Designing a website for your orthodontic practice is not as simple as it might seem. There are lots of factors to consider, such as your target market and existing website, and the degree to which you want to be transparent about your practice.
While many people know that orthodontics is a dental practice, others may not realize what types of services are available to patients. From braces to implants to extractions, the scope of services varies widely depending on the individual needs of each patient.Â
Why is a Website Important For Orthodontics?
A good orthodontic website design can give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. It helps you stand out from your competitors, gives you an online profile that consumers can recognize, and helps you stand out as a reliable resource — because people who are shopping for orthodontics, dentists, and other health care professionals are looking for a product or service they know their dentist will deliver.
The first thing to remember when considering a web designer is that your site needs to look professional. The best way to do this is to hire a designer who has experience working with healthcare professionals. There are plenty of talented designers out there who have no experience designing websites for doctors, but they’re few and far between.
Orthodontic Website Design Tips
If you’re going to use a website for business, it should look like a business site. This means that it should have a professional appearance at first glance and be easy for people to navigate. It should also be relevant to your brand.
Website design is more than just creating a layout and placing content on the page. It’s about creating a site that will connect with readers and sell them on what you have to offer. When you create and choose the best web design company, they’ll take the time to understand your specific needs and come up with an extensive digital marketing strategy tailored specifically to your business.
Designing and testing your website is all about making sure it’s easy to navigate and that visitors find what they need quickly. Here are some basic things you can do:
Content
You want to make sure that your site is rich in content and not just an empty shell. If you’re in an area where there is plenty of competition, find out what they’re doing to establish themselves and see if they’re missing anything that you can help with. For example, if you’re treating children only and several other practices treat adults, add an adult focus section or create a blog instead of just a listing of services and prices.
Appearance and Layout
Make sure your text is readable. Coding and design work together to create an attractive site that looks great on all devices — mobile phones, tablets, and computers — so make sure you use fonts that will display well on all of these devices.
In addition, your site should include links that make it easy for visitors to navigate through the content on your site and do not interfere with the main navigation bar at the top of the page.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
As much as possible, you should invest time into making sure that your website ranks well on search engines for keywords relevant to your practice area. This will help drive more traffic to your site and improve your search ranking when people search for terms like “orthodontist” or “dental implants.”
Website Load Time
Load time refers to how long the page takes to load. This is a crucial factor for orthodontic sites. The more quickly your site loads, the better it is for user experience. A fast website is important for two reasons. First, a fast website can immediately improve your conversion rate and decrease your bounce rate, which keeps visitors on your site and gives them a reason to return. Second, a fast website will make your brand look more professional and trustworthy to potential customers.
When it comes to speed, there are three things to keep in mind:
The size of your files: Make sure your site isn’t loaded down with too many images, stylesheets and scripts. If they’re huge, they can slow down a browser and cause timeouts. So prioritize what you do load and do it only once
Reduce image sizes: Reduce the size of each image by using spaces between pixels where there used to be blank space in the image. For example, a user might see an image that’s twice as large as it needs to be because the browser lumps all those extra spaces into one big chunk of pixels instead of evenly distributing them across the entire image. When you reduce file size, more browsers can download a page at once without causing significant delays
Use CSS sprites: By creating multiple images that reference each other, you can create one large file with many smaller files inside it.
Work with a Professional Orthodontic Website Design Agency
Choosing a professional orthodontic website design agency is an important step in establishing your orthodontic practice on the internet. You will want to make sure that you are hiring a company that has access to all of the latest advancements in web technology so that your website looks as good as possible and that it functions seamlessly.
It is important to choose a company that has experience in designing websites for dental practices. It is very common for new dentists to want to learn more about web design, but it is not uncommon for them to choose companies based on price or who they know. Although this may work out well in the short term, if you end up with a site that is not customized to what you need, you could be wasting both time and money.
Although there are many options available when it comes to orthodontic website design agencies, one of the most common services offered by these companies is Web2.0. This means that the company will create a website that integrates into your current WordPress site (if you are using WordPress already), and will make changes to the existing site such as adding new sections for ordering online, viewing appointment schedules, and viewing patient records.
Working with a professional orthodontic website design agency will ensure that your business gets the best possible representation online and that you are following in the most effective practice for getting results from your website. There are many great websites out there who are expertly designed and cost effective for your business; however, if you follow this advice and engage an expert to speak on your behalf, you will be setting yourself up for success.