AHPRA advertising rules for your practice website

These regulations change, so I always recommend checking the AHPRA website for the latest guidance and information.

If you run a medical, dental or allied health practice, your website is advertising in the eyes of AHPRA. That means every page, profile, offer and review on it is covered by the National Law. Most practice owners find that out after the site is built, not before.

I build websites for health practices, so these rules come up on nearly every project. I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice, but I can walk you through what AHPRA actually says about websites, in plain words, and point you to the source for each rule.

The short version

• You can’t use testimonials about your clinical care in your advertising. That includes your website.
• You are responsible for everything on a site you control, even if someone else wrote or built it.
• The fines go up to $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 for a business.

The rest of this article explains what that means for the pages on your site.

Why a website counts as advertising

AHPRA says the advertiser is whoever has control over the advertising. If you own the site or authorise what goes on it, that’s you. The guidelines also say advertisers need to check content produced by others, including staff, a third party or a marketing agency.

So handing the job to your web designer or copywriter doesn’t hand over the responsibility. A good designer will work to the rules, but the practice still needs to sign off the content.

The five things section 133 of the National Law prohibits

Section 133 of the National Law is the core of it. Your advertising must not:

1. Be false, misleading or deceptive, or likely to be.
2. Offer a gift, discount or other inducement unless the terms and conditions are stated.
3. Use testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business.
4. Create an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment.
5. Directly or indirectly encourage the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services.

Everything below is a practical application of those five.

Testimonials and Google reviews

This is the rule practices ask me about most.

AHPRA’s Testimonial tool says the National Law does not allow testimonials to be used to advertise regulated health services. In AHPRA’s terms, a testimonial is a recommendation or statement about the clinical aspects of care. That covers symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, outcomes and the practitioner’s skills.

Comments about customer service or communication aren’t treated as testimonials. A review saying the front desk was friendly and the practice ran on time is a different thing from one saying a practitioner fixed someone’s back pain.

Here’s how that plays out on a website:

• Reviews on third-party platforms. Patients are free to post on Google or other platforms. AHPRA says the rule doesn’t affect that. It applies when you use the reviews to promote your service.
• Republishing reviews on your site. If your website publishes or republishes reviews, you become responsible for them. A review slider, widget or screenshot that shows reviews about clinical care isn’t permitted. AHPRA’s tool doesn’t name Google specifically, but the republishing rule applies to it.
• Editing reviews. AHPRA warns there’s a high risk that editing a review makes it false, misleading or deceptive. Cutting a review down to the nice bit is a common mistake.
• Removing reviews. On platforms you don’t control, you aren’t responsible for removing testimonials or trying to have them removed. On channels you do control, such as your own website and social pages, you need to remove them. If a platform won’t let you remove them, AHPRA says to disable the review or comment function.
• Replying to reviews. AHPRA says to take care if you engage with reviews on third-party sites, because doing so may be considered using a testimonial to advertise. Its pages I read don’t give a specific rule on replying, so I’d keep replies generic and never mention anything clinical.

What I recommend to clients: link to your Google Business Profile rather than embedding its reviews, and use the proof you can safely use, like practitioner qualifications, years of experience, memberships, and plain-language descriptions of how appointments work. I wrote more on this in why building trust is essential in healthcare website design.

Before and after photos

For general health advertising, AHPRA says to take care with before and after images. The comparison is clearer when the treatment is the only visible change, and images that aren’t genuine or have been edited or enhanced can breach the rules.

For higher-risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures, the 2025 guidelines go further. The images must not be edited or enhanced with filters, retouching or grey-scaling. Both images need to be genuine and as similar as possible in content and lighting. The “after” image has to say how long after the procedure it was taken and can’t be the most prominent image. A prominent warning must state that the results only apply to that patient, and people under 18 can’t appear.

If your practice offers cosmetic procedures, get your gallery pages checked against the current cosmetic guidelines before you publish them.

Specialist titles and credentials

Only a practitioner with specialist registration in a recognised speciality can use a specialist title in advertising. Practitioners without it should avoid phrases like “specialises in” or “specialised”, which is easy to do by accident in a service page or a practitioner bio.

A few related points from AHPRA’s summary of the requirements:

• “Dr” isn’t a protected title, but a non-medical practitioner should state their profession, for example “Dr Lee (osteopath)”.
• Claims that you provide a superior service are listed in the guidelines as potentially misleading. Lines like “the area’s best clinic” or “leading experts” need evidence behind them, or they should go.

Offers, discounts and pricing

If your website promotes an offer, the terms and conditions need to be stated in plain language and be easy to find. A few specifics:

• “Free” is generally taken to mean actually free. AHPRA gives the example of advertising a free consultation while raising the price of the first one.
• Pricing should include the total price, not just the initial cost. Advertising only an instalment amount may breach the rules.
• Bulk discounts and urgency phrases like “don’t delay” can encourage unnecessary treatment, which is the fifth prohibition above.

Social media on your practice pages

Your practice’s Facebook or Instagram page is also advertising, and the same testimonial rule applies. AHPRA’s FAQ says you need to remove testimonials on your own pages, including ones a patient posts there, and avoid sharing or re-posting comments about clinical care. If a platform can’t remove them, turn the function off.

What happens if a site breaches the rules

The maximum penalty is $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 per offence for a body corporate. These increased penalties have applied in all states and territories since July 2024. Misusing a protected title is a separate offence with the same fines, and for individuals it can also carry imprisonment of up to three years.

Practitioners can also face action from their National Board, such as conditions on registration.

A quick checklist for your website

Go through your site and check:

• Are there any patient comments about symptoms, treatment or results anywhere, including slider widgets and old blog posts?
• Do any practitioner bios say “specialist” or “specialises in” without specialist registration?
• Do your offers state the terms, and do prices show the total cost?
• Are before and after photos unedited and labelled correctly?
• Do your social pages have comment or review functions you can’t moderate?
• Has someone at the practice read the final content, not just the designer or writer?

I’ve also put together a medical website checklist that covers the rest of what a practice site needs.

One caveat on these rules

AHPRA’s general advertising guidelines were issued in December 2020. The page itself notes they haven’t yet been updated for the 2022 penalty changes. AHPRA publishes updates and separate cosmetic guidance as they change, so always check the AHPRA advertising hub for the current version before you publish anything borderline. For a grey area, ask AHPRA, your professional association or a lawyer who works in health.

If your current site needs a check

If you’d like someone who already knows these rules to look over your website, or you’re planning a new one, get in touch. I’ll tell you honestly what needs fixing and what doesn’t. You can see how I approach medical websites here.