Everything a journalist, researcher or blogger needs to report on the Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026: headline numbers, charts you can embed, a two-page summary, the full anonymised dataset and how to credit it. All material is free to use under CC BY 4.0.
Downloads
- Summary PDF (4 pages, findings, method and charts)
- Dataset CSV (100 hospitals, 64 columns)
- Full report with methodology
Key findings you can quote
- 60 of 100 Indian hospital websites load Meta, Google or Microsoft advertising trackers before the visitor clicks anything.
- Only 11 of 100 show a cookie consent banner, and on 6 of those 11 trackers had already loaded.
- Advertising code appears on 44% of the doctor profile pages checked.
- Only 22% of readable hospital privacy policies mention the Digital Personal Data Protection Act; 39% name a grievance officer.
- Ad trackers load on arrival on 78% of multi-city chain sites against 35% of tier 2 city hospital sites.
- 22% pass Google’s Core Web Vitals on real-user data; no site scored 90+ on Lighthouse mobile.
- 86% fail at least one of five basic accessibility checks.
- Only 14% offer a genuine Indian-language version.
- 81% of general hospitals show an emergency number on the homepage, but only 62% in the first screen.
- Only 7% of doctor profiles show the doctor’s medical council registration number.
- Median benchmark score: 64 / 100 (specialty 75, chains 69, metro standalone 56, tier 2 47).
All figures come from an automated crawl of 100 hospital websites on 14 October 2026. Tracker counts are minimums. The study is not a legal assessment and does not name hospitals.
Comment from the author
“Indian hospitals have invested heavily in getting patients to press Book appointment. The next step is earning their trust: ask before tracking, build sites every patient can use, and say plainly what happens to their data. With the DPDP Act’s main duties due by May 2027, the sites that fix this first will be the ones patients and regulators trust.” Gaurav Phogat, hospital digital marketing practitioner and author of the benchmark.
Charts to embed
Each chart is a 1600 x 900 PNG. Download it, or paste the embed code into your page; the code links the chart back to the report.
Most hospital websites load ad trackers. Few ask first.
<a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/"><img src="https://gauravphogat.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hospital-website-benchmark-2026-01-ad-trackers-privacy.png" alt="Bar chart: 63% of Indian hospital websites carry ad-tracking code, 60% load it before any click, 44% of doctor profile pages carry it, 11% show a cookie consent banner, 22% of privacy policies mention the DPDP Act" width="1600" height="900" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/">Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026, Gaurav Phogat</a></p>Chains are the most likely to fire ad trackers on arrival
<a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/"><img src="https://gauravphogat.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hospital-website-benchmark-2026-02-ad-trackers-by-segment.png" alt="Bar chart: ad trackers load before any click on 78% of multi-city chain sites, 70% of specialty hospitals, 50% of metro standalone and 35% of tier 2 city hospitals" width="1600" height="900" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/">Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026, Gaurav Phogat</a></p>86% of hospital homepages fail a basic accessibility check
<a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/"><img src="https://gauravphogat.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hospital-website-benchmark-2026-03-accessibility.png" alt="Bar chart: 70% of hospital homepages have links or buttons with no readable name, 59% unlabelled form fields, 42% images without alt text, 17% disable zoom, 5% declare no page language, 86% fail at least one check" width="1600" height="900" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/">Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026, Gaurav Phogat</a></p>What a patient can and cannot find on the homepage
<a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/"><img src="https://gauravphogat.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hospital-website-benchmark-2026-04-patient-basics.png" alt="Bar chart: 81% of general hospital homepages show an emergency number and 62% in the first screen; 36% publish prices; 32% offer any Indian-language option and 14% a real Indian-language version; 7% of doctor profiles show a registration number" width="1600" height="900" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/">Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026, Gaurav Phogat</a></p>Tier 2 hospital websites trail on almost every measure
<a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/"><img src="https://gauravphogat.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hospital-website-benchmark-2026-05-score-by-segment.png" alt="Bar chart: median benchmark score 75 for specialty hospitals, 69 for multi-city chains, 56 for metro standalone, 47 for tier 2 city hospitals and 64 overall" width="1600" height="900" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/">Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026, Gaurav Phogat</a></p>Fewer than one in four hospital websites pass Core Web Vitals
<a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/"><img src="https://gauravphogat.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hospital-website-benchmark-2026-06-speed.png" alt="Bar chart: 22% of hospital websites pass all three Core Web Vitals, 43% mixed, 35% poor on at least one; no site scores 90+ on Lighthouse mobile" width="1600" height="900" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/">Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026, Gaurav Phogat</a></p>How to cite
Phogat, G. (2026). Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026: privacy, speed, access and booking on 100 sites. gauravphogat.com. Data collected 14 October 2026. https://gauravphogat.com/indian-hospital-website-benchmark-2026/
Short credit for charts and articles: “Source: Indian Hospital Website Benchmark 2026, gauravphogat.com”, linked to the report.
Licence
Charts, summary and dataset are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt them, including commercially, as long as you give credit and link to the report.
Data dictionary
One row per hospital. 1 means yes, 0 means no, and a blank means the item could not be assessed (for example, no doctor profile or no readable privacy policy).
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| hospital_id | Anonymised ID, Hospital 001 to 100, in random order |
| segment | Multi-city chain, Metro standalone, Tier 2 city or Specialty hospital |
| total | Benchmark score out of 100 |
| speed | Speed points (of 20) |
| booking | Booking points (of 20) |
| doctors | Doctor page points |
| doctors_max | Doctor points available (20, or 10 where the profile could not be assessed) |
| structured | Structured data points (of 15) |
| whatsapp_chat | WhatsApp and chat points (of 10) |
| ai_ready | AI-search readiness points (of 15) |
| psi_perf | Lighthouse mobile performance score (0 to 100) |
| lcp_s | Lab Largest Contentful Paint, seconds |
| tbt_ms | Lab Total Blocking Time, milliseconds |
| cls | Lab Cumulative Layout Shift |
| page_mb | Homepage transfer size, MB |
| crux | Chrome UX Report overall rating: FAST, AVERAGE or SLOW |
| book_cta | Booking call to action on homepage |
| book_above_fold | Booking call to action in first screen |
| online_booking | on-site form, portal/app or not detected |
| tel_link | Tappable phone link |
| doctor_directory | Doctor directory found |
| doctor_profiles | Individual doctor profile found |
| profile_assessable | Profile readable from server HTML |
| prof_qualifications | Profile lists qualifications |
| prof_timings | Profile shows OPD timings |
| prof_book_button | Profile has a booking button |
| prof_physician_schema | Profile has Physician schema |
| jsonld | Homepage has JSON-LD |
| medical_schema | Medical schema type (Hospital, MedicalOrganization etc.) |
| sameas | sameAs links in schema |
| faq_schema | FAQPage schema |
| whatsapp_link | Clickable WhatsApp link |
| whatsapp_any | Any WhatsApp mention |
| chat_widget | Chat widget present |
| ai_bots_blocked | Number of 6 AI crawlers blocked in robots.txt |
| llms_txt | llms.txt file present |
| meta_desc | Meta description of 50+ characters |
| ad_tracking_code | Any advertising tracking code |
| meta_pixel | Meta Pixel code |
| google_ads_tag | Google Ads tag |
| ad_trackers_load_before_click | Meta, Google Ads or Microsoft Ads tracker loaded with no interaction |
| cookie_consent_banner | Visible cookie consent banner |
| consent_tool_any | Consent management code present |
| doctor_profile_ad_tracking | Ad-tracking code on doctor profile page |
| third_party_hosts | Third-party domains contacted on homepage load |
| privacy_policy_link | Privacy policy linked from homepage |
| privacy_policy_readable | Policy text could be read |
| privacy_mentions_dpdp | Policy mentions the DPDP Act |
| privacy_grievance_officer | Policy names a grievance or data protection officer |
| privacy_consent_withdrawal | Policy explains consent withdrawal |
| privacy_mentions_health_data | Policy mentions health or medical data |
| indian_language_version | Genuine Indian-language version |
| indian_language_any_option | Any Indian-language option, incl. machine translation |
| emergency_number_homepage | Emergency or ambulance number on homepage |
| emergency_number_first_screen | Emergency number in first screen |
| prices_published | Any prices on homepage or packages page |
| a11y_images_missing_alt | Any image without alt attribute |
| a11y_images_missing_alt_pct | Share of images without alt, % |
| a11y_unlabelled_form_fields | Visible form field without label |
| a11y_unnamed_links_buttons | Link or button without readable name |
| a11y_zoom_disabled | Viewport disables zoom |
| a11y_no_page_language | No lang attribute on the page |
| a11y_checks_failed_of_5 | Accessibility checks failed (0 to 5) |
| doctor_profile_shows_registration_no | Profile shows medical council registration number |
Disclosure
The author works in hospital digital marketing. All checks were automated and applied identically to every site; no site was scored by hand. Hospitals are not named, and the dataset does not include names or URLs.
Contact
For interviews, segment breakdowns or a re-check of a specific result, get in touch. Hospitals that believe a result is wrong can ask for a re-check and any correction will be noted on the report.