11 Things A Fantastic Dentist Website Should Have

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For a dental clinic to be successful, it is crucial to have a positive online presence and professional web design services in place. Given how competitive the industry has become, dental professionals would be well served to consider essential things like dentist and dental clinic website design to attract new patients and maximize growth potential. In this article, dental professionals and marketing experts discuss 11 things a fantastic dentist website should have.

Optimized, Active Content, And Easy To Navigate

“We believe a great dentist’s website in 2020 needs to be:

Optimized – Dentists need custom websites that cater to the specific services they provide. Additionally, the website needs to be fully optimized for search engines and all devices ranging from cell phones to tablets, desktops, and more.

On the map – Your content needs to be distributed through the top search engines. You need to have a team that can work to optimize your listings and make sure your website appears when a potential patient does an online search.

Have active content – Your website should be updated each week with relevant articles and more to keep your SEO ongoing to ensure search engine placement. This means making blog posts each week about a number of topics ranging from what your toothache could mean to the benefits of implants and much more. We also recommend updating patient reviews often so new patients can see what recent experiences have been like.

Easy to navigate – A patient shouldn’t have trouble seeing what services you offer, where you’re located, and how to contact you. A dentist needs to have a clear menu at the top of the page that easily takes them to pages where they can learn more about your practice, the services you offer, what new patients need to do, and more that is relevant to your practice.”

Dr. Robert Berry, Dentist, Mountain Aire Dentistry

Originality, Clarity, Exposure

“A great dental website should have three things: 

1) Originality – Too many medical and dental websites get lost in a sea of sameness because they are either built on a template or make use of templated content. Here’s the fact: no one tells the practice story like its happiest patients. A simple survey of those patients will give way to unique messaging and an original look and feel that truly stands out from competitors. 

2) Clarity – Nail the 3 as right on the home page: affability, ability and availability. Warm and inviting photos of the office, doctors and staff make the practice look affable, or likable. Awards, accolades, and compelling before-and-after cases validate the doctors’ abilities. Office hours, address and directions appearing on every webpage make the practice look available. 

3) Exposure – The website is a billboard in the middle of the ocean until you drive patients to it. What’s the best way to drive traffic to the website and in the practice door? To answer this question, we surveyed 200 doctors and 200 patients nationwide in May of 2020. Here are a few of the findings: A) 71% of doctors said social media advertising, and we agreed. Run ads rather than just invest time in posting, as this can immediately jumpstart new patient traffic directly to the practice now as it begins to recoup lost production dollars. B) 64% of doctors said referral marketing, and we believe this is a goldmine for practices. Train the entire medical team to look for moments of gratitude. The patient says thank you, and that’s the ideal time to reply, “We appreciate you. Please send your friends and family to our website and to us”. C) While only 20% of doctors surveyed said online advertising (Google AdWords), it did make their top 7 out of 14 possible tactics listed. We recommend Google AdWords since an ad buy of just $1,000 per month can yield exponential revenue dollars from new patients. The fastest way to get on page one of the search engine is to pay them to be there.”

Wendy O’Donovan Phillips, CEO, Big Buzz

How Your Office Is Dealing With COVID And Keeping Your Patients Safe, And Recent Patient Reviews

“Two of the most important things that need to be on a dentist’s website now are how your office is dealing with COVID and keeping your patients safe, and recent patient reviews.

What is your dental office doing differently to help keep your patients and your staff safe during this pandemic? Are you offering touchless ways to check-in, perhaps via an app or text before they even leave their car? Are you sanitizing after each and every patient, only allowing the patient to enter the office, or in the case of pediatric dentistry, only allowing one parent to enter the office along with the patient? Have your hours changed to accommodate current regulations? For new patients, is there an all-digital process for filling out and e-signing all the required documentation you need?

Reviews are the other key thing that many dentists don’t use as effectively as they could. Especially with the current environment, recent reviews matter more than ever. A pre-COVID review almost doesn’t matter, especially in a business where your patients are already concerned about their safety. If you don’t have an active process to continually solicit reviews from your patients, start one now. Then use those reviews on your website and in other marketing. Whether it’s a plugin that scrolls a few reviews, or a small popup that highlights reviews in a noticeable but unobtrusive way, social proof can make the difference between a website visitor booking an appointment with you or with the closest nearby dentist who also takes their insurance.

Taking this beyond just your website, when the patient checks in via their phone, are they automatically being put into your CRM or appointment reminder system? If not, you’re likely missing out on revenue from seeing your patients as often as you should.”

David B. Wright, President, W3 Group Marketing

SEO-Optimized, Appointment Scheduling, Web Chat

“The three most important things for great dental websites to have are SEO-optimized landing pages, appointment scheduling capability, and a web chat tool. Each of these components is critical for the dental website to accomplish its most valuable function – acquiring new dental patients.

As consumer behavior shifts online, organic search has become increasingly important for patient acquisition. Great dental websites are optimized to capture traffic from popular patient search terms such as dentists near me or the best dentist in my area. The best sites have dedicated pages for each dentist and practice location. In addition, the site should load quickly and be easy to navigate. Along with patient reviews, these factors help ensure that a practice’s landing pages will show up in Google’s Local Pack.

In addition, in 2020 dental websites should give patients the option to schedule appointments through the website. Basic websites allow patients to fill out forms to request appointments. Advanced websites have tools that integrate with practice management systems, and allow patients to see real-time appointment openings and instantly book online. Automated scheduling increases marketing ROI, and takes one task off the plates of the front office staff.

Finally, it’s important to remember that not all patients will want to book online right away. It’s very common for patients to have questions about hours of operation, specific services, and accepted insurance. To answer these questions, and further increase appointment bookings leading practice websites have a web-chat tool that connects patients with their teams. Patients can start a chat at any point, and even continue them later via text message.”

Bruce Hogan, CEO, SoftwarePundit

In this digital age, a positive online presence is of paramount importance, especially for dental professionals. In order to attract and engage new patients, dental practices must also think about key factors such as local SEO, and social media marketing services. Ultimately, having a professional, mobile-friendly, search engine optimized website will help your dental practice thrive in the future.

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