I’ve launched my practice website with a DIY website builder….
…but no-one uses it and I can’t see it in Google. Can you help?
We get quite a few ‘phone calls of this nature, where a dentist has tried a DIY dental website builder and subsequently failed to get any new patient enquiries from it.
You may have seen the TV adverts where you can pay £4.99 per month for such a tool, complete with “branding for your business” and “Google optimisation”. But as with all things which sound too good to be true, this offer is too.
All DIY building tools for dentists websites tend not to work very well for a variety of reasons which we’ll cover in this article in a little more detail. This doesn’t just apply to the really cheap versions you may see advertised on TV but also the versions which cost upwards of £100 + vat per month which you may see targeted specifically at dentists.
So why can’t a DIY website compete with a bespoke design?
1. They look poor. Without exception, I’ve never seen a website built using a DIY system which gets anywhere close to a design produced by an experienced web designer. The field of dental web design has become very competitive over the last few years and this has worked to push design standards to a high level; a level which DIY site builders fall way short of. With certain aspects of dentistry now unfortunately commoditised and most people searching for these services on line, you simply can’t afford to have a poor web presence. Ultimately it reflects on you and people’s perception of your services.
2. Most of them aren’t mobile friendly. With over 40% of all website visits now originating from hand-held devices, you *must* have a mobile-optimised site to take full advantage.
3. SEO capability is limited. Most DIY websites languish in Google search results because they don’t offer the facility for good search engine optimisation and, even if they did, trying to do this type of work without experience is highly likely to fail.
4. They come with standard templates. In a competitive environment where you need to stand out from the crowd, a templated website is not going to do it for you. High quality web design involves a detailed exploration and fact-finding stage to determine exactly the style of website for a particular business. This ensures that website visitors are enthused as soon as they land on the site and are encouraged to progress through to your contact form or to call you. The standard templates which come with DIY dental websites do not offer this level of sophistication and simply don’t work as well when it comes to delivering new patient enquiries.
5. You can’t add bespoke functionality. Need to add an additional contact form or perhaps a protected documents area for downloads? You almost certainly can’t. Your website needs to grow as your business grows and with a DIY builder, you’re constrained to something very simple.
It may even cost you more in the long run….
If you are considering one of the dental specific DIY site builders, it may be worth doing the maths to see what you could get by going the bespoke route instead. After 18 months, you’ve spent enough of your budget to have purchased a professional, bespoke design which will be markedly more productive than an out-of-the box DIY dental practice website. Your site will be a fitting representation of your business and services, SEO optimised and not looking like something that was designed 5 years ago.
Summary
Where budgets are tight and expenses need to be pared right back, it may be tempting to consider building your website yourself using a DIY tool. However, this is very likely to be false economy as the site is unlikely to bring in the new enquiries you might expect for the reasons noted above. Where a great looking dental website with bespoke design, mobile and search engine optimisation can be purchased for < £2000, it’s relatively easy to establish the smart way forward?
If you’d like to see how Dental Media can get you moving online, please call our web development team on 01332 672548 for an introductory chat.