Aged care website design in Australia changed on 1 November 2025. The new Aged Care Act brought a single registration system, strengthened Quality Standards, and a rights based framework that providers now need to reflect everywhere they show up online. If your website still reads like it was written for the 2018 buyer, it is working against you.
This guide covers what a provider website needs to do in 2026: how to meet compliance expectations, how to design for healthcare audiences actually making placement decisions, and how to convert enquiries without feeling clinical or pushy.
Who actually visits your website
The resident is rarely the person searching. In most Australian families, the adult daughter aged 45 to 60 is the primary researcher, often looking late at night after a parent has had a fall, a diagnosis, or a hospital discharge.
Your three real audiences are:
- Family decision makers, usually adult children, emotionally stretched and time poor.
- Referral partners, including hospital social workers, GPs, and My Aged Care assessors.
- Prospective residents and their partners, often reviewing the site after the family has shortlisted options.
Design for audience one first. Audiences two and three will follow if the site is clear, warm, and accessible.
Regulatory context: what the Aged Care Act 2024 means for your website
Every funded provider now operates as a Registered Provider under one of six categories. Your website should:
- Display your registration category clearly on the About page.
- Link to your current My Aged Care Find a Provider listing.
- Reflect the Statement of Rights language from the new Act.
- Align service descriptions with the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.
Allied health content carries extra weight. Any claims about physiotherapy, nursing, or clinical outcomes need to align with AHPRA advertising guidelines. Testimonials that reference clinical results are a particular risk area.
Accessibility is not optional
WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the current Australian standard. It matters more in aged care than almost any other sector, because your users are more likely to have vision, dexterity, or cognitive challenges. The six new WCAG 2.2 success criteria that hit aged care hardest are focus appearance, accessible authentication, target size, dragging movements, consistent help, and redundant entry.
Practical benchmarks to build to:
| Element | Target |
|---|---|
| Body text size | 18px minimum, 20px preferred |
| Line height | 1.6 or greater |
| Colour contrast | 4.5:1 minimum for body text |
| Tap targets | 44 by 44 pixels minimum |
| Reading age | Grade 7, testable with Hemingway Editor |
| Form field labels | Always visible, never placeholder only |
If your current site fails any three of these, it is almost certainly losing enquiries from the exact people you want to reach.
The nine essential pages for an aged care provider website
| Page | Purpose | Primary audience |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Orient and reassure in 10 seconds | Family decision maker |
| Our services | Explain residential, home care, respite, transition | Family and referrers |
| Locations | Map and detail each home or service area | Family |
| Life at our homes | Daily life, meals, activities, rooms | Family and resident |
| Our approach to care | Clinical and lifestyle philosophy | Family and referrers |
| Fees and funding | Honest overview of costs and subsidies | Family |
| Careers | Attract staff, which is a huge indirect trust signal | Applicants and family |
| About and governance | Registration, leadership, Quality Standards | Family and referrers |
| Contact and enquiry | Phone, form, tour booking | All audiences |
Fees transparency is the single biggest differentiator. Most competitors hide pricing behind a form. A page that explains how funding actually works, even in ranges, builds immediate trust.
Conversion patterns that actually work
The first screen of your home page should answer three questions in plain language: what you offer, where you operate, and how to get help now. Not a carousel of stock imagery. Not a value statement about innovation.
Phone number placement matters more here than in any other sector. Put it in the header, the footer, and at the end of every service page. Family researchers often want to talk to a human within minutes of deciding your service is worth considering.
Enquiry forms should respect the emotional weight of the decision. Ask for name, phone, suburb, and the situation in one sentence. Six fields maximum. Anything more signals that your organisation is hard to deal with.
Tone and imagery
Inclusive language is non negotiable. Write family first, resident second, using active voice and everyday words. Avoid clinical jargon like “consumer”, “placement”, or “facility”. Use “home”, “resident”, and “care”.
Stock imagery fails in this sector. Families can spot generic smiling older couples from the first glance, and it erodes trust instantly. Commission real photography of your actual homes, staff, and residents with consent. If budget is tight, start with three locations and expand over time.
Technical essentials
Page speed targets: Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds on mobile, Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. Older users and families on regional connections will abandon a slow site faster than a younger audience.
Security basics: SSL across the entire domain, a visible privacy policy that explicitly covers health enquiry handling, and form data that is never emailed in plain text. If your enquiry form captures any health information, it falls under the Privacy Act’s health information rules.
Hosting: choose Australian hosting with NVMe storage and a local CDN. Long term maintenance matters more than launch cost, because content will need to change every time regulations shift.
KPIs that matter for aged care websites
| Metric | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Enquiry form conversion rate | 2.5 to 4 percent of unique visitors |
| Phone click rate on mobile | 3 to 6 percent |
| Tour booking conversion | 0.8 to 1.5 percent |
| Average session duration on service pages | 2 minutes 30 plus |
| Organic traffic share | 40 percent plus within 12 months |
Track these in GA4 with events for phone clicks, form submissions, and tour bookings. Review monthly.
Common mistakes we see
- Hero imagery that shows a clinical setting instead of a home.
- No phone number in the header.
- Fees hidden behind a form.
- Contrast failures on buttons and links.
- Testimonials that breach AHPRA advertising rules.
- Careers page buried three clicks deep.
- No My Aged Care link anywhere.
- Stock photos of non Australian settings.
- Generic “innovation” and “excellence” language with no proof.
Frequently asked questions
What accessibility standard should an Australian aged care website meet? WCAG 2.2 AA
How does the Aged Care Act 2024 affect provider websites? From 1 November 2025 all funded providers operate as Registered Providers. Your website should reflect the registration category, link to My Aged Care, and align with the strengthened Quality Standards.
What reading age should aged care website content target? Grade 7. Test with Hemingway Editor before publishing.
Should aged care websites include pricing? Yes, at least in ranges. Transparency consistently outperforms gated fees on enquiry conversion.
Photo by Chris F