Website design and online booking for Australian clinics

What a phone-only clinic can lose

Patients look for a clinic on their phone, often after you have closed. A site with no booking button leaves them to ring in the morning, if they remember. A site that does not work on a phone can lose them before they find your number. A site in one language can lose the patients who read the other. Each of these can be a booking you never see.

• No online booking: the 9pm patient has to remember to ring in the morning.
• Not usable on a phone: many leave before they reach your number.
• Phone or WeChat only: every booking costs someone at the front desk a call.
• No reminders: nothing prompts the patient before the slot, and some slots go unused.
• One language only: patients who read the other one may leave without booking.

Who this is for

Small AHPRA-registered practices in Australia. The same wording rules and the same build apply across all of them: a site that works on a phone, embedded booking, reminders, a fees and rebates page, and practitioner profiles.

• Physiotherapy clinics
• Chiropractic clinics
• Osteopathy practices
• Podiatry practices
• Dental practices
• Acupuncture and Chinese medicine clinics, the practice type this service was built around (see below)

What's included in your clinic website: online booking, reminders, fees page

One site, built for the phone first, with what a patient needs to decide and book without ringing you.

• A website that works on a phone, in English, and in Chinese if your patients need it.
• Online booking: we embed the system you already use (e.g. Cliniko, Halaxy, HotDoc, Nookal). No new system, nothing to migrate.
• A fees and rebates page: what a visit costs, which health funds you work with, and whether you claim on the spot through HICAPS or the patient claims later.
• Practitioner profiles with the name as registered and registration status, written without over-claim.
• Hours, location, parking, and a phone number that dials with one tap.

Websites for acupuncture and Chinese medicine clinics

This is the practice type the service was built around. Chinese medicine practitioners are registered with AHPRA through the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia, so the wording rules below apply, in particular around condition lists and testimonials. We write both the English and Chinese pages ourselves. The gaps we look for first on a Chinese medicine clinic's site:

• Bookings by phone or WeChat only, with no way to book online.
• A site that exists but is hard to use on a phone.
• No English/Chinese switch, so part of the local market cannot read the page.
• No health-fund rebate information: whether you claim on the spot through HICAPS or the patient claims later.
• Testimonials, and condition lists with no evidence the clinic can point to.

AHPRA: the wording a web brief leaves out

Chinese medicine practitioners, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, podiatrists and dentists are registered health practitioners. AHPRA's advertising guidelines set out what a practitioner's own website may say. These rules are not part of a normal web build, so the site looks fine and the wording is the problem. We write with the guidelines in hand from the first draft, and we say no to the parts that do not fit. That refusal is part of what you are paying for.

• Reviews widgets and testimonials. Under the guidelines, patient reviews about clinical care do not belong on a registered practitioner's own site, even when they are real Google reviews. We leave them on Google and do not copy them onto your pages.
• Outcome claims. 'Cure', 'guaranteed', 'permanent fix', '100% effective' and 'no side effects' create an expectation the guidelines do not allow. We write what the practice does, not what it will achieve for a patient.
• 'Best in [suburb]' and other superlatives. They cannot be substantiated, and an unsubstantiated claim runs into the rule against misleading claims, so they do not go in.
• Condition lists without acceptable evidence. Easy to get wrong on Chinese medicine sites. Softer wording helps ('treats' rather than 'cures', 'may help with' rather than 'relieves'), but it does not replace evidence. A condition claim needs acceptable evidence behind it whichever verb is used, so for every condition you want listed we ask what evidence supports it and leave out anything you cannot point to.
• Titles. 'Acupuncturist' and 'Chinese medicine practitioner' are protected titles, and 'Dr' has its own rules for non-medical practitioners. We use them as registered.
• Before-and-after photos. Often used on dental sites and covered by the same guidelines. We do not add them by default.

A bilingual English and Chinese website: both written, neither translated

Many Chinese-Australian practices run in Chinese and lose the English-speaking patients nearby. A machine-translated English page does not fix that; a native reader can tell in the first sentence. The wording rules above apply to the Chinese page too. We write both versions ourselves, to the same rules.

• English page: written for local search and for patients who do not read Chinese.
• Chinese page: written, not translated, for the community that already knows you.
• Simplified Chinese by default; Traditional if your existing materials use it.
• Both pages held to the same AHPRA wording rules.
• Each language on its own web address, so search engines can find both. This page does the same: 中文版：澳洲中医诊所网站制作.

How it works in two to four weeks

Scope is fixed and agreed in writing before we start. We work in written updates, not long meetings. Four steps.

• Map: you tell us how patients find you and book today, which booking system you use, and who practises at the clinic. We list the gaps.
• Design: we outline the pages and the wording around the system you already have.
• Build: we ship a working site early. You and your front desk try to break it. We fix it.
• Handover: you get the keys, the code and a recorded walkthrough. Two to four weeks, start to finish.

What you own at handover

Everything we build is yours at handover.

• The site and every page on it.
• The source code.
• Your domain, still in your name.
• A recorded walkthrough showing how to change hours, fees and practitioner details yourself.
• No lock-in. If you move on later, you take the site and the code with you.

Common questions

Do you build websites for physiotherapy and chiropractic clinics, or only Chinese medicine?

Both, and osteopathy, podiatry and dental practices as well. They are all AHPRA-registered, so the same wording rules and the same build apply: a site that works on a phone, embedded booking, reminders, a fees and rebates page, and practitioner profiles.

Can the site connect to Cliniko, Halaxy, HotDoc or Nookal?

Yes. We embed the booking system you already use, so bookings land in the calendar you already run. We do not sell you a new system and we do not ask you to migrate. If you use something else, tell us what it is.

What makes a clinic website AHPRA compliant?

Mostly what is left out. No testimonials about clinical care, no outcome claims, no 'best in suburb', protected titles used as registered, and for every condition you want listed, we ask you what evidence supports it and leave out anything you cannot point to. We write with the guidelines in hand from the first draft and flag anything that does not fit. We are not lawyers or the regulator, and responsibility for a practice's advertising stays with the registered practitioner.

Can a registered health practitioner put patient testimonials or Google reviews on their website?

Under AHPRA's advertising guidelines, testimonials or reviews about clinical care do not belong on a registered practitioner's own site, even when they are real Google reviews. Reviews you do not control, left on Google, are a separate matter; the guideline is about reproducing them on your own pages. We leave them on Google and do not copy them onto your site. If you ask us to add a testimonials section, we will say no and explain why. That is part of the service, not a limitation.

Do you build websites for acupuncture and Chinese medicine clinics?

Yes. It is the practice type this service was built around; see 'Websites for acupuncture and Chinese medicine clinics' above.

Can you build a bilingual English and Chinese website for my clinic?

Yes, and we write it rather than translate it. Many of these clinics already have the mirror-image problem: a Chinese site with a machine-translated English page that native English readers spot in the first sentence. We write both pages ourselves, the English for local search and the Chinese for the community that already knows you. Simplified Chinese by default; Traditional if your current materials use it.