Services · Research site website
A research site website has two readers, and most are built for neither
A patient decides in about ninety seconds whether your study is worth a phone call. A feasibility lead decides in five minutes whether your site is worth a slot. One website has to answer both, and a brochure homepage answers neither.
Eight weeks. From $5,000, fixed fee.
Is there a study for what I have. Am I likely to qualify. What will it cost me in time. Who do I call. Four answers, in plain language, above the fold.
Who is the PI. What have they run. What population and equipment do you have. Can you enroll. Findable in five minutes, or the site gets scored on what the CRA could not find.
The problem
What a desk review sees when the phone is not ringing
Most research site websites were built to look like a clinic. They lead with the building, the mission statement and a photograph of a stethoscope. Neither reader came for any of that.
The patient wants four things: is there a study for what I have, am I likely to qualify, what will it cost me in time, and who do I call. If those answers are not on the page in words they use themselves, they close the tab and the referral never existed.
The sponsor wants four other things: who the investigator is, what they have run, what population and equipment you have, and whether you can enroll. If that is not findable in five minutes, your site is scored on what the desk review could find, not on what you can actually do.
What we build
One website, built for both readers
Six things, included rather than added on. A typical project is a custom website delivered in eight weeks.
Study page architecture
Every active study gets its own page with its own URL, written for the patient and structured for search. Closed studies stay live with an honest status, so the links and the rankings they earned do not turn into 404s.
Patient-facing content
Plain-language study descriptions, eligibility explained without over-promising, and the time commitment stated before the form. Risk and compensation handled honestly, because it is the same language IRB will read.
Sponsor-facing proof of capability
Investigator credentials, therapeutic-area experience, site capabilities, equipment and enrollment history, laid out where a desk review looks for them. Not a PDF behind a contact form.
Technical SEO for condition and city search
The queries that matter are "paid clinical trials near me" and "[condition] study [city]". Study pages, location pages and schema are built for those from day one, not retrofitted after launch.
Accessibility as a requirement
WCAG 2.2 AA is part of the build, not a final-week audit. Patients with the conditions you study are often the ones an accessibility failure shuts out first.
Measurement and conversion
Form analytics, call tracking and consent-aware tagging, plus a review after launch so you know which studies the website is actually feeding.
Branding and identity available when a site needs it. Ask.
Process
Eight weeks, and you keep the findings either way
Read
We read your website as a patient and as a sponsor, score it against the Benchmark, and sit with your coordinators for an hour. You get the findings whether or not we build anything.
Structure
Study architecture, page map, URL plan and the content each study page has to carry. Approved before any design work starts.
Design
Two key pages designed in full, the rest as a system. Reviewed on a phone, because that is where the patient is.
Build
Built in Next.js and served from a CDN, so pages load in well under a second. Study pages stay editable by your coordinators through a simple editor, with no developer and no deploy.
Launch
Redirects, tracking, Search Console, and a walkthrough recorded for whoever inherits it. Then the Care Plan if you want us to keep it current.
IRB and sponsor review time belongs to them, not to us. We plan around it rather than pretending it is not there.
Scope
What this is not
Not a stock theme
The entry price uses our own research site template, shaped around your studies and your identity, not a marketplace theme carrying thirty plugins. Above the entry price the design is drawn for you from scratch.
Not a media campaign
We build the destination and make it measurable. Ad spend is a separate decision, and we work with whoever runs it.
Not patient data handling
Forms are HIPAA-aware, and no advertising pixels touch a pre-screener page. We do not certify a website as HIPAA compliant, because nobody can from the website alone.
Not a redesign for its own sake
If the Benchmark says a refresh is enough, we say so and quote three to four weeks instead of eight.
Proof
“I cannot be more thankful for the wonderful and intentional work that you set forth here. It has brought excitement to the entire team and our patients as well.”
Manager, Denali Health
Denali Health is a research site we rebuilt around its active studies and a capability section written for desk review. The case study walks through what changed and why.
Questions
What does it cost?
From $5,000, fixed. At $5,000 we set up our research site template around your studies and write the content properly. A design drawn from scratch sits higher, usually up to $8,000. The number is agreed after we have read your website, and payment is split across the eight weeks.
Do we have to leave WordPress?
Usually yes, and it is the part people worry about most. We rebuild in Next.js because a research site website is read on a phone by someone who is unwell, and on a laptop by a CRA with fifteen tabs open. Speed and accessibility are easier to guarantee without a theme and thirty plugins. Your team still edits study pages in an editor, and every old URL gets a redirect, so nothing you have earned in search is lost.
Who writes the study content, us or you?
We write it, you correct it. You send the protocol summary, the inclusion and exclusion criteria and anything IRB has already approved. We turn it into plain language at around an eighth-grade reading level, and your coordinator and PI sign off before it goes near a build.
Will IRB have to re-approve everything?
Recruitment-facing text usually needs approval, and we write it in a form that is straightforward to submit: one document per study, the exact wording that will appear, no design to argue about. Pages that are not recruitment material, such as capability and team pages, generally do not.
What happens after launch?
You get a recorded walkthrough and the website is yours. If you would rather not think about it again, the Care Plan keeps study pages current within two working days, handles hosting and backups, and re-runs the Benchmark every quarter.
Thirty minutes, and an honest read of your website
Send the address when you book. We read it as a patient and as a sponsor before the call. No deck, no pitch.
Or write to info@trialsfocus.com. We take a small number of projects at a time and reply within two working days.