Despite the old adage that says ‘never judge a book by its cover’ people are swayed by first impressions. Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life – harsh but true!
The same of course can be said about your dental practice website. If the cover of your book (or rather, your practice website) doesn’t look exciting, appealing, or attractive, then it’s unlikely that people will want to visit your practice for treatment.
Whether we like it or not, we live in a world where people are online for the majority of the day.
Did you know for instance that around 83% of consumers will visit a company’s website before they decide whether to purchase (or in your case) join your practice?
Ultimately this means the appearance, accessibility, and usability of your dental practice website are more important than ever, particularly if you’re trying to compete with other practices in your area.
Unfortunately, whereas in the past a bog-standard, static website was sufficient to draw customers in, the bottom line is that in 2017, it simply won’t cut the mustard.
So what should you do?
Having a website that’s both appealing, engaging, and continually evolving is the answer!
Think of it as your virtual practice or as an extension of your team. For instance, in the same way, a professional company wouldn’t send out an unkempt businessman to represent their company, neither should you have an old and non-informative website. It gives off a bad impression, and we all know how important first impressions are right?
Just like you may have annual CPR training to keep up to date with any changes in methods that could ultimately save a life, you should also be re-evaluating your practice website regularly, in order to save your online presence. So let’s do that now by taking a look at a few ways you can better use your website to land more patients.
Ways to improve your dental practice website and attract more patients
Patient-friendly blog posts
A website blog or news section is your chance to show both existing and potential patients relevant information on a variety of topics, particularly about the type of care you and your team provide. You can use it to tell viewers about the latest dental technology available, talk about new team members, and even promote any special offers on treatments or services you may have.
That said, providing such free information regularly isn’t simply a ‘one-way street‘. On the contrary, it will benefit your website greatly.
How?
Google is always on the lookout for fresh content. In fact, Google loves nothing more than consistent content. So if you’re blogging regularly then your site will be crawled and indexed regularly too. This means that you’ll rank well in Google searches when a patient is looking for the types of services you offer, and ultimately, you’ll be driving more traffic to your dental website.
Good SEO
Although there are many ways to ensure visits to your dental practice website such as through social media, search engines are still the number one method of navigation for most internet users.
Therefore it makes absolute sense to optimise your website to rank higher in those search engine results. Particularly so because search engines provide traffic to your website that is relevant, in other words, it directs the right people (people who are looking for your services) to your website.
If Google or other search engines are unable to find your website, the fact is that you’re missing out on a rather large piece of the pie.
To put it simply, obtaining targeted traffic through the use of search engine optimisation can provide publicity and revenue like no other channel of marketing can offer.
While optimising your dental practice website for search engines may seem counter-productive, especially when the number one goal should always be your audience, it’s important to be mindful not to ignore it altogether.
Downloadable guides
Although having a detailed dental treatment guide may sound time-consuming and appears to be a lot of effort, it’s actually a very powerful marketing tool.
How so?
When most patients make a search online for a particular treatment or procedure, they’re usually looking for a thorough and detailed explanation of what’s involved, so that they can make an informed decision.
With this in mind, imagine how beneficial it is for them to find all the information needed under one roof in the form of your treatment guide! By helping to save their time by providing all the answers they were looking for, you’ll win their trust before they’ve even made contact with your practice.
That’s not all. For every treatment guide that’s downloaded, an e-mail address is required…
This is great because it means that even if the patient doesn’t immediately take action and book in with your practice, you now have their contact e-mail which you can use to market other areas of your service that they might well be interested in.
Even better than that…
You also now know how many people have downloaded your guide and for which particular treatments, so use that information on these hot topics to target your marketing to these specific areas.
Patient Testimonials
The reason for having really good patient testimonials on your website speaks for itself. Quite simply they’re a great way of building reader trust. You see when it comes to trusting a healthcare provider, potential patients will always take into consideration the reviews and opinions of others before they commit.
Why?
Because it gives them an outsider’s personal perspective on the care that’s provided by your practice and staff. The truth is, it can make all the difference between a person calling your dental practice to book in, or choosing another practice instead.
You should also consider going that one step further and opting for video testimonials. These have the ability to provide a greater sense of trust.
Here’s why…
You know the saying… ‘seeing is believing.’ Of course, any dental practice can claim they are caring and have the best staff and services available, but using testimonials, specifically in the form of a video from a satisfied patient, breaks any doubt or suspicions a viewer may have.
So there you have it! 4 ways you can ramp up your website and start making it work for you.
Utilising your dental practice website to grow your business
Hopefully, this guide has helped you to re-evaluate your dental practice website and spot any areas in which you could potentially be missing out on. Of course, it takes time to implement these changes, but don’t forget as dental writers we can make it easier for you by providing content for the above methods and working together to improve your online presence. Contact Dale on +34 605 45 73 42 to find out more.
