When it comes to a dental website the old cliché of ‘build it and they will come’ is really only true in part. It is probable that you’ll pick up the odd curious prospect who may be attracted to a new website but that’s no guarantee that they’re going to make a call or fill out one of your new patient forms online. So just how do you convince them that you are the best thing since sliced bread and to book a consultation? The answer…by taking action on your website – in other words, by looking to improve website conversion.
Before we dive into ways in which you can supercharge your website it’s a good idea to talk about conversion rate optimisation.
So what exactly is conversion rate optimisation?
Otherwise known as CRO, it is one or more techniques or acts that serve the combined purpose of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a particular action. This action should then, in theory, be used to convert them into a bona fide customer – or in your case, new dental patients
These particular actions may be
- Signing up for your free newsletter or ‘how to’ guide
- Filling out an online form
- Calling to book a consultation or
- Scheduling an appointment
So now you have a better understanding of what conversion rate optimisation is, the next question is how do you go about implementing it on your dental website in order to improve website conversion?
Here are some ideas…
Include a call-to-action
Calls-to-action or CTA’s are in effect text or media elements added to your website that evoke or stir a response from the visitor to take action.
Some examples of CTA’s could be:
- Contact us
- Call Now
- Book a consultation
- Sign up for our newsletter etc
As a top tip – it may be a good idea to experiment with different CTA’s throughout your dental website both in text form (at the end of blog posts, service and treatment pages and home pages) or in media form as call-to-action buttons. This way you can compare conversion rate optimisation rates using Google Analytics. Then it’s simply a case of doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Get it right and you should start to see an increase in dental patients who have found you via your dental website.
Adding social proof
If your dental practice already has a social media account, then it’s a good idea to add it to your dental website. This way anyone visiting your site for the first time can also check out your various active platforms.
For instance, if you regularly post tips on Facebook on how to care for your teeth at home, you would really want first-time visitors to your site to see that.
If they see that you post regularly, actively engage with your fans and have a sizeable number of followers, then this only serves to help build trust.
What about other forms of social proof?
In addition to social media, don’t forget to include patient reviews on your site. You may want to experiment with how you do this. Some dental practice websites prefer to have a dedicated testimonials page, while others prefer to place their feedback ‘front and centre’ on the Home Page – possibly in a carousel format. Again, it might be worth trying different approaches to see what bites.
Memberships and site seals
Other forms of social proof include memberships and site seals all of which can be added to your dental website to help build trust with new visitors. For instance, as a dentist, it’s highly likely that you are associated with, or under the membership of, one or more esteemed organisations. If so, it’s well worth including them somewhere on your site – Often this is on the About Us page, but they can also be integrated into the footer of the home page along with site certifications or seals.
Other Ways To Improve Website Conversion
Improve your page speed
Let’s face it, any visitor looking for a new dentist online isn’t going to be impressed when they come across a website that takes an age to load. Not only do people not like waiting but Google will penalise slow loading website by ranking them lower than their speedier counterparts.
Just so you know, the ideal load time is somewhere between 2-5 seconds but it’s been proven that each second over the 2-second mark results in an increase in bounce rates – That is, the percentage of time people will spend on your site.
Fortunately, there are things that you can do to increase your page speed and by default, new dental patients. These include:
- Choosing a web hosting company that can handle your website
- Make sure your website is cache enabled. If you happen to use WordPress, there are a host of plugins for this
- Removing any unnecessary plugins from your dental website. Decluttering your site in this way will also eradicate excess CSS files and JavaScript which can slow your page load speed down.
- Making sure any photos or pictures are optimised in terms of size. Too many large mages and it will affect the load time.
Pop up forms
Okay so, love them or hate them, pop up forms have been proven to increase conversion rate optimisation and attract new dental patients but only when they are properly implemented.
As such, you might want to experiment with various treatment offers or CTA’s, pop up times, where and when they appear etc. to see what yields the best results.
Done right website pop-ups can grab the user’s attention and push your visitors in a certain direction to take action and this is exactly what a conversion rate optimisation technique should do. So keep them relevant and most importantly, ensure there’s an easy exit option. After all, you’re looking to turn visitors into new dental patients not upset them before you start!
There are other ways that you can attract new patients through CRO practices but these techniques offer a good starting point that should help to improve website conversion and supercharge your patient footfall.
If you want to know more about how to get the most out of your dental website or you need some assistance then contact the team at Mediboost. We’re Australia’s #1 rated patient growth marketing agency and are well-positioned to help dental businesses just like yours.
Book a consultation with us or call us at 1300 163 058 today.
