The healthcare website standard.

Patients choose you online, and AI now reads your website for them. This guide sets out what a tier-one website in healthcare & medical must do in 2026, and how to tell whether yours does.

How your clients choose

The research is clear on direction: clients form their view of your firm online, often before they contact anyone. See why this now matters for every firm.

Eight essentials

1. Service and treatment pages written in plain, patient language
2. Physician profiles with credentials, specialties and languages
3. Booking or appointment requests in three steps or fewer on a phone
4. Locations, hours and accepted insurance that are easy to find
5. A clear approach to reviews, including responses
6. HIPAA-aware forms that do not collect health details through standard email
7. WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility for every patient
8. Structured data for physicians, locations and services

Five common mistakes

1. Medical jargon in place of the words patients search for
2. Booking hidden behind a phone number or a long form
3. Intake forms available only as PDFs
4. Physician information that no longer matches reality
5. Pages that fail screen readers, magnification or keyboard use

The scorecard targets we recommend

You can test the first and last of these yourself today with Google PageSpeed Insights and Security Headers. How the Sovren Scorecard works.

Before you commission a new website

Use our 11 questions to ask before you commission a website, and build your internal case with our business case guide.