Dental websites need to elicit a sense of trust in your practice. They need to reflect your practice branding and philosophy -and ultimately, they need to convert online traffic into new patients. Your website design needs to offer a great user experience, compelling copy, and professional imagery to convince an online prospect to reach out and make an appointment. Keep reading to discover our best practices in website design for dentists and how to convert online users into new patients for your practice.
Dental marketing is a significant investment for your practice. Dental websites need to work hard to help practice owners reap the rewards of their investments. Poorly performing dental websites undermine marketing campaigns and waste your budget. If you want to make your practice more profitable and capitalise on the growing patient market, your website design really needs to stand out.
Dentist Websites: What’s In And What’s Out?
Website design for dentists: best practices to follow
It’s no secret: potential patients will research your practice online before they commit to an appointment. And, if your website design doesn’t tick the right boxes, you can expect to lose out to a competitor. You’ve invested a lot in building your practice, and your dental website functions as your online storefront, so it’s got to reflect your vision, mission, and values clearly.
Ease Of Navigation
The best dentist websites use intuitive layouts and easy navigation so potential patients can find what they need quickly and easily.
Consider this: patients visit dental websites to find information, so your website design needs to prioritise flow.
Online users expect a neat, well-structured menu that helps them navigate your website. This means your services should be organised in a logical order, and your contact details should be easily accessible so potential patients can make appointments.
A clean layout is an essential feature of effective website design for dental practices. This means you need to minimise clutter, use your branded colour palette, and clear fonts that are easy to read.
Graphics
Visual imagery is a fundamental component of well-designed dental websites. Your custom graphics should display your target audience in its ideal state. Ultimately, your potential patients want to see people like them experiencing your dental services.
The choice of graphics on dental websites helps you to build an emotional connection with your target audience and, ultimately, a sense of trust.
Custom graphics are an important part of your website design because patients want to see your practice and practitioners before they reach out to contact you. It’s good practice to use headshots of your team on your company About page, as well as photos of
- Your building exterior: so new patients recognise your premises when they arrive
- Your friendly waiting room: so you can share your appeal
- Your consultation rooms: so new patients can see your state-of-the-art technology and well-maintained practice areas
…but Make Sure Your Site Loads Fast
Today’s online users have short concentration spans. When they want information, they want it fast. Did you know: the highest conversion rates happen when a website loads within 0 to 2 seconds? The first five seconds that tick by when a user clicks on your website link are crucial for developing a great first impression. And with every passing second, your chances of that lead bouncing increase exponentially.
Compelling Copy That Drives A Call-To-Action
Well-written content serves three key objectives on dental websites:
- It boosts your search engine visibility by letting Google know you are an authority on your subject matter
- It informs and educates potential patients about the dental services you offer and what distinguishes you from the competition
- Ultimately, it convinces users online that you can solve their problems and encourages them to reach out and contact you.
Today’s consumers want to hear brand stories. They want to know about your qualifications and experience and what your practice philosophy is. And, with so many dental practices offering the same services, they want to know what makes your service different.
Great dentist websites do these things:
- Make your content easy to read and digest by using short sentences.
- Start paragraphs with the main idea and use the rest of the paragraph to explain more
- Use keywords and language that patients use to search – avoid technical jargon
Boost Your Dental Website With Video Content
Short videos show users exactly what they can expect when they visit your practice. Video testimonials from satisfied patients give dental websites credibility and help potential patients relate to your services. Video content can boost your SEO efforts too.
Responsive Design Elements
Most new patients are likely to be searching for dental services using mobile phones. Any website design for dentists needs to incorporate responsive design elements to ensure that the user experience is consistent across web and mobile visits. Also, consider that Google uses a mobile-first system for indexing dentist websites, so if you don’t, you are going to lose out on valuable patient enquiries.
Features like click-to-call numbers, embedded contact forms for appointments, and large buttons that are easy to click on a mobile phone are essential for an elevated mobile experience.
Professional Website Design For Dental Practices
There’s an art and science to designing a website for a dental practice, and there’s no substitute for professional website design. While there are lots of platforms that claim to make it easy to create your own website, building websites for dental practices requires skill and experience.
Understanding patient trends and keeping up with Google’s constantly-changing algorithms is what will give your dental practice a competitive advantage. If you really want to boost your digital marketing and enhance your online visibility, it starts with professional website design for your dental practice.
We specialise in website design for dentists. To find out about the results we have achieved for our clients, please contact us on 1300 163 058 for your free consultation.
References
The 11 Best Dentist Websites of 2023 (+Takeaway Tips)
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/08/29/dentist-websites
11 Website Page Load Time Statistics You Need [+ How to Increase Conversion Rate]
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/page-load-time-conversion-rates
