How to Get More Traffic to Your Dental Website in 2026

Jun 1, 2022 | Dental Marketing, Web Design

How to Get More Traffic to Your Dental Website in 2026

If you’ve noticed your dental website getting less traffic than it did a year or two ago — fewer calls, fewer form submissions, fewer new patient inquiries from search — you’re not alone, and you’re not imagining it. Something fundamentally changed in 2024 and 2025, and most practices that were ranking well and generating consistent leads have felt it.

The change isn’t that SEO stopped working. It’s that the way patients find dental practices has shifted across multiple channels simultaneously — and strategies that worked in 2023 are delivering a fraction of the results in 2026. This guide covers exactly what changed, what’s actually working now, and the specific actions that will bring consistent, high-quality traffic back to your dental website.

The Most Important Thing to UnderstandTraffic to your dental website doesn’t come from one channel anymore — it comes from Google Maps, organic search, Google Ads, AI tools, and voice search simultaneously. Practices that invest in all five layers consistently outperform those optimizing for only one or two.

Why Your Dental Website Traffic Dropped — What Actually Changed

Before fixing the problem, it helps to understand what caused it. Three forces reshaped dental website traffic between 2024 and 2026, and understanding them tells you exactly where to reinvest.

Google AI Overviews pushed organic results further down

Google now generates AI-powered summaries at the top of results for millions of dental searches — “dentist near me,” “how much do veneers cost,” “is a root canal painful.” These summaries appear before any organic results, meaning the traffic that used to flow to page-one rankings is now being partially absorbed by AI-generated answers. Practices whose content isn’t structured to feed those summaries are losing clicks they used to get automatically.

Google’s Helpful Content updates penalized thin and generic dental content

Google’s 2024 core updates specifically targeted content written for search engines rather than patients — generic service pages, recycled blog posts, and AI-generated content without genuine expertise. Dental websites with shallow content saw significant ranking drops. The practices gaining ground are those whose content genuinely answers patient questions with the depth and authority of a real dental professional.

DSOs dramatically increased their SEO investment

Dental Service Organizations with dedicated marketing teams and significant budgets pushed aggressively into local dental search between 2023 and 2025. Independent practices that were ranking comfortably found themselves competing against well-funded corporate operators with dozens of location pages, deep content strategies, and full-time SEO staff. Competing requires a more deliberate approach than most independent practices had in place.

67%

of dental patient research decisions are now influenced by AI search engines — including Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity — changing how traffic flows to dental websites

Source: Local SEO for Dentists AI Framework Research, 2026

1. Google Maps: The Highest-Traffic Channel Most Practices Underinvest In

For most dental practices, Google Business Profile and Google Maps is worth more than the entire organic results page — and it’s completely free. When a patient searches “dentist near me” or “family dentist [city],” the map with three listings appears before any organic results. Those three slots generate the majority of new patient calls for the practices lucky enough to occupy them.

Here’s what separates a Google Business Profile that generates consistent calls from one that’s invisible. Our local SEO guide covers this in depth — but the highest-impact actions are:

✓
Add conditions and services explicitly. Your GBP should list every service you provide: teeth whitening, Invisalign, dental implants, emergency dentistry, pediatric dentistry. Not just “dental care.” Google uses this to match your profile to specific patient searches.
✓
Post 100+ real photos. Practices with 100+ photos get 520% more calls than those with fewer than 10. Office interior, treatment rooms, team headshots, before/after cases (with consent), and equipment. Not stock photography — real photos of your actual practice.
✓
Seed the Q&A section. Go into your GBP and add questions patients commonly ask: “Do you accept same-day appointments?” “Do you offer payment plans?” “Do you treat children?” Then answer them. These feed directly into AI search recommendations.
✓
Post weekly. Google Posts are the most underused free feature in dental marketing. A weekly post — patient tip, procedure spotlight, team update, promotion — signals to Google that your practice is active and engaged, which factors into Local Pack rankings.
✓
List insurance accepted. Many patients filter by insurance before ever visiting a website. If your GBP doesn’t list accepted insurers, you’re invisible to a significant segment of your market at the moment they’re searching.

2. Reviews: The Traffic Driver Nobody Talks About

Reviews affect your dental website traffic more directly than most practices realize. Here’s the mechanism: Google uses review count, rating, and review content as Local Pack ranking signals. More relevant, recent reviews mean higher Maps rankings, which means more profile visits, which means more clicks to your website. Reviews aren’t just a reputation tool — they’re a traffic tool.

In 2026 they do double duty: AI search engines like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews actively scan review text for service keywords and experience signals when deciding which practices to recommend. A review that says “I came in with a cracked molar, they got me in same-day, and I was out in an hour with a permanent crown” is worth more to an AI recommendation engine than 50 reviews that say “Great dentist, highly recommend!”

The review acquisition system that works consistently:

“We started texting patients a direct Google review link within 2 hours of their appointment and asking them to mention what brought them in. In 90 days we went from 22 reviews to 74. Our calls from Google Maps increased by 40% in that same period.”

— General dentistry practice · Harris & Ward client · Southeast market

1
Ask verbally at checkout — but make it specific. “Would you be willing to leave us a quick Google review and mention what you came in for today? It really helps patients in the same situation find us.” Specificity increases both the yes rate and review quality.
2
Send a single SMS within 2 hours with a direct link to your Google review page. One text, no follow-up. Direct links get 3x higher completion rates than links inside emails.
3
Respond to every review — positive and negative. Prospects read your responses to negative reviews more carefully than they read positive reviews. A gracious, professional response to a difficult review builds more trust than a page of five-star ratings.
4
Target volume AND recency. A practice with 120 reviews and the most recent posted 8 months ago looks stagnant next to one with 60 reviews and 4 posted this month. Recency matters to both Google and patients.

The way patients find a dentist in 2026 has changed significantly — and the content strategy that drives website traffic needs to reflect that. The practices getting the most organic traffic share three content characteristics:

One dedicated page per service — not one generic “services” page

This is the single highest-impact structural change a dental website can make. Google needs individual pages to rank individual searches. A patient searching “dental implants [city]” needs a page that’s specifically about dental implants — not a services overview page that mentions implants in a paragraph. According to the American Dental Association, implant-related searches have grown significantly year over year as patient awareness and demand increases — that traffic has to land somewhere specific to convert.

Every practice should have individual pages for at minimum: teeth cleaning and exams, teeth whitening, veneers, dental implants, Invisalign or clear aligners, emergency dentistry, pediatric dentistry, and any specialty services offered. Each page should be 800–1,200 words minimum, written for the patient (not for the search engine), and structured to answer the questions patients actually ask before booking.

Direct-answer content format — the structure AI and Google both reward

The content that wins in 2026 opens with a direct, factual answer to the patient’s question — not a marketing headline, not a teaser, not a generic introduction. A page about dental implants that opens with “Dental implants are the most natural-feeling permanent tooth replacement option available. The procedure takes 1–2 appointments and most patients report minimal discomfort. Cost typically ranges from $3,000–$6,000 per implant depending on your specific case and insurance” will outperform one that opens with “Are you missing teeth? You deserve to smile again!” for both rankings and AI citation.

Add FAQ sections to every service page. Write them in the exact language patients use — not clinical language. “Does getting dental implants hurt?” not “What is the pain profile associated with osseointegration procedures?” These FAQ sections feed directly into Google’s AI Overviews and voice search results, generating featured snippet traffic and AI recommendations that bring visitors to your site without traditional ranking.

Schema markup — the technical layer most dental sites are missing

Schema markup is structured data added to your website code that tells Google and AI engines exactly what your page contains. For dental practices this means Dentist schema, MedicalOrganization schema, FAQPage schema on FAQ sections, and LocalBusiness schema with your full practice information. Practices with proper schema markup appear in AI search responses significantly more often than those without it — and it’s one of the fastest-implementation, highest-impact technical SEO moves available.

4. Google Ads: Traffic While Your SEO Builds

If your dental website traffic has dropped and you need to recover new patient volume now — not in 6 months — Google Ads for dental practices is the fastest legitimate path. A well-structured campaign can put your practice in front of patients actively searching your key terms within 24–48 hours of launch.

What separates dental Google Ads campaigns that work from those that drain budget:

Campaign type	Best search intent	Avg. cost/call	Results speed
General new patient	“Dentist near me,” “family dentist [city]”	$28–$55	24–48 hrs
High-value procedures	“Dental implants,” “Invisalign,” “veneers near me”	$45–$95	24–48 hrs
Emergency dental	“Emergency dentist,” “toothache relief today”	$35–$70	24–48 hrs
Remarketing	Re-engage website visitors who didn’t book	$8–$20	2–4 weeks

Harris & Ward Insight
The most common dental Google Ads mistake: targeting “dentist” as a broad keyword with no radius targeting. You end up paying for clicks from people 40 miles away who will never book. Tight geographic radius (5–8 miles), specific service match types, and a dedicated landing page per campaign — not the homepage — are what separate campaigns at $30/call from campaigns at $300/call.

5. AI Search: The New Traffic Channel Dental Practices Can’t Ignore

This is the channel that didn’t exist as a meaningful patient acquisition source two years ago and is now responsible for a measurable share of new patient calls at practices optimized for it. Patients are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and voice assistants for dental recommendations — and getting direct answers that name specific practices.

Our complete guide to AI search optimization for dental practices covers this in full — but the short version of what drives AI recommendations:

✓
A complete, specific Google Business Profile. AI checks this first. If your GBP doesn’t specify your services, insurance accepted, and hours explicitly, AI tools can’t confidently recommend you.
✓
NAP consistency across every directory. Name, address, and phone number must match exactly across Google, Yelp, Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD, and 50+ other directories. A single inconsistency creates a data conflict AI treats as a trust problem.
✓
Service-specific, condition-mentioning review text. AI scans your review content. Reviews that mention “dental implants,” “kids dentist,” “painless,” “Delta Dental,” or “same-day appointment” are far more valuable than generic praise.
✓
Direct-answer content on your website. AI extracts and cites content that answers questions immediately and clearly. Every service page should open with a direct, factual answer — not a marketing headline.

6. Convert the Traffic You Already Have — Before Chasing More

Before investing in more traffic channels, it’s worth asking: what percentage of the visitors already coming to your website are becoming patients? For most dental websites, the answer is somewhere between 2% and 8%. Fixing your conversion rate means every traffic improvement you make downstream generates proportionally more patients.

The most common conversion killers we find when auditing dental websites:

✗
No click-to-call button in the mobile header. On a phone, a click-to-call button in the top bar is the highest-converting single element on a dental website. If it’s buried or missing, you’re losing a significant portion of mobile visitors before they even read a word.
✗
No online booking. Nearly 70% of dental appointments are now scheduled through digital platforms. A patient who can’t book online at 9pm will book somewhere else by morning.
✗
Slow mobile load time. Over 80% of dental searches happen on mobile. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load on a phone, a significant portion of visitors bounce before they see anything — and Google’s Core Web Vitals rankings penalize slow sites directly.
✗
Stock photography. Real photos of your actual team and office generate measurably more trust and conversion than stock imagery. A $500 professional photo session can improve conversion rates site-wide.
✗
No new patient offer. A discounted first exam or free consultation removes the biggest friction point for patients who haven’t visited your practice before. Even a modest offer significantly increases conversion from first-time website visitors.

Want to know exactly why your dental website traffic dropped?

We offer a free 30-minute dental marketing audit — we’ll look at your Google Business Profile, current rankings, website conversion rate, AI search visibility, and review profile, and show you specifically where the opportunities are.

Get Your Free Dental Marketing Audit

No long-term contracts · Dental marketing specialists since 2011 · (859) 214-0004

Your 90-Day Traffic Recovery Plan

Days 1–30: Fix the foundation

Fully optimize your Google Business Profile — add every service, 100+ photos, Q&A, insurance information. Implement a review request system via text. Add a click-to-call button and online booking to your homepage. Fix any NAP inconsistencies across directories. Launch Google Ads for your top 2–3 keywords if you need immediate traffic. These moves alone typically increase new patient inquiries by 40–70% within 30 days.

Days 31–60: Build content authority

Publish individual service pages for your top 5 procedures — each 800–1,200 words, patient-focused, with FAQ sections. Add schema markup across the site. Build 20+ new Google reviews with service-specific language. Analyze Google Ads data — cut what isn’t converting, double spend on what is. Begin seeing organic ranking movement for your new service pages.

Days 61–90: Layer in AI search visibility

With the foundation solid and content building, turn to AI search optimization — restructuring your top service pages to open with direct answers, ensuring your entity signals are consistent across all platforms, and verifying your practice is being recommended in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews for key searches in your market. Run a monthly AI visibility test: open ChatGPT and ask “Who is the best dentist for [service] in [city]?” and track whether your practice appears.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did my dental website traffic suddenly drop?

The most common causes of sudden dental website traffic drops in 2025–2026 are: Google’s Helpful Content algorithm updates penalizing thin or generic dental content; Google AI Overviews absorbing clicks that previously went to organic results; increased competition from DSOs investing heavily in dental SEO; and Google Business Profile ranking changes affecting local traffic. A comprehensive audit covering your GBP, website content, technical SEO, and competitor positioning will identify which factors are most responsible for your specific situation.

How long does it take to recover dental website traffic through SEO?

Google Business Profile and local SEO improvements typically show meaningful movement within 6–10 weeks. Organic content rankings take 3–6 months to build meaningfully and compound over 12+ months. Google Ads can drive new patient calls within 24–48 hours of launch and is the right tool if you need immediate traffic while organic visibility rebuilds.

What’s the fastest way to get more traffic to my dental website right now?

The three fastest moves: (1) Fully optimize your Google Business Profile — add photos, services, Q&A, and post weekly. This can meaningfully improve your Google Maps rankings and call volume within 30 days at zero cost. (2) Launch a Google Ads campaign for “dentist near me” and your top 2–3 procedure keywords — patients are visible within 24–48 hours of launch. (3) Implement a review acquisition system via text message — driving more reviews improves both Maps rankings and conversion rate simultaneously.

Should I invest in dental SEO or Google Ads — which is better?

Both — they serve different time horizons and should work together. Google Ads provides immediate, controllable traffic while your SEO builds. SEO builds a compounding asset that generates traffic without ongoing cost-per-click. The most effective dental marketing strategies use Google Ads to generate immediate cash flow and new patients while simultaneously building organic SEO for long-term growth. A practice that relies only on SEO has a 3–6 month wait for results. A practice that relies only on Ads is dependent on ongoing spend forever.

Does AI search actually send traffic to dental websites?

Yes — and it’s growing rapidly. Dental practices are already reporting patients citing ChatGPT, Google AI, and voice assistants on intake forms. Interestingly, AI search traffic often doesn’t show as a distinct channel in Google Analytics — it frequently appears as direct traffic because patients get a practice name from an AI tool and then type it directly into their browser. If your direct traffic has increased while other channels declined, AI search may already be a factor. The practices showing up in AI recommendations are those with complete local data, strong review profiles, and direct-answer content on their websites.

About Harris & Ward

Harris & Ward is a dental and healthcare marketing agency headquartered in Lexington, KY, specializing in dental SEO services, AI search optimization, Google Ads, and website design for dental practices across the United States. Founded 2011. harrisandward.com · (859) 214-0004

Top 6 Elements of Great Web Design

Nov 29, 2021 | Dental Marketing, Google, Web Design

Did you know that 94% of the first impressions of your website are design-related?

A poorly designed website can lead to a negative user experience in which the user clicks off your page. Not only might they go to your competitors, but these potential customers now have a negative impression of your company.

So no matter how good your content is, you need to focus just as much on the elements of web design so your site is easy to use and is pleasing to the eye.

To help you, we’ve compiled the top 6 elements that every well-designed website should include. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know to create a website your customers will love.

1. Bold colors and images

Your color palette is a vital component of making sure your business materials are cohesive and on-brand.

Think about what primary and secondary colors you’d like to use on your website. Then, think about whether they represent your brand. You can use the principles of color psychology to help you.

You can also use what’s called a hero image on your main page. A hero image is located at the top of your main page and acts as an oversized banner.

The hero image should be high resolution, add value, and reflect your company’s unique selling point (USP). The hero image can also be a short video.

Since all of the images of your website should reflect your brand, it’s a good idea to take your own photos instead of relying on stock images.

2. Clean and Eye-catching Typography

While you may love that new elegant, handwritten font you found, this type of font isn’t the best option for use on your entire website.

Think about the title/logo fonts of social media sites like Instagram and Twitter. Not only is their font easy to read, but you’d recognize it as their brand even without the logo.

Good web design uses fonts that are easy to read, catch your viewer’s eye, and also help establish your brand identity.

Some best practices when choosing your font are:

Black or gray typography
Text larger than 16 pixels
Enough space between the lines
Fonts that are standard for the web

If you want to add a handwritten font to add a more personalized and friendly touch to your site, use it sparingly. Make sure it fits with your brand story and use it in places like captions or when emphasizing certain words.

3. Search Bar

You might think that a search bar isn’t necessary if your menus are well-organized, but it’s a vital part of good web design.

While a potential customer may not need the search bar if they have no problems finding your contact information, they might need it when looking for a specific product, blog post, or any older information.

You also want to reduce the number of clicks that users need to make to get the information they’re looking for. This reduces the chances that they’ll click off your website and go to a competitor’s website instead.

The best design for a search bar is that it’s easy to use and find on the page without interfering with your content. You can add a magnifying glass icon to make the search bar even easier to find.

4. Mobile-Friendly

Over 2 billion people use their smartphones to access the Internet, and this number is only expected to grow.

So if your website looks bad on mobile, is difficult to navigate, or doesn’t load at all, you can expect that your viewers will click off the page and go to your competitors instead.

Since creating a mobile-friendly website is very difficult if you’re not a web developer, you’ll want to get a web design SEO agency to help you.

Don’t forget to test site speed both on mobile and desktop, as a slow website will only make users click off the page and be unlikely to return.

5. Powerful Calls to Action

If you don’t have a call to action, you’re missing out on sales and making it difficult for website visitors to contact you.

A call to action (CTA) is text that prompts your website viewer, customer or lead to take action. A few examples of common CTAs include:

Buy now!
Subscribe to our newsletter for 15% off
Learn more
Contact us

To create the right CTA for your website, first determine the purpose of your site. Then, create an easy-to-see action button that would make sense for your website.

For example, if you’re an e-commerce store, include a button for customers to sign up to your email list. If you’re a local mechanic, an essential CTA is a “contact me now” button.

Your website visitors shouldn’t have to click all around to find what they’re looking for, nor should they be confused when using your website.

One way to make your website navigation simple is to use minimal navigation menus. You also want to use a drop-down menu at the top of your website to reduce visual clutter.

The must-haves for navigation include:

Showing users where they are on your site
A “home” button
Directions or prompts, if needed

The best good website design examples are ones that let the user find what they are looking for without help.

If you’re not sure how usable your website is, think about conducting a usability test to see how users are navigating your website in real-time.

Include These Vital Elements of Web Design

Effective and clear web design not only makes it easy for users to navigate your site but builds trust by creating a positive impression of your brand.

Whether you have a website already or are looking to build one, include these important elements of web design to create a beautiful site that users will love.

Still have questions? Harris & Ward can help. Our skilled team of digital creatives specializes in seamless web design that facilitates growth for your brand and business.

Ready to create an eye-catching and easy-to-navigate website? Contact us today to get started.

Reel SEO: How Custom Videography Services Help Your Site Rank

Oct 20, 2021 | Dental Marketing, Google, Web Design

Do you want to rank #1 on Google? It takes a carefully curated approach to SEO, content, products, marketing, and videos.

More than that, though, it takes a fierce sense of competition. You’ll need to understand what your competitors do, and then do it better. One way to do that is by leveraging videography services to create top-notch SEO content.

The world of content is changing these days. Once, blogs were king. Now, everyone wants entertaining, informative video content. After all, TikTok’s success didn’t occur in a bubble.

To get the scoop on how videography services will help boost your SEO rankings, keep reading! We’ve assembled a guide to the benefits of video SEO, and how you can leverage it to outrank your competitors.

Leverage Keywords

People search for content using keywords. These keywords are unique to their needs, wants, desires, and communication styles.

It’s important that you can map out the user journey, from keyword search to purchasing from your eCommerce site. This starts with keyword research.

This research may be time-consuming, but it’s necessary for effective video SEO optimization. These keywords will dictate your video script, the closed captioning, hashtags, video descriptions, and the social media copy you use to promote the completed video.

It will also control your video file name, video tags, titles, and so much more. When you know your keywords, you can use them at each point of your video’s journey from start to finish.

These keywords will help shove your video to the top of Google rankings. You know what your potential customers are searching for, and the keywords you use match their search terms.

This indicates to Google that you provide value to potential customers, and is able to match the search to results accurately. Sometimes, it may feel like Google is working against you. It’s not—instead, it’s working on behalf of the customer, which is what you should be doing, too.

Include A Transcript

What is your experience as a consumer, with closed captioning? No one speaks the English language perfectly. Everyone has nuanced speech, accents, mannerisms, and unique quirks of speech.

This is worsened by the fact that microphones don’t always pick up speech perfectly. All of this can translate to a ridiculous closed captioning experience.

When someone is matching the captions with the words actually said, the content could be quite different! That’s why it’s crucial for you to invest in video transcription.

This allows HOH people and members of the Deaf community to participate in consuming your content without accessibility barriers. In fact, Google has stepped up to the plate and started prioritizing accessibility.

Here’s how it works. When companies put in the extra effort to invest in high-quality videography services that prioritize accessibility, Google notices. Accessibility means more people can access and gain value from your content.

More people means more traffic and more value. Google prioritizes search results that deliver more value, and this will spike your numbers.

Accessibility is the right thing to do, in order to reduce barriers of entry for your potential customers. But when you’re looking to outrank your competitors on Google, focusing on accessibility and transcription can make all the difference.

What’s the Load Time?

For efficient video SEO, your content needs to load quickly. Here’s the thing—experts have told us that we are living in the goldfish generation. This means that people have the average attention span of a goldfish.

The most popular content on the Internet caters to this. It’s why viral videos are short clips, why there’s a time limit on TikTok reels, and why everything moves at such a rapid, overwhelming pace.

Attention spans are short, which means that companies need to either get to the point or get out. Research shows that if your video takes more than 3 seconds to load, a significant percentage of people will exit out and look for something else.

You’re not the only one delivering your product or service. Plenty of other people are doing it, too. While your angle is unique enough to deserve a customer’s attention, they don’t know that yet.

As a business, you need to leverage your video SEO to earn their trust. The best way to do that starts by respecting their time and their attention span.

When engaging with top-notch video SEO services, you’ll receive a great end product. You should be proud of this representation of your brand—which means you should promote it on social media!

All of your videos should be published on your social media channels. There are two crucial reasons for this. To start with, there’s no reason to turn down publicity.

No one is refreshing your site every five minutes to see if your brand has published a new video. But when you promote it on the company’s Twitter channel, for instance, people will get notified.

With any luck, they’ll click on it, take a look, and engage with it. That’s the type of publicity that no brand will turn down.

It’s also important for backlinking purposes. As Google crawls through content and indexes it, it’s looking for backlinks.

When you publish a new video on your brand website, that’s where the video lives. That’s where the link is located. But when Google notices that Facebook and Twitter backlinked to it, the algorithm perks up and takes a closer look.

After all, backlinking indicates greater value. Greater value means content deserves a higher Google ranking, which can help you sail to the #1 spot.

Engaging with Videography Services

Whether you’re trying to boost your YouTube video SEO or looking for top-notch website brand videos, our videography services have you covered. Our knowledge and expertise can help your brand rise through Google’s rankings and attract attention.

If you need top-notch creative digital marketing services, we’ve got you covered. Contact us today to see how we can help!

How to Create the Perfect Dentistry Website

Sep 15, 2021 | Dental Marketing, Google, Web Design

Over 38% of people judge a business based on how their website looks at first glance. Another 38% stop interacting with poorly designed websites. If your dentistry website doesn’t wow potential patients, they might leave.

As people continue leaving your website, your search engine rankings will drop. You might struggle to reach patients in the future as a result.

Don’t let it come to that! Instead, read on to discover the nine essentials you need to consider for your new dental website. After reading this guide, you can create the perfect dental site with your target audience in mind.

Then, you can generate more dental leads, book more appointments, and boost business.

Set your dental practice up for success. Improve your website with these nine tips today.

1. Establish Your Goals

Before you start designing and developing your dental website, take a moment to consider your short- and long-term goals. Otherwise, your dental site won’t align with your business and marketing objectives.

For example, maybe you want to:

Establish your credibility in the industry
Post more articles and unique content
Share before and after photos
Educate people about your services
Share patient reviews
Generate brand awareness
Improve search engine rankings
Book more appointments online

Establishing your goals will determine what elements you need to include on your website.

For example, let’s say you want to book more appointments through your dental site. Consider adding more than one conversion opportunity. You can add an online booking system, too.

If you want to establish your credibility, use blog posts and patient reviews.

Once you establish your goals, you can start creating your dental website.

2. Maintain Brand Consistency

As you start working on your dentistry website, make sure to consider your brand.

A distinct brand will help you stand out from other dentists in the area. Patients will start to recognize your brand on sight. You can generate brand awareness and recognition on different marketing channels.

Without brand consistency, however, you could confuse patients. They might confuse you with another dentist. Meanwhile, they won’t connect your marketing materials on different channels.

You could struggle to create an omnichannel marketing strategy if that’s the case.

You can maintain brand consistency by creating and following brand guidelines. These guidelines should include your:

Logo
Imagery styles
Vision statement
Mission statement
Brand voice and tone
Brand personality
Color palette
Font styles

Once you establish your brand guidelines, make sure your branding is consistent across every page of your site. Otherwise, someone might click from one page to the next and think they’re on a different dental site.

3. Improve the User Experience

As you begin working on your dentist site, make sure to keep the user experience (UX) in mind.

A positive user experience will encourage visitors to explore your content. They’ll click around, increasing your dwell times and clickthrough rate. Your search engine rankings could rise as a result.

Higher search engine rankings will help you generate more brand awareness. Your dental site will appear before others in a search, too. You could boost your brand credibility as a result.

You can improve the UX on your site by:

Using short sentences and paragraphs
Organizing content in headings and subheadings
Improving page load times
Getting mobile optimized
Adding an SSL certificate for security

Run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Mobile-Friendly Test. Make sure your site is fast and easy to use on smaller screens.

4. Start Blogging

Remember, adding a blog to your website can boost your credibility. You can demonstrate your experience and expertise to boost brand trust. Blogging could improve your search engine rankings, too.

Add a blog to your dental website and start creating fresh content on a schedule.

5. Get Mobile-Optimized

Mobile optimization will ensure you don’t neglect part of your target audience.

In fact, mobile devices account for nearly 70% of all internet traffic. About 90% of people use multiple screens sequentially, too. Nearly 70% of companies that develop a mobile-first website see a rise in sales.

If your website isn’t optimized for smaller devices, people might leave.

6. Use SEO

Once you start blogging, optimize your website for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO can boost your search engine rankings. You can appear in front of more people who are looking for a local dentist.

Your search engine rankings can improve as you start blogging.

Consider working with an experienced digital marketing agency that offers SEO services. They can help you boost your rankings and generate more traffic.

7. Add Conversion Opportunities

Make sure to add more than one conversion opportunity on your website. For example, you can use a form, allowing visitors to ask questions.

You can also use a chatbot and appointment scheduler.

Adding more than one conversion opportunity could improve the UX. Visitors will have an easier time contacting you online. Otherwise, you might miss a chance to generate leads from your dental website.

8. Post Reviews

Consider adding reviews to your dentistry website as well. Happy patient reviews can boost your credibility. On-the-fence patients will see your current patients already love and trust your practice.

You can feed your Google My Business reviews to your website using a plugin. Don’t forget to encourage people to post reviews throughout the year!

9. Work With a Pro

If you’re feeling stuck while working on your dental website, don’t feel stressed out. Instead, consider hiring a professional team.

A professional web design and development agency can improve your dental site with your goals in mind. You can improve the front and backend of your site. Your dental website will look and function as intended.

Then, you can generate more dental leads and set your practice up for long-term success.

Toothy Leads: 9 Tips for Creating the Perfect Dentistry Website

Improving your dentistry website will help you generate fresh leads throughout the year. You can book more appointments and help more patients. As your search engine rankings improve, you can boost brand awareness, too.

Set your practice up for growth and success with these dental site tips today.

Need help developing your digital marketing strategy? We’re here for you.

How Long Does It Take to Design a Website for Your Business?

Aug 18, 2021 | Web Design

Is there anything more frustrating than waiting for a project to be completed? It’s especially annoying when you don’t have a clear timeline, or you’re waiting for the project to get completed before you start working on other projects.

Whether you’re building a website for your start-up business or you’re redesigning an existing website, it’s important to get some facts on the table before you start. The first question you need to answer is, “how long does it take to design a website?” Getting a website project time estimate from your website designer will help you plan other aspects of your business’ marketing campaigns.

For example, you can’t start a pay-per-click campaign until you have a website to direct customers to. Many businesses use their website as the main point of contact for customers, which is another reason why it’s so important to get a timeline on your website project.

In the article below, you’ll find some information on how long it usually takes to design a website and some content you’ll need to gather to finish the site. Read on to learn everything you need to know about website timelines.

You Need Certain Content Before You Can Expect a Website

If you want a well-designed website, you’re going to need to provide the website design team with some content. This content includes words, images, video, and any animations you might need on the site.

You should have your most powerful images on the homepage. If you’re going to use video on your site, it may be a good idea to have a pop-up video that appears when people land on the website.

Some small business website design firms will be able to help you with videography and photography. This is a great way to get custom images and videos and avoid relying on stock images. Once you’ve gathered your videos and images, you’re going to want to provide the website design firm with some copy for your website.

You’ll need headlines, subheadlines, body paragraphs, and a list of features, products, or services. Whether you do this yourself or hire an outside copywriter, it’s important to make sure the website design firm understands the messaging you want to have on your website.

Your Website Won’t Be Done Until You’ve Taken Care of SEO

Creating a website without thinking about search engine optimization (SEO) is like opening a store without putting up any signage. Your website won’t be an effective business tool unless prospective customers can find it in search results. When you’re considering how to design a website, make sure the website design firms also specialize in search engine optimization.

One of the best ways to make your website SEO-friendly is to add a blog page. Websites that have fresh, original content tend to do better in search results than websites that stay stagnant. The blog page provides you with a place to add lengthy articles that are targeted towards specific keywords.

Different types of websites require different levels of search engine optimization. A one-page website should use keywords in the headlines and subheads while also having optimized metatags.

A website with many pages should have strong internal linking. That means each page has links to other pages on the site. No matter what type of website you’re building, it’s important to pay attention to the speed of the website.

So How Long Does It Take to Design a Website?

Designing a website well takes months, and you should be prepared to wait if you want a high-quality website. The design process timeline also depends on what you need in a website.

If you just need a place to showcase your services or products and provide a way for customers to get in touch, you shouldn’t have to wait more than three months. If you need a detailed website with several different pages and unique features like animation or other functionality, you may have to wait four to five months.

The best website design firms should be able to complete most websites in 90 to 120 days, but this timeline also depends on how much input you want to have. The sooner you can provide the web design firm with all the relevant content, the sooner your website will be completed.

It’s also important to make sure the website design firm knows all your needs upfront. Website designs tend to take longer when the client asks for new features halfway through the project or they’re unclear about what they want the website to look like.

If you’re trying to speed up the website design process, the best thing you can do is develop a clear outline for your website needs and provide the website design team with all the content you’d like featured on your site.

Now You’re Ready to Start Your Web Design Process

One of the most important parts of the web design process is the initial meeting with the design team. To prepare for this meeting, you should identify the pages you’d like to have on your site and the message you’d like the website to project.

Hiring a website design firm will provide you with experts who can answer questions about your site. If you’re ready to build a new website, you can get in touch with the expert web design team at Harris & Ward.

Website Design and Development: The Key Strategies to Know

Jan 26, 2021 | Dental Marketing, Google, Web Design

Are you a small business wondering how to go about designing a website?

You might be relying on your Facebook page as a substitute, or even wondering if you need a website in the first place. Have you considered the price you’d pay for not having one?

Website design and development involves a large devotion of time and energy, but the rewards are huge. Shockingly, almost half of entrepreneurs still don’t have a small business website. Furthermore, only a third of those who do, use their website to communicate news to customers and leads.

If you don’t want to see your small business screaming into the void, it’s time to consider a website. If you don’t have one, how will you win customers from the half of your rivals that do?

We’ll explain how to know your audience, develop a strategy, hone your content, and track the results. Read on!

Know Your Audience

When you’re designing a website, the first thing to keep in mind is your target audience. If you have anything less than a crystal-clear image of your buyer persona, then you need to first invest time in researching the profile of your typical customers.

Once you have established a firm understanding of who you are aiming your website towards, you are better able to be in-sync with them. Successful website design and development will require accurate information to feed every stage of the process.

When you’ve internalized a personification of your average buyer, creative decisions, like tone, color, and imagery, flow with relative ease. If your small business has never conducted audience research, then the results will uncover a wealth of knowledge to define or evolve your brand identity.

It’s important to note that after defining and establishing the tone of your business, you should be consistent throughout the website. Staying “on brand” ensures that your message resonates with clarity and cohesion. Website visitors are all too easily distracted and don’t need much of an excuse to get confused and leave.

Research the websites of your successful competitors, who will have invested resources in honing their messaging already. Identify what is working for them, but also uncover gaps in their strategy. You can incorporate these findings to meet and exceed the competition.

Mood boards are useful to visualize creative approaches and see how well ideas communicate.

Develop a Strategy

Website design strategies that work focus on one primary goal and secondary goals that reinforce the main-agenda.

The primary goal of a small business website might be to turn leads into customers. A secondary goal could include turning existing customers into repeat business. The third goal of your website may center on engagement – encouraging your visitors to share your content on social media, for instance.

A simple layout wins in nearly all cases at capturing the limited attention of your target audience. It’s important to have a responsive website design. This entails having your website optimized to resize and restructure for various browsers and platforms.

Desktop users were once the majority of website visitors, but now, the lion’s share of site viewers will use various mobile devices. Tablets and phones of all shapes and sizes mean that a flexible and adaptable design is essential.

Map out the buyer journey when conceiving the structure of your website. Create a flowchart to prototype your site so that important pages are easy to navigate. Later, a more detailed sitemap can come together as the structure becomes more fully formed.

Attention, Interest, Decision, and Acquisition (AIDA) is a principle that can help shape the buyer funnel.

Focus on Content

There’s another variant of the AIDA principle: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. This can work within the website pages themselves to ensure that all selling pages are effective at driving action.

A website built in a content management system (CMS) like WordPress will make it easier to create, delete, and maintain content.

Choose appropriate keywords that are popular in your industry, and build your website content around them. Use them in the title, meta descriptions, and headings, but don’t over-insert them awkwardly. Your copy must have a human linguistic flow so that search engines can easily read and index your pages.

To improve your rankings, implement a successful SEO content strategy that focuses on regular keyword-driven content to increase organic visibility. Your goal should be visibility high in the results on the first page of Google, for your industry and in your area. Regular articles, written in a blog format, are very effective at accomplishing this.

Create regular content with a focus on your keywords to increase your organic search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. Your goal should be visibility high in the results on the first page of Google, for your industry and in your area. Regular articles, written in a blog format, are very effective at accomplishing this.

When developing a website, make sure that the information on each page is presented in an easy-to-read fashion. Good use of white space is important, so as not to overload the eyes.

Break up the copy so that it is most effective in a hierarchical sense. Frequent one-line spaces between paragraphs make the copy easy to scan. Keep paragraphs 2-3 sentences long for the same reason, and make good use of headings, subheadings, etc.

Track Results

Winning website development strategies often treat all pages as if they were landing pages. Sometimes, unexpected pages may rank very well, causing high numbers of visitors to land on them.

By tracking your results using Google Analytics, you can optimize these pages further still. Website speed is important so as not to lose visitors who might get frustrated by the loading time. Website analytics are useful at monitoring performance and engagement.

It’s a good idea to have a call-to-action (CTA) at the top of pages, perhaps in the menu. This CTA is intended for buyers who are further along in the decision-making process. A second and more prominent CTA would be well-placed near the end of the page contents, with the rest of the page built around it.

A/B testing involves serving up two slightly different pages to a split audience. The page style with the best results wins.

Remember, the goal of any website geared around selling is to win out over the competition. Competitive analysis tools are useful in website design and development to serve this objective.

Finally, you must always evolve and tweak your website because a successful website is never a finished, static entity.

Website Design and Development

We’ve shown that website design and development requires careful planning if you want to hit your goals. Don’t be overwhelmed by the hard work that’s necessary to beat your competitors.

If you’re a small business owner developing a website, we can help you. We specialize in website design and provide creative marketing services to small businesses across the nation. Our core services are web development and hosting, but we also offer custom photography, videography, and search engine optimization (SEO).

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