The verdict in three sentences
For a private outpatient clinic in Lausanne, a website redesign costs in the order of CHF 15,000 to 45,000 with a Lausanne agency in 2026, against a fixed Kolonell grid of CHF 2,700, 4,500 or 8,200 depending on the tier. The real risk is not the design: it is losing the treatment pages that already rank on Google because nobody inventoried the URLs or mapped 301 redirects. Plan for 3 to 4 weeks of production once your doctors have approved the content, and keep online booking and the patient portal outside the fixed price, on quote.
What tells you a redesign is due?
A clinic on the Lake Geneva shore does not need a new website every three years. Some signals, however, are hard to ignore:
- specialty pages were added one hire at a time, with no common logic, and a patient from Ouchy or the Flon cannot find the right practitioner in two clicks;
- the contact form still asks for the reason for the visit in free text, which pushes health data into an ordinary inbox;
- the mobile version is slow and the call buttons are too small for older patients;
- the English version is a translated home page, while part of the region's international and sports patients search in English;
- nobody knows which treatment pages bring enquiries, because analytics were never set up properly.
If three of these apply, the redesign is a service quality issue, not just a branding one.
What budget should you plan in Lausanne?
The ranges below are a 2026 ballpark, based on typical agency quotes and public agency rate pages in the area. They vary with the number of specialties, languages and integrations.
| Option | Redesign budget (CHF) | Typical timeline | What is usually included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vaud freelancer | 5,000 to 15,000 | 6 to 12 weeks | Theme, build, little copywriting |
| Generalist Lausanne agency | 15,000 to 30,000 | 8 to 14 weeks | Custom design, project manager, partial copy |
| Healthcare specialist agency (Lake Geneva region) | 25,000 to 45,000 | 10 to 16 weeks | Workshops, copywriting, compliance support |
| Kolonell Starter | 2,700 | 3 to 4 weeks | Compact site, native copywriting |
| Kolonell Growth | 4,500 | 3 to 4 weeks | More pages, specialty pages, blog |
| Kolonell Premium | 8,200 | 3 to 4 weeks | The multilingual tier (languages set in the quote), full SEO migration |
All three Kolonell tiers include a project manager reachable in your time zone, native English or French copywriting, delivery in 3 to 4 weeks and 3 months of support. Maintenance after that is on quote. The tiers are detailed on the international website offer page.
What stays on quote, whoever you hire: online booking, the patient portal, telehealth and any integration with your practice management software. In a fixed-price redesign, the existing vendor's tool is linked or embedded, never rebuilt.
How long does a redesign take, phase by phase?
| Phase | Scope | Kolonell duration | Who signs off |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0. Inventory | URL export, traffic per page, inbound links | 2 to 3 days | Management and marketing lead |
| 1. Architecture | Specialty and practitioner tree, 301 redirect map | 3 to 4 days | Medical director |
| 2. Content | Copy for each treatment page, reviewed by a clinician | Variable, clinic side | Lead physicians |
| 3. Design and build | Mock-ups, development, WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility | 8 to 10 days | Management |
| 4. Compliance review | Forms, tracking tags, legal notices, marketing copy | 2 to 3 days | Privacy adviser |
| 5. Go-live | Cutover, redirects, Search Console, 404 checks | 1 day + 2 weeks of monitoring | Kolonell and clinic |
The 3 to 4 weeks start when the content is ready. In practice phase 2 is the one that slips: ten treatment pages reviewed by three different specialists often take longer than the whole build.
What are the risks, and how do you neutralise them?
| Risk | What happens without precautions | Concrete measure |
|---|---|---|
| SEO traffic loss | Ranking pages such as 'herniated disc' or 'cardiology check-up' return 404 | Full URL inventory, page-by-page 301 map, checks in Google Search Console |
| Content migration | Copy moved as is, outdated or never reviewed medically | Sort pages: keep, merge, rewrite, delete |
| Health data in forms | Symptoms and history sent in plain email | Minimal form: name, contact details, preferred slot |
| Tracking tags | Advertising pixels on appointment pages | Tag review with your privacy adviser before go-live |
| Integrations | The booking widget breaks at cutover | Test the vendor's tool on a staging environment |
| Downtime | Site unreachable during DNS propagation | Cutover outside consultation hours, TTL lowered 48 hours before |
On the legal side, the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (nLPD/revFADP), in force since 1 September 2023, classes health data as sensitive personal data, under the supervision of the FDPIC. If you also target patients living in the European Union, the GDPR may apply too. Doctors' advertising is framed by federal and cantonal professional rules: objective, not misleading information, and the canton licenses clinics. This is not legal advice: have your copy and forms checked by your adviser.
What should you ask a provider before signing?
- Do you deliver a complete, page-by-page 301 redirect file, and who tests it after cutover?
- How do you design forms so that no health data is collected?
- Do practitioner profiles show the authorisation details the canton requires?
- What is in the fixed price, and what goes on quote (booking, portal, practice software)?
- What does post-launch support cover, and for how long?
Need a professional website?
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When is a local agency the better choice?
To be honest: if your clinic wants to rebuild a complete patient journey with a portal, payments and deep integration with patient records, or if your board wants weekly in-person workshops at the Flon, a Lausanne healthcare agency earns its fee. The same goes if you need integrated legal support from a Vaud partner. Kolonell makes sense when the scope is a solid presentation site, a clean SEO migration and well-written content, delivered fast at a known price.
Mini case study
Illustrative example. Vernelle Medical Centre, an imaginary multi-specialty outpatient clinic near the CHUV district, runs 9 specialties and 14 practitioners. Its current site has 160 URLs, 42 of which are treatment pages still receiving visits from Google.
- Inventory: 160 URLs, 42 to redirect one by one, 31 to merge, 23 to delete with a redirect to the parent specialty, 64 kept.
- Choice: Premium at CHF 8,200 (French and English, languages set in the quote).
- Third-party costs: local photographer for 14 portraits, about CHF 1,500; internal clinical review, about 20 hours of doctors' time.
- Total external budget: 8,200 + 1,500 = CHF 9,700, against a typical specialist agency quote of CHF 25,000 to 45,000 for a similar scope.
The calendar: 3 weeks of content review on the clinic side, then 4 weeks of production and cutover. The existing booking tool is embedded as is; replacing it would be quoted separately.
FAQ
Does a redesign always cost Google rankings?
Not if the 301s are mapped page by page. A temporary dip of 2 to 6 weeks is common while Google recrawls the site; it stays limited when every old URL points to its exact equivalent.
Can we keep our online booking tool?
Yes, in most cases it is embedded or linked. Replacing it or integrating it more deeply is quoted separately from the CHF 2,700 to 8,200 grid.
Does a Lausanne clinic need an English website?
If a meaningful share of your patients is international, yes. Premium at CHF 8,200 is the multilingual tier, with languages set in the quote.
Who writes the treatment pages?
Kolonell writes them in native English or French from your information, then a clinician from the clinic reviews each page. Allow 30 to 60 minutes of review per treatment page.
What happens after the 3 months of support?
The 3 included months cover fixes and small adjustments. Maintenance after that is on quote, based on the volume of updates you expect.
Let's scope your project. A redesign of 30 to 160 pages, CHF 2,700 to 8,200 depending on the tier, delivered in 3 to 4 weeks once content is approved. See the international offer or request a free quote: detailed reply within 48 hours.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
