Your dental website is one of your practice’s most important marketing tools. It has the potential to make or break a patient’s decision to call and book an appointment. That’s why you need a solid, credible website to stay ahead of the tough competition in the US dental market. Here are the five essential website features that your dental website should have to attract and retain patients:
1. Easy Navigation
The navigation must be intuitive, easy to use, and simple enough for potential patients to navigate. When web visitors visit your dental website, they must be able to easily search for information, particularly the procedures or treatments that they are looking for. The navigation should make it obvious what each page offers, and the pages themselves should be uncluttered and clear about what your business does and how it differs from other practices.
Aside from navigation, your website should be mobile-friendly and responsive. A responsive website adapts its layout and design to fit the screen size of the device accessing it. Nowadays, most patients web-browse from their mobile devices. So, it is best that your website loads fast and looks great on mobile gadgets.
2. Clear Calls to Action (CTA)
Your dental website visitors consist of your current patients and potential patients. Each type has its purpose for browsing through your website. The former usually looks for your practice’s hours, contact details, printable forms, and more. Meanwhile, the latter type wants to know about your services, billing policies, and other aspects of your practice.
Hence, you should ensure visitors accomplish their goals by adding clear CTAs. These will encourage them to take action, which could ultimately lead to booking an appointment for your services. These CTAs can be buttons that read something like “Make an appointment” or “Get in touch.” They should be very noticeable and easy to read.
It’s highly recommended that all your web pages should have at least two CTAs, excluding external links. For instance, your home page can feature a primary call to action encouraging potential patients to book an appointment and a secondary call to action encouraging them to learn more about your services.
3. Contact Forms
Contact forms are effective lead-generation tools that most businesses use to expand their mailing list of potential clients. For dental websites, contact forms will do precisely that, plus more. They can be a good place for patients to leave feedback and suggestions, make inquiries, or request an appointment. Contact forms also help make your dental website more professional and user-friendly, encouraging patients to communicate with the practice.
The most important reason to have contact forms is for marketing purposes. You can build a good email list to send your marketing materials by getting visitors’ email addresses. You can send newsletters, offers, promotions, and updates on your practice. This will help you convert your mailing list into new customers and build a strong relationship with existing clients.
4. Good Patient Education
Resources should be available for new and current patients to learn more about what you offer. These materials should help teach them about different dental procedures, treatments, and the latest technologies available. It is also best to have content that teaches patients about proper oral hygiene and the importance of routine dental visits.
Adding patient education is also your chance to explain to potential patients what they can expect from your services, your professional dental team, and your dental facility. Informative and engaging content about them serves as a marketing tool that can help attract new patients to your practice.
You should add patient testimonials to your website to show potential patients positive reviews from your satisfied clients. To get people’s interest, you should also post before and after photos or videos of the services you offer. These will all build good credibility and reputation for your practice, which will help convert website visitors into new patients.
Some of the best ways to incorporate good patient education into your website are by creating blog articles, service pages, an FAQ page, and building a strong dental home page.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Your website needs to be found by search engines; otherwise, it’s just a lovely web space that nobody will ever see. To be found by search engines, you must apply good SEO techniques. How do you do this? First, it must be in the appropriate category, meaning your website’s title and URL must indicate that you are a dental practice. It would be much better if they could also provide the location of your clinic.
Second, research the dental keywords people use when searching the web for dental services. It is best to use the same keywords and include them in your website content so your web pages will appear on the first page of search results. Including your city or area’s name in the keywords is highly recommended, like “teeth cleaning in Seattle” or “dental implants in Denver.” This helps your practice target the patients in your locality and gain an advantage over local competitors.
It’s best to constantly research popular dental keywords so you can create different articles or pages for them. While this is happening, you should also update your older articles. This helps update the content and improve searchability. From time to time, it’s also best to update your website copy with fresher, more relevant content.
Consider Professional Website Services
Your dental website is the perfect tool for keeping people well-informed about your practice. It is best to make it user-friendly, informative, and easy to understand. Optimizing it for search engines is also important so patients can discover your practice online. Most importantly, ensure it’s clear where website visitors can book an appointment.
By adding these five essential features to your dental website, your practice will attract new patients and retain existing ones, as they are important ingredients to success. However, website management and optimization require time and expertise to achieve the best results. You should, therefore, consider getting professional website services to ensure that your website is up to scratch.
OMNI Premier Marketing can help you secure a professional website to scale your practice. We are a team of expert web developers, SEO specialists, and content creators with many years of experience providing premium website services to dental professionals.
Call us today to learn more about our professional website services for dental practices.