As an online marketing consultant for dentists I get to see many dental practice websites, none of which I have built myself as I don’t build websites… many of which work and many of which don’t.
As I work closely with these practices I’m able to see the conversion rates from the websites and have drawn up my top tips for ensuring that your website converts and actually does what it’s supposed to do.
You can either watch the video below or read the text in this blog post.
Don’t bother with that fancy scrolling image thing that so many practices do on the home page
I see so many dental practice websites with this scrolling image thing, what is it all about? From a user point of view the chances of anyone sitting there and waiting for the image to scroll is highly unlikely, and from a search engine optimisation point of view sometimes these images look to Google as though they are lots of images stacked on top of one another. Google could then question why are you trying to hide images?
My advice is to go with a small, relevant image all your practice logo and be done with it.
Ensure your contact us tab is top right
Make your telephone number selectable text so that you can click to call from mobile phones
I’ve recently been looking at statistics on websites and many of them have about 30% of the visitors viewing the site from a mobile device. The recent ” 2013 UK future in focus” ComScore report shows that it is mainly between the hours of 10 AM and 5 PM that we are using computers, outside of this time mobile devices dominate the share of page traffic on a workday.
If you want to take advantage of the commuters on the train or bus on their mobile phone then having your website mobile compatible is a good idea.
Of course the best solution is a fully mobile site or at least one that has an adaptive design to different device formats. And if you want to really be making use of the mobile browsers then having a click to call friendly number on the homepage will be vital.
Use an engaging video to keep visitors on the site longer and engage with them
Having a video on your homepage is a great way to interact and engage with visitors, it also has a tendency to keep people on the page longer which will have an impact on your Google ranking, as it is an indicator that people like your site if they stay on the page for a while before bouncing back to Google for another search
Have a call to action with a signup box on the right-hand side of the page which is viewable without scrolling
By incorporating some form of direct call to action where the visitor feels as though they have achieved something and got something from your site will greatly increase conversions. If you offer a free consultation, then do this in exchange for an e-mail address.
You will of course need an e-mail marketing software to manage this and my recommendation is Aweber.
Click for more information on how to set up in Aweber e-mail marketing campaign
Create the content of your page around the four elements of why, what, how and what if
As a dentist or technical person within dentistry the chances are that you think very analytically and are interested in the detail. Not everyone thinks this way and if your webpage launches into the precise way that you deliver your service many people may not engage with it.
By starting off with ‘why’ they need to listen to what you have to say you will engage a wider range of people.
Finishing off with ‘what if’ allows your website visitor to ‘try on’ emotionally the results of solving their dental problem.
Of course this list is not totally exhaustive and there is a huge amount of scope for any designer to be able to create a fantastic looking and functioning website around these parameters. If you follow the basic six steps above you will find that your website converts better and that you end up with more patients, of course, assuming that the actual design of the site is great too.