{"id":3735,"date":"2013-10-29T10:27:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T10:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/?p=3735"},"modified":"2015-12-09T10:40:49","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T10:40:49","slug":"improving-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/seo\/improving-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your website “sticky”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to engage visitors and keep them on your dental website<\/h2>\n

Website “stickiness” is a term that has been around for a number of years – always important but even more-so now. This term is self-explanatory in that it describes website content which is sufficiently engaging and interesting to encourage users to “stick” around without bouncing off to view your competitor’s site. The longer they are on site, the more chance of them getting in touch via the contact form or picking up the ‘phone to give you a call.<\/p>\n

However, there is now another very important reason why you must present interesting and engaging content i.e. Google. The search giant always preaches about providing a great user-experience and rewards sites that do so with prominent search rankings. It is now accepted that Google actually measures how long users dwell on a web page and uses this data as a key measure of just how useful that page is. In simple terms, low dwell times infer poor, uninteresting content whereas longer dwell times are an indication that the page is useful and worthy of a better search position.<\/p>\n

Website components which introduce “stickiness”<\/h3>\n

So now that we understand why it is important to present web pages that hold the users (and Google’s) attention, which design elements can we use to enhance this?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Text<\/h3>\n

This is an interesting one and perhaps the hardest to address. One one-hand there is the need to keep the content digestible and on the other, the need to provide sufficient detail to keep the user engaged. No-one wants to read the same old regurgitated treatment text which appears on so many dental websites and this is where the service of a skilled dental copy writer comes into play – this is much less expensive than you may think and well worthwhile. Avoid the generic, keep it interesting, personalised where possible and users will be far more inclined to dwell on the page.<\/p>\n

Images<\/h3>\n

High quality, personalised photography makes all the difference to a web page. Whilst “stock” images have a place, images of the practice, team and case studies tend to be far more engaging. If you want to represent your dental practice in the best possible light via your new website, we recommend budgeting for some professional photography to lift your site above that of the guy down the road.<\/p>\n

Video<\/h3>\n

Perhaps the best engagement tool is the website video. Many users really do prefer to watch a video or view pictures than delve into text – for the majority it’s just so much easier and users really do like it when you make things simple for them.<\/p>\n

So imagine the situation – a potential new patient clicks onto your page, sees a prominent video and hits play. 60 seconds later they’ve listened to the carefully crafted but naturally produced patient testimonial video<\/a> which offers a trustworthy “thumbs up” about your services. Typically they will be suitably impressed and prompted to click on your contact form next. The added bonus is that Google has also noted that someone interacted with your page for a prolonged period which starts to tick their ranking quality boxes.<\/p>\n

Educational dental animations<\/h3>\n

Another useful tool to improve dental web page stickiness is the education treatment animation. These work in a similar way to videos in that they also prompt interest and facilitate engagement. However, it useful to understand that all dental animations are not equal – some providers are still offering ‘Flash’ based versions which are obsolete and defunct on Apple devices. So choose wisely to avoid providing an instant turn-off for users. Google is all about providing a great user experience and Flash is now far too restricted to achieve this.<\/p>\n

How do I know if my website is engaging?<\/h3>\n

\"MeasuringAll of Dental Media’s web marketing clients have access to Google Analytics which provides vast amounts of information about how their website is performing.<\/p>\n

One key piece of information in Analytics is “bounce” rate which indicates where users arrived at your page but then navigated elsewhere immediately without engaging. There is also detailed information showing dwell time by page within the website. These and other tools help us to identify which pages work well and which still need improvement.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

Whilst it has long been appreciated that a “sticky” website is important for user engagement, the added benefits for Google ranking are also quickly becoming apparent. A great looking design and user-friendly text are basic fundamentals but other elements such as video and treatment animations will really elevate the user engagement to new levels. Improved search ranking results<\/a> should follow.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in improving the performance of your dental practice website, please call us for a no-obligation review on 01332 672548<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to engage visitors and keep them on your dental website Website “stickiness” is a term that has been around for a number of years – always important but even more-so now. This term is self-explanatory in that it describes …<\/p>\n

Is your website “sticky”?<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3735"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6831,"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions\/6831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}