Every website has its basic elements. You have your logo, the business name, some contact information, a few pictures and a few paragraphs of copy. But is that good enough? If you currently have a dental website for your practice, do you remember the last time you looked at it? Do you think it would stand up to Google’s scrutiny? Has it helped you increase your calls and appointments? Has it increased your practice’s growth?
That’s a lot to think about, but if you want your practice to be successful, you’ll need to think about those things a lot! Luckily, we’re here to help you determine whether your website has what it needs to drive calls and keep the appointments flowing in. Take a look at our list of essential elements below.
Easy Navigation
Many of our website clients want their new websites to be easy to navigate. Sometimes, we come across websites that favor lots of content or flashy design over navigability, and this spells trouble (for them). You need to make all the information on your website as easy to find as possible. This includes your phone number, a map of directions, appointment request forms, and services, to name a few. If a patient can’t find what they need in 3 seconds or less, they’re going to click away and peruse your competitors’ websites instead. They might even subconsciously compare you to one of your competitors–all because your website is disorganized and hard to navigate.
User Friendly
This ties in with easy navigation. A user-friendly website is organized, tidy, and naturally directs the user from point A, to point B, to point C. Everything they’re looking for is right where they expect it. The more user-friendly your website is, the longer a person is likely to stay on it and follow through in filling out a form or calling to request an appointment. A lot of thought goes into building a user-friendly website. It relies on our natural eye movements and tendency to skim for relevant pieces of information, and it accommodates our shortened attention spans.
If you have trouble finding certain things on your website or don’t know where to click to make an appointment, it’s probably time for an upgrade.
A Doctor/Team Page
Does your website showcase your dentist(s) and staff? Doctor/team pages get approximately 11% of a website’s total views, making it the second most-visited page on a website. While we understand that teams can change from one year to the next, having a team page plays a big role in helping prospective patients feel more at ease. This is especially true if your team page includes friendly, up-to-date photos of your team, and descriptive bios that provide some background about who they are and why they chose the dental field. These elements help to build a sense of trust, and can help new patients feel a more confident about placing their dental care in your hands.
Optimized Service Pages
Does your website have individual, search engine-optimized services pages that educate patients and draw them to make an appointment? To help your website rank on Google, we recommend having separate pages for most, if not all, of the services your dental practice offers. This can include dental cleanings, dental implants, dentures, periodontics, etc. All of these pages need to be optimized with the keywords that are used most often by the public in Google search, along with your target location. Another element is the call to action (CTA); each service page should have at least two separate CTAs below the fold.
Service pages pull a lot of weight on your website–they help you rank higher in Google search, they educate your prospective and current patients about your services and what to expect at an appointment, and they help to increase calls and appointment requests.
Patient Reviews/Testimonials
Never underestimate the power of reviews from your patients. Having positive testimonials on your dental website is especially important because many people are anxious about going to the dentist, or might have had a negative experience elsewhere. By showcasing positive word-of-mouth from satisfied patients and highlighting your stellar reputation through reviews and video testimonials, you can encourage new patients to make an appointment with you. Seeing someone speak highly about your practice and their experience, especially if they’ve been going to your office for years, can make others feel a sense of safety and trust even before they walk in the door.
Photos that Promote Your Practice and Culture
Help patients picture themselves in your office. Use high-quality photos of your lobby, treatment areas, state-of-the-art equipment, and other features that deserve to be highlighted. People want to see your practice, not stock images! When patients can see what you provide, they’ll feel more familiar with your office and be ready to make an appointment.
We especially encourage dental practices to share photos if they recently underwent renovations or installed new and advanced equipment. Additionally, it helps to include photos with your team members in action, so visitors to your website can see how they interact with their patients.
Why You Should Choose InTouch for Your New Dental Website
Up until 2021, InTouch had the endorsement of the ADA for many years. We have worked with dentists and dental practices for roughly 30 years to provide them with quality custom dental message on-hold programs. At InTouch, we understand the verbiage and terminology used in dental practices, their services, and all the highs and lows of the dental industry. We specialize in helping local businesses with their marketing needs, so they can reach their audience and enjoy greater success.
Furthermore, our years of experience working with veterinary practices, which face many similar challenges to dental practices, has honed our ability to craft custom, user-friendly, search engine-optimized websites that drive more phone calls and appointments, and increase business growth.
Check out our website portfolio for examples of our work, and be sure to call (877) 493-9003 to get a free digital analysis with an InTouch marketing expert.