Your practice website is often the first impression a potential patient gets of you. Get it wrong and they move on to the next result. Get it right and it becomes your best-performing team member — one that works 24 hours a day without a salary.

Here’s a checklist of the most common reasons practice websites fail, and what to do about each one.

Design

1. You built it yourself. Unless you’re a professional web designer, this is the equivalent of treating yourself. Hire someone who knows what they’re doing.

2. You don’t have clear goals for the site. Every page should have a purpose. Define what you want visitors to do before anyone writes a line of code.

3. Your designer doesn’t understand healthcare. Healthcare has specific considerations around claims, testimonials, and patient privacy. Make sure your agency gets this.

4. Your designer doesn’t understand SEO. Design and SEO need to be considered together from the start — retrofitting SEO to a poorly structured site is expensive.

5. You’re not using WordPress. WordPress is the most widely supported CMS in the world, meaning more developers, more plugins, and no vendor lock-in if you want to change agencies.

6. Your contact details aren’t prominent. Phone number and address should be visible on every page, ideally in the header.

7. Your opening hours aren’t easy to find. This is one of the most searched-for pieces of information for any local business.

8. Your social media links are in the header. Social links in the header invite visitors to leave your site. Put them in the footer.

9. You have too many navigation items. Keep your menu to 4–6 items maximum. More than that and visitors don’t know where to go.

10. Your font is too small. Use a minimum of 16pt for body copy. Many practitioners use 12pt or 14pt, which feels dated and strains older readers’ eyes.

11. Your headline isn’t compelling. What’s the most important thing a new patient needs to know? Lead with that, not your practice name.

12. Nothing important is above the fold. The content visible without scrolling needs to communicate what you do, who you help, and how to contact you.

13. Your site looks nothing like your other marketing. Consistency in branding builds trust. Your site, brochures, and social presence should feel like one practice.

14. Your photos are stock images of people who don’t look like your patients. Real photos of your team and premises build more trust than generic stock imagery.

15. Your copy is about you, not the patient. “We offer…” is less compelling than “You’ll find…” Write from the patient’s perspective.

16. You use “we” and “our” throughout. Swap as many of these as possible for “you” and “your”.

17. You have a cluttered homepage. If everything is emphasised, nothing is. Edit ruthlessly.

18. Your calls to action are weak. “Contact us” is less effective than “Book an appointment” or “Call us today on [number]”.

19. You’re asking for newsletter signups with no incentive. Nobody signs up to a newsletter for the sake of it. Offer a guide, video, or resource in exchange.

Mobile

20. Your site isn’t mobile responsive. The majority of local business searches start on a mobile phone. A non-responsive site loses those patients immediately.

21. There’s no click-to-call button on mobile. Make it effortless. A tappable phone number converts far better than a number a user has to memorise and dial manually.

22. Your forms are hard to fill in on a phone. Test every form on an actual mobile device. If it’s frustrating, patients won’t complete it.

23. There’s no link to maps or directions. New patients need to know how to find you. A Google Maps link on mobile is essential.

Conversion

24. You’re sending paid traffic to your homepage. If you’re running ads, send visitors to a dedicated landing page built for that specific campaign — not your general homepage.

25. There’s no clear next step on every page. Every page should tell the visitor what to do next.

26. You have no lead magnet. A free guide, checklist, or video gives undecided visitors a reason to stay in touch before they’re ready to book.

27. You’re not capturing email addresses. Email is still one of the highest-converting channels for healthcare practices.

28. Your booking process is too complicated. If it takes more than two steps to book an appointment, you’re losing patients. Consider online booking software.

29. You have no patient testimonials or reviews. Social proof is one of the most powerful conversion tools available. Make it easy for patients to leave a Google review and feature them on your site.

30. There’s no urgency or reason to act now. New patients often delay. Limited appointment availability, seasonal relevance, or a compelling offer gives them a reason to book today.

SEO

31. You don’t have individual pages for each condition you treat. A single “what we treat” page won’t rank for specific conditions. Build a dedicated page for each, with at least 300–500 words.

32. You haven’t researched your keywords. Knowing exactly what your target patients search for allows you to structure your content accordingly. Use Google Keyword Planner or a similar tool.

33. You have no traffic acquisition strategy. SEO, Google Ads, social media, and referrals all need to be considered as part of an overall traffic plan — not addressed in isolation.

34. Your internal links are poor. Link relevant pages to each other so both visitors and search engines can navigate your site logically.

35. You don’t link to any external authority sites. Citing credible sources (research journals, health authorities) adds credibility and can benefit your SEO.

36. You don’t publish regularly. Fresh, relevant content signals to search engines that your site is active and worth ranking.

37. Your content isn’t original. Copied or templated content is penalised by Google. Every page should be written specifically for your practice and your patients.

Analytics

38. You don’t have Google Analytics installed. Without it, you have no idea how many people visit your site, where they come from, or what they do when they get there.

39. You haven’t set up conversion tracking. Knowing someone visited isn’t enough — you need to know whether they booked, called, or filled in a form.

40. You’re not tracking your offline marketing. Use unique phone numbers or landing page URLs for print, radio, or in-practice materials so you can measure what’s working.

41. You’re not reviewing your analytics. Data only helps if you look at it. Review your key metrics monthly at a minimum.

Technical

42. Your site is slow. A page that takes more than 3 seconds to load loses a significant proportion of visitors. Test your speed at Google PageSpeed Insights.

43. You have large unoptimised images. Images are the most common cause of slow load times. Compress them before uploading.

44. You’re not using Schema.org markup. Structured data helps search engines understand your business details, services, and practitioners — and can improve how you appear in search results.

45. You’re not registered with Google Search Console. This free tool tells you exactly how Google sees your site, including errors and indexing issues.

46. You haven’t submitted an XML sitemap. A sitemap helps search engines discover and index all your pages.

47. You haven’t claimed your Google Business Profile. This is essential for appearing in local map results when people search for practices near them.

48. Your WordPress is out of date. Outdated WordPress installations are a security vulnerability. Keep everything updated.

49. You have no backup system. Websites get hacked, servers fail, and updates go wrong. Automated daily backups are essential.

50. Your site isn’t on HTTPS. An SSL certificate is now a basic expectation. Google flags non-HTTPS sites as “not secure”, which undermines trust instantly.

51. You have broken links. Broken links frustrate visitors and signal neglect to search engines. Audit your site with a tool like Screaming Frog.

52. Your 404 page is the default. A custom 404 page keeps visitors on your site if they land on a broken URL, rather than bouncing.

53. Your images don’t have alt text. Alt text helps search engines understand your images and improves accessibility for visually impaired visitors.

54. You have duplicate content. If the same content appears on multiple pages (or on other sites), search engines struggle to determine which to rank.

55. Your meta descriptions aren’t written. These appear in search results beneath your page title. A well-written meta description can meaningfully improve click-through rates.

56. Your page titles aren’t optimised. Each page title should include the primary keyword for that page and ideally the practice name.

Mindset

57. You think the internet isn’t relevant to your practice. Every demographic uses the internet to research health decisions. If you’re not visible online, you’re invisible to a large portion of your potential patient base.

58. You’re relying on your website alone. A great website amplifies everything else you do — networking, community engagement, internal referrals, and word of mouth. It doesn’t replace those things. Use your digital presence to support and extend your offline activity, not substitute for it.

Working through this list systematically will improve both the quality and quantity of new patients your website generates. Prioritise the quick wins first — speed, mobile responsiveness, contact details, and Google Business Profile — then work through the rest over time.