Is a confusing website costing you new patients?

Try the 5 second engagement test

Have you ever wondered just how well your website works when a new visitor lands on your home page? You may be confident all is well, but do you really know?

For example, you may have data from Google Analytics which shows general overall performance, but chances are it doesn’t drill into specific performance at page level?

So is your home page working well, about average or perhaps really quite badly? Frankly, most dental website owners don’t really have much insight at all, so if you don’t really know the answer, you’re not alone. But that’s not good, particularly given how important a high-functioning website is for new patient acquisition.

Perhaps it might surprise you to suggest that for most websites, well over half of the visitors never make it past the first page and simply leave the site immediately, whether through confusion, disinterest or both. What’s more, this figure can be even higher depending on the source of the traffic; for example, web visitors from social media are generally much less interested in your website than those who have searched with specific intent in Google.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The configuration of your home page, or indeed any landing page to which you are directing traffic, can make a massive difference to how users react when they reach there. Will they be immediately engaged and compelled to look further into your services, or will they be confused and look elsewhere, possibly at your direct competitor’s website?

Let’s get some deeper insights and see how you can make a positive difference, starting out with the ‘5 second test’.

So what is the 5 second test for dental websites?

This is a simple test you can use either by yourself or with a team member to assess the clarity and purpose of your web page. It is intended to mimic what a user sees when they arrive on the page and attempts to address if the content therein correctly addresses what they were looking for, whether the website will likely answer their questions and that’s it’s abundantly clear what your business does.

You show the page for 5 seconds and then remove it before asking the following questions:

• what is the website about?
• what services can I get here?
• why would I care?
• why is it different to the business up the road?
• can I trust it – does it look professional?
• what do I do first to get more information or make contact?

Web users are fickle and don’t want to hang around scrolling through information – so if your page is not answering these questions in not much more than the blink of an eye, then you have a problem.

It may sound obvious that any dental website should cover all of this, but you’d be surprised. Perhaps more surprising is that it is often newer websites which are strewn with fancy gizmos and quirky “modern” navigation systems that actually perform quite badly. These days, some designers try to show their cutting-edge design prowess and implement features, not because they should, but because they can. Often this detracts from the usability and leaves users confused. “Whizzy” WordPress templates are often a culprit of this as designers try to build the “next best thing” whilst forgetting all about the end users.

When should you use the 5 second test?

Quite regularly would be my first answer, but definitely under the following circumstances:

• during a website re-design process (see the notes above about gung-ho designers!)
• if you’re considering a re-design but think changes to your existing website could suffice
• if your page bounce rate is too high
• when click-throughs are low i.e. users are not navigating through your web pages, particularly failing to use your main call-to-actions
• when others start to comment that your website is a bit shoddy (but by then it’s a bit late!)

You failed the test – what’s next?

Ideally this is where you enlist the help of an acknowledged web design expert, preferably in the dental field. Discuss your findings with them and then get their feedback and proposals to address the issues – this may be achievable with changes to the existing website or you may need a full re-design. Experienced designers will be fully versed in web usability and the tools and techniques needed to answer all of the questions asked above, but it certainly helps if you have your own insights too!

If you need to know more about user experience and usability of websites, or simply need input if your own site is under-performing, please get in touch with the specialist team at Dental Media on 01332 672548.