If you are seeking a new website design company for your next website or simply looking for advice on building your next website, we feel this page will be very helpful. Ophthalmology practices are not all the same and they often have different services that they offer. Prior to starting a website design, it is imperative that the type of ophthalmology website be evaluated, and procedures are clearly defined.

Types of Ophthalmology Websites

Comprehensive Ophthalmology Websites

Comprehensive practices sites will typically involve 9 subspecialties of ophthalmology so the page volume and content will be a much heavier lift than a LASIK only website. Due to the page volume and content required in this case the cost will also be more expensive. There are several roadblocks and barriers to work through on these types of websites. First, you will need to meet with the practice to determine priorities of services and create a strategy to have all services discussed on the website and homepage. Some comprehensive practices will have a refractive focus but what do you think that does to retina department? Because LASIK is more advertising oriented than retina you will also need a balance in voice.

Refractive & Cataract Ophthalmology Websites

Refractive and cataract websites can also be very involved because you are dealing with 2 main areas, but each area has a lot to explain. In refractive surgery or vision correction you have procedures like LASIK, EVO Visian ICL, PRK and SMILE eye surgery mixed with the cataract surgery service that can get very detailed with lens implant options and laser cataract options as well. In this case you can easily represent both elements of the practice directly on the homepage. A well optimized page can generate a lot of patient interest so getting engagement objects clearly defined here is important. Having a schedule consultation option and self-test option are very important. A clear path to procedure needs to very easy for the visitor. These types of website need to also look good and be designed well. Since you have patients paying extra and your technology investment is significant you cannot have a junky website that is outdated.

Retina Eye Care Websites

There are many practices that are ophthalmology retina services only. Retina sites can tend to be more conservative and do not have the advertising flair of a LASIK website. Retina care is intense and can often save vision. It is important that these patients can get an appointment and read the website. I realize that sounds simple, but many website design companies will not handle this properly. Oftentimes these are older patients that cannot read small print. Make sure the font size works for people between the ages of 65 and up.

LASIK or Vision Correction Website

LASIK only or vision correction website will need to appeal to a younger demographic specifically people between the ages of 20 and 40. These websites need to have a scheduling option and in particular one that is easy and integrated into the practice management software. The website needs to be conversion ready. Capturing the benefits of the life after LASIK is a nice persuasive touch but sometimes practices will over do their homepages with technology patients don’t care about. The LASIK self-test has proven to be a big lead generator over the years and a bridge to marketing companies and refractive coordinators that can rapidly expand the pipeline. Although these leads tend to be top of funnel and need more education or nurturing it is better to work like this instead of having no leads.

The process and careful explanation of this process is vital to overall success. The first most important thing is establishing excellent communication and a practice liaison and decision maker. Projects literally go into a tailspin if this is poorly set up. The practice liaison needs to be able the show the physicians and administrators the progress at varying points. Do not wait until the end of the project to show the ophthalmologist. The design should be discussed in a meeting with practice personnel and a decision to move forward should be obvious. Once the design is approved it will then be moved to the coding process. After coding, the content gets inserted. You will need to determine who is writing the content and we suggest starting this at the time the website project begins. Content holds up websites in more than half the development cases. After all the content is inserted it is time to prepare the site for launch including a browser testing period and demo link for the client for final approval or edits. All forms submissions and phone numbers should be checked, load speed evaluated, content should be spellchecked, and mobile testing should be done on multiple phones.

Ophthalmology websites will typically cost between $5000 and $20,000. The page volume, customization of secondary pages, special features and e-commerce elements will vary costs significantly. You will also need to consider the on-going maintenance cost for search engine optimization.

WordPress is an excellent option for a content management because the files can be easily transferred to another word press ophthalmology design firm. Be very much aware of the proprietary systems out there as you cannot transfer these. The sad part of this scam is that they never tell you this in sale process, so you need be inquisitive about these types of systems. Unfortunately, there are various companies still doing this today. If you pay money to build a website it is that simple – your practice should own this. These types of companies lock practices into contracts and make them pay thousands of dollars if they want to leave.

We believe that if you build the site and pay the for the complete costs that you should own this. Be aware if a company sells you a “licensing arrangement” This will mean hardship down the road. In many of cases the monthly fees also never end.

There are things that need to be done on a monthly basis with maintenance such as security and plugin updates. Make sure to understand the difference between this maintenance and website edits. It might be possible to do website edits hourly instead of a huge fee every month.

There is a lot to know about ophthalmology content development. With 9 subspecialties it is inherent to have great content. Take the time to develop a nice set of custom content with great video and graphics for an overall better and more informative user experience.

The SEO set up process should be done after the completion of the coding and content insertion process and will continue through the launch prep and well into launch. Every page will need to have the appropriate tagging done as well as URL optimization based of the content of that specific page. At the time of launch it is very important pay attention to any previously indexed pages that will need redirecting. If a redirect is not done, then you will a broken link or 404 error when conducting a search on Google.