A fresh, professional-looking website builds trust and credibility and, ultimately, converts site visitors into new patients. But with so much conflicting information available, what are the real keys to a strong website, especially for a dental practice? What follows is a list of six ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of a dental website via redesign.
1. Audit Website Search Engine Optimization
First and foremost, the website must be search-engine-friendly. Potential new patients must be able to find the business as the result of an organic search. Thus, it is necessary to undertake a comprehensive audit of the current website's search engine optimization (SEO), including, most importantly, an assessment of targeted keywords and key phrases as well as an analysis of existing back links.
2. Evaluate Keywords and Key Phrases
Note that the evaluation of dental website marketing keywords and key phrases requires a solid understanding of how people search on the internet. Most of the time, people type a short phrase, such as "dentist office Philadelphia" into a search engine and choose an office from the list of results, almost always from the top two or three on the list.
Thus, it is important that the correct keywords are highlighted and used appropriately on the website. A dental practice will want to target keywords related to dentistry, of course, but it will also need to structure the website content such that its location is obvious to the search engines. Additionally, it's a good idea to highlight any areas of specialty, as people often search for specialties as well.
3. Maintain Existing Back Links
Back links are not quite as important as they once were, but they are still an integral factor in all search engine algorithms. A back link is, very broadly, a link to a site from another site. The search engines look at back links as a mark of relevance and quality. The theory is that if others are willing to link to a website, then that website must have some good information. It's considerably more nuanced than that, but that is the general idea.
During a website redesign, pages are often deleted or moved to different URLs. If those pages had back links, those back links will be lost. It is thus all-too-easy to accidentally destroy back links during a redesign. That said, it is also very easy to maintain back links, with just a little planning beforehand.
4. Create Content to Build Trust
The goal of a website redesign should be to create a dynamic, content-heavy website that will rank highly in searches and convey a feeling of reliability and credibility to human site visitors. The site must be dynamic to keep the search engines interested; if it never changes, the search engine "crawlers" have no reason to revisit it. A site that is consistently updated will be consistently indexed by all of the search engines and will rank better in search results.
Additionally, Google's newest update indicates that actual site content will take a more important role in search results going forward. It is likely that the other search engines will soon follow suit. The quality and quantity of website content is thus more important than ever before.
Moreover, website content is perhaps the best way, short of an in-person meeting, to demonstrate expertise and distinguish a particular dental practice from competitors. Quality content also keeps people on the website, making a conversion much more likely.
5. Blogging and Dental Website Marketing Strategy
Blogging is one of the best ways to improve search rankings and drive traffic to a website. It provides a continual, consistent flow of new content for the search engines to review and index and it gives human readers something to read. A good blog shows the search engines that there is quality content on a website and that the website will be able to answer questions for internet-searchers. Thus, if someone does a search for "dentist office Austin," it is very likely that the top results will have quality blogs built into the sites.
6. Secure Clients with a Call to Action
Any amount of traffic is useless if site visitors are not converted into clients. It is thus important that the website flows well from all incoming points (not just the home page) to a call-to-action page. The call-to-action can take the form of scheduling an appointment or requesting a call from the office, or it can be as simple as an email solicitation. But there must be something, and it must be easy to find.
Options in Internet Dental Marketing Services
Many professionals still choose to redesign their websites themselves, and it's a great option for those who have the time and knowledge to do it correctly. Of course, it is far more common for dentists to outsource this sort of work to companies that know search engine optimization and work with it every day.
Contact
Website Optimization to learn more about improving the conversion rates,
blogging, and SEO of your dental practice’s website.
Website Optimization
3134 SUNNYWOOD DR
ANN ARBOR, MI 48103
Phone: (877) 748-3678
Fax: (734) 661-1331
