Building and Maintaining an Effective Website that Grows Your Practice
How Important Is Your Website?
Your dental practice website is like a storefront on the internet, and it functions as a hub to which all your efforts are linked. Most importantly, your website domain is the way search engines understand your business and decide how best to present it to the world. So just like a brick-and-mortar building gets judged by people passing by, your website will be judged by visitors and search engine algorithms. So, is your website important? The answer is an emphatic yes. Surprisingly, many dental practices publish a website and forget about it. Never updating a website might be better than having no website at all, but it neglects to utilize all the ways that websites can drive traffic and new patients to your office.
WordPress, Builder Tool, or Website Service Provider?
You have three basic options when it comes to your dental practice website: WordPress, a website hosting builder tool, or a managed website service. They all have strengths and weaknesses. By exploring each in detail, you’ll be able to find the option that best fits your budget, needs, and schedule.
WordPress: Most people have heard of WordPress. It’s quickly becoming the preferred website development platform because it offers many different plugins or modifications that allow for customization. There are also a lot of themes or visual styles to choose from. Lastly, WordPress sites can be moved from host to host. Unlike sites built with proprietary builder tools, WordPress websites can be moved to other servers and hosts, giving owners more control over their content. All that said, these options come with a fairly hefty learning curve. If you’re planning to build a WordPress site with no experience, plan to do some studying and maybe even take a course. YouTube videos also help. My advice is to hire an experienced WordPress developer to create and maintain your dental practice website. Then, with a drag-and-drop plugin like Beaver Builder or Elementor, you can easily add and modify content. All large website hosting services offer WordPress hosting.
Pros: customization, plugins, access to source code, host migration
Cons: steep learning curve
Webhost Builder Tool: Most web hosting services offer a drag-and-drop builder tool, which allows users to design websites without coding experience. These programs may not offer WordPress-level customization, but they deliver simplicity and a solid platform to deliver your content. Because these programs are proprietary, there’s no way to migrate your site to another host if you become dissatisfied. To move your site to another host, all your content would have to be moved manually and redesigned on another platform. If you plan to use a builder tool, make sure you work with a company that has great customer service and reviews—having to manually transfer content and rebuild an entire site is a laborious task!
Pros: simplicity, speed, maintained by web hosting company
Cons: limited features, unable to migrate
Website Service: The option requiring the least amount of work is, or course, a website service. The large hosting companies offer their clients website design and maintenance services, but there are also many other companies that design and maintain websites. The key is reputation. Your dental practice website is a critical part of your practice growth. If it goes down for even a short time, you risk losing considerable income.
Pros: requires little effort, professional support
Cons: dependent on the provider to make website updates, expensive
Selecting a Website Domain: One of the first things you’ll do when building a website is select a domain name. There are many different domain registrars, but I recommend going with your website hosting company (three top-rated website hosts: BlueHost, GoDaddy, HostGator. I’ve used BlueHost for many years; the servers are fast and stable, and the customer service is exceptional.). A domain name is like an address for your website. Here are some guidelines to help you choose an effective domain:
- Keep it short. Avoid long domains that are difficult to remember.
- Include your brand name and location (By including your town, you’re making it easier for search engines to define your business. which boosts SEO.)
- Include dental keywords (dental, dentistry, family dentistry, pediatric dentistry, etc.).
- Register your domain for at least ten years. The Google algorithm gives preference to domains that intend to stick around.
Website Design Tips
Simplicity and Visual Appeal: An effective dental practice website is visually appealing and easy to navigate. Do some research and review a lot of dental websites. You’ll find the most engaging sites have clearly labeled links and allow space between content.
Calls to Action: Have contact information in a prominent position and include a contact form and call button on the homepage. You want to make it easy for visitors to reach out. Consider online scheduling; today’s new patients are looking for convenience.
Quality, Organic Content: Producing content (text, pictures, and video) is difficult. It takes time and skill, which is why many dentists hire companies to fill their sites with stock content. As tempting as it may be to hire out and quickly populate your site, I suggest you focus on creating your own content. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire a copywriter; just avoid working with a dental website company that repurposes copy from their other dental websites. Search engine algorithms are getting smarter and able to locate plagiarized content. It’s not worth getting your site blacklisted. By creating your own unique content, you’ll also stand apart from many other dental sites that rely on stock content, especially when it comes to visual elements like pictures and video.
Write Effective Dental Marketing Content [5 Best Tips]
How Quality Writing Elevates Your Dental Practice Brand How Writing Impacts Your Marketing Efforts We are bombarded with images in our modern world: flawless skin, steaming cups of coffee, tidy kitchens, autumn leaves, and—of course—puppies. Our culture is so visual that a growing number of companies specialize in producing stock
Testimonials and Reviews: Our modern world relies on Google reviews to make decisions, so it’s important to include them on your site. When people see that 5-star rating and hundreds of satisfied patients, they are much more likely to book an appointment. Video testimonials are also very powerful. Asking some of your most satisfied customers to sit for an interview is marketing gold. Most people have some degree of dental fear, so when they see and hear your patients talking about their pain-free experience and positive interactions with staff, they’re moved by a concept called social proof, which means that people are motivated to follow the advice and actions of others.
Your Dental Portfolio: One of the best ways to highlight your office is by showcasing your work. People like to see results. If they see happy patients with bright smiles on your dental practice website, they will imagine themselves with a more attractive smile. Keep your camera ready and ask patients for permission to post. If they agree to show off their amazing dental work, have them sign a consent form. Some patients might ask you to crop the image to include only dental work. Dental offices are busy, and it’s easy to overlook pictures and videos. Into the future, such images are going to become even more important. Dental practices that showcase their brand visually will see more new patients and dominate their local markets.
Build a Dental Portfolio
How to Make a Dental Portfolio for Prospective New Patients Dentists Need to Prove Themselves Today Dentists who began practicing before the internet dominated our lives, will remember when reputation and referral were the most important aspects of practice growth. Before Google turned smartphones into our personal vetting machines, dentists
Mobile-Friendly Design: The majority of your website visitors will use a smartphone. For this reason, Google considers mobile accessibility a ranking factor. It’s important to optimize your website for mobile phones. Most themes and builder tools will automatically optimize for phone screens, but you’ll still want to review your website on many devices: notebooks, large monitors, tablets, and phones. It’s also wise to view your design on both PC, Apple, Android, and iOS. One of the biggest challenges today is designing a website that looks good on every device.
Highlight Your Dental Team: It doesn’t matter if you have a nice building and fancy, new equipment, new patients are ultimately going to judge you and your dental team as people. They want to know you’re passionate about dentistry and sincerely concerned about their wellbeing. They need to trust you. By highlighting your team, you can showcase the personal aspects that patients relate to. You might want to hire a photographer, but all the new phones take high-quality pictures as well. Other elements to include:
- a short biography that answers the question “Why did you enter the dental field?”
- dental specialties
- awards and distinctions
- professional memberships
- hobbies and family
HIPAA and ADA Compliance: In order for your dental practice website to be HIPAA compliant, be sure to get an SSL certificate for your website. This will mean that visitors have an encrypted connection. Also, post a privacy policy. There are many online legal services that provide a custom privacy policy for a small fee. Lastly, make your website ADA accessible. Web tools like UserWay automatically adjust your site for people with disabilities.
Social Media Icons: Social media is quickly becoming the place of first contact for many products and services, including dental practices. You’re already spending time developing these social channels—be sure to provide a link, so others can see and appreciate your creativity and passion for dentistry.
Update Your Dental Practice Website
It’s important to view your website as a dynamic tool. It should be updated consistently and used to highlight the developments that reinforce your dental practice brand. Outdated websites with stale content leave visitors questioning your level of detail and commitment.
