Dental Website Cost and Return-on-Investment

What to expect for 2023 and 2024

Here at Dental Media one of our core activities is the creation of high-quality websites for dentists, something we’ve been doing since the late 1990s and now with over 2000 sites built during that time. We’ve seen web technology change dramatically, from the earliest “static html” websites, through the advent of mobile-optimised design, to the latest content management systems and CRM integrations.

One of the key features of modern dental website design is that it takes time to do well – typically 3 or 4 weeks per website. This excludes complementary activities such as writing content, SEO work etc. So it’s quite a substantial, time-intensive task.

So what does a dental website cost in 2023/2024?

If you’ve searched around for website pricing recently, you’ll have seen a huge disparity in the pricing, from a few hundred pounds for a DIY system, to £10k+ at the other end of the spectrum. Both of those extremes are “no go” territory in our opinion – at the cheap end, you get something that will look very amateurish and not represent your business professionally, whilst at the other end, you’re paying way over-the-top for zero advantage.

Realistically, you should expect to pay in the region of £4 – 6k for a high-quality dentist’s website with sufficient scope to provide a solid foundation in Google and represent your practice, team and treatments professionally. If you consider that such a website takes 3 to 4 weeks of dedicated work to complete, then those figures should not really come as a surprise – it covers the developer’s business costs and allows for a reasonable profit, or at least it should.

Another important comparison is with websites for non-dental businesses and how much they cost. Typically you will see prices for general business websites also in the £4 – 6k range – so not at the extreme top end prices you will see advertised by some dental design companies. This begs the question, why should dentists expect to pay more than any other business for their website? Unfortunately this is another example of the “dental tax” where suppliers exploit dentists where they can get away with it.

What features should I expect in a £4 – £6k website?

Just because a website isn’t costing you £10k, doesn’t mean that you should expect a diminished feature set. The websites here at Dental Media include:

• Bespoke, mobile optimised design
• Comprehensive on-site search engine optimisation
• WordPress content management system
• A selection of high-quality images from our stock library
• Secure contact form for patient enquiries
• Location map
• A full range of treatment content
• Social media integration
• Reviews integration
• Practice video integration
• Dental CRM integration
• Online booking integration
• Download section for guides and policies
• Google Analytics integration
• GDPR, ICO and GDC compliance
• Chatbot integration

We also provide fast and secure website hosting in a UK based ISO27001 approved data centre.

So it’s perfectly possible to get a fully-featured, bespoke designed dental practice website at realistic prices and without paying way over the odds.

Will a new website give me a boost in Google?

The answer to that is not definite but in reality we almost always see new websites rank better in search engines than the older version. This is because a new website will include fresh content and features and hence is almost certainly more engaging for users. Google can detect where a website is working better for users and rewards this with improved rankings. A new website also offers the opportunity to meet new technical guidelines which Google introduces regularly, again helping with ranking potential.

Return-on-investment from your new dental website

Dentists quite often tell us that they can’t afford a new website, even where their site is 5 or 6 years old and clearly struggling to represent the practice professionally. When a website has reached that stage, users will tend to look elsewhere – remember that many of them are quite fickle and see a practice’s website as a direct representation of the dental services they will receive. We all know that this isn’t always the case, but first impressions count. Dentists who market aggressively will make sure their website is top-grade, optimised for Google positions and complemented with paid ads.

Whilst an outlay of £5k might seem like a big expenditure, if you contrast this with a couple of missed implant or ortho cases, it helps to put it into perspective. Feedback from clients who have had their websites upgraded, strongly suggests that payback is less than one year in most cases and often just a few months. We also see this in the increased traffic and enquiries data from Google Analytics.

Summary

If you are wondering whether your website is due an update, then it almost certainly is. You also don’t need to pay the hugely inflated sums that some dental agencies charge; a highly-effective website can be built for around the £5k mark.

Return-on-investment is very likely the best for any marketing tool, so whilst there is a substantial initial outlay, it will soon pay back. Indeed failing to update your website when it’s due will almost certainly mean you are missing out on new patient enquiries when they look elsewhere for something more appealing.

If you’d like to discuss the topic in more detail or perhaps you need an assessment of your existing website, then please call the web team at Dental Media on 01332 672548 for no-obligation help and guidance.