The 9 Secrets to High-Converting Orthodontic Website Designs
A good Orthodontic website looks nice and provides helpful information. A great Orthodontic website consistently drives new leads to your practice and assists in converting website visitors into new patients.
Your website can be one of the most effective tools you have to bring in new leads without additional fees for ads or continuous marketing. It just requires that you set everything up properly from the start and keep the flow of fresh content coming.
If you are building or revamping your website, take a look at how these nine key factors affect how efficient and effective your website can be. When it comes down to it, your Orthodontic website is a focal point for your online marketing strategy.
Professional Photography Makes All the Difference
You have only a few seconds to make an impact on website visitors. Most dental pros opt to just use stock photos, but the results are usually stiff and bland. Take the time to have a professional photographer stop by your practice, and make a checklist of everything you want them to capture while they are there:
Interior and exterior shots of your practice
Staff in action
Staff group and/or individual shots
Dentist individual and group shots
Patient interactions
Dentist in action
Having a gallery of your own professional shots will help transform your website into a personalized, welcoming stop for prospective patients.
Expert Graphic Design
Just like professional photography, unique graphic design elements are one of the best orthodontic marketing ideas to create a cohesive brand. Whether you want to add pops of color and pizzazz or keep everything clean and stylish, it should feel professional, personalized, and polished.
Believe it or not, AI is actually making strides toward being able to create custom graphic designs with just a little bit of help. Just take a look at this article where you can see how to do graphic design with the help of artificial intelligence.
Mobile-First Website Design
The Google search algorithm uses your mobile website to properly index your website. What does this mean for your site? It means if the mobile version of your website is slow, awkward to navigate, or missing important information, you are going to perform worse on Google search results. Not to mention, website users are going to jump immediately off your website if it isn’t suited for mobile search.
Fun fact: mobile searches account for 63% of all searches. So if your mobile site is buggy, you’re missing out on a lot of potential traffic.
Technical SEO for Wicked-Fast Load Times
Even the prettiest websites can perform poorly if they aren’t optimized for SEO. SEO (search engine optimization) refers to aspects of your website that help search engines read, index, and suggest your website at the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
The technical part of Orthodontic SEO happens on the back end of your website. We’re talking about page loading speed, alt text, meta descriptions, backlinks, and security. All of these factors help Google quickly understand what your site is about and suggest it to people who are looking for your services. This is where the magic happens for driving organic traffic (non-paid) to your website consistently.
Check out this Orthodontic SEO guide published on Dental Economcs for more technical tips and tricks for maximizing your impact with SEO.
Rank High with a Blog
We’d bet big money that you didn’t realize the importance of blogging for SEO for dentists. Technical SEO will get you part of the way, but consistently updating your blog will help push you to the top of the SERP. The creation of new, original content gives Google more information to index your site and gives you more opportunities for high-quality backlinks to your content. Search algorithms love an active website, so consider building out a blog strategy or outsourcing it to a dental marketing company.
Add Location Pages to Improve Local Rankings
Your goal is to make the biggest impact on your local community search results so you can get more patients in the door. Creating individual location pages can help your website rank higher in search engines.
Since people will be searching for terms like “orthodontist near me,” your performance on Google Maps is just as important as your performance on the SERPs. All of your technical SEO will help you in both, but location pages will give Google location-specific keywords to drive traffic where you want it to be.
Offer Live Chat
Adding live chat to your website is an easy way to improve your patient experience from the very first interaction. In an industry where there can be lots of questions about pricing, procedures, and options for kids, you can quickly and easily answer those questions in a friendly manner.
This also gives you an opportunity to turn a casual website visitor into your next patient by giving them the information they need, keeping them on your website longer, and giving direct links to online scheduling.
Include Online Scheduling
Online scheduling helps both patients and staff have a positive experience with your website. This can encourage patients to get an appointment on the calendar based on their own availability rather than the usual back and forth with your front desk staff.
Include Examples of Social Proof
What’s social proof? It demonstrates your competence and reliability to potential patients through the experiences and recommendations of others. Ultimately, it can be the deciding factor for patients who want to make informed decisions about their orthodontic care.
One of the best sources for social proof is to actively collect positive patient reviews on Google. This will boost your rankings above the competition and can be the reason why patients click through your website. Make sure you know how to get more orthodontic reviews than your competition so you always come out on top.
Another opportunity for social proof is participating in a dental charity campaign. This can get your name out in the community, attract media attention, and even get you backlinks to your website. Take a look at these dental charity marketing ideas to get started.
Orthodontic Website Design Examples
See how other orthodontists are putting these marketing ideas for dentists to work for their practices before you dive into your own website remodel.
Union Hills Dental
Union Hills Dental hits some major key points right off the bat. They’ve used professional photography to capture their team, the color and branding look clean and cohesive, and you’ll find social proof in the form of Google reviews right on their homepage.
You want to include Google reviews in your website design because it’s an easy way to give prospective patients a peek into your practice and style of care.
Beach Orthodontics
There’s a reason we included graphic design as part of the secret to a successful website. The best dental website designs feel unique and Beach Orthodontics nails original graphic design on the head.
Their fun and bold colors are reflected not only on their website but also in their office (which you can see on their handy office tour page). This may seem like a small thing, but it can help you build a recognizable brand in your community and help new patients feel at ease.
Abari Orthodontics
Abari Orthodontics is another site that successfully uses graphic design and colors to create a fun and inviting atmosphere–even just on their website! They deliver the most important information upfront: the team, procedures, and contact information.
Avoid cluttering your homepage with too much information and stick to the basics. Use a header for key pages on your website, making sure that everything is accessible and easy to find. This will help website visitors have a positive experience and spend more time on your website.
Make a Website that Shines!
Your orthodontic website should be a reflection of your personality and the atmosphere of your practice. Don’t be afraid to inject a little creativity alongside the finer, technical elements that make a truly outstanding website.
Looking to make small improvements to your existing website? Start with these 6 ways to improve your orthodontic website and watch how you climb up the SERP!
Sometimes it makes the most sense to outsource big projects like these to an agency. You can save your precious time for patients and your team. See how to choose a dental marketing company that aligns with your goals and can meet your needs.