Optometrist website design: exam or glasses?

A visitor whose glasses have stopped working has one goal: an exam. The homepage often gives the frame shop the most room, with bright photos of frames, a Shop now button and an eyewear banner. The exam button is smaller, and sometimes it sits in the menu. A visitor who taps Shop now finds frames with prices but no appointments, and has to search again for the way to book. Some decide the practice does not do exams. Others find the exam link and meet a reason-for-visit list that does not say which option they need.

• Is booking an eye exam one of the first two buttons on the homepage, on a phone?
• Is the frame shop link set apart from the exam link, with different words?
• Does each reason for visit say what it covers, such as a new prescription or a contact lens check?
• Does a reason change the times shown, and does the page say so?
• Can a visitor say they do not know their prescription and still see an exam time?

A practice that sells frames and runs exams gets two kinds of visitor on one page. One is browsing frame styles and may book nothing. The other has a deadline, often because their glasses broke or stopped working, and needs an exam within a week or two. Their paths split at the first click. When the frame shop takes the top of the page and the exam link is a small word in the menu, the second group is the one that leaves.

Check the split on a phone. Count the taps from the homepage to a page that lets you book an exam, and write down which button you pressed first. If that button led to frames, the homepage is sending exam visitors into the shop. The test does the same walk from the homepage, so you can see the route a visitor took and the screen that turned them around.

Landing page testing

Exam booking pages often ask why the visit is needed, and the answer often decides which calendar the visitor sees. A contact lens fitting may need a longer slot, a different room or a particular optometrist, so the times for that reason are different from the times for a routine exam. A visitor who picks a reason that is not theirs can find no times at all, and reads that as the practice being full.

Pick each reason on the list in turn, for the same week, and write down the times each one shows. If one reason shows nothing for next week and the others show plenty, the cause is the reason's calendar, not the week. Then read what each reason says on the page. A reason with no description forces a visitor to guess which slot they will be booked into, and many will not guess.

Some forms ask for the numbers on a current prescription, along with the date of the last exam. Many people do not know what those numbers mean, and some do not have the paper in front of them when they book. A field that must be filled before a time is shown will stop a visitor who is unsure, and a visitor who is unsure is usually the person who needs the exam most.

Test this on purpose. Start a booking, pick a reason, and stop at the first prescription field. If the next button stays grey, the field is required and the page has no way out for someone who does not know the numbers. The fix is not to remove the question. Make it optional for a first exam, say that the numbers are measured at the visit, and show the next free time straight away.

A new frame collection, a seasonal sale or a new banner can move the exam button below the first screen or rename it. A new reason for visit can also change which times show for everyone. Run the exam path on a phone after each homepage or booking change, for each reason on the list, and again before a sale starts.