By Lucy McCarthy, Dental Marketer at Hive Business
There are many elements that influence your online presence and the success of your website. As a busy dentist you may not have considered your digital presence and the impact it has on your business.
Here are some top tips to help you get the most out of your website:
- Speed up your site
We are now in society who expect nothing less than instant. Fast food, fast cars and fast internet connections. This means we notice when something is less than instant and it takes us back to the nightmare of dial-up and waiting for websites to load. If you do nothing else with your webpage – make sure it loads as fast as possible and remember:
- Your website will be higher up on search engines if you make it faster as they value fast sites.
- People on mobile devices often have a slower connection so it’s important to make it mobile friendly.
If you aren’t sure how fast your site is there are lots of free tests you can do like this one: How fast is my website?
- Keep content short and sweet
The majority of online use is from a mobile device. If you’ve tried scrolling through a long article using just your thumb, you’ll understand why we encourage short content on your site.
- Don’t confuse people
Your site needs to be easy to use, clear and direct. If people can’t find something where they expect it to be, they won’t want to stay on your site for long. Think about usability and again consider mobile users and how easy your site is to navigate on their device.
- Shrink down those images
As mentioned before, website speed is vital for user experience. There are inexpensive software tools available to make sure all images are optimised for web and are suitably sized and cropped.
- Make sure all speeling is correct!
Infuriating, isn’t it?
People will stay on a website for 10-20 seconds before deciding if they want to exit or if they are compelled to explore further. If they are met with careless spelling or grammatical errors, it will not instill confidence that you’re offering a quality service. It is simple and quick to fix, so there really is no excuse.
- Maintain your site
Broken links are a sure sign for people and search engines that a site is not maintained regularly. Bounce rate and search engine ranking are both negatively affected by broken links. Find and Remove broken links using a HTML validator and link checker.
- Vary your CTA’s
Both existing and potential new patients will be using your site. It is really important that you use different CTA’s to lead to a different goals:
- Existing patients to promote your services
- Potential new patient to become a patient
Using the same CTA will not accomplish those different goals. You could include “download fact sheet” or “read more” for your potential new patients and “share with friends” for your existing patients to vary the outcome.
- Tell your visitors how to get in touch
Display your contact information on your site. At the very least your telephone number and if you want to be really helpful include; location, opening hours and email address. If you do display your contact information make sure you respond to people contacting you – answer the phone and respond to emails promptly and professionally to create a positive first impression.
If you’d like a free digital audit for your website please call 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.
