Best Practices for Dental Website Design
Your dental practice’s website is the “front door” for potential patients online. But for many dental practices, the website has not traditionally been a high priority. Dentist websites are often poorly optimized for conversion, provide a lacking user experience (UX), and don’t provide the kind of educational resources that patients are looking for. In this blog post, we’ll dive into 7 must-have elements for your dental practice website.
1. Click-to-Call CTAs
The fastest way to convert a potential patient into a new appointment is to get them on the phone. That’s why it’s so surprising that so many dentist websites don’t prioritize phone calls with their web design. To drive as many new patient appointments as possible, it’s essential that your dental practice website makes it super easy for visitors to connect with your office via phone. A “click-to-call” button should be the #1 call-to-action (CTA) on your dental website — and it should remain persistent, or “sticky,” as visitors scroll through the site.
2. Call Tracking
Building on #1, it’s critical that you know where your phone calls are coming from. That’s why at our dental marketing agency, we place high importance on call tracking. By using tracking numbers specific to your website, you’ll have solid insight into how your dentist website performs and what kind of return on investment (ROI) you’re getting. With the right call tracking system in place, you’ll even know which source drove callers to your website to begin with, from organic search to PPC, social media to print advertisements.
3. Forms
Some website visitors won’t want to jump on the phone right away. For these potential patients, it’s important to provide an easy-to-use contact form to request more information. Any form on your dental practice website should use the least amount of fields possible to increase conversion rates. It’s also critical that you follow up on form submissions immediately (or at least as fast as possible). That’s why at DentalScapes, we set up automated systems to immediately respond to potential patients, letting them know that they will hear from your office as quickly as possible (if you’re not able to call them right away, which is of course ideal).
4. Live Chat
We live in an era where texting is quickly becoming potential patients’ preferred method for communicating with your office. Live chat is also increasingly popular, and with the right system in place, can even allow current and potential patients to communicate with you directly via SMS text. At DentalScapes, we always recommend that dental practices incorporate live chat into their websites. That said, simply offering a chat service on your website isn’t enough — you have to be able to respond quickly, within 20 seconds. For small to mid-size dental practices that don’t have the in-house resources to do that, we strongly recommend outsourcing chat handling to a third party, where human operators can respond to new patient inquiries immediately.
5. Reviews & Testimonials
Nothing motivates a potential patient to contact your dental practice like positive reviews from patients like themselves. While you should be doing everything you can to get as many 5-star Google reviews as possible, you should also do everything possible to highlight those reviews on your website. Many “widgets” are available that can provide “social proof” on your website by integrating Google reviews directly on the page. Testimonials — especially video testimonials — provided directly to your clinic are also important.
6. Education
Dental services are complicated and often expensive. Further, many patients have fear, anxiety, and shame that must be addressed before treatment. That’s why it’s critical that your dental practice offers a variety of educational resources on its website. From blog posts to infographics, “explainer” videos to downloadable ebooks, there are many opportunities to build a comprehensive learning center on your website. In addition to demonstrating your clinical expertise, educational dental content is also an excellent way to improve your Google search rankings.
7. Original Photography
Stock photos are great in pinch, but potential patients want to get a sense of your practice’s people and personality. That’s why “non-stock” photos of your practice environment, providers, and support staff are so important. A relatively small investment in professional photography can make the difference between a potential patient calling your office or going elsewhere. To maximum impact and increase ROI, you can also repurpose original photography in social media posts, Google Business Profile updates, email newsletters, and more.
Does Your Dental Practice Website Need a Refresh?
If you’re not satisfied with your website’s current performance, it may be time to consider a dentist website redesign. At DentalScapes, we strive to create conversion-optimized websites for dentists that are just as effective at driving new patient appointments as they are affordable for small to mid-size practices. Book a free discovery call today and let’s see how we can help.