By Sam Stratton, 17 years creating websites, shooting video and marketing content for brands including Audi, Visa and TCS. 24 July 2026.
The short version: a typical web agency builds you a website; a healthcare specialist builds you a patient pipeline that happens to include one. The differences show up in compliance, in how patients are researched, and in what gets measured. Here is an honest comparison to help you choose, whether or not you choose us.
What does a typical web agency deliver?
Usually a professional looking site, delivered on time, that does what the brief said. That is not a criticism. Good generalist agencies are good at building websites.
The gap is everything around the website. A generalist agency typically has not spent years learning how patients search for consultants, what the GMC and ASA expect from medical marketing, or why a testimonial that would be fine for a restaurant can be a compliance problem for a surgeon. They learn on your project, at your risk, or they do not learn at all.
Where do the differences actually matter?
| | Typical web agency | Alchemy Med | |—|—|—| | Starting point | Your design preferences | How your patients search and decide | | Copy | Written from your brief | Written from patient questions, in your voice | | Compliance | Your responsibility to catch | Checked against GMC and ASA guidance as standard | | Imagery | Stock libraries | Real photography and video of you and your clinic | | SEO | Often an add-on | Built into structure and content from day one | | After launch | Support tickets | Ongoing content, reviews and measurement | | Success metric | Site delivered | Enquiries generated |
Two of these deserve expansion.
Compliance. You are personally accountable to the GMC for what your marketing says, even when an agency wrote it. Outcome guarantees, superlatives and pressure tactics are not just bad taste in medical marketing, they are regulatory risk carried by you. A specialist treats that as a design constraint from the start.
Measurement. A website is a cost until you can connect it to enquiries. We set up tracking on every build so you can see what patients do, where they came from and what led to contact. When we say something works, the claim comes with numbers you can inspect, as in our Toby Baring case study.
When is a typical web agency the right choice?
Genuinely: when you need a simple online presence and you already have patient flow you are happy with. If your diary is full through referrals, a clean, accurate brochure site from a competent local agency may be all you need, at a lower price than specialist work.
The calculation changes when the website needs to produce patients. Then the specialist knowledge stops being a nice extra and becomes the entire point.
What should you ask any agency before hiring them?
Five questions that quickly separate specialists from generalists:
- Can you show me a consultant or clinic site you built, with results you can evidence?
- How do you keep medical marketing within GMC and ASA rules?
- How will patients find this site once it is live?
- What happens after launch, and what does it cost?
- What will you measure, and will I be able to see it?
Any agency worth hiring will have direct answers. Our own answers are on our services page, and our case studies with Mr Andrew Chambler and Mr Toby Baring show the work behind them.
What does working with Alchemy Med look like?
We work exclusively with UK surgeons and private practices. A typical engagement starts with the foundation: a website built around how your patients actually search, on-site photography and video so the site feels like you, and initial content answering the questions you hear most in clinic. Ongoing SEO, content and review work then compounds from there.
If you want to see how your current site holds up first, request the free audit. We record a short video showing the three highest impact improvements, and you can act on it with any agency you like.
Frequently asked questions
Is a specialist agency more expensive than a generalist one? Not necessarily on the build itself; our full package is priced comparably to a good generalist build. The difference is more what the same money buys: healthcare specific strategy, compliance awareness and content, rather than design alone.
We already have a website. Can you work with it? Sometimes. If the foundation is sound we improve rather than rebuild. The audit tells us, and you, which situation you are in.
Do you only work with surgeons? Our focus is UK private surgeons and consultants. That focus is deliberate: it is why the patient research, compliance knowledge and case studies transfer from one engagement to the next.
What if we just need photography or video, not a website? That is fine. Our video and photography service runs standalone as well as within full builds.