A diagnostic lab has two audiences and they are not the same person. One is a clinician deciding where to send patients. The other is a patient holding a request form, often unsure what the test even is. A lab website that tries to speak to both with one generic homepage usually serves neither.

Three pages carry almost all the weight.

One: the test directory

This is the page that gets used, and it is the page most labs do worst. A referring clinician wants to confirm you run a particular assay before writing the request. A patient wants to know what they are in for.

For each test, list the common name and the clinical name together, because the request form and the patient will use different ones. Add sample type, preparation, and expected reporting interval. A searchable or alphabetised directory beats a PDF price list every time, because a PDF cannot be found by search engines and cannot be read comfortably on a phone.

Two: how results are delivered

This is the page that wins referrals. A clinician sending patients to you is making a bet that results will arrive, in a readable form, without chasing. Say plainly how that works:

  • How results reach the patient, and whether collection in person is required.
  • How results reach the referring clinician, and whether that is automatic or on request.
  • Whether there is an online portal, and what a first-time user has to do to access it.
  • What happens with a critical or panic value, and who gets called.

That last point is the one labs almost never publish and clinicians care most about. Publishing it is a genuine differentiator because so few do.

Three: quality and accreditation

Any lab can call itself accurate. The page that matters shows the work: your accreditations and their current status, your equipment and its maintenance regime, your internal and external quality control participation, and who signs out reports.

Name your pathologist or laboratory scientist in charge, with qualifications. A named, credentialled person answering for results is worth more than a paragraph of adjectives, and it is the single clearest signal that a lab takes its own reporting seriously.

What can wait

Almost everything else. A history of the organisation, a mission statement, a gallery of the building exterior, a rotating banner of health tips. None of these have ever caused a clinician to change referral patterns or a patient to choose one lab over another.

Build the three pages above properly first. They are the ones people arrive looking for, and they are the ones that convert an anonymous search into a sample in your reception.

Our web design work for labs starts with the test directory, because it is both the most used page and the one that search engines can actually index.