Optimising a dental website to boost conversions
Doubling new patient contacts with web page layout and content optimisation
Have you ever wondered how many people who visit your website actually go on to contact you and enquire about treatment? We call this action a conversion which can be a ‘phone call or completion of an online contact form.
Improving the rate at which website visitors get in touch is known as conversion optimisation and is a fundamental activity when ensuring that your practice website is working as hard as possible on your behalf.
What might surprise you is that most dental websites have sub-optimal levels of conversion optimisation, ranging from dire to barely adequate. So there are usually some good improvement opportunities to be had at relatively low cost.
But why are so many dental websites inadequate when it comes to onsite conversion; even new ones which have only recently been launched? Surely all designers know the requirements and follow a set of core standards to ensure at least a good level of conversion optimisation? Unfortunately this is not the case at all, often far from it. You see, most designers are not well-versed in optimisation techniques and whilst they may have an eye on aesthetics, they miss key layout and content elements which encourage users to get in touch.
So what are the key conversion elements of a dental website – let’s take a quick look.
Clear contact details in the header and footer of the website
It may sound obvious that you need to include the practice contact details in prominent positions on your website, but many still don’t. Clear navigation is critical to ensure that website users can reach all of your information quickly and efficiently, and perhaps at the top of this list should be your contact details. Remembers that users are quite fickle, so you must have your telephone number and links to your contact page easily accessible from all parts of your website, typically in the header and footer sections but also at key points within the body content.
Also make sure that your contact information is mobile-friendly; for example that your ‘phone number is configured to be click-to-call from mobile screens and that when your content rearranges for mobile viewing, that the contact details remain prominent.