It’s essential to market yourself online – that is something we are all aware of. We all know the internet isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so getting an online presence for your dental practice helps you to communicate and engage with future and current patients through a forum they can reach from anywhere, at any time.
What is the center of your online marketing efforts? Your website. For any healthcare practice, websites have become the most effective online communication tool. So what if your website isn’t quite up to par? How do you know when it’s time to update your website? Let’s take a look at the signs that it’s time to update your website.
Your website’s content is out of date
An out-of-date website design and out-of-date content always go hand in hand.
The content on your website is a significant part of why search engines index your sites. This is the first thing your visitors see when they arrive on your website. You’re not providing what your customers need if it’s outdated, with meaningless words and inaccurate data, and it reflects poorly on your brand.
After all, if you can’t be bothered to have accurate content, your users will assume you don’t care about them or their needs.
Your site isn’t mobile-friendly
Running a dental practice is demanding and consumes all of your waking hours. Your website is probably the last thing on your mind, but it’s the first thing that your customers think about when they first check you out. With users spending most of their time on their mobile devices, having an unreliable platform that offers a bad user experience on the small screen is no longer appropriate.
Suppose a potential customer is faced with a miniature version of your desktop website when they visit you on a smartphone. In that case, they’ll quickly leave your website and contact your competitor instead. You’re losing out on future patients if your website isn’t set up to view your content in a readable manner on mobile devices.
Your site is challenging to navigate
Certain pages on your website should still be easy to find. For instance, what your company does, what it provides, and who to call if anything goes wrong. If these essential but crucial pages are challenging to locate, it’s a sign that your website is in desperate need of an upgrade.
If your website visitors can’t find the information they’re looking for, there are about 5-10 other options they can go for, and they will. They’ll probably go back to the search engine results page and click on the next best option.
Google will also have a tough time crawling your web if it is challenging to navigate. The simpler it is for Google to locate your page, the more likely it will appear in related search queries.
Your site has a high bounce rate
Your bounce rate is the percentage of your visitors who only visit one page on your website during their session, which can be seen in Google Analytics. A bounce rate of 40% means that 40 out of every 100 website visitors only visit one page during their visit.
A high bounce rate typically means that the user has lost interest in your page, for whatever reason. If a visitor has a negative experience navigating and using your website, he or she can abandon the site without visiting another page, increasing the bounce rate.
You aren’t converting your leads
You might be getting a lot of traffic to your website from social media and word-of-mouth, but landing on your website isn’t enough. You want them to take the next step and contact you to book an appointment.
Getting people to visit your website may seem to be a lot easier than persuading them to contact you. That’s why working with a website designer who can help you figure out why your conversion rates are so poor is so beneficial.
Is it time to update your dental practice website?
If you’re having some of the problems mentioned in this article, it’s time to make a change. Redesigning a website is a big job; there are many steps to take before you can start thinking about it.