Dental website design is key to your practice’s success. Your website is like your practice’s number one salesperson. How effective is it? Are you getting leads and clients? Or is it just sitting there costing you more money? If it is, then it’s time you create a better salesperson.

Think about how people working in sales are always dressed to impress. Everything from the look, walk, and talk of a salesperson is a presentation of their best self. They need to look and be approachable and professional to make a sale.

Your website should be the same. If you want to get patients from your website, but it still looks like this:

Then it is time to give your website a good makeover.

You may be asking why you need a good website. Aside from what we mentioned above, studies show that 94% of people reject or mistrust a website/brand due to its web design.

Other than that, a good website can also add instant credibility to your dental practice. If your website looks cheap, people may think your dental practice cuts corners to save money. If your website looks disorganized, visitors may think your dental practice is unreliable.

Lastly, the purpose of your website is to sell for you. An effective website should help you acquire new patients, even when you are sleeping! 

Now you may be asking what constitutes a good website… 

A good website should be able to fulfill its intended purpose by conveying its message while also engaging the visitor at the same time. Several factors contribute to good website design, such as consistency, colors, typography, graphics, simplicity and functionality.

A well-built website will help create trust and additionally direct visitors to take action. It includes making sure that your website design is designed for usability (form and aesthetics) and how simple it is to use (functionality) to create a better user experience. 

Some key factors that will affect the way your dental website is perceived are:

• A clear goal – Your website should never be all over the place. Is it to generate more leads and get clients? Then the website should have a clear CTA and a good form box. Is it just for building your reputation and increasing brand recognition? Then make sure your branding identity is consistent throughout your website.
• Clean and Simple – You certainly don’t have to overdo your website. Sometimes simplicity is the best. Choose colors, typography, and imagery that best represent your brand values. Two to three brand colors and two to three type fonts are best. 
• Easy Navigation – Is your website easy to navigate? It definitely should be. Navigation plays a big role in user experience. If users have trouble navigating your website, they will end up leaving. 
• Good Layout – How your website is laid out will affect the readability of your website. If it’s all over the place users will consequently end up being confused. They wouldn’t know where to start or where to focus. There should be a visual hierarchy and your layout should follow a grid. 
• Content – A good website should also contain great design and compelling content. Great content can attract and influence users. Persuasive content holds a lot of power, it can turn website visitors into actual patients.  
• Fast and Optimized – Website visitors will be frustrated while waiting for a website to load. Nearly half of web visitors expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and they might leave a site that is not loaded within 3 seconds. 
• Mobile-friendly – It’s important to have a website that’s optimized for mobile phones. Most people prefer browsing the web with their phones than on their desktops or other devices. Create a website with a responsive layout that can adapt to different screen sizes so people browsing on their phones can see your business. 

This is just a short checklist you can use to see if your website qualifies for a good one, or if it’s time to revamp. 

Of course you should get your website customized! It is beneficial to your dental practice. 

There are tons of website builders who claim to be the best. However, they are not nearly as effective as getting it designed and developed by experts. 

Still on the fence? Let us make our case:

• A custom-built website adds to credibility. If you choose to go for a website builder, that template is shared with other businesses. Your business loses its individuality. The more personalized your website is, the more professional you can look to your audience. Builders of websites will not give you the personality you need.
• There are very few limitations to getting your dental website customized. A template does not have the scalability that custom-made websites have. 
• Custom-made websites are optimized for any screen size.
• Websites made by web designers function to reach your target audience. Templates are more of a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. 
• If you hire a web designer and developer, they will adjust their work to fit your budget. 
• Digital agencies will work on your website after the design and development stages. Unlike website builders, you have consistent support. 

You may be wondering who to hire to build your dental website…

Us, of course! This entire blog post may sound like an ad, but seriously, we can help. We want to be your growth partner and help expand your dental practice as we have with our other clients.

We are a digital marketing agency that can help you with branding, strategy, and building your online presence. Then, we work with you to put systems in place that streamline your business processes, so you can use more of your time to do what you love and less worrying about how to get more clients.

Once your business has a solid marketing foundation, we help you maintain it with simple month-to-month services.

Our broad marketing perspective comes from years of working with thousands of clients across many industries, including several dental practices.

To see more, you can visit our website to see our portfolio. If you are interested in working with us, get in touch with us. 

We want to help your dental practice succeed, so here are a few tips you can use to improve your dental website design.

Ready? Let’s begin. 

Cohesive Dental Branding

Branding has always been an essential aspect of marketing. What sets your dental practice apart from your competition? Your branding is the personality and identity of your practice.

Customers or patients prefer to work with brands they relate to or share the same values. For example: when you think of Apple, you think about sophistication, elegance and simplicity. People who relate to those adjectives will likely choose Apple over other brands.

Building a brand will help you appeal to your target market. You will also do better economically than a non-branded practice.

Check out Grand Street Central’s website and social media accounts! You can see how consistent they are with their brand. From the icons they use, the color palette, the typography and even the copy voice. 

Everything contributes to making their brand memorable and relatable. 

They are a great example of a dental practice with a cohesive branding strategy. 

A Clear UVP (Unique Value Proposition)

Why should a patient choose your dental practice over others? The answer should be clear the moment they visit your website.

Think about it: your website can be the first point of contact for many potential customers. Make a strong first impression. 

Find a way to convince these customers to choose you over thousands of other dentists. 

How do you do that? You need to state your Unique Value Proposition. We have to be able to see the reason why we should choose you over your competitors.

 Tend notably showcases its UVP. If you check out its website, you get a sense of the unique value Tend provides from the homepage. 

Their UVP is explained further on their About page. 

We all know people who are apprehensive about visiting the dentist. 

Tend immediately eases the visitor’s worries through their copy. They show that they make every visit as comfortable as possible for their patients. Also, you can see what a visit with them would be like through their video. 

Include an About Us and Meet the Dentist Page

Expertise and trust are the two foundations of marketing in healthcare. People need to trust you to get them to be your patient. 

You can do this by having an About page or a Meet The Dentist page. Aside from your homepage, your About page will be the second most visited webpage on your entire site.

You will be able to communicate values and your brand story with prospective patients on these pages. The page is where any patient should be able to see your experience clearly and gain trust in you.

You can go for something more professional like Century Smile or more fun and quirky like Dental Care Seattle. The choice is up to you! However, we suggest you include the following: 

• A brief explanation of why you chose to become a dentist
• Share your experience and education
• Make sure the use of your “above-the-fold” space is efficient
• Include a high-quality headshot. People tend to trust what they can see
• Have at least one call-to-action on the about page

Reviews and testimonials

As a dentist, you would know that word-of-mouth referrals are one of the most successful marketing strategies to get new patients. 

Another way you can gain the trust of prospective patients is through the digital version of word-of-mouth: reviews and testimonials. 

Studies show that almost 88% trust online reviews as much as the recommendation of a friend. 

You do not need a dedicated testimonial page. Having testimonials on your homepage is more effective.

Atlanta Dental Spa has a reviews and testimonials page on its homepage and a separate page for video testimonials. 

Include Enticing CTAs

CTA buttons drive sales, generate leads and increase revenue for websites. They can have a significant impact on your results. Therefore, they should never contend with less relevant items on your pages for publicity.

These buttons are vital on any website. CTA buttons should always be above the fold AND below the fold. A study that analyzed 25 million website analytics saw that most engagements would happen below the fold. 

Scatter CTA buttons throughout your website. The trick is to use enticing and diverse calls to action without overdoing it. Avoid having 20 CTA buttons on one page.

In the example above, you can see how Hildreth Dental uses an abundance of CTA buttons scattered across the homepage with different copy for each button.

Display Photos or Videos of Your Clinic

Instead of relying on stock images, be sure to include photos of your clinic. This definitely makes it easier for patients to trust you and also gives you an edge over your competition. Additionally, you get to show prospective patients what the experience would be like if they choose to work with you.

Aside from your clinic, include photos of your team and yourself inside the clinic. 

If you go to Atlanta Center for Advanced Perio’s website you’re immediately greeted by a video of their clinic with their doctors and staff. It makes you feel safe and at ease seeing you’re in good hands.

Spice It Up With Fresh and Updated Content

It’s important to always keep your content fresh and up to date. Many prospective patients will surely check to see if your content is updated. 

There are many benefits to keeping your content fresh. First is the SEO benefits. Second is the user experience, current patients and prospective patients will get the correct information and any updates about your clinic. Lastly, you get more web traffic Google will only rank websites that produce relevant high-quality content. 

If you look at Downtown Dental’s website you can see they’ve updated their content in regards to COVID’s safety guidelines. 

Showcase Your Work

Whenever a prospective patient sees your website for the first time, they will surely appreciate it if they are able to see your work. People will always want to see results, so it’s definitely best to showcase it. 

Many will say that before and after photos are a bad thing, but that certainly doesn’t apply to dentistry. Therefore, don’t hesitate to try it out. 

Cedar Village Dentistry included a section showcasing their work on their homepage. 

Multimedia Will Always Be Good

Photos, videos, and graphics are also always a good idea. It breaks up the text on your website and additionally gives visitors a better user experience. 

Multimedia will capture the attention of your website visitors and also keep them wanting to see more. No one wants to see a webpage with nothing but text. 

Including multimedia will engage the visitor and evoke emotions. If website visitors see people smiling they will feel it too. Similarly, they will have the confidence to choose your clinic. 

Jackson Family Dental integrates a triple threat of photos, videos, and graphics. The elements make for a very engaging user experience.

Optimize Your Website for Mobile

These days more and more people prefer to use their phones to research different businesses, including dentists. 

It’s essential to have your website optimized for mobile so more prospective customers can see your website. If you don’t have your website optimized for mobile, people will never know your dental practice existed. 

Choices in Dentistry have their website optimized for mobile devices making it easier for visitors to navigate their site. 

Conclusion

Do you think it’s time to revamp your website? Or is your website converting new patients either way? We’d love to hear from you. Sound off in the comments below. 

If you think your website needs a redesign we’re always happy to do it for you! Let’s work together and help your dental practice grow and succeed.