You might like it, but does Google? Do your patients? Let’s find out.
You needed a new website for your dental clinic, and with all the DIY options out there, you didn’t think it was necessary to pony up the cost of a professional web designer.
You’re a dentist, not a web developer, but hey, you wear a million hats while running your own clinic so how hard could it be to wear one more?
So you go onto Google, find a website builder that looks easy enough, and get started. You pick out your photos, enter your business info and push the big red (not always red!) button to go live.
It’s definitely not a Picasso, but it’ll get the job done. Right?
A lot goes on behind the curtain when trusting a professional with your website. Making sure the design resonates with your target audience, planning ahead to define the goals and objectives of the website, figuring out the best client journey and so much more!
If you’re going the DIY route, survey a few people before you decide to launch so you can find out:
- Does the imagery get your message across clearly?
- What about the colours and information, are they pleasing to potential clients? Or do they make your testers want to leave the site and run for the hills?
- And the most important piece to think about, how will the search engines pick up your site?
Should You Consider A Professionally-Built Website For Your Dental Business?
When designing a website, it’s imperative to account for SEO (search engine optimization) before you start. Because if the search engines can’t find it, how will your potential clients?
Yes, website builders make it easier than ever for a business owner to go the DIY route, but what they don’t provide is the tools and knowledge needed to make sure you build a marketing platform that will turn your viewers into paying patients.
Having a good-looking site doesn’t guarantee visitors, and having a site filled with content that isn’t accurate or relevant could actually drive customers away.
Professionals might cost a bit more than going the DIY route, but they’ve spent years becoming an expert in their field! I wouldn’t let a professional website developer check my teeth because they’re not a genius at getting teeth looking great like you are. Would you let them perform dental surgery on you? No? I didn’t think so!
When planning a website, an expert will be thinking about things such as the user experience, properly naming images for accessibility and SEO, choosing the right keywords for your page content to best reach your target market, optimizing all of the elements that go into your website to make sure it loads quickly and looks good on smartphones and finally, the best method to convert viewers into leads and appointments.
What If You Can’t Afford A Professional Website Right Now?
In a perfect world, hiring a top-tier agency to get your digital presence up and running would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the problem with running a small dental business is that sometimes cash might be tight and investing in your website may seem more like an expense than a necessity.
While you absolutely should be thinking of your website as a marketing investment that continues to bring in leads even while you sleep, we also understand that it might not be an option.
Here are a few key tips that you can adjust on your website right away to help out with SEO while you save for that stellar website:
- Add descriptive alt tags to all of the images on your website
- Spend a bit of time researching the keywords you think people will search for to find you and then utilize these to create page titles and keywords for your website content.
- Your website content should be relevant, up to date and informative to your audience. If you haven’t updated your info in a while, what are you waiting for? There’s nothing worse than a website that hasn’t been updated since 1999!
Wondering if Google likes your website?
You can do a quick search to see how your pages are showing up by typing site:yourwebsitename.com into Google and studying the results.
Once you’ve had a look at how you show up in the search engine results, install a plugin like Yoast or The SEO Framework which will give you the ability to optimize your page titles and descriptions, allowing you to change how you show up in the search engines.
For some more great tips & tutorials on DIY websites and SEO, view the 10 min WordPress SEO Tutorial for Beginners video by Ahrefs below.
Need some professional help getting online? We’re experts when it comes to helping businesses within the dental industry! Schedule a clarity call today – we’d be happy to help!
