Build a Great Niche Website with 4 Right Steps
Website building is usually pretty straight forward. Company information, displayed in a theme and style that fits the business and appeals to the potential customer that employs the right keywords is a great start.
Good graphics, themes and designs are vital to any website, but in some niche industries, you need to go deeper and think a little further ahead. These websites serve more than just as a magnet for new customers, but often also contain tools for current customers to create ongoing satisfaction and often serve as a conduit for reputation management as well. For a niche consideration, assume you own a hospital or even a dental clinic. For your industry specific purposes, right medical or dental website design will matter: patients have a certain expectation, and if your website does not meet those expectations, they will quickly seek somewhere else.
Here are four steps to building a great niche website.
Get the Right Tools
Websites in the medical field, whether you are a doctor, dentist, veterinarian, or other specialist, need certain tools for them to function properly. There are several things both current patients and new ones need to be able to do on your website.
- Determine if You Are Accepting New Patients
- Set or Cancel Appointments, or Find an Easy Way to Do So
- See Your Office Hours and Availability
- Pay their Bill
Not only do you need tools that will allow patients to do these things, but they also need to expect that their data is secure, and that your computer systems are HIPPA compliant. While this should be a given, and is even mandated federally, you need to show your customers that you understand and comply with these security measures, so the right tools to do so are essential.
Finally, they will also expect your website to be mobile friendly, whether it is responsive or meets the Google AMP project requirements, they should be able to use the same tools on their mobile device as they can on their desktop.
Get the Right Theme
The right theme is important as well, so that your site will appeal to your patients and new patients as well. There are companies that have developed and offer themes specifically for your niche site, from themes for dentists to themes for veterinarians, doctors, and lawyers.
Choosing the right theme goes beyond selecting something that just looks good. It also must be able to incorporate all of the tools you need and the security you must provide for your customer’s data.
This means that simply choosing a free theme in WordPress or Squarespace or any other CMS won’t do, not if you want your website to stand out from the rest. Those themes will not only not have the functionality that you need, but they may not have the best appearance either.
This appearance is the first impression many patients get of you and your practice, much like the curb appeal of your business. The right décor and landscaping makes a difference there, and your virtual location is not any different. Choose a theme that best represents your business, who you are, and what you do.
Use the Right Colors and Fonts
Within your theme, you will have choices. Even when you have picked a custom one designed for your niche, there will be options inside of it for your own photos, text, and even font choices.
These choices all matter. You can never neglect the psychology of color when it comes to your website. Certain colors cause certain reactions in web users, and it is your responsibility to make sure those reactions are the ones you want a customer to have.
For instance, yellows and oranges are great for selling security systems, as they often represent caution and warning, but they are not good for the home page of a dentist, because patients often arrive at the site with preconceived fears and cautions.
Just the use of these colors can cause the user to “bounce” and go elsewhere to a site where they feel more comfortable.
Fonts can be hard on patient’s eyes as well, and if a site is hard to read or causes them eye strain, they are likely to go elsewhere. Also. your fonts set a mood, and using overused “clever” ones just reveals that you are lazy, and often irritates patients. Test your site on several people before you launch to make sure they like what they see and your message is clear.
Reach the Right Customers
Without being specifically targeted, even the best site is useless as you won’t really gain anything from it. The key is to reach the right customers at the right time with the right message.
This means you need to effectively use keywords, have great content on your site, and deliberately build links to that content to increase your authority with Google and other search engines.
The right Google ranking with a decent conversion rate can mean an increase in sales of 35% or more. For most businesses, this could mean the difference between just making it and thriving. Reaching the right customers requires conscious effort on your part.
Creating a website for your niche can be a little tricky, but if you follow these four steps, it will be easier for you.