Creating a website for your dental practice is a great way to communicate and engage with patients. It allows them to find information about your company and answer their questions they may have.
However, the mere act of creating a website isn’t enough. You need to have some sort of strategy – a good strategy, at that.
The layout and your dental website design have to be at their best. How your website looks online is how viewers will perceive your dental practice.
A great dental website design can attract and even retain new customers. It can also satisfy existing customers by providing features and functions that they already need.
Below I will discuss several very important tips for how to maintain a well-rounded dental practice website.
Consider some of the most popular websites that you frequent the most. Think Google, Amazon, Yahoo and even Facebook.
These websites are great examples of pages that are informative and fully operational. However, they do not bombard their web page with flashy graphics and gaudy text.
It’s important to not overkill your dental website design with flashy, unuseful elements. This can come in the form of background design, text, images and other forms of media.
The goal of your website is to inform and persuade potential and existing customers. Having a tacky website will drive customers away from your practice, and eliminate the purpose for having a page.
As I will mention later, having an outdated dental website design will cause visitors to leave. You should avoid being too complex but also find a way to engage and excite your audience.
Text-heavy pages may seem great as they are informative to your customers. However, it generally is a lot of information they don’t need. It also causes your website to look cluttered and unattractive.
Also, using images and background themes that are wide can be more visually appealing to visitors.
Your dental website design should feature the same text font, color, and layout throughout the page. A unison look will make your website appear professional and modern.
Throughout the different pages, you should avoid using dark backgrounds. This is especially true when your text is light. This is straining on the eyes and can be unappealing to your website visitors.
Having a dental practice means prospective clients will want to see past work. You should definitely include some past work onto your site.
However, it’s important to not bombard your page with videos and picture clips. This will cause slower loading times and can be too flashy.
Having informative, quality content is more valued by customers than slideshows of past clients.
Your website can be much easier to navigate through by providing a link back to the homepage.
This should be somewhere noticeable such as the top of the page or the top left-hand side. It also wouldn’t hurt to include a link to your ‘Contact’ tab on each page as well.
There’s nothing more frustrating than getting that dreaded 404 message from the site you’re trying to visit. That’s why you should ensure that all tabs and links are fully functioning.
When you update information on your site, sometimes there can be errors with saving. Sometimes the website software you are using does not register the changes made. This can cause the page to deactivate.
We have all left a website after running into an ‘error’ page. This is why it’s imperative to test out all links and tabs even after launching your site.
Having a website that is difficult to navigate through will drive customers away. Tabs should be labeled out and have a clear, easy to understand description of its function.
Also, it would be helpful to include ‘quick links’ or shortcuts to popular tabs on your page. This will allow your patients to find the most important information more efficiently.
A drop down menu is a great way to easily group your tabs together in a concise fashion.
Also, this should be easily visible on your site. Usually, the top is the most preferred by customers.
However, given your dental website design, it may look better to have on the side. or bottom. If that is the case, make sure it’s easily accessible and recognizable by viewers.
Having a website that loads too slowly is the number one reason customers leave a page. You should be frequently testing your page’s links to make sure they are loading the most efficiently.
According to Google, customers have reported that 400 milliseconds was too long of a wait. Your dental website design should not interfere with the overall speed of your page.
The content of your website is the ultimate reason people are coming to your page. You should ensure that all content is informative and compelling to viewers.
Your headline says it all. It tells your viewers what they need to know about your website. It also says where they will find answers to their questions.
Typically, we view websites in an ‘F’ formation. This means that your headlines should fall along those parameters on your site.
Often times, dental offices will imitate similar practices web pages and follow assemble a comparable look.
The content published on your website should be specifically tailored to your patients. What you post should directly reflect what your typical viewer would visit your page for.
It is okay to use similar topics that other dentists talk about. However, make sure you put your own spin and style into the written and design work.
One of the most noticeable mistakes business owners can make on their site is having outdated information. This could actually be hurting you for a number of reasons.
For one, it makes the page look tacky and unappealing. Outdated information can drive customers away because it compromises the legitimacy of content.
New content helps with SEO rankings. If you aren’t posting regularly, your page is less likely to be retrieved through search.
Making regular posts can also drive more customers to your page. Shareable content is great for generating leads and driving more patients to your door.
When able, you should show and explain why your practice stands out from its competitors.
It’s likely people coming to your site have never been one of your patients before. Your website needs to be impressionable and show new viewers why your practice is so great.
Include a tab that lays out your mission statement and other relevant information. Don’t be shy when talking up the greatness of your practice!
Over 88% of people have found a practice from recommendations through online sources. If your practice is getting a lot of good attention, you should show off!
Find ways to incorporate your online reviews into your dental website design. Pull from sites like Google My Business, Yelp, and Angie’s List.
You should include photo and video elements to these reviews. Text-only reviews aren’t as engaging or appealing.
Also, if your business is active on social media, it wouldn’t hurt to link those pages as well. You could find innovative ways to display your accounts review section.
Auto-play is very, very rarely ever needed for a page to be functional. It is perceived as annoying, too forward and untasteful.
It’s totally fine and even encouraged to include forms of multimedia on your page. Yet, you will want to avoid being intrusive and allow viewers to play this content when ready.
Commonly, outdated websites have mobile-friendly counterparts that are different from the desktop version.
Your website should absolutely be mobile-friendly. This means you need to tailor and modify your current site to fit new standards.
Do not create multiple pages for your business as it will be confusing to patients. Also, this is very harmful to SEO rankings as it can divide searches between the sites.
If you are a fully operational practice, you likely offer many services. You should create subtabs underneath the main ‘Service’ heading with each listed.
This allows you to describe each service in full detail and give your viewer more information. Your website visitors will be able to connect your business with certain services then. They are also more likely to remember your practice because of association from a service.
If you are looking to boost your digital marketing strategy even further, then you’re at the right place! At Dominate Dental, we offer full marketing services to drive the success of your dental practice.
From dental website design to search engine optimization and everything in between, we’ve got you covered. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help put your best smile forward!