A healthcare website has to do three jobs at once: help patients find and book care, meet accessibility and privacy rules, and give search engines and AI tools clear, accurate facts about your services. I design and build websites for clinics, practices and health brands in the US and Europe with all three built in from the start.
Why healthcare websites are different
Patients now live online. In 2024, 77% of US adults were offered online access to their medical records, and 65% were offered access and used it at least once that year1. Your website is the front door to that experience.
Accessibility deadlines are real. Under Section 504, HHS requires websites and apps of organizations receiving federal health funding to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The deadline is now 11 May 2027 for organizations with 15 or more employees, and 10 May 2028 for smaller ones2. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act has applied to many consumer services since 28 June 20253.
Most sites aren't ready. WebAIM found detectable accessibility failures on 95.9% of the top one million home pages in 20264.
Tracking pixels carry risk. HHS guidance says tracking tools on logged-in pages, such as patient portals, can expose protected health information, and vendors handling it generally need a business associate agreement5. A 2024 court ruling struck down part of that guidance for public pages, but booking forms and symptom checkers can still collect health information5. In the EU, health data is a special category under GDPR with stricter rules for processing6.
AI search is becoming a front door too. Patients ask ChatGPT and Google's AI answers which clinic to choose. Fewer of them click through to a website when an AI summary appears7, so the facts AI tools read about you have to be right.
What a good healthcare website includes
- Booking in two taps. The most common action is the most visible one, on every page and every phone.
- Clear service pages. One page per service or condition, in plain words, with prices where you can share them.
- Real people. Named clinicians with credentials and photos. Trust is earned faster with faces.
- Accessibility from the start. WCAG 2.1 AA contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation and captions, tested before launch.
- Privacy by design. Analytics configured so no health information reaches ad platforms, consent that's real, and forms that send data only where it should go.
- Structured data. MedicalClinic, Physician and MedicalProcedure markup, with services linked to standard medical terms, so AI tools describe you correctly.
- Speed. Fast on a mid-range phone. Only 48% of mobile sites pass Google's Core Web Vitals8.
How a project runs
- Audit. What patients, search engines and AI tools see today. Accessibility, tracking and speed checked.
- Plan. Page structure, service pages, booking flow and the data model behind them.
- Design and copy. Plain-language pages reviewed by your clinicians.
- Build. On WordPress or Webflow, with accessibility, privacy and structured data built in.
- Launch and measure. Bookings, calls and how AI tools describe you, tracked from day one.
Who I work with
- Private clinics and specialist practices.
- Dental, physiotherapy and wellness practices.
- Diagnostics and preventive health brands.
- Health tech companies selling to clinics.
Recent work: Aniva Health, a preventive blood testing membership in Germany and Finland. I run the website, comparison pages, structured data mapped to medical terms, and paid acquisition.
Questions people ask
Does my healthcare website need to be accessible?
Can I use Google Analytics or Meta Pixel on a clinic website?
What does a healthcare website cost?
It depends on size, booking integrations and languages. See what a small business website really costs for ranges, or book a call for a fixed quote.
How long does it take?
Most clinic websites take eight to twelve weeks, including clinician review of the copy.
Can you work with our booking system?
Usually, yes. I'll check your system's integration options during the audit.
Running a clinic or a health brand? Book a 20-minute call and I'll show you what patients and AI tools see on your site today.
Sources
- "Individuals' Access and Use of Patient Portals and Smartphone Health Apps, 2024," ONC Data Brief No. 77, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, based on HINTS 7 (7,278 respondents, March to September 2024), 2025. https://www.healthit.gov/data/data-briefs/individuals-access-and-use-patient-portals-and-smartphone-health-apps-2024 (accessed 7 November 2026) ↩
- "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance," interim final rule, Office for Civil Rights, HHS, Federal Register Vol. 91 No. 90, 11 May 2026. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-05-11/html/2026-09266.htm (accessed 7 November 2026) ↩
- Directive (EU) 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act), applicable from 28 June 2025. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/882/oj ↩
- "The WebAIM Million: The 2026 report," WebAIM, updated 30 March 2026. https://webaim.org/projects/million/ (accessed 7 November 2026) ↩
- "Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates," Office for Civil Rights, HHS, with note on American Hospital Association v. Becerra (N.D. Tex., 20 June 2024). https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/hipaa-online-tracking/ (accessed 7 November 2026) ↩
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), Article 9, processing of special categories of personal data. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj ↩
- Athena Chapekis and Anna Lieb, "Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results," Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/ (accessed 7 November 2026) ↩
- "Performance," Web Almanac 2025, HTTP Archive, July 2025 data. https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2025/performance (accessed 7 November 2026) ↩