By Marketing Director, Luc Wade
An appealing website design is important for your practice, but you shouldn’t lose sight of what your website is really for: to convert traffic into new patients.
Here are some ideas you should consider implementing to improve your website conversion rates:
Responsive design
Around 40% of your website traffic should now be coming from people using mobile phones. If your website doesn’t provide a good mobile experience you are making a botch of it. A mobile friendly, responsive website design adapts to fit any screen (desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets), in a way that makes all pages, features and actions accessible, regardless of the device the user is browsing on.
Keep the design simple
Many dental sites go overboard trying to impress visitors with animations and over the top designs and gaudy colour schemes. Keep it clean and simple, your patients will appreciate a nice, clean layout. Impress your visitors instead with your values, knowledge, patient testimonials and treatment offerings.
Please, no stock photos!
So many dentists still use generic stock photos on their dental websites. I cringe when I see a website that is littered with stock images, especially on pages that describe the philosophy and points of difference.
If you want to communicate your brand values effectively and stand out from the crowd, hire a professional photographer and create your own bespoke images of the team, practice and even patients that reflect your corporate identity.
Potential patients simply don’t trust practices that hide behind phoney images i.e. pictures of couples running through fields or walking along a beach.
Straightforward navigation
When someone lands on your website they need to be able to find what they are looking quickly, ideally within 2 seconds. If they have to search any longer than that they are going to become frustrated and find another dentist website in their area. It’s really important to keep your navigation menu as simple as possible. Too many options will overwhelm your visitors. Provide a clear path to whatever action it is you want your visitors to complete, whether it’s a contact form submission, price guide, checking opening hours or a specific treatment page.
But also remember that many people prefer to contact you for more information through your contact form, especially if they are inquiring about a treatment.Your contact page should have a simple three-field request form. You can gather more information when the initial contact is made.
Remove social-media feeds
Many of you will have your social feeds on your websites. Remove them. People generally know how to connect with your business on social media if they want to. Placing Facebook and Twitter feeds on your website will just draw attention away from your conversion goals. Place social icons in your footer or sidebar and link to your accounts. If a visitor feels inclined to follow or connect they will. Remember you want them to read your website content and contact you and book a consultation, not scroll through your previous tweets and posts.
If you are thinking about updating your dental website, please contact us first for a free marketing review. Call 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.
