Dental websites and standards compliance

Is it straightforward to make a practice website standards compliant?

The answer to this question is “yes” – as long as you know what you are doing.

Whilst some marketing companies would have you think that compliance is a complex issue and try to differentiate their services on the back of it, the honest answer is that it’s quite straightforward to achieve and should be built into all new websites as standard.

Of course, you also need to check if your existing website is compliant and, where necessary, add the required features to bring it up to standard. Again, this is not too difficult to achieve.

Which standards are relevant?

The main standards to consider when preparing your new dental website are those of the GDC and the ICO; however it is also worth understanding certain disability discrimination and advertising standards laws and how these could also affect you.

GDC standards

The GDC provides fairly clear guidance on what must be included on a practice website, for example the registration numbers of the dental team, a link to a complaints procedure etc. This is all relatively straightforward and explicit. There is also guidance on what you can and can’t say in your website text and any experienced dental web designer or copywriter will know this too. It is important that anyone within the dental team who has responsibility for publishing information on behalf of the practice also has this knowledge. There are some horror stories where dental practice staff have accessed a website content management system, written ill-considered information and landed the principal in hot water. So please ensure that there is training and a suitable set of procedures in place to prevent this.

ICO

After the muddled implementation of the “cookie” laws a few years ago, some consider the ICO to be a little dysfunctional and slightly out-of-touch with practicalities. Indeed their own website is hardly a fine example of good design and user experience.

However, they are there and cannot be ignored. In addition to the cookie rules, there is other, broad reaching legislation overseen by the ICO, for example the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and Data Protection Act. Much of this is not directly relevant to your website, however, certain sections, for example transmission of data via contact forms, does come into scope in certain circumstances. Again, an experienced dental marketing company will be able to guide you.

DDA and Advertising Standards

Two other sets of legislation to be aware of are the Disability Discrimination Act and Advertising Standards. The relevant part of the DDA legislation is related to website accessibility and how a site should be usable for those with any form of impairment.  Advertising Standards is exactly how it sounds and covers whether an ad. is legal, decent, honest and truthful – these particular standards need to be taken into account to ensure that any service you offer via your website does not make exaggerated claims of success or efficacy. Similar to the other standards, an experienced website builder will be able to advise.

Summary

It is not a difficult task to build a dental practice website which is compliant with all relevant standards and legislation and you should not need to pay a premium price for this service. A knowledgeable and experienced provider will ensure your new site is compliant as part of the build process and without trying to charge extra for the privilege.

If you would like to know more about standards compliance for your website or perhaps have concerns that yours does not meet current standards, please call us on 01332 672548 and the Dental Media web team will be pleased to provide a complimentary assessment for you.