In the healthcare sector, patient trust begins long before they enter the consultation room—it starts with their first digital interaction. Harley Health Partners, a multi-disciplinary clinic based in London’s iconic Harley Street, offered world-class care but faced a stagnant digital presence. Their legacy WordPress site was slow, difficult to navigate on mobile, and relied on a third-party booking widget that frequently glitched, leading to a high "appointment drop-off" rate.
They approached Custom Coded Websites with a two-fold mission: streamline the patient booking journey and dominate the local search landscape for private healthcare in Marylebone and Westminster. Here is how we used Python and Django to deliver a 120% increase in online bookings.
The Challenge: Friction in Patient Acquisition
Healthcare patients often search for services when they are in need of immediate answers or appointments. Harley Health Partners was losing potential patients due to several technical bottlenecks:
- The Booking Barrier: The existing booking system required users to navigate away to a separate portal, resulting in a 40% abandonment rate at the final step.
- Mobile Performance: Over 75% of their traffic came from mobile devices, yet the site took over 5 seconds to load on a standard 4G connection in Central London.
- Invisible to Local Search: Despite their prestigious location, they weren't appearing in the Google "Map Pack" for high-intent searches like "Private GP Marylebone" or "Physiotherapy Harley Street."
The CCW Solution: A Secure, Integrated Patient Portal
Our co-founders, Charlie Shortman and Louie Long, designed a bespoke solution that prioritized patient privacy, speed, and ease of use. We moved away from fragmented plugins and built a unified platform using the Django framework.
1. Custom-Coded Booking Engine
Charlie Shortman engineered a seamless booking engine integrated directly into the site’s core architecture. Unlike generic widgets, this Django-based system syncs in real-time with the clinic’s internal calendars. We implemented an asynchronous "Timeslot Picker" that allows patients to see availability and confirm appointments in under 30 seconds without a single page reload. By keeping the entire transaction on-site, we maintained the clinic’s "Premium" brand integrity and significantly reduced friction.
2. Technical Local SEO and "Medical" Schema
To capture the competitive London medical market, we implemented a rigorous technical SEO strategy. We utilized MedicalWebPage and Physician Schema to provide Google with explicit data about the clinic's services, clinicians, and location. We also optimized the site’s performance to achieve a perfect "Green" score on Google Core Web Vitals, ensuring they outranked slower competitors in Fitzrovia and Mayfair.
3. Patient-First UX Design
Louie Long focused on "Empathetic Design." We redesigned the service pages to be informative yet accessible, ensuring that medical information was easy to digest on small screens. We implemented a "One-Touch Call" button and a secure "Patient Enquiry" flow that meets the highest standards of data protection, ensuring all sensitive information is encrypted before it reaches the clinic’s administration team.
The Results: 120% More Appointments
The impact of the new custom-coded platform was transformative for Harley Health Partners within the first six months of launch:
- Online Bookings: Increased by 120%, significantly reducing the administrative burden on the clinic’s reception staff.
- Mobile Engagement: Average time spent on the site grew by 150% as mobile load times dropped to 0.8 seconds.
- Local Search Dominance: The clinic now holds "Top 3" positions for its primary service keywords in the Westminster area.
- Patient Confidence: Zero booking errors were reported post-launch, compared to a 5% failure rate on the previous system.
Why Healthcare Providers are Choosing Custom Django Solutions
Harley Health Partners' success proves that in the medical field, your website is an extension of your care. A Django build from Custom Coded Websites offers the security and reliability that healthcare demands, combined with the speed and SEO performance required to win in a crowded London market.
Based in London, we understand the unique pressures of private healthcare providers. we don't just build websites; we build secure, efficient gateways to patient care.