Finn Formica
Founder, engineeringBuilds the things that take payments, schedule bookings, and stay up at 3am. Background in production trading systems, now writes the software behind every site we ship.
Most consultants don't know their website is the first place patients judge them.
If a colleague forwarded this to you, they probably noticed their patient flow shift after rebuilding their clinical site. That's what this page is about.
Built for consultants in private practice, whether or not you still hold NHS sessions. In five minutes, you'll know whether your site is still earning you patients, or quietly losing them.
Recent work
Do any of these apply
The quiet signs your site has gone stale.
- Your bio still references a registrar or training post you finished years ago.
- You haven't seen your own site on Google for any of the procedures you offer.
- You've taken a deposit, course payment, or follow-up fee through PayPal, bank transfer, or your secretary's spreadsheet.
- You're not sure when the site was last updated, and neither is whoever built it.
- A colleague mentioned their site started doing something new, and you weren't sure what they meant.
- You've added or stopped offering at least one procedure that isn't reflected on the site.
- You don't know whether the patients reading your bio find you credible, or move on to the next surgeon.
If three or more of these apply, your patient pipeline has almost certainly started leaking. The good news: this is fixable, and the fix isn't building a flashier site.
Why this matters
Your website is the gateway to your expertise.
Most consultants underestimate how much patients research them. Referred or not, patients arrive at your site first. If it's outdated, slow, or absent from page one of Google, the decision is being made without you in the room.
- of patients look up the consultant online before their first appointment, referred or not.
- 80%+ Indicative
- private patients arrive by self-referral, after reading a consultant portfolio on the open web.
- 1 in 3 Indicative
- is the rough shelf life of a clinical site. After that, SEO drops off, the bio is out of date, and self-referrals stop arriving.
- 3 yrs Field observation
Three things compound: SEO drift, content rot, and trust-signal decay. None of them feel urgent on any given day. After three years together they've rerouted patients to your competitors before you ever heard about them. The old approach, build the site once and leave it alone, was never going to address this. It's why posting more on social or commissioning a redesign doesn't bring the patients back.
This is the real reason your site stopped working, and it's why posting more on social or paying for a redesign won't fix it.
The old way
- One-time build, set and forget.
- "We built it three years ago and it still works."
- SEO bolted on, or absent.
- Updates require an invoice.
- You can't tell how the site is performing.
- Payments collected by spreadsheet, PayPal, or bank transfer.
The new way
- A managed clinical asset, treated like equipment.
- Schema, content cadence, payments, and SEO maintained as one system.
- You update content yourself; we maintain the rest.
- Monthly one-page performance report.
- The site compounds over time instead of decaying.
- Stripe checkout for deposits, courses, follow-ups.
What we build
What a private practice site should actually do.
01
A website editor you'll use in fifteen minutes
Think WordPress or Squarespace, but custom-built around how you actually practise. The editor is shaped around the things consultants edit: bio, procedures, press, testimonials, case studies. Short walkthrough videos cover every action. Updates happen between patients, not through us.
02
Payments without the chase
Stripe checkout integrated for deposits, course bookings, and follow-up consultations. Patients pay through a branded checkout, you see who paid for what in one dashboard, and reconciliation is automatic. No more PayPal links or spreadsheet matching.
03
The first place patients judge you
Current bio, schema-marked procedures, case studies and audit data inside what the GMC permits, and SEO aimed at top-three ranking for the work you actually do. The site does the credibility work before the consultation.
04
Built around your practice, not a template
Mixed NHS and private, multiple clinic sites, training alongside clinic work. Whatever shape your week takes, the site fits.
Recent work
Mr Yakubu Karagama
ENT Surgeon · phonosurgerycourse.com
Mr Karagama runs two distinct practices from one diary. One is general ENT, a private clinic in London for ear, nose and throat patients. The other is phonosurgery, a sub-specialty in voice and airway surgery he teaches to consultants worldwide. Both lived on the same neglected site, and his secretary spent hours each week reconciling course registrations by hand.
We separated them. karagama-ent-clinic.co.uk is now a clean private-practice site for his ENT patients. phonosurgerycourse.com is a dedicated course platform for international delegates, with Stripe checkout and automatic reconciliation. Both run on a custom website editor he updates himself between clinics. He hasn't emailed us for a typo fix since launch.
−50%Payment processing fees
−60%Reconciliation time
−75%Hosting costs
What a free quote actually costs you
If your site isn't on page one, it isn't working.
What free quotes leave behind
Most patients never reach page two of Google. If you aren't in the top three results for the procedures you offer in your city, you're invisible to the patients searching for you.
Free site builders and template agencies optimise for getting you live, not for getting you found. Generic copy, shared domains, no medical schema, no on-page SEO, no ongoing work. The site ships and the rankings drift.
Most consultants have no idea where their site sits today. It's not on their dashboard, their secretary isn't watching, and nobody is paid to care.
What we bake in
- Top-three ranking as a delivery goal, not a side effect.
- Schema markup for medical practices, written by hand for each procedure you offer.
- Content and on-page SEO built into the project, not sold as an add-on.
- Ongoing SEO and a monthly performance report inside the care plan, so you actually know how your site is doing.
We give you a one-page monthly report your secretary can forward without translating. You know what's ranking, what's trending, and what we did about it.
What to look for
How to judge anyone offering to build your site.
Red flags
- Built on WordPress with a stack of third-party plugins.
- No medical schema. No structured data for procedures.
- SEO sold separately, as a monthly retainer add-on.
- They offer to integrate your booking diary or hold patient data: that's a GDPR exposure you don't need.
- You don't own the code, content, or domain.
- They can't show you a clinical site they built and still maintain.
Green flags
- Custom code, fast, and a website editor designed for non-technical use.
- On-page SEO and schema markup built into the project, not added later.
- Top-three ranking discussed as a delivery goal, with monthly performance reporting.
- Stripe checkout for course bookings, deposits, and follow-up consultation fees.
- You own the code, content, and domain on day one.
- A live clinical site they'll let you contact directly to ask what working with them is like.
How it works
From first call to launch, no surprises.
This is exactly how we built SMF Studio to work.
- 01
Free discovery call
We learn the shape of your practice: clinic days, secretary, NHS sessions, courses, the lot. No charge, no obligation.
- 02
Discovery & planning
We map your content, your services, and how payments should work. You see the plan before anything gets built.
- 03
Design
Full page designs you sign off before we touch any code.
- 04
Build
Frontend, website editor, payments, and SEO, built and tested.
- 05
Testing & launch
Cross-device testing, accessibility checks, then live on your domain.
- 06
Ongoing care
Hosting, monitoring, SEO, and small changes handled, so the site doesn't drift again.
- Fixed scope before any code
- Sign-off at each stage
- You own the site, the code, and the content
- Care plan after launch, only if you want one
Nothing moves forward without your sign-off. Fixed scope, no lock-in, and the site is yours.
Engagements
Three ways we typically work.
Practice Profile
A professional, credible site you can manage yourself. The starting point for most consultants.
from £3,000Live in 3 to 4 weeks
- Custom design and build
- Website editor for bio, procedures, press, testimonials
- On-page SEO and medical schema
- Mobile and desktop optimised
Most asked for
Practice Profile + Payments
For practices taking deposits, follow-up fees, or one-off paid work alongside the public-facing site.
from £5,500Live in 4 to 6 weeks
- Everything in Practice Profile
- Stripe checkout for deposits, follow-ups, one-off fees
- Case study and treatment portfolio admin with rich media
- Press, testimonial, and credential management
Course & CPD Platform
For consultants running training or courses alongside clinic, with delegate sign-ups and payments at the heart of the site.
from £7,000Live in 6 to 8 weeks
- Everything in Practice Profile + Payments
- Dynamic course templates
- Stripe checkout with delegate pricing
- Speaker and review management
Indicative starting points, not fixed prices. Every project is quoted individually and agreed in writing before work begins.
Why we cost what we cost
- Built for you, not a templateCustom design and code, matched to how you actually practise. No template tax later when you outgrow it.
- SEO baked inTop-three ranking as a delivery goal. Schema, content, and on-page SEO included, not sold back to you as extras.
- A custom editor, not a WordPress patchworkYour own website editor, built for your practice. Not WordPress wired up with a stack of third-party plugins. Faster, more secure, no plugin treadmill, no surprise downtime.
- You own everythingCode, content, domain. No lock-in. Cancel any care plan, the site stays yours.
How involved we stay
Pick how much of the day-to-day you want us to handle after launch. Swappable at any time.
You manage it
We hand you the website editor and the keys. You update content yourself. We keep hosting, security, and the site itself running quietly in the background.
from £149/moIndicative
- Hosting and uptime monitoring
- Security patches and updates
- Email support, 2 business day response
Most asked for
Managed with our support
You drive content; we keep the engine running. Monthly check-in, SEO review, small changes handled by us.
from £349/moIndicative
- Everything in You manage it
- 5 developer hours per month
- Monthly SEO and performance report
- Priority support, 1 business day response
We manage it
You get back to clinic. We update the site, push press mentions, run SEO, and send a monthly performance report.
from £749/moIndicative
- Everything in Managed with our support
- Content updates handled end to end
- Active SEO work, not just monitoring
- Quarterly strategy review
How we compare
What you're actually choosing between, side by side.
| Wix / Squarespace | Freelance dev | Traditional agency | SMF Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | Low | Medium | Very high | Medium |
| Monthly cost | Low | Variable | Very high | Defined care plan |
| Medical schema / SEO | None | Sometimes | Yes, sold separately | Included |
| Stripe payments (deposits / courses) | Generic, manual reconciliation | Sometimes | Custom-quoted | Included |
| Website editor for clinicians | Generic editor (Wix/Squarespace block builder) | Hand-rolled or none | Custom, complex | Designed for clinicians |
| You own the code | No (lock-in) | Usually | Sometimes | Yes |
| Ongoing care plan | None | None | Heavy retainer | Optional |
| Time-to-launch | Self-serve | Variable | 4-6 months | 3-8 weeks |
| Who builds it | You | One freelancer | Agency team you won't meet | The three of us |
Deliberately excluded: patient booking diaries and EMR sync. We don't sell those, so we don't compare on them.
Who you'll work with
A small team, no agency layers.
Three founders, one team. The same people who scope your project also design it, build it, and pick up the phone when something needs deciding.
Saajan Patel
Founder, design and strategyDecides how the site looks, reads, and converts. Sits with you in the discovery call, runs the brand and content pass, signs off the design before a line of code is written.
Madu Gadzama
Founder, product and deliveryOwns the path from kickoff to launch. Keeps scope tight, dates honest, and the work moving. The person you'll hear from when something needs deciding.
Common questions
Everything you might want to know before getting in touch.
Most of the consultants we work with came to us not because they wanted a flashier site, but because their site had quietly stopped earning trust, and they couldn't tell whether they were still being found online. The pitch is simple: build something once that does the work, keep it ranking, then leave you alone. If you've read this far and something resonated, we'd be happy to take a look at your site or answer anything.
, FinnSend us your URL or a question.
We'll come back with something useful, either way. No charge, no obligation. We work around clinic days.