Planning your new practice website

Helping your dental website project run smoothly.

Perhaps surprisingly, many dentists have never had a website for their practice and consequently have no idea what they need to do when they finally get round to doing it.

Understandably it can feel like quite a daunting task, but with the assistance of an experienced dental web team at your side, there is nothing to worry about.

However, having said that, there are a few things which the practice needs to take responsibility for to help make sure that the website development runs smoothly and without delays. Let’s take a look at those things here.

Is your branding already available?

The “look and feel” of a website is heavily influenced by the businesses brand identity, i.e. the logo and associated colour scheme. It is well worthwhile considering this at the outset of the new website project – is the branding current and are you happy for it to be used on the new site or is a re-brand required? Perhaps there is no brand identity at all and one needs to be developed? If so this is a precursor to the website design and time needs to be allowed for in the development process. If you need to develop a logo from scratch or you wish to discuss a re-brand, then the Dental Media team will be pleased to guide you.

Website domain name

A lot of companies have a domain name but have never associated it with a website. Others have never had a domain name and need assistance with selecting something suitable. Your domain name is your “address” on the web and is a very important asset for your business. If you need help with selecting a new name or need help managing an existing version, please let us know; this is all part of our website service.

In fact, it is often very useful to set up a holding page in the weeks preceding the launch of the new website – we can do this for you and get a couple of email addresses up-and-running early on. The sooner you start to establish your new web footprint, the better.

Practice related information

Whilst our dental copywriters can assist you with text for treatment pages and general overview information, we will need certain content from the practice as follows:

• A general introduction to the practice – we can help you re-word it if you need assistance
• Staff biographies
• Information required by the GDC – we will advise specifics but things like qualifications, registration number, complaints policy etc are needed on your website

Photographs

Great photographs really help to make a website stand out, particularly so if you have a set of high-quality shots which will help to differentiate you from all of the other practices who settled for “stock” images. A photo shoot at the practice is not as expensive as you might imagine and it’s well worth considering, not just for your website but for your practice literature too. Our photographer is on hand for a bespoke shoot at your convenience.

Testimonials

Patient testimonials are exceptionally useful for inclusion on the website, particularly if they are accompanied by a short snippet of video and before/after images of the treatment. A testimonial acts as a third-party validation of your skills and services so it’s worthwhile collating some of the best ones ready for the new website. Please seek permission to publish them on-line. If you need help with video at the practice, just let us know.

Treatment text

Whilst we can write all of your treatment text for you, understandably many clients wish to write their own to convey their own personal message. To be frank, where we do experience website delays, it’s usually with the provision of content for the treatment pages, simply because other tasks took precedence at the practice. So if you are planning to do your own website text, try to plan ahead to ensure it’s available as soon as it needs to be added in.

Ultimately though, if time pressure gets in the way, simply call on the services of one of Dental Media’s copywriters and we’ll be pleased to step in.

Summary

Whilst our team is here to make your new website design process as fast and efficient as possible, you can assist the process greatly by gathering and collating the information discussed above, ready to send to our designers in good time. We understand just how busy dentistry can be and we’re on hand to make the process as smooth as possible, however with a little bit of planning upfront, your new dental practice website should be up and running without delay.

If you are a dentist, new to the web and feel like it’s time to get your practice on-line, please give Dental Media a call on 01332 672548 and we’ll guide you through.