There are currently more than 5.07 billion people worldwide that use the internet. The internet has become an integral part of everyday life, and people often use it to find local businesses and services. If you operate a dental practice you want to ensure you have a high-quality website that will appeal to people. It’s important to understand, however, that plenty of mistakes can be made when creating a website.
For a rundown of 10 critical web design mistakes to avoid for dentists, keep reading.
1. Not Being Mobile Friendly
At one time, websites only needed to be suitable for PCs. With the introduction of online services on smartphones, many businesses started making mobile alternatives for their websites. These days, the best practice is to have one website that is mobile-friendly so that it adapts when people are using smaller devices.
About 59.6% of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices, so if your website isn’t responsive, you’ll miss out on a large potential client base. While desktop sites can be accessed by mobile devices, if they’re not responsive they will be difficult for people to use, so they’ll likely move on to a competitor’s site.
Designing a mobile-friendly website means creating something that will change on smaller screens. The layout will shift so that it’s easy to navigate and the buttons are optimized.
2. Weak Call to Action
Your website should show that you can solve whatever problems it is that your users have. You need to use your content to guide them to the answers and provide a call to action to encourage their next step.
On any given page you should try to have just one call to action. Having too many options can be overwhelming, but just one will give them a clear direction to go in. Some typical examples would be:
- Book an appointment
- Submit patient forms
- Learn more about our services
You might want to make it something more simple, like signing up for a newsletter. There could be various reasons for someone to arrive at your website, so a strong call to action will help show them what to do next.
3. Not Integrating Socials
Social media platforms are incredibly useful for all kinds of businesses. Various web design tools allow you to add buttons that link to whatever social media pages you have. It’s common to place these in a sidebar or at the footer of a page.
Social media platforms allow you to keep people updated on your services. They can also help you turn leads into patients, so it’s worth making full use of them.
4. Not Enough Original Content
Content is crucial, but you want to make sure it’s high quality. Everything must be relevant for a dental practice website design. You also need to ensure it’s original.
Many websites simply copy and paste content from other sites, but this can negatively affect your Google ranking, so it’s something you want to avoid. Creating original content will help increase your domain authority, which will boost your ranking on Google. This will directly result in more organic traffic to your site.
Consistency is also important. You need to post regular blogs if you really want to improve your ranking.
5. Random Keyword Stuffing
There are many important elements of SEO for websites, and one of them is keywords. In the past, adding in keywords wherever possible would help with SEO, but Google’s algorithm has changed, and now sentence structure plays a large part.
It analyses words in relation to the words next to them, so you can’t simply create keyword blocks and expect them to help. This is why the quality of the content you produce is vital because it will directly affect how Google analyses your site.
6. Visual Clutter
The appearance of your site can have a sizable impact on people’s opinions of your practice. Minimalism is currently a big trend, so it could be beneficial to create a more simplistic design for your site.
For many people, your website will be the first place they’ll hear of your practice, and first impressions are crucial. A website that’s well presented and clear will help build better opinions among those visiting it.
7. Slow Load Times
With the advancements that have been made in the way the internet works, people now have very high expectations. Slow load times are one thing that can quickly cause people to leave and look for assistance elsewhere.
On average, a page that takes 2 seconds to load will have a bounce rate of 9%, but a site that takes 5 seconds will get a bounce rate of 38%. It may not seem like much time, but it can have a huge impact on the number of people using your site.
8. Lack of Reviews/Testimonials
Reviews are one of the best ways to assure people that you provide quality services. If someone visits your site and quickly sees that your past patients are all very happy with your work, it will reassure them that you’re reliable. Conversely, if there are no testimonials, they may be hesitant to proceed.
9. Overuse of Flash
Google’s algorithm deprioritizes websites that contain flash elements, which could be bad for your SEO. They can also cause issues for mobile users. You should avoid using flash elements at all if possible, but if you do have them you should disable auto-play so that people can just view them if they choose to.
10. Unsecure SSL Certification
You will want to keep web design costs to a minimum, but there are certain things you should never skip, and security is one of them. An SSL certificate will allow for an encrypted connection and authenticates your website’s identity. This will help with your SEO and give visitors more confidence that your site can be trusted.
Avoiding These Web Design Mistakes
All of these web design mistakes can have a sizable impact on the success of your site. There’s a lot of competition out there, so you want to do what you can to ensure your website is better presented than others.
Bipper Media is dedicated to helping businesses improve their websites to get better rankings, presence, and visibility in search engines. We can help you optimize your site so that you can stand out from the competition.
To find out more about our services, click here to contact us today.
