How much will your healthcare or medical website design cost?

• If you are looking for the most cost-effective option, then do it yourself. The cost can range anywhere from $300 to $1,000 or more.
• If you are looking to hire a freelancer to do it for you, expect to pay between $2,500 to $5,000 or more.
• A simple custom design from a medical website growth-design agency can range from $10,000 to $25,000 or more.
• More complicated medical practice websites with multiple locations and serving unique target-audiences will cost between $30,000 to $50,000 or more.

The website for your medical practice is your most valuable marketing and sales tool. In today’s world, it is common for most of your prospective new patients to search you and your medical services on the internet before choosing a new practitioner.  Think of your medical practice website as your first impression and first interaction with new patients. It serves as an excellent inbound marketing tool as long as it delivers the correct information in the right way.

Over time medical practice websites are becoming more detailed and sophisticated because practitioners understand how valuable they are as a marketing and lead-generating tool. They are more streamlined, informative, faster and mobile-friendly. While this is excellent for all your site visitors, it definitely complicates your job as a medical marketing professional (over and above being a niche-specific medical expert and entrepreneur operating your own practice).

In today’s digital world, in order to stand out from the crowd, you have to bring your “A” game, and this means that you will eventually need to tackle your medical practice website redesign.

The cost varies greatly and will depend on numerous factors. You could pay upwards of millions of dollars for an enterprise-level, custom website, or just a few hundred for some updates and reorganization.

Since the cost of this type of service is not something most medical practice owners are aware of, here you will get all of the answers and information that you need to make an informed decision. You will get detailed information on the following:

-How much it costs to hire a freelancer to redesign your medical website
-The expenses associated with Do-It-Yourself website redesign
-What you can expect to pay to hire a medical website growth-design agency

No matter what your starting point is, you will get a good idea about the process and costs here.

Why There Has Been an Increase in Medical Website Design Costs

Supply and demand are why the costs have increased just like they rise and fall for everything else. During the early days of the internet, costs were relatively low because few people knew the true value of having a website for their medical practice.

Today, getting a great website up and running is one of the first things that a practice does when they are getting ready to open. Due to the importance of a new website, many business owners will actually decide on a company name based on URL availability.

Today’s Medical Practice Websites Are More Advanced Than They Ever Were

The tools and techniques associated with web design have come a long way in the last few decades. There are site builders out there, such as Wix and Squarespace, that make getting a website together faster and easier than ever before. However, for a website that is fully strategic and streamlined, there is a lot more work involved.

One of the best features for a medical website is the live chat feature. This allows your patients to get into contact with you with ease. It can also aid them in determining which of your services is the right choice for them. All of this can save a lot of time and provide a more personalized experience for your patients from day one.

Additionally, it is far more rigorous to optimize today’s websites. Some of the most important factors to consider include accessibility, speed and overall user experience.

You have to consider all of these when considering your redesign as they all contribute to the overall cost, whether you tackle the job on your own, or you hire an agency or freelancer.

Costs Associated with DIY Medical Website Redesign

It is generally the least expensive option to use a template to redesign your own website. The costs average a few hundred to a few thousand. However, you also have to consider the hassle involved.

Typically, you can expect more hassles and time when you are spending less money. If you are not familiar with coding, you likely will not have all of the features that you desire for your website.

If your practice is new and your budget is small, you can explore the different pre-existing website themes that are available. One example is ThemeForest where you can find themes for $30 to $100 for WordPress websites.

With the themes offered on this website, you can expect a wide variety of performance, functionality and ease of use. As you look at what they have available, make sure to consider the following:

-How much you can customize the theme
-The out-of-the-box template options they offer
-Whether the theme is easy to update

The next step is looking at the reviews for the theme that you choose. You want to ensure that the technical skill required to make edits is within your wheelhouse. It is also important to consider the theme’s overall track record.

Elementor is another builder that you can use to create a medical website. You install it on WordPress, and it is basically a type of back-end editor. You can edit the theme’s visual features and create content. There are different widgets and modules that you can use, and it offers its own styling and formatting options.

Just get the framework installed and then you can go from there to choose a theme that works with your desired aesthetic.

Compared to options with lower prices, Elementor has a strong framework. You can create a site that is optimized for search engines, works well with mobile devices and is easy to use.

There is no cost to start using Elementor. However, if you want to gain access to more templates, widgets, support and other features, it will cost $49 per year for the Pro Level package.

Now, if you are seeking better integration and marketing capabilities, HubSpot’s CMS Hub is one to consider. This option is $300 per month. You can explore a variety of customizable themes or use their drag-and-drop builder to create your own from scratch . You will not need many add-ons because everything is built-in.

In short, you can put together a DIY website for anywhere between $300 to $1,000.

What it Costs to Hire a Freelancer for Medical Website Design

Freelancers are more expensive than doing it yourself, but less expensive than an agency. The cost will vary based on what you want and the overall experience and talent level of the freelancer.

You can expect $2,500 to $5,000 if you are looking for a simpler website. However, if you want something more sophisticated with custom features, the costs can average $10,000 to $20,000.

The details of your project and freelancer experience will further vary your costs. For example, if they are able to develop custom self-selection tools and have a high level of talent, this will cost more.

Freelancers will typically provide you with some mock-ups so that you can see what they are capable of. From here, you will pick the one that works the best for your medical website, and they will build it for you.

Freelancers will usually focus on user experience and aesthetic so that you can get the website to function and look the way that you need it to.

It is important to remember that working with a freelancer can be hit or miss. For example, if they are working on multiple projects at the same time, this could cause some delays for your site along the way. They may also not be able to help you much outside of development and overall design.

However, a freelancer is an ideal choice if your budget is smaller, but you do not want to try and create a DIY website for your medical practice.

What it Costs to Use an Agency for Medical Website Redesign

When you work with an agency, you are using a team of highly experienced experts to build your medical website for you. They likely have people on the team that have created sites with your goals in mind before. Just remember that this will also cost the most.

With an agency you can expect to pay $10,000 to $25,000 for a simple redesign. If you are looking for a more complicated and complex website, the medical website design costs can range $30,000 to $50,000, and even higher as you add more unique features.

These numbers can certainly give you pause, but you have to consider what you are getting when you work with an agency. It is not just a basic website, but it can act as a full portal for your current and future patients.

What puts medical marketing agencies above the other two options is the ability to get a healthcare website that effectively generates qualified leads that are most likely to convert to paying new patients every single month. They can also put the highest level of strategy into building your medical practice website.

When you work with an inbound medical marketing agency, they will help you with sitemap architecture so that you have a full understanding of how your visitors will navigate when they visit your site. They can also aid you in determining what will work best for your medical website’s users based on historical data. This ensures the most streamlined and functional website possible for your practice.

Agencies connect you with a wide range of experts who are able to combine their expertise and experience with all elements of medical website redesign, such as strategy, testing, development, content and more. You essentially get multiple resources in one making it the most viable option if you have the budget.

Growth-Driven Medical Website Design Ensures Constant Improvement

Whether you are redesigning your medical website or launching one from scratch, you have to monitor it continuously because the digital world is always changing.

This is another reason that an agency can be the most viable option. With growth-driven design, you get a stronger website over time due to helping the visitor via the use of pre-existing user data.

Think of your website like a plant. In order for it to grow and thrive, it needs regular light, attention, water and care. The same is true for your website as you need to recalibrate and monitor it regularly. An agency can help with this to ensure that your patient’s ever-evolving needs are met.

If you opt for a retainer for growth-driven design with a medical website redesign agency, the average cost is $5,000 to $10,000 per month. The overall cost will depend on factors, such as the level of research needed for the proper updates and the aggressiveness of your goals.

If you opt for this, you will work with an agency team every quarter to evaluate your website and current goals. They will help you to get a plan together for experiments and tests to ensure better results for your website. This team will also make the needed adjustments to make sure that your site visitors are getting the desired experience.

This type of design is a collaborative process. You and the agency team work together so that everyone is on the same page about the goals of your medical website.

Content and Its Impact on Medical Website Redesign

When it comes to redesigning your medical website, content is one of the most important considerations.

Where your website ranks in search engine results is determined by your content. This is also what tells people to trust your practice and ensures that visitors take action when using your site.

The goal of your medical website is to tell current and future patients how your practice can help them. You do this by providing the content that relays this information.

Content is critical and it is also one of the redesign aspects that takes the most time.

Using a content-first approach can help you to meet your content goals. When you are building your medical website, you should create content first and then build the other elements around it. Then, once you relaunch, keep your content fresh.

Ultimately, no matter how well your site is designed, if you do not have great content, it will not attract visitors or keep them on your site.

Content with DIY Websites

The first step is to map out all of the different pages that you want to host on your site. From here, you will develop the content. This will make it easier to choose the best theme.

Content with Agencies and Freelancers

With either option, you will usually get a copywriter as part of the package, or they will connect you with one. If you hire a separate copywriter, make sure that they are working as a team with your freelancer or agency.

Think of copywriting for a medical website like writing a small book. Because of this, you have to ensure that you choose someone for the job that is knowledgeable and highly detailed.

The cost of content can cost a few hundred to a few thousand. The complexity of the content and how much you need highly influence the cost.

Final Perspective on Medical Website Redesign Cost

Your website is often your first impression and first interaction with your patients. Because of this, you want it to fully reflect who your practice is and what it has to offer. It is your way to generate leads and ensure that you are viewed as an esteemed professional. Remember that your website can do more than any human can.