Clinic website redesign in Japan – keep your rankings, see the new site first

Signs your clinic website needs a redesign

Many clinics still run the site that was built when they opened. These are the most common reasons a clinic website redesign comes up:

• On a phone the text is small and the phone number or booking button is hard to find
• Opening hours, closed days or the doctor schedule are out of date
• You cannot post a sudden closure or vaccination notice yourself, quickly
• Online booking and intake forms live on a separate site and patients get lost between them
• There are few photos of the clinic or doctors, so the atmosphere does not come across
• The browser shows "Not secure" or pages load slowly

If any of these apply, write down where patients get stuck on your current site. That list becomes the priority list for the renewal. If you are starting from scratch instead, see clinic website creation.

How to keep your search rankings through a redesign

A clinic or hospital site that has been found for years through searches like "area + specialty" or symptom names has built up trust with search engines. Whether that carries over is decided mostly before launch.

• List every current URL: home, services, each department, symptom pages, access
• Find your strongest pages: use GA4 and Search Console to see which pages bring search visitors and for which queries
• Build a URL map: any page whose address changes gets a 301 redirect to its new URL
• Keep symptom and treatment articles: update well-read pages and carry them over
• Match your Google Business Profile: clinic name, address, phone and hours should read the same everywhere

After launch, watch Search Console for errors and changes in impressions for a few weeks and fix issues right away. Our guide to SEO during a site renewal walks through redirects and content transfer step by step.

What to update – and Japan's medical advertising rules

Patients look for the same few things. Make each of them easy to reach from the home page and you will also get fewer phone questions at reception.

• Hours and closed days: a clear table, with sudden closures shown in the news area on the home page
• Booking and first visit: online booking, phone, what to bring, how to get the intake form
• Services: a page per department and plain explanations of common symptoms
• Doctors and clinic: background, qualifications, approach to care, photos of the clinic
• Access: map, directions from the nearest station, parking, accessibility

Medical websites in Japan are covered by the advertising rules of the Medical Care Act, explained in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's medical advertising guidelines. False or exaggerated claims, claims of superiority over other clinics and patients' subjective testimonials are prohibited, and there are rules for how self-pay treatment costs, risks and before-and-after photos are presented. A renewal is a good moment to clean up old wording. The guidelines are revised from time to time, so check the latest official version while preparing the copy.

How a clinic site renewal runs and what to prepare

You keep seeing patients throughout, so the plan should ask as little of the doctor and staff as possible. For a small clinic site, one to two months is a typical timeline.

• Audit: pages and URLs, most visited pages, how bookings come in
• Goals: more first-visit bookings, explaining self-pay services, recruiting – set the priority
• Structure and copy: refine service and doctor texts and check them against the guidelines
• Design and build: settle the direction on the home page, then roll it out to departments
• Pre-launch checks: mobile view, booking buttons, tap-to-call links, redirects, tracking tags
• After launch: adjust copy and paths based on bookings and search data

It helps to have ready: logo files, photos of the clinic and doctors, the hours table, domain and hosting details, and access to your booking system. Photos of the waiting room, consultation room, exterior and reception give first-time patients a real feel for the place. For the general picture, see website renewal.

How UNANOBO renews a clinic site: a free demo first

Before you commit, UNANOBO builds a free demo: a new version of your current site based on your content and the feel of your clinic. You click through it on a computer and a phone, check the path to booking and how your hours read, and decide whether to go ahead.

The process is simple: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, including URL transfer, Google Business Profile and GA4 setup, so you keep one contact throughout. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English, so you can reply between patients whenever it suits you.