If you get 1,000 clicks per month to your dental website, you’re doing better than most people. But what’s your conversion rate? It should be around 3% to 5%. If it’s only 1%, then you need improvement.
6 Dental Practice Internet Marketing Strategies to double your traffic
What’s a conversion? It’s someone who picks up the phone and calls your office, or someone who submits the contact form on your website. That’s a lead.
Here’s another metric. You should be able to convert around 30% to 50% of all the new leads that come in through the Internet. Otherwise, you need to train your front desk better. Or you need to communicate your schedule and goals with your front desk. If you are willing to stay 15 minutes after you’d normally leave the office for an emergency patient that could bring in $2,000, then let your front desk know that. Also, make sure you are double-booking patients who seem flakey. You know what I’m talking about.
Here are some great examples of how you can increase your conversion rate, and you can start applying now to get an extra patient or two per month.
High converting header
People’s eyes move from left to right. So your logo and name should be on the left, and on the right you should have your phone number (in a different font and color so it stands out) and address.
Getting people to call is the most important action. Make your phone number stand out make sure it’s in large font. Also, make sure it’s text so that people can click-to-call on a mobile device. This is vital. Over 25% of a dentist’s traffic will be mobile! By 2015, it will be 30%. This screenshot is from Colorado Springs dentist, Dr. Gary Moore. He’s done everything just right. Notice the blue color? That actually builds trust more than any other color. That’s why many insurance companies have blue logos.
2. Have a picture of you on the homepage
I’m always surprised at dental websites that don’t feature the dentist on the homepage. I would never go to a dentist who didn’t show himself on the homepage. There just isn’t as much rapport. The website would seem canned. I shouldn’t have to click the “about us” page to see the doctor. Even then, some dentists don’t have a photo on that page. This is a big no-no. You must build rapport, and great photos are one of the best ways to do that. People especially enjoy family photos. Most dentists have a target market of women ages 45 to 55 who bring in their kids. Another rapport-builder is video.
3. Have an office video on the homepage
Dr. Pat Crawford has a great office video. Not only does video give people a better presentation of your office than just photos, it actually helps for SEO. Google loves to see engagement on a website, and if people are watching your video for one to two minutes, then that increases the time people are spending on your website. Google will reward you for that and rank your site higher.
4. Responsive web design
It’s paramount to have a responsive website. Google has actually said that they will rank responsive sites higher than normal websites with low mobile quality. Why? It’s better for the user experience. Responsive means that your website changes size automatically depending on the user’s device. It’s perfect because it keeps your same website, it just changes size. That way you don’t have to worry about having 10 different mobile sites since there are so many different screen sizes. If your website isn’t already, get it redesigned and redeveloped so that it is responsive.
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ALSO BY CHARLES CRAWFORD:
Top 7 ways to get more new dental patients to your practice
Why every dentist should participate in Dentistry from the Heart
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Charles Crawford has been in the Internet marketing game since 2010, and he cofounded Crawford and O’Brien, which focuses on helping dentists with their marketing so they don’t waste money. Click Here to get a free report on some of the high level SEO & PPC methods that Crawford and O’Brien uses to rank dentists #1 all across the U.S.
