How to Make Your Healthcare Website Mobile-first

How to Make Your Healthcare Website Mobile-first

Healthcare websites have traditionally been designed for the desktop. While the desktop isn’t dead yet, it is increasingly losing to the mobile for internet traffic. Google understands this and has gradually shifted to mobile-first indexing. By March 2021, Google will completely shift to mobile-first indexing for all websites. So, what is mobile-first? Why should you adopt it? How to make your healthcare website mobile-first? Our web development team in Perth answers these questions in this post.

What is a Mobile-first Design?

A mobile-first design is building your website with your mobile users as the primary user. The website is designed for mobile devices and then scaled up for larger devices. This approach is contrary to the traditional design approach of starting with a desktop site and then adapting it to smaller screens.
A mobile-first website is different from responsive and mobile-friendly ones. A mobile-friendly site is also accessible on a mobile but is not optimised for it. A responsive design is one that shifts the display according to the device display and is primarily designed for desktops first. Both mobile-friendly and responsive are designs that do not have a mobile user as the primary focus.

To know more about mobile-first websites, read our blog on mobile-first websites.

How Does Mobile-first Benefit Your Healthcare Business?

A mobile-first approach is beneficial not just for the healthcare business websites but for any website. A mobile-first website is focused on user experience. A website built according to the specific needs of your patients that offers all the information required by them ensures good user experience. Your patients will be satisfied with your service and would be happy to stay connected.

Having a mobile-first design of your clinic or hospital can help you by making it easy for your patients to find you on the go. With a mobile-first website, your clients can easily look you up over the internet and contact you with ease.

Another benefit of the mobile-first design is that it eases navigation and helps in more patients reaching your healthcare centre. Your patients will be able to easily find the information they are looking for on the website.

In short, by providing a good user experience on mobile, your website receives more visibility and potentially increases your conversion rates. Mobile-first design also offers a wealth of opportunities for accessibility, making it ideal for both your users and for Google. We have seen increasing mobile internet activity for our healthcare service clients.

Now that we’ve seen the benefits, the next question you need to ask is – How do I make my healthcare website mobile-first? Here are some easy strategies.

5 Mobile-first Strategies for Your Healthcare Website

Here are some strategies that can help your healthcare website become a mobile-first one.

1. Make the mobile design your default mode. The first thing to do for transforming your website to a mobile-first one is by making mobile the primary means to interact with your healthcare website.

2. Write your content for the mobile screen. Mobile has become the primary device for browsing different healthcare content. But the smaller screen has also limited space to display your content. Some vital points for your mobile-first content strategy:

• Use short paragraphs and bold subheads that can serve as entry points.
• Use simple writing since complex writing takes longer to read on mobile than on desktop.
• Make your content concise and easily scannable.

Learn more on how to create mobile-first content.

3. Use mobile version for quality check. Make sure your webpages work properly on mobile. Generally, the mobile preview feature of your content management system (CMS) is used for this. But a better option is to view your website on a real smartphone. It makes it easier for you to understand how a user sees and interacts with your site.

4. Map the mobile activities on your website. Keep track of your analytics and the sections of your website that are getting the most mobile views. This can give you an insight into the tasks people are trying to accomplish using mobile devices. You can utilise these insights to improve your website and provide your users with a better user experience.

5. Make it easy for patients to contact you. People access healthcare websites mainly to book appointments and request reports, and for information on medical conditions. Ensure all these three functions are easy to perform on your mobile healthcare site. Some pointers –

• Keep as few fields as possible for request forms.
• Ensure clickable buttons are large and spaced.
• Place the call-to-action buttons (CTAs) prominently on the site.
• Make the phone number on your site a clickable one, so patient can call you without going to the phone dial feature.

Is Desktop Design Not Important Anymore?

Focusing on mobile-first strategy and design doesn’t mean you can ignore your website’s desktop experience. It just points out that mobile needs more of your focus. So, ensure your website give your users a great experience in whatever device they use.

We hope you found this post helpful on how to make your healthcare website mobile-first. If you are looking for professionally designed and optimised websites, we can come up with a customised solution for you. Contact us or email at sales@computingaustralia.group; we will help you to transform your website to a mobile-first one with a consistent conversion rate.

Jargon Buster

UX – User eXperience is how users feel when interfacing with a system. The system can be a website, a web app or desktop software.
Content Management System – CMS – It is a software application for creating and managing enterprise and web content.
Call-to-action – A clickable button or link to prompt a website visitor to make an immediate response. For example, ‘buy now’, ‘contact now’, ‘subscribe now’.