Directory listings and a Google Business Profile tell patients a clinic exists. They rarely answer what a caller wants to know. Does the ENT clinic treat vertigo? Is a female doctor in on Saturdays? Can a wheelchair get from the parking to the door? Often the person asking is phoning for an elderly parent and has already rung two other clinics. Calls like that are usually what make a doctor wonder whether the clinic needs a website of its own, or whether directory listings are enough.
A listing proves you exist. A website is where you get to explain yourself, on your terms, and in words you control.
What a listing can't tell a patient
Directories are built for comparison, so they squeeze every clinic into the same template: speciality, address, a phone number, a star rating. What they rarely carry well:
- which doctors see patients there, with their recognised qualifications
- the specific conditions and procedures you handle
- practical details that decide a visit, like wheelchair access, parking, language, or a lady doctor on certain days
- a booking link that goes straight into your own schedule
- hours you can correct yourself the day they change
If patients keep phoning to ask the same few questions, that list of questions is the outline of your website.
The rules still come from 2002
Many doctors avoid a website because they're unsure what the Medical Council allows. The governing text is the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002. The NMC notified a new set, the Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, in August 2023, then put them in abeyance three weeks later and restored the 2002 regulations. Unless a fresh gazette notification appears, the 2002 text is what applies.
Regulation 6.1.1 says that "soliciting of patients directly or indirectly, by a physician, by a group of physicians or by institutions or organisations is unethical." It also bars publicity designed to draw attention to a doctor's skill, achievements, affiliations or honours. The same clause lists what a doctor may announce, including starting a practice, a change of address, temporary absence, and a public declaration of charges. Regulation 6.1.2 treats a self-photograph or publicity material on a letterhead or signboard as self-advertisement.
Two more clauses matter for a website. Regulation 1.4.2 allows you to display recognised degrees, diplomas and memberships that confer professional knowledge. Regulation 1.4 requires your registration number to be displayed at the clinic and on prescriptions and certificates, and putting it on your site is sensible practice.
In practice, a website that reads like a well-organised information sheet sits comfortably within these rules. Keep these off it:
- "best", "No. 1", "most trusted" and similar superlatives
- lists of awards, celebrity patients or media mentions
- before-and-after galleries used as promotion
- discount offers or "book now and save"
- testimonials you wrote or edited yourself
Nothing in the 2002 regulations addresses website reviews specifically, so be cautious here. Genuine reviews that patients leave on independent platforms are safer than testimonials you choose and publish yourself, and nothing that identifies a patient should go up without their written consent.
When you aren't sure, strip the sentence down to a fact. "MS (ENT), with a clinic for balance and vertigo disorders" is information. "Mysuru's leading vertigo specialist" is promotion. If you need a definitive answer for a borderline case, ask your State Medical Council.
One page or ten?
A doctor setting up a solo practice can start with a single page: who you are, your qualifications and registration number, what you treat, hours, a map, fees if you choose to declare them, and a booking link. That covers what most first-time patients want to know.
Separate pages start to earn their keep when the clinic grows. A multi-speciality centre with an ENT surgeon, an audiologist and a paediatrician benefits from a page per doctor and per service. A parent searching "child ear infection doctor Mysuru" can then land on the page that answers that exact question instead of a generic home page. That kind of specific, factual content is also what gives search engines something to rank beyond your clinic's name.
Let the size of the site follow your clinic, not an agency package.
Build for the phone first
TRAI's performance indicators report for January to March 2026 counted about 1,046 million wireless internet subscriptions in India against roughly 47 million wired ones. Your site will mostly be opened on a phone, often on a patchy connection. So check that:
- the phone number is tap-to-call
- the booking button is visible without scrolling
- the address opens in a maps app
- pages load quickly on mobile data (test it yourself on 4G, away from the clinic Wi-Fi)
If you already have a website that's gone stale
A site built five years ago by a nephew, with last year's timings and a contact form that emails an inbox nobody checks, can do more harm than having no site. A patient who finds it may reasonably wonder whether the clinic is still open.
Before paying for a redesign, spend an hour auditing what's there:
- Call every phone number listed.
- Submit the booking or contact form and see where it lands.
- Remove doctors who have left and services you've stopped offering.
- Check that hours match the board outside your door.
- Read every line against the "keep these off" list above.
Three accurate pages beat ten out-of-date ones.
After the site, the booking flow
A website that ends in "call us between 10 and 1" still loses the patient who is researching at 11 at night. Link the booking button to a real scheduling system so the slot the patient picks is the slot your front desk sees. Our guide to setting up online appointments for your clinic covers that part step by step.
ExaHealth puts these pieces in one place. The clinic website runs on your own domain with only your clinic's name and logo, and shows your hours and services. Its booking page fills the same appointments calendar the front desk uses, and your Google Business Profile hours and services stay in sync, so a timing change doesn't have to be made in three places. The wording on the pages is still your responsibility, so read them against the "keep these off" list before they go live.
Listing, website, or both?
Both, for most clinics. A directory listing or Google Business Profile gets you found by name. A website answers the questions that decide whether the patient picks up the phone or books. It only does that job if it stays factual and its timings stay current.
How do the website, booking page and profile sync connect? ExaHealth's features page for doctors shows each one.
Related reading: Setting Up Online Appointments for Your Clinic: A Step-by-Step Guide and Best Clinic App for Doctors: What to Look For in 2026.
Where the figures come from
- NMC: Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023
- Medical Dialogues: NMC puts 2023 professional conduct regulations on hold
- Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 (Indian Kanoon)
- Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 (PDF)
- TRAI: Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators (PDF)