Creating a Web Site for Your
Dental Practice
by David
A. Hall, DDS
What is the most effective way for you to
create a dental practice web site?
To help answer this question, we need to
understand people and web sites. People go to the web for information.
If you understand that fundamental, you can create an effective dental
practice web site.
In creating your web site, put yourself in
the place of your web site visitor. Here is what the visitor wants:
What your web site visitors want to know
Primarily, your web site visitor wants to
know something about you, your services, and your office. Have you
received any special honors or recognitions? What is the extent of your
education? Do you provide any special services such as implant dentistry,
sedation, porcelain veneers? Tell a little about your staff. Names with
photos will help them get to know the staff—people
like that. Provide a map to your dental office, parking information,
payment options, and any other useful information.
If you do cosmetic dentistry, put
photographs of your success stories on your web site. Ask patients for
testimonials, and post those on the web site. Remember, provide useful
information to your visitors. On the web, we have graduated from the
initial excitement and fluff stage, and web surfers are becoming more
savvy. They want substance from your web site. Provide it.
A domain name for your dental practice web site
If you want people to find you on the web,
make your domain name searchable. Here's a big internet secret—while
search engines index the words on your site, they key most prominently
into the title and description of your site and the domain name and page
file names. So choose a domain name that reflects how you want your web
site to be found. Are you an implant dentist in Peoria? Then make your
site www.implantdentistpeoria.com. Surfers will then find you. Yes, it
really is that simple.
Capture information on your dental practice web
site
Your web site visitors are also looking for
convenience. If they can register on your web site, if they can request an
appointment time, and if they can ask you a question, they like that.
Remember that people may be surfing the web at odd hours. Your office may
not be open, and, for certain web site visitors, it is a convenience for
them, if they find that they like your office, for them to be able to
leave their contact information and have you call them to set up an
appointment. You multiply the usefulness of your dental practice web site
if you capture information from your visitors while they are on the site.
Annoying things to avoid on your dental practice
web site
Don't do music. You may think it adds a nice
touch, but many web surfers are annoyed by it. Think about this—what
if your web site visitor is sneaking a peak at your site at the office?
Your music comes on and now it is advertised to everyone within earshot
that they are visiting your web site. Not cool. Some visitors will like
your music and some will be highly annoyed by it. Be visitor-friendly and
safe by avoiding it.
Avoid time-consuming glitzy features. Have a
simple, professional introductory page, but avoid the elaborate flash
presentations. Think about it—the
driving force behind the new models of computers and the new internet
connection services is speed. People visiting your web site are
impatient. They don't want to wait thirty seconds for your site to load.
There is a tendency among dental web site developers to add these
multimedia introductory presentations. It impresses the dentist, but it doesn't impress the web site
visitor nearly as much. Yes, make sure your web site gives a very
professional impression. But yes, also make sure your web site does it
quickly. If you do want to provide multimedia presentations, provide it as
an optional link where visitors who want that can go there, not as an
automatic entrance to your web site.
Dr. David Hall, besides being an accredited cosmetic
dentist, has been effectively marketing cosmetic dentistry on the internet
since 1995. He is the creator of
www.mynewsmile.com, a very effective internet marketing web site
for many cosmetic dentists. |