What goes into the best dental website design?

When it comes to dental website design, there are certain elements that patients really care about, and some that they really don’t. Today’s post will give you exactly the information you need so your dental office can create a website that works for the people who use it: the patients. When someone lands on your website, they need to feel like your office is professional and trustworthy, and first impressions are important. Make sure that your website makes the best first impression.

Must-Haves for your dental website design

• Contact Information: The number-one reason someone lands on your website is because they need to contact you. So first and foremost, you need the phone number at the top of every single on your website, and it needs to be clickable so that people can click to call. Bonus points if you set up conversion tracking to see how many people actually click to call. Your contact page should include a contact form, email address, location with a map, and your hours too.
  
• Meet the Team: Introduce the dental team with professional bios and photos. This helps build trust and establishes a personal connection with potential patients. Include information about each team member’s qualifications, expertise, and any specializations. People want to know who they’ll be meeting and who will be performing work on them. It can be very daunting for someone to go to the dentist, so make sure they feel welcome and comfortable.
  
• Services: You may think this is obvious, but there are a couple of reasons this should be included.
  • One is for SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) When people Google for a dentist, a lot of times they are Googling for a specific treatment, and having content pertaining to each of your services is going to give you a leg up in those search results.
  • Another is it showcases the various skills you may have. Pretty much all dentists offer cleanings, exams, and fillings, but do you offer more? Teeth whitening? Root canals? Dentures? Here’s a good example of a dental services page that has content for SEO, and highlights all the services available at that office.
    
• Payment Information: This is an often overlooked but important part of your dental website design. People want to know how much is going to cost, do you take insurance, and what are the payment options. I was at the dentist office just this week with my child while she got her check-up, and as I was waiting in the waiting room, I must have heard 10 different phone calls where the receptionist had to answer the question of if their office was accepting Medicaid patients. List all the insurances you accept, any payment plans like Care Credit, or other payment options that are available.
  
• Scheduling: It’s frustrating to me that even though it’s almost 2024, most dentist office websites don’t have online scheduling. I get it, it’s an added expense, it may mean you have to change the way your office works, etc. But if you have the ability to add online scheduling, I highly, highly recommend you do it. If not, have a page dedicated to how to schedule. Do you have to call? Can I submit a request online? Online chat?
  
• Emergency Information: One of the most common inquiries I see come through the dental websites I work on is emergency requests. What happens if someone has a dental emergency? Is there an after-hours emergency line? Emergency don’t always happen from 9-5. Have a page about emergency services, whether you offer them, how to contact them, and what to do when an emergency happens.
  
• ADA Accessibility. Your office has to be ADA accessible, so does your website. That means people with disabilities need to be able to use it. There’s a lot to accessibility when it comes to your website, and it requires another post altogether. But if you haven’t given that a though, remember that around 20% of your website visitors will have some kind of disability.

The Should-Haves list for your dental website design

The must-haves above are the most important, but I have a few “should-haves” for your website too. These are things that are I highly recommend, and run a close second to the priorities above.

• FAQ page. I typically will recommend a frequently asked questions page for almost any website, but dental websites in particular need this. Remember earlier when I said I was at the dentist office and I kept overhearing phone calls where people were calling to ask if they accepted Medicaid? If they had this information on the website, they could reduce the number of callers asking this question. For one week, or even one day, ask your receptionist to keep a tally of all the questions they’ve answered and find out what people want to know. That should give you plenty of questions to fill an FAQ page. (Honestly, your reception probably doesn’t need to keep track, they already know.)
  
• An Appointment Request form. If you don’t have online scheduling, at least include a way for someone to request an appointment on your website. Always allow people to connect with you in the way that works best for them. Some people don’t have time to do the leg work on the phone.
  
• Testimonials or Reviews. But you need to do it right. Anyone who lands on your website knows those reviews are cherry-picked, but you can still make an impact if you make them as credible as possible. Check out our guide on how to have the most trustworthy reviews on your website.
  
• New Patient Forms. At the very least, you should include some downloadable forms on your website for new patients to fill out prior to their visit. Keep in mind that if you want them to fill out the forms online, they need to be HIPAA compliant. To date, I’ve only worked on one dental website design that actually wanted to take the steps necessary to have HIPAA compliant forms. It can be a pain to implement, but worthwhile in the time it can save you if you are able to integrate it into your existing system. Check with your office software vendor to see if they have any website integrations that might allow you to include this. If not, you can offer downloads right on your website.
  

Bonus-Haves for your dentist website

These are not a requirement, but are nice to have added to your site and can improve your user-experience, SEO, and credibility.

1. Blog. Blog reading isn’t like it was in the early 2000s, where we had a feed readers alerting us to when our favorite blogs had new content. People don’t consume blogs like that anymore. However, having a blog can still add value in a lot of ways. Probably very few people are going to be regularly visiting your website looking to learn more information about dentistry, but people are searching for various dentist topics all the time, and every blog post you add is an opportunity for your dental website to found for someone searching for a specific topic. And, having fresh new content on your website shows you are staying up-to-date with new information.
   
2. Office Tour. You’d be surprised how many dentist offices don’t have any office photos. Having office photos can help build credibility, create a level of comfort for potential clients, and shows that your office a place people want to visit. This can be as simple as a small photo gallery. It doesn’t require a lot of work, but can have a lasting impression.
   
3. Specialties. Do you have special programs for kids? Seniors? Other things? List those out and make sure they are easy to find!
   
4. Online chat. If you have the means to provide an online chat option, people do like being able to get an instant answer to a quick question online.

Things your website does NOT need

I can’t finish this post out without including what your website definitely does not need, because I’ve seen some terrible, terrible things.

• Terrible stock photos. You may need to supplement your website photos with a stock photo occasionally, but when at all possible, use real photos. Do not include photos like this one, that I removed from a dentist’s website. Not only is this not a dentist that works at the office, but it’s frightening! Using bad stock photos detracts and does not enhance your website.

• Animations for the sake of animation. You can sometimes make an impact with small, occasional animations, but don’t make the mistake of thinking you need to animate everything on your site. No, every section does not need to slide-in. It can be frustrating to wait for those animations so you can click on a button, etc. Trust me, no dentist website ever lost a customer because they didn’t have animation.
• Social media feeds. This is a trend that needs to die. People don’t go to your website to see what you are writing about on social media. All you need on your website are social icons that link to your accounts. Adding in the feeds slows down your website and doesn’t provide anything useful. People look at social media in their social apps, so as long as you give those links for people to get to those accounts, that’s all you need.