9 pages that every dental website should have.

Is your dental practice finding it challenging to attract new patients despite having a ‘good’ website?

If your answer is affirmative, maybe your website is not that good!

Just having a dental website is not enough to compete in the brutally competitive dental industry, where dozens of new competitors spring up every day. You need to have a great dental website to do that. A conversion-driven dental website provides relevant information to potential. It is optimized to convert them into your patients, meaning it provides value to the practice and the patients.

Like any other business, dentists should not distance themselves from essential marketing and online presence as they play a significant role in a dental practice’s growth. Hence, consistently evaluating dental websites to scan for errors and ensuring that they have all the necessary web pages optimized for conversion is arguably even more critical to drive traffic and increase revenue.

That said, we understand that it’s easier said than done. It takes dental marketing expertise to understand what a great dental website looks like and how you can leverage it to maximize traffic. And that expertise is what we are bringing to you today. This article will discuss the eight most essential pages that every dental website must have and the different tactics you could employ to drive traffic to it. So read on to own a conversion-friendly and revenue-driving dental practice website!  

 

Why do dentists need an optimized website?

An optimized dental website design can go a long way in retaining old patients while attracting new patients. A website optimized for search engines and users alike can work wonders by scoring high on visibility, heightened brand awareness levels, and credibility, eventually paving the way for increased patient appointments.

Optimized dental websites rank higher on search engines owing to the salient attributes that make them easily detectable by Google algorithms. Higher rankings mean enhanced visibility, which prompts clicks from potential patients.

The more the number of people visiting your website, the more you gain recognition and popularity. Before you realize it, your dental practice is flooded with patients, thanks to the brilliant dental website design, which more or less ensures that your potential patients can’t ignore your presence.

 

8 pages every dental website must have

You must be wondering what is so new about dental website pages. Each website page for dentists serves a specific purpose that impacts your revenue generation—surprised how websites are related to revenue? 

A patient’s journey starts with internet searches of dentists. If they come across a shoddy website at the very initial stage, they would not even bother to make further attempts to associate with that dentistry. If the website cannot deliver what the patients expect, you have effectively ruined your first impression. 

The right dental website functions as your virtual office. It accurately represents your practice and conveys your unique skills and specializations to patients. A great dental website makes patients understand what they stand to gain by booking an appointment with you and motivates them to interact with your office.

 

1. Home page

A home page is quite obvious, right? Yes, but we are not referring to a homepage just because you need to have one. We are referring to a homepage that offers an excellent overview of your practice, what services you offer, and most importantly, why patients should book an appointment with you. A great home page should always maximize your chances of converting a lead into a patient. The shabby ones will do the same too, but for your competition. 

Suppose you think you need help making a homepage that will compel prospective patients to stop scrolling mindlessly and take favorable action. In that case, an accomplished dental website design company can materialize your goals with intuitive navigation and a seamless user experience. 

 

2. About us page

Instead of writing a generic copy, dentists must view this section as an opportunity to showcase what sets them apart from fellow practitioners in the industry. All dentists essentially deal with oral care, but they are all different from one another. You must make sure that you concentrate enough on your unique value proposition. If you have hired a dental marketing company to oversee your marketing activities, you can rest assured of a stellar dental web design for your practice. The ‘about us’ page must speak in detail about the dentist’s experience. If you have just started your dental practice and don’t have impressive numbers to display, you can focus more on your qualifications and other significant achievements.

A detailed bio with photographs of doctors stating their educational background, work experience, and accomplishments goes a long way in gaining patients’ trust even before interacting with you. It will impress prospective patients if you can successfully communicate what you intend to achieve by serving in this industry with a vision and mission statement. 

 

3. Services page

Your dental website must include a services page that lists and describes all the treatments your dental practice offers in a systematic format. You might be offering a wide range of dental care services at your clinic. But if you arrange them haphazardly, it will leave your patients confused.

By visiting your website, patients seek to gain as much information about your treatments and procedures to make an informed decision. First, make a list of all the services that you provide. The next step is to categorize the services under various sections.

Let’s say you specialize in Cosmetics and Orthodontics and offer a range of treatments under these two branches of dentistry. Procedures such as smile makeover, teeth whitening, cosmetic bonding, etc., will be categorized under the dental cosmetics section while metal/ceramic braces, teeth aligners, etc., will appear in the Orthodontics drop-down menu.

A well-structured service page gives a clear picture of all the services and boosts SEO rankings. Optimizing each section of your service page by inserting suitable keywords promotes organic rankings. Add a ‘call to action’ button for each of the services. 

 

4. Reviews page

Reviews indicate whether you are a trusted name in the dental industry. Other pages may or may not get noticed, but people will never forget to view your website’s reviews page. If you haven’t reserved a section for reviews on your website, that may be why traffic is not converting as expected.

Even after laying down your credentials and work experience, prospective patients are still in a dilemma and hesitate to hit the ‘book appointment’ button. Here is where reviews come into play. When they realize that people like them have already benefited from your services, all their second thoughts disappear instantly.

Include text reviews, video testimonials, and happy patients’ photos (if you have their permission) on the reviews page. Provide links to your Yelp and Google Plus pages so that prospective patients can look at numerous positive reviews you have earned over the years. 

 

5. Location page

A location page with a Google map helps pinpoint your dental practice’s exact location. If you have clinics at multiple locations, you must create a separate page for each location. Prospective patients can figure out how far or near your clinic is from them. If your existing patients are planning to relocate, this page can help them understand whether you have a presence in that particular location. Not just the location, you also need to add operating hours for each day of the week if you have different timings for all the days. Mention your phone number and make it clickable to prompt immediate calls from patients visiting your site through mobile phones.

 

6. Payment and Insurance page

This page gives a clear picture of the acceptable payment methods at your clinic. Especially when it comes to insurance, it is better to list the terms and conditions beforehand so that patients don’t have to keep guessing your payment policies. Missing information leads to several queries. Instead of picking up the phone and getting their doubts solved, potential patients search other websites that clearly explain the payment methods and procedures.

Which mode of payment do you accept? Cash, credit card, or both? What insurance types do you accept? Do you have any particular scheme for patients under the low-income category? Use your payments page to answer all such questions bothering your prospective patients. Displaying all vital information on your website is a time saver. Your staff doesn’t have to waste time with repeated explanations of the payment process to every patient who visits the clinic.

 

7. New patient offers

Discounts and offers never go out of trend. Competition is getting more challenging in the dental industry, and you need to give good enough reasons for your prospective patients to choose your practice over hundreds of others. A ‘new patient special’ page is how you can persuade patients sitting on the fence. 

A quick market analysis is what you need to craft a few truly irresistible offers. Don’t make the mistake of promising similar offers as your competitors. Come up with some innovative dental marketing ideas that benefit both you and your patients in the long run. If you opt for paid ads in the future, you can readily use the ‘new patient special’ page as the main landing page. Optimizing it for the right keywords will tremendously improve organic rankings. 

 

8. Online appointment page

Dialing your phone number and waiting on hold until your staff cross-checks the appointment list is the last thing your patients want to do. Give them a 24/7 online booking facility and see how patients switch to your practice merely due to the convenience factor. It is not always about the quality of services you provide. You need to stay updated with the current trends and developments. Top-notch services mean nothing if your practice can’t keep up with the latest technology. How to go about organizing the appointment page? Include patient forms that seek basic information like contact details required to facilitate the scheduling process. While it is best to display digital forms, you can also let patients download and print PDF forms to be filled out later.  

If you approach dental website companies, they can seamlessly integrate an online appointment booking system with your website. An important thing to remember is that the system must be able to handle scheduling with maximum efficiency. It must display the available date and time slots accurately.

After a patient blocks a time and day for treatment, the same time slot must not appear vacant for other patients. Such glitches will lead to massive confusion and ruin the patient experience. This might seem like an exaggeration. But in this digital era, how well you present your practice on the web decides whether you earn patients in the long run, irrespective of your impressive qualifications and academic record. 

 

9. Dental Blog page

A blog page is a powerful tool to nurture patient relationships and attract prospective patients and industry peers. A well-written blog can convert readers to patients and boost long-term growth. Regularly publishing blogs can boost SEO, improve credibility and amplify conversions. Patients too often lack knowledge on matters related to oral health. A dental blog is an excellent way to address patient pain points and alleviate their doubts and fears before they schedule an appointment.

The quality of blogs is an important factor in determining the credibility and reputation of your dental practice. It is recommended that you hire a dental marketing agency with deep expertise in writing dental blog posts and content marketing to obtain the desired results. Here are a few tips to bear in mind when creating dental blogs:

• Avoid using jargon and write for the audience
• Include relevant keywords to boost rankings but avoid spamming
• Have a consistent schedule to publish your blogs
• Answer commonly asked questions through blogs
• Improve browsability of long-form blogs with subheadings, bullet points, and images

 

Content marketing and blogging are great ways to showcase the personality of your dental practice. It helps create a thought leadership image that generates a steady stream of patients. Blogging stimulates patient interaction and feedback with informative posts that demonstrate your expertise in your niche. Plus, it keeps everyone updated on the latest developments in your dental practice.

Learn about How Dental Content Marketing Helps Your Dental SEO?

 

Marketing tactics to drive traffic to each page

A dental website’s pages should optimize for two purposes, converting visitors to new patients and ranking on search engines. While some methods are free, some are paid dental marketing solutions that guarantee instant visibility. If you are having difficulty choosing your website’s best marketing practices, try to get in touch with a dental marketing company specializing in website marketing.

 

– SEO

Dental SEO is the gateway to guarantee consistent top rankings on search engines. Search Engine Optimization for dentists includes optimizing each of the pages mentioned above to heighten their probability of ranking on the first page of search results. People automatically click the first few results that pop up after hitting the search button.

Very few people who know you might specifically search for your website. Otherwise, most visitors just go by what Google’s search results display. While all essential pages of a dental website should be optimized by inserting a proper set of keywords, you must pay special attention to the services page. If the services pages start ranking organically, you can save a substantial amount on paid ads. 

 

Learn more about why is it essential to optimize your website for dental SEO?

– Google Ads

As they are famously known, Google ads or PPC ads are a paid advertising method to capture traffic. You can divert traffic to various pages of your site with a professional dental website design. If new patients are your priority at the moment, the new patient special page must gain maximum visibility. An excellent way to target new patients is by using this page as the landing page for PPC dental ads.

An eye-catching, straightforward layout with tempting offers neatly showcased can encourage visitors to book an appointment. While you can optimize other pages organically, investing money in the new patient page will pay off. Don’t forget to include the booking button or the link to the booking button on the landing page if you wish to catch hold of patients right when they are at a crucial moment of their decision-making journey. 

 

– Social media advertising

Social media advertisements answer the question of how to promote your dental office on social media. Your service pages deserve the most attention, which differentiates you from your competition. Include clickable links on Facebook ads that redirect visitors to your service page. With a highly targeted approach, Facebook lets you advertise in various formats like images, videos, carousel, slideshow, etc.

On the other hand, Instagram is more popular for its visual appearance and story ads with swipe-up links. With accurate audience segmentation, you can direct quality traffic to each section of your service page like orthodontics, endodontics, cosmetic dentistry, etc. 

 

– Social media marketing 

First things first, Social media marketing for dental clinics is different from social media advertising. Advertising is paid promotion, while SMM is an organic method to build brand awareness and a solid audience base. In the case of Instagram marketing for dentists, you can include your website link in your business profile bio. Followers who like your social media content will be motivated to visit your website through that link. 

Instagram and Facebook are great platforms for dentists to create and distribute shareable content. You can implement audience outreach programs, hold contests, and share high-value text and visual content to enhance reach and engagement and ultimately drive your Facebook audience to your website. 

Learn more about Instagram marketing

 

– Online reputation management

If you are already associated with a dental digital marketing company, terms like online reputation and reputation management might ring a bell. Reputation management for dentists involves managing the reviews, comments, and feedback about your practice floating in the online space. 

ORM builds a positive image of your dental practice by ensuring that people see favorable reviews when they look up your practice online. And in case you are wondering why that’s so important, here are a couple of statistics you should look at 87% of Americans trust online reviews as a source for dentist recommendations. 94% won’t trust any kind of business with an average rating of fewer than four stars.

In short, review and reputation management enhances your credibility and prompts more potential patients to visit your website, where you can convert them into new appointments.

 

Learn more about how Positive online reputation effect your practice growth

Learn more about how to drive traffic to your website

Conclusion

A poorly designed dental website could be the reason behind the plummeting traffic you have witnessed of late. The importance of dental marketing services lies in the fact that it meticulously inspects every aspect of your online marketing to ensure all the tactics work in sync to create the desired impact. As far as dental web design is concerned, each web page must positively contribute to educating patients with necessary information about your dental practice and consequently secure high rankings.

Dental care is a competitive industry, and any minor or unintentional marketing mistake can immediately backfire. Your website reflects your professionalism and competency in dealing with dental issues. Since everything has moved to digital platforms, your performance online is the deciding factor that determines whether patients will choose your practice or not. Personal interactions have taken a back seat and are replaced by websites, social media, and other online mediums. Creating a great impression online is no longer a choice but a necessity for dental practices. 

This article intends to educate dental practitioners with quick tips and guidelines to create an impeccable website that will leave a lasting impact on prospective patients. We hope we have achieved reasonable success, just like your practice would with a great website!