Perhaps one of the most striking factors dentists miss when it comes to their websites is just how much they are paying for them. It\u2019s often reasonably clear what the upfront costs are but the \u201chidden\u201d ongoing charges can be significant, indeed often exceeding the initial cost of the website after just a couple of years of ownership.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s blog we will take a look at the \u201ctotal cost of ownership\u201d for a dental website and how you can avoid getting sucked into ongoing contracts which drain your budget and don\u2019t really offer good value.<\/p>\n
In a moment we\u2019ll take a look at the total cost of a website over a period of 4 years \u2013 the average length of time a dentist in the UK maintains their site before seeking to upgrade. But before we do, let\u2019s recap on the dental website maintenance<\/a> landscape which currently exists in the UK.<\/p>\n Website and marketing companies in the UK typical push clients to sign up for a monthly maintenance fee, indeed most of them mandate this as it keeps a known amount of revenue flowing in. This is great for the web company as they make money even when they are not working on the client\u2019s site. However, it\u2019s a significant problem and poor value for the dentists as they end up paying out regularly even when nothing is being done.<\/p>\n You may think it\u2019s incumbent on the dentist to ensure that they make good use of the website maintenance service, but in reality, most dentists only update their sites two or three times per year. Here\u2019s where the web company ends up \u201cquids in\u201d of course. What\u2019s worse, we\u2019ve also seen lots of cases of those same web companies demanding additional one-off payments for anything other than simple site updates \u2013 so not just \u201cquids in\u201d but potentially \u201ccake and eat it\u201d too.<\/p>\n You may question whether this is actually fair? Unfortunately it\u2019s very common in the dental web design business and even more bemusing is that some dentists seem to accept it as the norm. I think what is happening here is that so many supply companies levy the \u201cdental tax\u201d that it almost becomes accepted and the dentist\u2019s pay up anyway.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you could pay for your website over 4 years if you don\u2019t challenge the fees:<\/p>\n This gives us an overall cost over 4 years in the range of \u00a310.7k – \u00a318.1k \u2013 a significant outlay even in the best case!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s quite clear to me that expecting to pay anything between \u00a310k and \u00a318k for your dental practice website over 4 years isn\u2019t ideal and yet so many dentists are doing this. Often it\u2019s only when they get several years in that they realise that there is an alternative way which is significantly more cost-effective and arguably delivers a better service too.<\/p>\n\n
What\u2019s the alternative?<\/h3>\n
Pay when you need to update, not in case you need to update!<\/h3>\n