I Have A Pretty Website But No New Patients
We cannot tell you how many times we have heard this. We talk to a doctor who just spent several thousand dollars on a new website, but they have no new patients calling from it.
So let’s dive a little deeper into this subject and get a little better understanding of why this might be happening.
Number One: You Don’t Have The Rankings On Google To Attract New Patients
Let’s face it, if you are beyond two pages deep in the search results, you aren’t getting any traffic. If you don’t have traffic, it doesn’t matter what your website looks like.
Getting traffic to your site will come a few different ways:
- Through a search done on a search engine
- Pay Per Click Such as Google Adwords
- Paid Advertising on Social Media or Apps
- Referred Traffic from another source such as Social Post, Videos and more.
To begin getting new patients, you have to first develop traffic to your site or landing pages.
Depending on where you rank for key search phrases for your market, will determine whether or not you need to use paid traffic until your rankings develop which takes time.
An audit of your web presence can help determine a balance between paid and organic traffic development.
Here Is Why Organic Traffic Through Search Engine Optimization Is Important
Paid traffic runs out when the budget does. If you budget $500 per month for Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, when the budget is gone, the traffic is gone. This is not to mention that you need a really good conversion rate to justify the spend in the dental market as keywords for dental related phrases tend to be expensive.
However, when you post search optimized quality content on your site, that content lives on beyond the budget. You may pay to have that blog post put on your site, but it will have value to your site long beyond a months time.
Achieving great rankings in search can pay for itself exponentially. We have clients that if they had to pay for the traffic that they get because they have excellent rankings, would have to spend $20,000 per month in Pay Per Click to get that same traffic.
Developing rankings and organic traffic is critical to your long term success in marketing your dental practice.
Number 2: You Don’t Have Clear Messaging or Relevant Content On Your Website
Time and time again we see websites that perform dismally in the search rankings and in conversions simply because they do not have clear messaging and content that is relevant to their target audience.
It doesn’t matter how pretty your website is or how much money you spent having it designed and built if the messaging is not clear and people do not find what they are looking for.
When potential patients are searching for a dentist, they tend to search in terms that are relevant to the need they have. That’s why google doesn’t return results based on keywords anymore but rather what they feel the intent of the search is.
Google memorizes your actions. It remembers the sites you go to and how often. With each click you make, you are showing a pattern toward a specific end. Google tries to return the best result for you based on those habits and trends.
The more specific your messaging and your content on your site, social media, videos and other content outlets, the better the chance you have of being found and you are one step closer to that visitor calling you.
From Zero To Hero
We have seen dental practices go from nothing to getting several new patients a month using only a content strategy.
They put out great, quality and helpful content that people were actually searching for and the results are amazing.
They don’t have to spend tons on paid advertising because they are attracting the best search results.
Simply put, to make your website make you money, you have to turn that site into a publishing machine and then use your social media to reinforce your content marketing strategy.
Number 3: Your Website Is Not User Friendly
If someone lands on your website and they are immediately confused, they are gone.
It doesn’t matter how pretty your site is if it is confusing, unorganized, full of distractions and hard to navigate.
Your website is resource to solve patient problems. If they land on your site getting to where they want to go is unclear, then they will just click away and go to the next guy.
A great book was written on web design called “Don’t Make Me Think About It.” Clean, responsive and clear design is important to make sure your visitors stay on your site.
Your dental website needs to provide your visitors with a clear understanding of what they need to do. Lots of designers like the newest and greatest design elements that look cool but do not lend value to the site visitor.
Categorizing your site can be helpful. For example:
Are you here looking for:
- Solutions for whiter teeth
- Help with crooked teeth
- Solutions for missing teeth
- Help with dental pain
- and so on …
Under each of these categories, you would have the solutions your office offers for those particular needs.
Number 4: Weak Call To Actions
Tell those potential patients what you want them to do.
Every page, blog post, video or podcast should have a call to action. It may differ from one piece of content to the other, but you need to make sure you get the site visitor to take and action.
In the case of your dental practice, you want that phone call or at the very least to capture their contact information. Make it plain on every page.
Remember: If you never ask, they will never do. You have to guide the visitor to a particular action.
Number 5: Your Website Was Built For You and Not Your Target Audience
This can be a sacred cow for some dentist.
Your website may impress you and may look impressive to the dentist down the road, but the fact is, it must relate to and engage your target audience.
We have audited websites that it would take a college degree to be able to understand most of the content on the site.
The average reading level is 6th to 8th grade. I know that sounds terrible but it’s true. If you don’t have content on your site that is understandable and speaks in a conversational way, you will not convert as well.
You cannot have a website full of dental jargon and technical information. Your site has to speak to the potential patient in a way that helps them trust you enough to call you.
That’s one thing that has made TurnKey Dental Marketing successful. We have been able to effectively communicate the facets of dentistry in an easy to understand and meaningful way.
Does Any Of This Fit You
Listen, we understand the pain dentist go through trying to market their practices. That’s why we listened to several of our clients in the beginning to find out what they were looking for and how we could help them.
That’s when we discovered that most dentist just needed a simple but effective plan that they could wrap their head around and see results.
That lead us to develop an educational process that helped them understand better what it took to market their practice, how to do it effectively and without breaking the bank.
If you are looking for a clear and effective path to growing your practice and your bottomline, then give us a call today for a consultation and web presence audit.
