible! Everyone says so. Time to make a clean sweep, get rid of it and start again. STOP! Don’t be so hasty. As the Military say: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance! Or just poor performance if you are feeling like a delicate flower. Here’s a few tips to help you frame your thoughts.

1.Look at the stats

You can set up a Google Analytics account for free. You’ll be given a piece of code that’s inserted into your website that will tell you all about how people are interacting with it. Think your website isn’t attracting visitors? This will tell you if that’s true or not. It will also tell you what pages people like and spend longer on and which ones don’t speak to them at all. It will even tell you to some extent where your visitors are coming from.
Think all that time on social media is wasted? Not if it’s directing people to your website. Can you see visits spike when you place an ad in local press? Great, it was worth the spend then.
So get smart. Get the code and have a look. This will give you some great ideas for what you need to have more of on your new site and what pages are a turn-off. And don’t forget to hook up analytics to your new site when it goes live.

2.Know what you want to achieve

What do you want your website to do? Recruit new clients? Drive uptake of preventative healthcare by existing clients? Having this clear in your mind helps when briefing the developer and ensures you don’t get carried away by a pretty design. Think about how the proposed structure will help you achieve your priorities.
Understand the processes. If you want more clients you need to: a. attract them to the site and b. convert visitors into appointments. Talk to your developer about the site features that can help you do that. Think about what you need to do on and off line too – for instance always including your website address in all ads and communications or using social media to actively point people to the site.
Define some objectives (with numbers on!) and then measure performance against them. That way the next time someone says the new website is rubbish you will have the evidence one way or the other and can take the necessary action.

3.Think about personas

Website people love to talk about ‘user journeys’. Or even Ux – nothing like Rx in case you were wondering – the whole user experience and perception of using your product or service. One way to help frame your thinking is to think about the type of people who might be visiting your site and what their motivations might be.
So you could have Mrs Green who has an emergency in the middle of the night and has landed on your site in a panic in an attempt to find the out of hours procedure. Perhaps Mr White has a new puppy (and you really want more new puppy owners) and is looking to register with a vet for the first time. How easy is it for him to find the information he is looking for and is it presented in a way that appeals to him in this context?
Put yourself in their shoes and re-imagine their experience when they land on your site. Design your site around these different personas to ensure it works for them on every level and drives actions (like booking appointments, visiting the practice or ordering repeats).

4.Define logos, fonts, colours

If you are at the point of refreshing the look of your website you might also want to think about refreshing your logo, the colours and fonts you use. Logos don’t have to stay the same forever and there is nothing worse than a lovely up to date site and a tired old logo. Often you can have a cost effective re-design by wrapping it up with your web design. Your logo will be used to establish the look of your site so it’s worth getting it right.

5.Size up the competition

Take a very close look at your competition not just locally but nationally. What features do they have that you love and could make your own? How do they rank compared to you on search? If you don’t feel able to do this then you could ask your developer to carry out a local competitor audit as part of the work on your site. Yes there will be a cost but equally it might generate some insights that allow you to gain a competitive advantage.

So there you have it. No knee jerk reactions, no soft fluffy stuff. Just logic and planning to kick off your new website.