Updating Your Dental Website – The Main Benefits

Keeping your practice website fresh and engaging pays off.

In our ongoing quest to build a library of clear and concise answers to the most frequently asked questions we receive from dentists here at Dental Media, this blog takes a look at the main benefits you can expect when updating your practice website.

Let’s begin by addressing this question we recently received from a dentist who was considering where to invest her marketing budget and how she would gain best returns on her spend:

Q – “I have a fair budget for marketing this year and I’m wondering where to invest to make sure I gain best return on investment as well as building a solid marketing platform for the future. My current website is just over 4 years old and I think it needs a refresh, however I’m also keen on looking at other aspects such as marketing on social media so I’m wondering about what the best move forward actually is. I’m quite well placed in Google already but don’t seem to get as many enquiries as I thought I would from the existing website; hence my thoughts about different methods such as Facebook. What do you advise please?”

This is very typical of the questions we receive on a regular basis, where a dentist already has a website, often in a good search engine position, but not yielding the expected number of new patient enquiries. Consequently they start to consider other channels such as social media, before looking closely at what might be amiss with their current marketing tools. In this particular case, the fact that the dentist’s existing website was 4 years old and already with good rankings in Google, tells us that we need to look there first, before diving into other marketing channels. This is simply because the website is the primary hub for facilitating new dental patient contact and, if poorly configured and/or stale, isn’t going to yield great results, irrespective of how much traffic you get to it.

Closer inspection of this particular case showed that the website was in need of a significant overhaul, and even though it was well-established in Google and getting traffic, wasn’t yielding anywhere near the level of new patient enquiries desired. Information was stale, images and text were generic and unappealing, and there was nothing there to stimulate website visitors to actually get in touch. Perhaps most telling of all, was the at the website was not optimised for mobile, so the bounce rates from hand-held device users were particularly high. So lots of potential being wasted!

For a case like this, the recommendation simply must be to get the existing website upgraded to meet current best practice, including all of the features which should be in place to engage new users and stimulate contact. This means a high-degree of personalisation to help build empathy, as well as making sure all of the technical aspects are in place to help increase the chances of “conversion” i.e. completed contact forms or telephone calls.

What you gain from a website update

The advantages to be gained from updating are several fold but here are the main ones:

• you keep ahead of the competition – although there are still lots of very poor dental websites, there is a rapidly increasing number of good ones too. Like most things, first impressions count and fickle web users will simply look elsewhere if they don’t like what they see when they visit your website.
• you provide an optimised experience for your users. You almost certainly strive to provide an excellent patient journey when clients visit the practice for treatment, so why wouldn’t you try to emulate this with their experience online?
• you help your position in Google. A correctly optimised dental website with fresh information will almost certainly improve your position in Google, or, as in the case noted above, consolidate it. Where a website is upgraded to a mobile optimised platform – often using a technique called “responsive” design, then the ranking will definitely improve in Google’s mobile search index too. It is well worth remembering that these days, over 50% of all web searches are done on mobile devices so it’s essential that your website caters for those user and not just those working on traditional desk-top PCs.
• don’t forget your peer group – whist the impression you make for patients will take priority, you also need to consider how your business looks to other dentists and dental regulators. An up-to-date, well-maintained website is important as it acts as an online extension of your professionalism. Conversely, a shabby old-fashioned website isn’t really going to show you in the best light.
• you give yourself the opportunity of implementing the latest techniques to attract new patients. The web moves fast and new systems are always being developed to help build your business online. For example, e-mail marketing, on-line booking, telephone analytics, data capture integration, to name a few.

Summary

When assessing your online dental marketing presence, it is essential to review the basics to make sure they are optimal before jumping blindly into new channels. This is particularly so for the dental practice website which must be kept up-to-date with the latest standards and user expectations.

As noted previously, your website is the main hub for all of your online interactions and where most of your new patient enquiries will originate. So it really is fundamental to dedicate sufficient time and budget to keeping it in great shape and an appropriate extension of your professional services and standards. Whilst it also makes sense to investigate other web marketing channels, if you neglect the fundamentals, then you will not get the benefits you might expect. Simply put, you must have solid foundations in place – and this starts with your website.

If you are looking for advice on how to develop your web presence or need help with reviewing what is already in place, please get in touch with the digital marketing team here at Dental Media. We will review your current website and digital marketing systems free of charge and offer transparent advice on how to improve; plus the most effective ways to use your budget. You can reach us on 01332 672548 and we’ll be pleased to help.