What an Optometrist Website Needs

The facts quoted here come from primary sources: the Federal Trade Commission's Contact Lens Rule page (16 CFR Part 315), its business guides The Contact Lens Rule: A Guide for Prescribers and Sellers, FAQs: Complying with the Contact Lens Rule and Complying with the Eyeglass Rule, the FTC consumer article Buying Prescription Glasses or Contact Lenses: Your Rights, Google's Business Profile guidelines, and schema.org's MedicalBusiness, Optician and Optometric pages, all checked on 14 November 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; state optometry rules vary. The rest is our view from building websites for service businesses.

The short answer

An optometrist website needs a clear "Book an eye exam" button on every page, one page per service (comprehensive exams, contact lens fittings, children's exams, dry eye and so on), a list of accepted vision and medical plans as plain text, a doctor page for each optometrist, a frames or optical page with real photos, an easy way to reorder contact lenses, and prescription handling that follows the FTC's Eyeglass Rule and Contact Lens Rule.

Eye exam and service pages

Most visitors arrive with one task in mind, so give each service its own short page instead of one long "Services" list. A page for routine eye exams should say who it is for, how long the visit takes, what happens (for example, whether you dilate, and that driving afterwards may be uncomfortable if you do), what to bring (current glasses, contact lens boxes, insurance card, a list of medications) and how to book.

Typical pages for a practice:

• Comprehensive eye exams for adults, and a separate page for children's exams.
• Contact lens exams and fittings, including what a follow-up visit is for.
• Medical eye care you offer, such as dry eye, eye infections or diabetic eye exams, described in plain words without outcome promises.
• Urgent eye problems: what you can see the same day, and when someone should go to an emergency room instead.
• Optical: frames, lenses and sunglasses, with brands you actually carry.

Write for patients rather than for other doctors. A sentence like "we check how well you see and the health of your eyes" helps more than a list of instruments.

Insurance and vision plans

"Do you take my plan?" is one of the most common questions an optometry office gets. Put a plain-text list of the vision plans and medical insurers you accept on its own page and link it from the booking button. Text matters: a row of insurer logos cannot be read by a screen reader or searched, and logos go out of date without anyone noticing.

Explain the difference between a routine vision exam and a medical eye visit in one or two sentences, since many patients do not know that a vision plan and medical insurance can cover different things. Say whether you file claims for patients, how frames and contact lens allowances work at your office, and who to call with billing questions. Date the page and review it whenever a plan contract changes. Our medical practice website guide covers the general insurance page pattern.

Booking an eye exam

Online booking works well for routine exams and contact lens follow-ups. Ask for the visit type first, since a comprehensive exam, a contact lens fitting and a dry eye visit take different amounts of time. Keep the form short: name, phone, email, visit type, preferred times and insurance. Send a confirmation and a reminder, and say how to cancel. Our online booking guide covers tools, reminders and no-show policies.

Do not ask for medical history in a plain website form. Intake forms with health details belong in your patient portal or practice software; the reasons and the safer setup are in the privacy section of our medical practice website guide.

Prescriptions, contact lenses and the FTC rules

Two FTC rules shape how an optometry practice hands out prescriptions, and both touch the website once you offer digital copies or sell eyewear online.

Glasses. The FTC's Eyeglass Rule guide says you must give a patient a copy of the prescription "immediately after completing any refractive eye examination", whether or not the patient asks, and "before offering to sell the patient glasses." It adds that "Asking the patient if they want their prescription doesn’t comply with the Rule." Bundles are allowed, but the FTC is clear that "The exam cannot be contingent on the purchase of eyeglasses."

Contact lenses. The FTC's Contact Lens Rule page summarises the first requirement: "contact lens prescribers (i.e., optometrists and ophthalmologists) must provide patients with a copy of their contact lens prescriptions at the completion of a contact lens fitting." The prescriber guide adds that this applies "even if the patient doesn’t ask for it". When another seller asks you to verify a prescription, "Upon receiving the request, the prescriber has eight business hours to respond."

Digital copies and patient portals. Both rules allow digital delivery by email, text or portal under conditions. The Contact Lens Rule guide lists patient agreement to digital delivery and to the specific method, and that the prescription "can be accessed, downloaded, and printed by the patient". The Eyeglass Rule guide warns: "Digital prescription delivery shouldn’t be a default". If your portal holds prescriptions, make sure the download works on a phone and that patients can find it.

Confirmation forms. If you sell lenses, the FTC says you must ask patients to confirm they received their contact lens prescription, but: "You may not ask or require a patient to sign the confirmation before you give them their prescription. For example, asking for confirmation should not be part of any pre-appointment paperwork." So keep that confirmation out of the online intake forms patients fill in before the visit.

On the patient side, the FTC tells consumers they get their prescriptions "at no extra charge" and "You have a right to find the style (for glasses) and price that work for you somewhere else, in person or online." A short, friendly "Your prescription" page that says how and when patients receive their copy, and how to ask for one later, fits that well and saves your front desk phone calls.

Frames and contact lens ordering

An optical page with real photos of your frame wall, the brands you carry and a few sentences on lens options does more than a catalogue you cannot keep current. If you want to show frames online, start with a curated gallery and a "try on in the office" booking link; full online sales of glasses need prescription and measurement handling that most small practices do not want to run on their own site.

Contact lens reorders are different, because returning patients often want the same lenses again. A simple reorder form (name, date of birth, lens brand, quantity, pickup or shipping) or a link to the ordering service you use can work. If you sell lenses to people whose prescription you did not write, the FTC rules for sellers apply, including verification. The FTC's FAQ also lists things a seller must not rely on for one exception, such as "a box stating “I agree I have a prescription for this brand,” or something similar." Talk this through with whoever runs your ordering before you build a checkout. Ecommerce basics are in our ecommerce launch checklist.

Doctor pages, reviews and Google Business Profile

Give each optometrist a page with a real photo, degree and licence details, where they trained, which services they focus on, the languages they speak and the days they see patients, with a booking link for that doctor. Patients choosing a new eye doctor read these pages.

Google treats optometrists as individual practitioners. Its Business Profile guidelines say: "Doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents are all individual practitioners." With several doctors at one location, Google says "The organization should create a Business Profile for this location, separate from that of the practitioner", and "The title of the Business Profile for the practitioner should include only the name of the practitioner, and shouldn’t include the name of the organization." It also says "Support staff should not create their own Business Profiles."

Ask every patient for a review the same way, and answer reviews without confirming that the reviewer is a patient or mentioning any eye condition. Our Google Business Profile reviews guide covers Google's rules on asking, and reviews and testimonials on websites covers showing them on your own pages.

Schema: Optician, Optometric, MedicalBusiness

Schema.org describes MedicalBusiness as "A particular physical or virtual business of an organization for medical purposes." Its list of more specific types includes both Optician and Optometric, and they mean different things:

• Optician: "A store that sells reading glasses and similar devices for improving vision."
• Optometric: "The science or practice of testing visual acuity and prescribing corrective lenses." Schema.org lists it both as a MedicalBusiness type and as a MedicalSpecialty value.

In our view, an eye exam practice fits Optometric best, and a practice that also runs an optical shop can say so in its description and services. Keep the name, address and phone in the markup identical to your Google Business Profile and footer. Our LocalBusiness schema guide shows the full markup and how to test it.

A short checklist (our view)

• A "Book an eye exam" button and tap-to-call phone number on every page.
• One page per service, with what to bring and how long the visit takes.
• Accepted vision and medical plans as dated plain text.
• A booking form that asks for the visit type and no medical history.
• A "Your prescription" page; prescription confirmations kept out of pre-visit paperwork.
• An optical page with real photos, and a simple contact lens reorder path.
• A page per doctor, Google Business Profiles set up per Google's practitioner rules, and steady reviews.
• Optometric schema with the same name, address and phone as everywhere else, plus readable, accessible pages (see our website accessibility basics).

Practices with a broader medical team can also use our medical practice website guide, and the dental website guide follows the same pattern for dentists. If you would rather have your optometry site built for you, our website development service builds custom WordPress and static websites made to load fast, rank well and be easy for your team to edit.

Frequently asked questions

What should an optometrist website include?

An eye exam booking button on every page, a page per service, accepted vision and medical plans as text, a page for each optometrist, an optical page with real photos, a way to reorder contact lenses, a page explaining how patients get their prescriptions, and Optometric schema with your correct name, address and phone.

Do optometrists have to give patients their prescription?

Yes. Under the FTC's Eyeglass Rule, eye doctors must give a copy of the glasses prescription right after a refractive eye exam, whether or not the patient asks and before offering to sell glasses. Under the Contact Lens Rule, prescribers must give a copy of the contact lens prescription when the fitting is complete.

Can an optometry practice send prescriptions by email or through a patient portal?

Yes, if the patient agrees to digital delivery and to the specific method, and can access, download and print the prescription. The FTC says digital delivery should not be the default, and a patient who wants paper must get paper.

Which schema type should an optometrist website use?

Schema.org lists Optometric and Optician as types under MedicalBusiness. Optician describes a store that sells vision aids, while Optometric describes testing visual acuity and prescribing corrective lenses, so an eye exam practice usually fits Optometric.