Your Healthcare Website Turns Off 40% of Your Prospects

13th January 2015 Mike Busby Mobile Websites 0 Comments

Mobile version of websiteWhen you first created your website, I’m guessing that you wanted everybody to be able to be able to use it pretty easily? Why would you not?

You probably made sure that your phone number was clearly visible and that all the important information could be reached with the minimum of effort? I thought so.

Problem

So, would you be surprised if I told you that about 40% of the people who come to your website cannot do that?

You see the problem is that your website was almost definitely designed to be displayed on a desktop screen. That is, quite large, wider than it is tall and with navigation aided by a mouse.

But … reviewing the site statistics of over 70 of our healthcare clients shows that between 35% and 45% of all website visits come from mobile devices. That is smart phones and tablets.  And last year this figure was approximately 20%.

If this trend continues, we can expect that next year more people will view your website from a mobile device than from a desktop machine.

Issues

Take a look at your website on your smart phone? Unless you are one of the 5% of healthcare sites that have a mobile-friendly website, I’m guessing that you are seeing just the top left area of your website?

  • Can you see your phone number?
  • Can you see all the important information without stretching or dragging the screen around?
  • Is it easy to use the navigation links, or does your finger keep hitting the wrong link because it is so small?

“But it still works though, doesn’t it?”

Well, kind of. But you wouldn’t have designed your website to make people keep scrolling right and left on their desktop machine, would you? You wouldn’t have designed the navigation links to be so small that it is really difficult to click them with your mouse?

What can you do about it?

Look, this is not really your web designer’s fault. When he designed your site, smart phones and tablets were not so widely used. But, they are now.

You have two options ….

  1. Create a separate mobile-friendly website that displays instead of your normal website when accessed by a mobile device.
  2. Redesign your main website so that the design adapts according to the size of the device it is being displayed on.

In both cases, you will simplify what is displayed on a mobile device. It will

  • have large buttons that are designed for ‘fat fingers’
  • cut down on imagery that takes up so much valuable space on your screen
  • display the most important parts of the site at the top of the display

To see how a website might display differently on a smart phone, display www.crgh.co.uk first on your desktop, and then view it on your smart phone.

Mobile websitesSee how different it looks?

  • Notice how all the important parts of the website are displayed prominently on the screen of your phone?
  • See how easy it is to click on one of the links to another page?
  • Notice how you don’t have to move the screen around, nor stretch and pinch the content?
  • See how you can click on the ‘Phone Us’ button and your phone automatically sets itself up to phone the clinic?

Whether you would suit a separate mobile website or would benefit from a fully-adaptive design on your existing website, Chits UK have both the technical skills and the healthcare experience to do a professional job and make sure that 100% of your clients and prospects have a great experience when they visit your website.

If you would like more information on making your website mobile-friendly or any other digital marketing concept, or are looking for new ways to grow your private practice, please contact Mike Busby on 020 8381 3000 or mike@chitswebsite.co.uk.

Chits UK are a London-based digital marketing agency specialising in the professional healthcare industry – www.chitswebsite.co.uk.

 

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