Web Hosting for Occupational Therapists

Short answer: most private OT work arrives through case managers, solicitors and insurers rather than directly from clients, and that changes the hosting picture. You are handling documents and reports for professional referrers as much as enquiries from families, and reports are the thing that must not sit on a web server.

Looking for plans rather than guidance? Our web hosting plans start at £39 a year and renew at £39, with free SSL, daily backups and email on your own domain.

Reports do not belong behind an unlisted URL

This is the mistake worth naming, because it is common and it feels safe. A therapist uploads a report to the media library, sends the link to a case manager, and assumes that because the page is not linked from anywhere, nobody else will find it.

An unlisted URL is not access control. Files in the WordPress media library are frequently reachable by direct URL, they can be indexed if the link is shared or crawled, and they stay there after the case closes. For a report describing someone’s cognitive function, home circumstances and care needs, that is a genuine problem.

Use a proper file transfer or client portal service with real authentication. Your website’s job is to explain and point at it, not to hold the documents.

Enquiry data is usually about someone else

The general handling of health information on forms is set out in our guide for dental practices. Two things are specific to you.

Your enquiries typically describe a third party, an elderly parent, a child, an injured client, who has not consented and may lack capacity to. And the enquirer is often a professional who will send detail as a matter of course, including case references and medical background.

So: keep the form short, set a retention period in days rather than leaving it on the plugin default, and restrict who can log in. Remember that retained submissions persist in your backups after you delete them from the live site.

Referrers need their own route, and it needs to work

Case managers, solicitors and insurers send instructions by email, and they will attach medical records, statements and previous reports. That is a large-attachment workflow rather than a web form one.

Two hosting consequences. Your mailbox needs storage, because instruction bundles are substantial: our email hosting plans include unlimited mailboxes with 10GB each. And deliverability matters, because you correspond with solicitors and insurers running institutional mail filtering. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your domain, as covered in our guide to SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

If your website form accepts attachments from referrers, check the upload limit, since a default WordPress install caps well below a records bundle. Better still, direct them to email or a file service rather than the form.

Your site should be accessible, and light

Your visitors include people with visual impairment, tremor, limited dexterity and cognitive difficulty. That makes generous text sizing, clear structure, working keyboard navigation and low page weight functional requirements rather than niceties.

A profession dedicated to accessibility with an inaccessible website is a poor advertisement, and the practical basics cost nothing: a light theme, page caching, resized images, and documents published as text rather than scans. Our guide to SEND school websites goes deeper on accessibility and page weight.

Downloadable resources

If you publish guidance on home adaptations, equipment lists or advice sheets, keep files under a megabyte and publish as accessible text rather than scanned PDFs. Check your storage allowance if you build a real library, and delete superseded versions rather than leaving them at their old URLs.

Forms fail silently

The form submits, the sender sees a confirmation, the email never arrives. Send form mail through authenticated SMTP rather than PHP mail, deliver to an address you check daily, and test monthly. Our guide to contact forms not sending emails covers the causes.

What plan you actually need

Entry-level shared hosting, with reports and client documents on a proper authenticated service rather than your website. SSD storage, a CDN, free SSL, daily backups, unlimited mailboxes. Around £39 a year.

Check the renewal figure rather than the introductory rate. Our guide to cheap web hosting in the UK covers what should be standard.

Frequently asked questions

Can I send reports to case managers via an unlisted page on my site?

No. An unlisted URL is not access control. Media library files are often reachable directly and can be indexed if a link is shared. Use a service with real authentication.

How long should I keep enquiry submissions?

Days, not indefinitely. Set the retention period rather than leaving it on the plugin default, and remember old entries persist in your backups.

Should referrers use my website form?

For initial contact, yes. For instruction bundles with medical records, direct them to email or a file service, since forms will not handle the attachment sizes.

Why do emails to solicitors and insurers go to spam?

Institutional filters are strict. Missing or incorrect SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are the usual cause.

How much mailbox storage do I need?

More than most sole practitioners, because instruction bundles and reports arrive as large attachments.

Explore more

Our guide to web hosting for health and wellness practitioners covers the shared requirements, and our guide to speech and language therapists covers a closely related practice.

Our hosting plans start at £39 a year, with a free trial if you want to test first.