Dermatology websites carry a problem most medical sites never face: two completely different patients arrive at the same homepage. One has a suspicious mole and wants the earliest appointment with a board-certified physician. The other wants Botox and is comparing you to the med spa down the street. Design for the first and the cosmetic side looks clinical and cold. Design for the second and the medical patient wonders whether this is a real practice. Most dermatology website design fails by choosing one and losing the other.
Here are the ten rules we apply when building or auditing a dermatology site, written from the operator side by a team that ran marketing inside a clinic before running it for clients. The goal is not an award. It is two full calendars.
The 10 Rules
1. Split the navigation by intent, not by department
Two clear doors on the homepage: “Medical Dermatology” and “Cosmetic Treatments,” each with its own visual tone, page set, and booking path. The medical side is clean, physician-forward, insurance-aware. The cosmetic side is warmer, result-led, and priced. Same brand, two conversations. Practices that do this see cosmetic revenue climb because cosmetic patients finally recognize themselves on the site.
2. Provider pages that establish authority in three seconds
Board certification in dermatology, fellowship training, residency, publications, years in practice, and a real photograph. In dermatology the credential is the product for medical patients and the trust anchor for cosmetic ones. Every provider, including nurse injectors and PAs, gets a page that states exactly what they are licensed to do.
3. One page per condition and per treatment
Acne, eczema, psoriasis, skin cancer screening, rosacea, hair loss on the medical side. Botox, fillers, lasers, chemical peels, microneedling, body contouring on the cosmetic side. Each gets a dedicated URL with symptoms or candidacy, what to expect, cost or insurance notes, FAQs, and a booking button. This is the structure that captures search demand, as our dermatology SEO guide lays out, and it is the structure patients expect.
4. Online scheduling for both sides, with the right friction
Medical patients need insurance capture and a reason-for-visit field so triage works. Cosmetic patients need a consult booking with a deposit option and no insurance questions at all. Two booking flows, both mobile-first, both live on every relevant page. A “Request Appointment” form that emails the front desk and gets answered the next business day loses cosmetic patients to whoever books instantly.
5. HIPAA-compliant forms and portal links
Intake forms, photo uploads for virtual consults, and any messaging must run through HIPAA-compliant tools with a signed Business Associate Agreement. Generic form plugins that email patient details in plain text are a liability. Link to your patient portal prominently for existing patients so they stop calling the front desk for results.
6. Results galleries on the cosmetic side, clinical photography on the medical side
Cosmetic before-and-afters need consent, consistent lighting, and no outcome guarantees. Medical condition pages benefit from clinical education imagery that helps patients recognize their symptoms. Keep the two visual languages separate; a mole-check page decorated with filler photos confuses everyone.
7. Insurance and pricing transparency
List accepted insurance plans on the medical side. List cosmetic price ranges or starting prices on the cosmetic side. Dermatology patients on both sides abandon sites that make them call to find out whether they can afford to come in. Transparency filters out mismatches and builds trust with everyone else.
8. Speed and accessibility
Dermatology sites are image-heavy and often run on aging templates. Target a load under two seconds on mobile, WebP images, lazy loading, and real accessibility: alt text, contrast, keyboard navigation. Medical practices are a common target for accessibility complaints, and the fixes are cheap compared to the letters.
9. Local SEO built into the site
Physician and MedicalClinic structured data, a Google Business Profile that mirrors the site’s name, address, and hours exactly, location pages for each office, and reviews embedded on the relevant pages. “Dermatologist near me” is one of the most searched local medical queries in the country; the map pack decides most of it.
10. Track the cosmetic pipeline separately
Medical volume is often insurance-limited and referral-driven. Cosmetic volume is the growth lever, and it responds to marketing. Set up GA4 with cosmetic consult bookings as a key event, track which pages produce them, and review monthly. Practices that see the cosmetic side as a line item on the medical dashboard never invest in it properly.
We built a Greater Toronto Area med spa a curated PRP hair-restoration offer and ran it on Meta. A $1,000 ad budget brought in 100+ leads at roughly $10 each: 10 booked consultations, 5 closed packages, about $12,500 in month-one revenue. No procedure video existed, so we ran image ads. The named offer did the heavy lifting, not the production value.
What Dermatology Website Design Costs
Template builds on WordPress or Squarespace with a medical theme run $3,000 to $8,000. Healthcare web agencies that specialize in dermatology charge $10,000 to $30,000 and frequently bundle hosting and marketing into a contract that owns your site if you leave. Our conversion-first build is a one-time $3,500 USD with full ownership of domain, hosting, and files. Whatever you choose, get ownership terms in writing before design starts.
The Site Is the Foundation, Not the Strategy
A dermatology website that converts is pillar one of the four-pillar visibility system: everything else, search, Google Ads, and Meta, sends patients to it. Build it to book, then turn on the channels. The complete plan for a practice that wants to grow its cosmetic side is in our dermatology marketing services.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a dermatology website include?
Separate medical and cosmetic paths, provider pages with credentials, one page per condition and treatment, online scheduling for both sides, HIPAA-compliant forms, insurance and pricing transparency, consented results galleries, local SEO schema, and analytics that track cosmetic bookings as conversions.
How much does a dermatology website cost?
Between $3,000 and $30,000 in 2026 depending on whether you buy a template build, a specialist agency build, or a conversion-focused build with full ownership. Price correlates weakly with results; ownership terms and booking flow matter more.
Should a dermatology practice have a separate website for cosmetic services?
Usually no. A single domain with two clearly split paths keeps your authority and reviews in one place while still speaking to each patient properly. A separate cosmetic brand only makes sense when the med spa operates as a distinct business with its own staff and location.
Can a dermatology website help with Google rankings?
It is the foundation of them. Condition and treatment pages, provider authority, schema, speed, and location pages are what Google rewards for medical searches. Without that structure, no amount of off-site SEO ranks a practice.
