A good dental website design can do a lot for your practice. Your design is essential to bringing in new patients—in the eyes of potential patients and Google! Use this “Do’s and Don’ts” list to audit your website. You may find that some aspects of your website design are hindering your online marketing efforts.
Do’s:
1.This one might seem like a gimme but only use photos of people who have great smiles. This means straight white teeth, no large gaps, no black triangles, and minimal gums showing. Also, make sure it’s a natural-looking smile. While you’re proud of all your work regardless of the person wearing it, make sure the photos on your website are of great-looking people.
2. Prioritize user experience by designing intuitive and easy-to-navigate layouts. While something more complicated might look cool, it’s all about the user experience, and easy-to-understand layouts will always win. “People don’t buy the best products; they buy the products they can understand the fastest.” – Donald Miller
3. Ensure responsive design, making the website accessible and visually appealing across different devices. Some patients may view your website on their computers at work, while others view it on their phones while watching their child’s soccer game. Ensure your website looks great and is easy to navigate on all devices.
4. Optimize loading speed to minimize user frustration and encourage engagement. Have you tried to use a slow website? Remember how irritating it is and pull up your website. If it loads slowly, you have a problem to mitigate.
5. Implement a strong visual hierarchy to guide users’ attention and highlight important elements. The main function of your website is to encourage appointments, so make sure your calls-to-action are highlighted.
6. Utilize consistent branding elements, such as colors, fonts, and imagery, to reinforce brand identity. Brand identity helps patients recognize and remember your practice. Since your website is an extension of your office’s experience, ensure it communicates your brand.
7. Incorporate whitespace strategically to improve readability and enhance overall design aesthetics.
8. This is a big one! Regularly update and maintain the website to ensure it remains functional and up-to-date. Widgets, plugins, and pages can change over time, so it’s important to keep an eye on your website’s functionality as you make changes. Remember, your website pages are interconnected!
9. Provide clear and easily accessible contact information to establish trust and facilitate communication.
Don’ts:
1.Don’t mismatch the target market of the service with the photo. If you have a photo of a young person on your denture page, you aren’t embodying the correct target audience. For example, a dentures page should picture an older patient, while an Invisalign page should picture a younger patient.
2. Avoid cluttered designs that overwhelm users and make it difficult to find relevant information. Along with this, make sure your website looks like it belongs to a dentist. A website that errors too far on the side of a spa won’t send the right message to patients.
3. Steer clear of excessive use of animations or effects that may distract or slow down the website. You can read more about the importance of a fast website on our blog, The Fastest Websites in the Dental Industry.4. Don’t rely on small font sizes or low contrast, as it can hinder readability, especially for users with visual impairments. Not only will this reduce the size of your pool of potential patients, but you could find yourself in a lawsuit due to being outside of ADA compliance.
5. Avoid using generic stock photos; instead, opt for custom photography that aligns with your brand and resonates with your target audience. But, if you have to use stock photos, refer to number 1 in the ‘Do’s’ list.
6. Don’t overlook mobile optimization; failing to adapt the design for mobile devices can lead to a poor user experience which means fewer new patient calls.
7. Avoid complex or confusing navigation structures that may frustrate users and hinder patients’ ability to find what they are looking for. For example, is it hard to get back to the homepage from your service pages, or is your contact button hard to find? If so, users probably become frustrated and leave your site without booking an appointment.
8. Don’t overload the website with excessive advertisements or pop-ups that disrupt the user experience. It’s okay to do this sparingly when you have a good reason. But keep pop-ups to an absolute minimum, and don’t make them a permanent part of your website design.
9. Don’t neglect accessibility guidelines; ensure your website is accessible to users with disabilities.
10. Don’t neglect regular updates, security patches, and bug fixes, as they are crucial for maintaining a secure and functional website.
Do You Want an Award-Winning Website?
What a silly question…of course you do! Pro Impressions Marketing wins awards for our website design. If you want an award-winning website, schedule a strategy call with one of our Dental Marketing Consultants. Pro Impressions offers online marketing for dentists because we know how hard it can be to keep up with marketing along with the other million tasks you have in a day. We’re responsive, transparent, and diligent, making sure you get the best marketing in the dental industry.
