Your pharmacy website has an important job. It may be the first place a patient goes to find your pharmacy, learn about your services, check your hours, request a refill, or figure out how to get in touch with your team.
But simply having a website isn’t enough. Your website also needs to be easy to find, easy to use, and easy for search engines and AI-powered tools to understand.
So how do you know if your pharmacy website is doing its job? Here are eight areas worth checking, along with practical things you can look for yourself.
See how your website stacks up.
Before you review the tips below, get a quick snapshot of how your pharmacy website is performing with our free Website Grader so you know where to focus.
1. Mobile: Is your pharmacy website easy to use on mobile devices?
For many patients, your phone-friendly website is your website. They may look you up from the parking lot, a doctor’s office, or their couch.
A mobile-friendly pharmacy website should make common tasks easy to complete with one hand.
Check these on your own phone:
- Refill and call buttons are easy to find and large enough to tap.
- Phone numbers are tappable, rather than simply displayed as text.
- Text is easy to read without pinching or zooming.
- Menus open and work cleanly on a smaller screen.
- Pop-ups don’t cover important information like your hours or refill button.
- Forms are easy to complete on a phone.
Don’t just look at your homepage. Test the pages patients are most likely to use, including your contact, services, refill, and appointment pages.
2. Speed: How fast is your website loading?
Patients don’t want to wait for a website to load when they’re simply trying to find your phone number or check whether you’re open.
Google’s Core Web Vitals provide benchmarks for loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability. One important benchmark is Largest Contentful Paint, which measures how quickly the main content appears on a page. Google’s current “good” threshold is 2.5 seconds or less.
You don’t need to understand all of the technical metrics to start improving your site.
Try these simple fixes:
- Compress large images, especially photos and banners on your homepage.
- Remove unused plugins and scripts that may be slowing your site down.
- Avoid auto-playing video at the top of the page.
- Test important pages with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool.
Speed matters, but don’t sacrifice useful information just to make a page faster. The goal is a website that loads quickly and gives patients what they came for.
3. SEO: Can search engines understand your pharmacy website?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, helps search engines understand what your pages are about so they can show them for relevant searches.
For a pharmacy, that means being specific about what you offer and where you serve.
For example, “Immunization Services” tells a search engine something. “Flu shots in Houston, TX” is much more specific about what the page is about and who it serves.
Check these SEO basics:
- Every important page has a unique title that describes the page.
- Each page has a clear main heading that tells visitors what they’re looking at.
- Page URLs are descriptive, such as /services/immunizations, rather than a string of numbers or codes.
- Images have descriptive alt text where appropriate.
- Page descriptions give people a reason to click when the page appears in search results.
- Your website has a sitemap that helps search engines discover your pages.
You don’t have to become an SEO expert. Start by asking a simple question about each important page:
If someone found this page through Google, would they immediately understand what it is and whether it answers their question?
4. Local SEO: Can Patients Find Your Pharmacy Nearby?
Pharmacy searches are often local. Patients may search for “pharmacy near me,” “pharmacy open now,” “flu shots near me,” or “pharmacy delivery.”
Your Google Business Profile and website both help provide the information search engines need to connect those searches with your pharmacy.
Check your local presence:
- Your Google Business Profile is claimed and verified.
- Your pharmacy name, address, and phone number are accurate.
- Your hours are current, including holiday hours.
- Your pharmacy services are listed, such as vaccinations, delivery, compounding, or medication synchronization.
- Your website and Google Business Profile match.
- Your other online listings are accurate, including directories such as Apple Maps and Bing Places.
- Your reviews are monitored and responded to appropriately.
If you have multiple locations, each location should also have its own page with its address, hours, contact information, and other relevant details.
The goal is consistency. When patients and search engines find your pharmacy in different places online, the basic information should match.
5. Accessibility: Can Everyone Use Your Website?
An accessible website is easier for everyone to use, including people with visual, hearing, mobility, or cognitive limitations.
For pharmacies, this is particularly important because your website may be used by older adults and people managing ongoing health needs.
Look for common accessibility issues:
- Text has enough contrast against the background.
- Images have useful alt text when needed.
- Buttons and links clearly describe what they do.
- Forms have clear labels.
- The site can be navigated using a keyboard.
- Text can be enlarged without breaking the page.
Website accessibility ensures patients with disabilities can access important health information and complete essential tasks, while helping your pharmacy meet its accessibility obligations under the ADA and reduce legal risk.
Start with the issues that could prevent someone from reading your content, navigating your site, or completing an important task.
6. Security: Does Your Website Give Patients Confidence?
Patients expect a pharmacy website to take privacy and security seriously.
Start with the basics.
Check to ensure that:
- Every page uses HTTPS.
- Your privacy policy is easy to find, ideally from the footer.
- Sensitive requests have a secure path. Direct prescription questions and refill requests to a HIPAA-compliant refill portal or phone line rather than a general contact form.
- Third-party tools are reviewed regularly, including chat, analytics, and tracking tools.
One important distinction: a website privacy policy is not the same thing as your pharmacy’s Notice of Privacy Practices. They serve different purposes.
7. Content: Does Your Website Answer the Questions Patients Actually Ask?
Your website should answer the questions your pharmacy team hears every day.
When patients can find clear answers online, they get what they need faster and your team spends less time answering the same questions.
Make sure your website clearly covers:
- Hours and location
Make your hours, location, and service area easy to find and keep them up to date. - Phone and contact information
Make contact options easy to find and consistent across your website and online listings. - Services
Explain what each service includes, who it’s for, and how patients can get started. - Prescription transfers and refills
Give clear instructions and link directly to online refill or transfer options when available. - Your pharmacy team
Include names, photos, credentials, and specialties to help patients get to know your team. - Frequently asked questions
Turn common questions from phone calls and the counter into clear answers on your website.
Go beyond the basics
Be specific. Instead of saying “We offer delivery,” explain where, when, how much it costs, and how to request it. Instead of simply listing compounding, explain what it means and who may benefit.
Clear, specific answers help patients and give search engines and AI tools more information to understand and surface your pharmacy.
The goal is simple: answer the questions patients actually ask and give them a clear next step.
8. AI Visibility: Can AI Tools Understand Your Pharmacy?
Search is changing. Patients are increasingly using AI-powered tools to ask questions such as:
- “Which pharmacies near me offer compounding?”
- “What pharmacy delivers prescriptions in my area?”
- “Where can I get a flu shot near me?”
For your pharmacy to appear in those answers, AI tools need to be able to find and understand accurate information about your business.
Google says its existing SEO best practices also apply to its AI search features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Make your website easier for AI to understand:
- Put important information in text, rather than only in images or PDFs.
- Clearly state your services, hours, location, and other key facts.
- Use structured data to help search engines understand information such as your business details.
- Keep information consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, and other directories.
- Answer common questions directly with clear, concise content.
- Make sure search engines can access your important pages.
You can’t guarantee that an AI tool will mention your pharmacy. But you can make it easier for those tools to find accurate information about who you are, where you are, and what you offer.
Put these website best practices to work.
Improving your pharmacy website doesn’t have to be complicated.
Start with the basics: Make sure your information is accurate and up to date, your site works well on a phone, and patients can quickly find the information they need.
Then, look at the areas that need the most attention. Maybe your website speed needs some help, or your site isn’t doing enough to help search engines and AI tools understand your pharmacy. Focus on your weakest areas first rather than trying to improve everything at once.
Want help improving your pharmacy website?
After you’ve gotten your free website score, schedule a free 30-minute walkthrough of your results with our team. We’ll walk through your scorecard, highlight areas worth prioritizing, and answer your questions about improving your pharmacy’s digital presence.
