Some things are best left to the experts. Plastic surgeons have the right to expect results when hiring a design team to build your web page. It may be tempting to work with local web designers in an attempt to save money or shop locally. All too often, this can result in a negative experience.
Remember that part of the expertise we are referring to is successful prior experience working with doctors. Local web designers work with a smaller pool of doctors. This can mean they lack mastery of the terms related to your field. Without this knowledge, they often struggle to make you sound credible.
Medical professionals often benefit from working with teams experienced in their specialty. Just as you would not cut corners in caring for your patients, be wary of cutting corners with template design. Five prominent reasons to avoid working with local web designers follow.
1. You prefer your website to be accessible.
Local web designers are often small startups during their first few years of business. These first few years are often a struggle, and that can put your website in danger. These businesses will seek to retain aspects of the design or development under copyright. This means you may not own the product you paid for, your website.
If a local web designer goes out of business, you might lose the ability to use your website well or at all. Most freelancers and small design firms keep the copyright to parts of the website design or web development. This means that even if you paid for the service, you might not own the rights to your website. Instead, you may notice their contract gave you usage rights only.
Web development involves much more than simply getting the site up and running. After launch, it takes diligent maintenance to keep it up-to-date. Unfortunately, illness or a job change can put your project on hold. Sometimes, someone may even drop it completely if the local web designers have no one to take over.
If you decide to change hosting companies, you will likely face a choice. You may face a substantial payout to take your content with you, or you may have to start over from scratch.
Mobile website for plastic surgeons
2. A team of experts creates a better return on investment.
Small designers and freelancers tend to have one or two areas of expertise. You may feel like you lucked out if marketing is one area in which they are proficient, but is your website easy to navigate? In this case, the marketing strategies may attract prospective patients, but conversion rates are abysmal.
Visitors will become annoyed if your website doesn’t function properly, causing them to leave quickly. Local web designers are often slow to respond to glitches and other malfunctions that occur on your website. These concerns can impact your visitor’s experience.
A plastic surgeon needs special skills because of the strong competition for patients looking for aesthetic treatments. They must also dedicate themselves to building and promoting a strong online presence.
Social media resembles a living, breathing entity that requires feeding and care to function as intended. In addition to monitoring social media pages, a team of experts will create new content. They will also provide updates to keep your account active.
Caring for your online presence is tricky because bad reviews can roll in at any time of the day. When a single designer focuses on building websites, they often struggle to manage their online reputation effectively. An expert team with a plan can help protect and boost your reputation.
Marketing, website design, website development, social media management, and reputation management are each area that deserves adequate attention. When a team of experts is on your side, your practice will see a dramatic increase in conversion rates and return on investment.
Using a freelancer to design your website
3. No medical focus translates into missed conversion opportunities.
Patients expect doctors to exhibit a certain level of expert knowledge, both in person and online. Local web designers typically take many jobs without specializing in a niche, so they do a little of everything.
The medical field has many specific terms. Mastering these terms will help create a credible medical website and provide a user-friendly experience. Further, these terms are critical to effective digital marketing of these types of websites.
Based on this website content, potential patients will leave if they think a doctor lacks medical knowledge. Hiring someone who doesn’t specialize in medical websites might not be the best option. This is especially true for designing a plastic surgery website.
A team specializing in plastic surgery website design understands how to use medical terminology correctly. They also get the unique dynamics of cosmetic practice. Local web designers may leave out details like appointment request alerts without a medical background.
Patient forms made available online can help new patients walk in feeling prepared for their appointments. Add the need for HIPAA compliance; a team with experience in your field will lead to higher conversion rates. See our HIPAA-Compliant Email and Form Services.
4. Template-based design puts out low-cost projects with low performance.
Template-based website builders are quick, relatively easy to create, and low-cost… initially. This is why many small local web designers use templates as the basic building blocks of their websites. Template-based design’s biggest flaw is its static nature.
Not being able to customize these sites makes it hard to show what makes you unique. This difficulty also limits the availability of certain website features. Doctors expect their websites to reflect their practice in a way that highlights what makes them stand out among the crowd. With the cookie-cutter design often used by local web designers, it is difficult to shine in your field.
You must optimize your aesthetic website to reach page 1 in search engine rankings. Local web designers rarely optimize template-based designs. The generic results make it difficult to make an impression on prospective patients. Learn more about the shortcomings of template websites.
A website that fails to bring patients through the door is not performing as it should. The only way to ensure that your website gets results is to work with an established company’s expert team.
5. Exclusivity is seriously lacking.
Small local web designers often lack the resources to create original websites for all their clients. If several doctors in your area hire the same designer, you might look like everyone else. This similarity can apply equally to the plumber down the street and the orthodontist next door.
Websites are essential for promoting your brand in a way that sets you apart. A team of experts will work with you to set goals for your website. This approach helps capture what your practice is all about. Standing out from the competition is key to SEO best practices when you create a website.
Exclusivity means your design is unique in your area. It can also refer to having exclusive rights or ownership. When you pay for a product, you should ultimately retain ownership of it. This may not be the case when working with local web designers.
Stick with the Experts
Will your finished website draw traffic and convert visitors into new patients? Selecting a team of web design experts with a medical skill set will ensure that the answer is a resounding “yes!” A less custom option may cost less now, but you might pay a lot later to gain ownership. We proudly stand with our team at Optimized360 to offer specialized website design for doctors with a smile.
Check these beautiful plastic surgery websites for inspiration.
