Check your practice website against the rules

Does each doctor use only the titles their GMC register entry supports?

Under section 49 of the Medical Act 1983, wilfully and falsely using a title such as physician, surgeon or general practitioner is an offence.

Source: Medical Act 1983, section 49: Penalty for pretending to be registeredRead: Writing a doctor profile page patients trust

If the CQC has rated you, does your home page show the latest rating and the date it was given?

In England, regulation 20A requires a rated provider’s website to show its latest rating, the date and where to read the report; the CQC asks for it within 21 days of publication.

Source: The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, regulation 20A: Requirement as to display of performance assessmentsRead: Showing your CQC rating on your website

Where your site shows fees, is each one the total, including any booking charge every patient pays?

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, a price that invites a booking must be the total, including the charges a patient will necessarily pay.

Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4, Chapter 1: Prohibition of unfair commercial practices (sections 225 to 230)Read: Fees on a private practice website: the rules

If you are a consultant, do the fees on your site match your PHIN profile?

The CMA’s Order requires consultants to give PHIN their fees and keep them up to date; the same figures on your site keep the two consistent.

Source: Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014 (as amended)Read: Fees on a private practice website: the rules

Do your treatment pages avoid superlatives, and avoid calling a treatment certain to work or permanent?

The CAP Code requires documentary evidence before an advert makes claims like these, including that a treatment is certain to work.

Source: CAP Code, section 3: Misleading advertisingRead: Writing treatment pages for patients

Do your pages avoid naming prescription-only medicines in promotional text?

Prescription-only medicines may not be advertised to the public in the UK; the ASA’s advice is to lead with the consultation and the condition instead.

Source: Healthcare: Prescription-only Medicines (websites)Read: Writing treatment pages for patients

Does your website hold a current MOHAP licence for healthcare advertising?

In the UAE a clinic website counts as healthcare advertising, and MOHAP licenses a website before it is published; the licence runs for a set period and is renewed.

Source: License for a Healthcare Advertisement on a Website or Digital LinkRead: Advertising licence for a UAE clinic website

If you practise in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, is the site also authorised by the DHA, or logged with the DoH?

Dubai’s Executive Council Resolution 49 of 2024 requires the DHA’s authorisation before any health promotion is published; the post explains Abu Dhabi’s logging with the DoH.

Source: Executive Council Resolution No. (49) of 2024 Regulating the Practice of Health Professions and Health Activities in the Emirate of DubaiRead: Advertising licence for a UAE clinic website

Is everything on your site available in Arabic, alongside any other language?

The UAE’s consumer protection law requires information and advertisements for consumers to be in Arabic; other languages may be added.

Source: Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer ProtectionRead: Advertising licence for a UAE clinic website

If your site shows a discount or offer, was it licensed and approved before it went up?

Federal Law 15 of 2020 requires a licence from the competent authority before a discount is advertised; the post explains the health authority’s review that follows.

Source: Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer ProtectionRead: Advertising licence for a UAE clinic website

Does your site for patients in Türkiye leave out prices, discounts, campaigns and patients’ thank-you messages?

Article 5 of the regulation of 12 November 2025 on promotion in health services bars fees, discounts and campaigns, and patients’ thank-you or satisfaction statements used as promotion.

Source: Sağlık Hizmetlerinde Tanıtım ve Bilgilendirme Faaliyetleri Hakkında Yönetmelik (Resmî Gazete 12.11.2025, Sayı 33075)Read: A clinic website in Türkiye: one site or two?

If you promote to patients abroad, is that on a separate site that shows your health-tourism authorisation certificate?

Under the same regulation, only facilities holding the health-tourism authorisation may promote abroad, on a separate website for foreign audiences that shows the certificate.

Source: Sağlık Hizmetlerinde Tanıtım ve Bilgilendirme Faaliyetleri Hakkında Yönetmelik (Resmî Gazete 12.11.2025, Sayı 33075)Read: A clinic website in Türkiye: one site or two?

Does each doctor’s page show their GMC number, linked to their entry on the register?

Good medical practice asks doctors to give their registered name and GMC number to any patient who asks; a profile page can give both up front.

Source: Good medical practice 2024, Domain 4: Trust and professionalismRead: Writing a doctor profile page patients trust

If you trade as a limited company, does your site show its registered name, number, place of registration and registered office?

A limited company must show these on its website.

Source: Running a limited company: signs, stationery and promotional materialRead: What a private practice website needs

If you are registered with the CQC, does your site say how a patient can complain, and how to take it further?

CQC regulation 16 requires an accessible complaints system, and that people are told how to take a complaint further.

Source: Regulation 16: Receiving and acting on complaintsRead: What a private practice website needs

For each patient review on your site, do you hold the writer’s permission and contact details?

The CAP Code (rules 3.47 and 3.50) requires evidence that a testimonial is genuine, with the person’s contact details and their permission.

Source: CAP Code: 03 Misleading advertisingRead: Patient reviews on a medical website: the rules

Are reviews shown unedited, without leaving out the critical ones?

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, hiding critical reviews, picking only favourable ones or editing negative ones is a banned practice.

Source: Fake reviews (CMA208): guidance on the prohibition under paragraph 13 of Schedule 20 to the DMCC Act 2024Read: Patient reviews on a medical website: the rules

Does a contact page linked from your home page give your name or title, tax number, address and hosting provider?

The regulation under Law 5651 requires a commercial site to give these, with email and phone, under a contact heading reachable from the home page.

Source: İnternet Ortamında Yapılan Yayınların Düzenlenmesine Dair Usul ve Esaslar Hakkında Yönetmelik (Resmî Gazete 30.11.2007, Sayı 26716)Read: A clinic website in Türkiye: one site or two?

Does your site say when its information was last updated, and how to reach its editor?

The 2025 regulation on promotion in health services asks a health website to state when its information was last updated and how to reach the editor.

Source: Sağlık Hizmetlerinde Tanıtım ve Bilgilendirme Faaliyetleri Hakkında Yönetmelik (Resmî Gazete 12.11.2025, Sayı 33075)Read: A clinic website in Türkiye: one site or two?

Does your privacy notice say how long enquiries are kept, and how to complain to the ICO?

Article 13 of the UK GDPR requires telling people how long their data is kept, or how that is decided, and that they may complain to the ICO.

Source: Article 13: Information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject (UK GDPR)Read: Privacy and cookies on a UK practice website

Does your cookie banner have a Reject button as easy to use as Accept?

PECR requires consent before non-essential cookies; the ICO expects rejecting to be as easy as accepting, and ignoring the banner is not consent.

Source: Guidance on the use of storage and access technologiesRead: Privacy and cookies on a UK practice website

Does your contact form ask only for contact details and the service, and no medical details?

Federal Law 2 of 2019 bars health information from being stored, processed or transferred outside the UAE without permission.

Source: New UAE Law Regulates Healthcare Data (Client Alert 2514, on Federal Law No. 2 of 2019)Read: Advertising licence for a UAE clinic website

On a phone, does your site show the same text and details as on a computer?

Google indexes the phone version of a page, and asks for the same content, headings and structured data at every screen size.

Source: Mobile-first Indexing Best PracticesRead: Check your practice website from your phone

Zoomed to 200% in the browser, do your pages still read in one column with nothing cut off?

WCAG 2.2 asks that enlarged text reflows into one column with no sideways scrolling, so a patient who enlarges the text can still read the page.

Source: Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.10: ReflowRead: An accessible practice website, in plain words

Since your last redesign or move, do the old page addresses open the matching new pages?

Google asks that each old address be permanently redirected to its own new page, not to the home page, and that the redirects stay in place for a year or more.

Source: How to move a siteRead: Moving a practice website so Google can follow

Do your Google Business Profile’s name, address, phone number and hours match your website?

Google asks a profile to show the business as it is known in the real world; the details patients find there should be the ones on your site.

Source: Guidelines for representing your business on GoogleRead: Google Business Profile for a clinic

Does your web address followed by /llms.txt show a plain summary of your practice?

llms.txt is a proposal, not a standard: it gives the AI assistants that read it your facts in one place. It does not make them recommend you.

Source: The /llms.txt fileRead: What llms.txt does for a practice website