Family practice website design has one test: can a new patient, on a phone, find out in under a minute whether you'll take them, whether you take their insurance and how to start? Most primary care sites fail it because they were built as brochures. This guide is a page-by-page build spec for family and internal medicine practices, sized to the searches patients actually run, with HIPAA-compliant forms and structured data that matches what's on the page.
What primary care patients check on your site before calling
Patient searches tell you what the site must answer:
| Search (US, monthly) | Volume | What the patient needs from your site |
|---|---|---|
| family doctor near me | 49,500 | Location, services, who the doctors are |
| internal medicine doctor near me | 18,100 | Adult care, chronic conditions, credentials |
| doctors accepting new patients near me | 8,100 | A clear yes or no, by provider |
| annual physical near me | 1,900 | What's included, insurance notes, how to book |
Google Ads Keyword Planner data via DataForSEO, US, 12-month average to Sep 2026.
Practice-side interest in the topic is small, about 20 searches a month for "family medicine websites", which is why most templates are built for generic businesses rather than for these patient questions. Put the four answers patients want (accepting new patients, insurance, hours and location, how to start) on the home page and within one tap of every other page.
What good looks like
A good family practice website feels like talking to a well-informed front desk. It states new-patient status per provider, lists insurance as text, has a page for each service, explains each visit type in plain language, and sends patients to your existing portal and booking tools rather than reinventing them. Every form that touches health information is HIPAA-compliant, and nothing on the site leaks patient data to ad platforms.
Pages a family practice website needs, one per service
One page per service lets each rank for its own searches and answer its own questions. For each, cover who it's for, what to expect and insurance notes.
| Service page | Who it's for | What to expect | Insurance notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual physicals | Adults and teens due for a checkup | History, exam, screenings due, vaccines | Coverage varies by plan; ask patients to check |
| Medicare wellness visits | Medicare Part B patients | A prevention plan and health risk assessment | CMS covers it once every 12 months; it is not a routine physical |
| Chronic care management | Patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and other ongoing conditions | Regular visits, care plans, coordination | Plan-dependent |
| Sick and same-day visits | Established patients with acute illness | How to request one, your actual policy | Plan-dependent |
| Vaccines | All ages you serve | Which vaccines you stock, walk-in rules | Coverage varies; ask patients to confirm with their plan |
| Women's health | Patients who want well-woman care from their primary care provider | Services you offer in-house | Plan-dependent |
| Pediatrics (if offered) | Children and teens | Well-child visits, sports and school physicals | Plan-dependent |
On the Medicare page, use CMS's own description. CMS's Medicare Wellness Visits page (opens in a new tab) describes the Annual Wellness Visit as a "visit to develop or update a personalized prevention plan and perform a health risk assessment" and says routine physical exams are not covered. For general physical pages, MedlinePlus's physical exam frequency article (opens in a new tab) explains why adults should see a provider "from time to time, even if they are healthy."
For the full list of standard pages across practice types, see pages a medical website needs.
Provider pages: credentials, languages, accepting new patients
Patients choose a person, not a practice. Give every physician, NP and PA a page with:
- Name, credentials and board certification, stated exactly.
- Clinical interests, such as diabetes care, women's health or sports medicine.
- Languages spoken.
- New-patient status, updated the day it changes.
- Which locations and days they work.
- A real photo.
NP-led practices have extra rules on titles and scope; see our notes on NP practice websites.
Insurance, hours and new-patient steps on every page
Three blocks belong in the footer or sidebar of every page:
- Insurance: "We accept most major plans, including Medicare" with a link to the full list. Keep the list as text, not a PDF.
- Hours and locations: including lunch closures, and a link to directions.
- New-patient steps: call, request online, or book through your existing tool; what to bring; how to transfer records.
These blocks are also what patients compare against your Google listing and insurer directories. If they disagree, patients trust none of them.
Forms that are HIPAA-compliant, and what not to ask online
Forms are where most practice websites take on risk.
- Contact forms should ask only for name, phone, email and a general reason ("new patient", "billing question").
- Clinical information (symptoms, history, medications, insurance ID) belongs only on a HIPAA-compliant form whose vendor has signed a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with your practice. Our guide to HIPAA-compliant forms explains what that requires.
- No ad pixels or third-party tracking tags on any page with a form, or on appointment request pages. They can pass information about a visitor's health interest to the platform.
- No free-text "tell us about your symptoms" box on a general form.
Red flags in a website proposal
- Contact forms that ask about symptoms or medications, with no BAA from the form vendor.
- Facebook or Google ad pixels installed site-wide by default.
- A promise of ADA or WCAG compliance from a template provider.
- Insurance lists as PDFs or images.
- The agency registering your domain in its own name.
- Stock photos of doctors who don't work at your practice.
Speed, mobile and structured data for local search
Most patients will see your site on a phone, often from a map listing.
- Speed: compress images, avoid heavy sliders and video backgrounds, and load the phone number and new-patient status first.
- Mobile: tap-to-call buttons, readable text without zooming, and forms that work with a thumb.
- Readability: good contrast, descriptive link text and alt text on images help every patient. Treat these as good practice, not a compliance certificate.
Structured data tells search engines what your pages describe. Schema.org's Physician (opens in a new tab) type covers "an individual physician or a physician's office" and includes properties such as isAcceptingNewPatients, healthPlanNetworkId, medicalSpecialty and usNPI. MedicalClinic (opens in a new tab) suits the practice itself. Google's structured data guidelines (opens in a new tab) are blunt: "Your structured data must be a true representation of the page content," and "Don't mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page." So if the markup says a provider is accepting new patients, the page must say so too, and both must change together.
Evaluation checklist
- New-patient status visible per provider, and in matching structured data.
- Insurance list as text, linked from every page.
- A page per service with who it's for, what to expect and insurance notes.
- HIPAA-compliant forms with a signed BAA; contact forms kept minimal.
- No ad pixels on form or appointment pages.
- Fast on a phone, with tap-to-call.
- Links to your existing portal and booking tool.
Cost drivers
What changes the price of a family practice website: the number of service and provider pages, who writes and approves the content, custom design versus a template, the forms and their BAA, integrations with your existing tools, and ongoing hosting and updates. Content usually takes longer than the build.
Patient portal and existing tools: link out, don't duplicate
Your EHR's patient portal, your online scheduling tool and your bill-pay system already exist. The website's job is to send patients to them clearly:
- A "Patient portal" button in the header, with a sentence on what patients can do there.
- A "Book online" link to your existing scheduling tool, if you use one.
- A "Pay a bill" link.
- A short help page for login problems, with the right phone number.
Don't rebuild these features on the website. Duplicates drift out of sync, and they move patient data into places that may not be covered by a BAA. If you're also planning ads for new openings, see our guide to primary care ads.
Redesign vs rebuild: how Medfy's free preview works
A redesign changes how the current site looks. A rebuild changes what it does: new page structure, a page per service, provider pages with status, structured data and safe forms. Most brochure-style primary care sites need a rebuild.
Medfy rebuilds your current site so you can see a free preview of your new website before paying. The base plan, $349/month, includes:
- Your website rebuilt and hosted on your own domain, with a page per service, structured data and HIPAA-compliant forms, plus 500 AI credits a month for edits you ask for in plain English.
- Patient information from forms stored in separate, encrypted HIPAA databases in the US or Canada, with a BAA signed before any patient data flows.
- First-party analytics for calls, forms, booking clicks and directions.
Medfy doesn't provide a patient portal or scheduling software; your site links to the tools you already use. It doesn't certify accessibility either.
Start with a free audit, then see a free preview of your rebuilt website: free audit and website preview. For the wider strategy, see the primary care marketing hub and our medical website design guide.
Frequently asked questions
What should a family practice website include?
The answers patients need before calling: whether each provider is accepting new patients, the insurance plans you take, hours and locations, and how to become a patient. Then a page per service (annual physicals, Medicare wellness visits, chronic care, sick and same-day visits, vaccines, women's health, pediatrics if offered), provider pages, HIPAA-compliant forms and links to your existing portal and booking tools.
Should a primary care website list the insurance plans we accept?
Yes. Insurance is the first filter most patients apply, so list the plans you're in-network with on a dedicated page and link to it from every service and provider page. Keep it as text, not a PDF or image, update it whenever a contract changes, and add a short note asking patients to confirm coverage with their plan before the visit.
Can patients fill out forms on our website safely?
Yes, if the form is built for health information. A plain contact form should ask only for name, contact details and the reason for contact in general terms. Anything clinical, such as symptoms, history or medications, belongs only on a HIPAA-compliant form whose vendor has signed a business associate agreement with you. Keep ad pixels off every page that has a form.
How long does it take to rebuild a practice website?
It depends less on the build than on your content: provider bios, an accurate insurance list, service descriptions and clinical approvals usually take the longest to gather. Start by deciding which pages you need and who approves them. With Medfy, you can see a free preview of your rebuilt website before paying, which shortens the decision part considerably.