With successful dental practices, there is one indisputable truth: their Internet dental website is a focal point for generating new dental patients.
Today, dental websites are not only a dental marketing tool, but also a marketing-driven media platform for the dental practice.
A good dental practice website should educate visitors on the dental treatments you offer while providing ways to capture new dental patient leads. Your dental website should be the central point for all your Internet dental marketing and encourage website visitors to take action.
Your dental website is an extension of your dental practice, so it only makes sense to create a website that feeds your practice new dental patients.
Even so, as a busy dentist, it can be easy to ignore your dental website. You may have plans to create something more powerful and engaging for your visitors, but somehow there never seems to be enough time. Often, you’ll take shortcuts that leave visitors questioning what your dental practice is really all about.
Here are 7 common dental website mistakes —
1. Your home page doesn’t have a clear message.
Your dental website home page should say who you are, what you do, and ask the visitor to do something like call your office or sign up for a newsletter.
2. Hidden contact information.
If you want your visitors to call your office for a dental appointment make your phone number one of the first things they see when they land on your website.
3. No way to track website leads.
Your dental website doesn’t have the ability to track leads. Knowing when visitors come to your website and what treatment pages they viewed tell you what prospective dental patients are looking for in a local dentist. Understanding where your visitors are coming from helps you with your Internet dental marketing. Are visitors coming from Google? What keywords are they using to find you? What percentages are mobile users? All of this information can help you target your dental practice website for more new dental patients.
4. Not offering a value to your website visitors.
Tell them about the services you provide. Show them why your dental practice is better than the competition. Let them see what the inside of your dental practice looks like, what they can expect, and how you will help them solve their oral health issues. Showcase testimonials of dental patients who love having you as their dentist.
5. Not having a newsletter sign-up form and a blog.
Newsletters and blogs are two of the most effective ways to interact with your dental patients and provide them with reasons for scheduling their next dental treatment.
6. No links to your social media presence.
Allowing your dental patients to connect with you through Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and Pinterest allows them to feel like they know your practice and your “trust factor” improves. It also connects with your younger demographic who enjoying living on social media.
7. Your website is not configured for mobile users.
Your dental practice website should be viewable to anyone with a mobile smart phone, iPad or other tablets from any location. Mobile search is the new Yellow Pages and your site should be designed with these visitors in mind.
There are other mistakes that dentists can make when putting up a dental practice website. The type of colors, fonts and website styling can cause issues that will kill your marketing message too.
If you find putting together your own dental website is a daunting task, then check out the Internet Dental Alliance New Patient Marketing Machine™ that features online dental marketing websites that are easy to set up to target to your desired dental market.
No more needless worry about whether your website is configured correctly or targeting new dental patients in the right way. The IDA websites take care of all of it for you. Click here to check out IDA’s New Patient Marketing Machine™.
What mistakes do you regret making with your dental practice website? Tell us in the comments!
