How to Optimize Your Dental Practice Website: 8 Marketing Strategies

1) Confirm your Website is ADA Compliant
The Americans with Disabilities Act ensures people with disabilities must have equal access to buildings, public restrooms and restaurants. This doesn't include websites (yet). However, if you have a patient with a visual impairment, images on your website need to include appropriate tags and data that speaks to what those images look like.

2) Mobile Responsive
Many people visiting your website are finding you from their mobile device. A responsive website is one that responds or changes based on the needs of the users and the device that they are viewing it on. Basically if you’re looking at your website from an Iphone, Android or a tablet, it should appear to look the same as seen on a desktop. Here’s how you test the mobile responsiveness of a website: If you are on a computer, you can tell if a site is responsive by reducing your browsers window size from full screen down to very small. If the appearance of the text, images and menu change as you get smaller, the site is responsive.

3) Special Offers
Special offers, discounts, promotions – however you want to reference it – givING your PATIENTS an incentive can help you schedule and keep appointments. A few of my favorite promotional ideas are: designing your promotions around holidays in order to create a sense of urgency and theme. For example, a teeth whitening promotion before your big winter holiday parties or a discounted cleaning at the beginning of summer. Another idea is a referral program to reward your existing patients whenever they refer a new patient to you. Say thank you with a discounted treatment.

4) Video
Everyone has a team page, individualize your brand with a 1-2 minute video showing your office space, reception area and treatment area, and operatories. check out some video examples on our DentalPC YouTube Channel and watch how we turned this blog into a video!

5) Patient Testimonials
Let your patients be your biggest advocates! Why do your patients come to you? Do you have any well-known patients who are respected members of your community? Ask them for a testimonial and to feature their photo, give them an incentive by sharing their company name and a back link to their business page. If you are a client of theirs, then offer to write a testimonial for their website and ask for them to include a link back to your website.

6) Strong Call to Action
I recommend no more than two call to actions per page, excluding links to other pages on your website buttons. Examples of direct call to actions are: Contact Us or Schedule an Appointment. I also recommend that all of your call to actions include a Click to Call feature on every single page in the same location of your website. Re-evaluation your Contact Forms to make sure they have enough information. By optimizing your contact forms, you can begin to build a patient profile by requesting their name, phone number, email address and best time to call in the form fields. Don’t forget to include an email opt-in option to subscribe to your email newsletter.

7) Content is King!
The right content can target, engage and attract your patients. I suggest writing 2 blogs per month on your website, with a length from 350-500 words. Your content needs to be created with Search Engine Optimization Topics and Keywords at the top of mind. Blogging keeps your site fresh in search results. Google rankings and Paid search engines love fresh content and so do website visitors.

8) Links to Social Media Pages
Social media is a great way to engage with your patients. You can use social media to show that visiting your dental practice doesn’t have to be scary. You can also run contests and have your patients share your posts on their pages to increase your exposure and potentially reach their friends or potential patients. If you don’t have any social media pages yet or you’re not active on those – Stay tuned for our blog on Facebook Security Guidelines for Your Dental Practice.