By Shawn Theesfeld for our 99 Ways to Make a Positive Difference in Your Pharmacy blog series

Does your pharmacy have a website? While many pharmacies have come a long way in website development and offer some pretty sophisticated and well-designed sites, others, like many small businesses, struggle to know where to begin to establish their presence online and may feel left out of digital world. But it’s never too late to launch a new website or relaunch an out-of-date site. You just need to approach it step by step.

First, set aside time. It’s not unrealistic for a website launch or relaunch to take around three months. That timeframe can vary, but it’s definitely not an overnight process, so you need to be prepared.

You should also set aside resources. Not only will there be some up-front expenditures related to establishing your new website, there will be follow-up and maintenance costs after you launch to keep the site running smoothly. Costs will vary widely depending on the resources you use, and solutions are available to meet most budgets. Do your research to find the options that work best for you.

Next, create a goal for your website. Once you’ve determined what you want your website to do, reserve a URL (web address). The URL you choose should be easy for people to remember – for instance, yourpharmacynamehere.com. Once you reserve a URL, establish emails for you and your staff that include the URL, such as your_name@yourpharmacynamehere.com. This simple step will make your email communications look much more professional than having a Yahoo or Gmail account.

With the URL established, you can work with your team to begin building  the site. Test frequently, on a variety of devices (including smartphones and tablets) and web browsers (Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc) to make sure the site will work well for different users. Create all of your pages and content before going live – “Page Under Construction” is no longer an acceptable message to find on a web page a user thought would be live, so remove or complete any blank pages before unveiling the new site.

After launch, review your established goals every quarter, and at the six month and year mark, to assess your success or make adjustments if you need to.

Establishing a web presence isn’t as overwhelming as it seems if you approach it in a strategic and thoughtful way.

As part of the PC development team, Shawn helps to develop, maintain and support all in-house, PC-based applications. This development includes Microsoft SQL development, .NET development, and Web development.