Are you ready for your first foray into the still relatively untapped market that is the World Wide Web? Or maybe you’re already online, but you realize something’s just not quite right with your website because you’re not getting the great results that everybody keeps talking about? Or perhaps it’s even been a few years since you’ve made any updates to your website?
Whatever the reason that you’re in the market for a new web designer, there are a few key questions — and ultimately answers — that you need to ask yourself before moving forward. These questions will aid in speeding up the design process, should help to enhance the product produced, all while helping to decrease the total cost involved. Let’s get started.
1) What kind of “look and feel” am I looking to portray to my patients and potential new patients?
Honestly, you may not even be sure and if you’re not, you shouldn’t worry too much because a good web designer should not only know the industry, but how to properly bring your brand to fruition online. However, having a specific stylization that you utilize, for example dentists specializing in dentistry for children may have a circus or zoo themed office, would be a good thing to bring over into your website. Make your website an extension of your office and brand. You will be amazed at how effective this strategy is in conversion and retention of new and existing clientele.
2) Which current marketing materials do I want to incorporate into my website?
Colors, slogans, business cards, sales brochures, imagery all make up your brand. Having the items you wish to incorporate ready for your designer will not only help them “help you” get the best possible site design. This is also a good time to review your current marketing materials such as reminders, bio pages, etc… Establishing and keeping your brand as a cohesive unit should always be your goal.
3) Will I or my staff be writing the content for my website or will I need to use the web designer’s copywriters?
Remember not all designers are writers. For example, here at Pro Dental our designers, design, our SEO’s achieve top rankings, and our copywriters write great content. We believe in order to give you the best possible site we need to have the best and brightest team members to make that happen. Don’t EVER let content be an afterthought. Remember the SEO’s bring in the new patients, the website grabs their attention, but it’s the content that “sells” them on the fact that you are the dentist for them.
4) What pages/information do I really want people to see and to know about me?
Your designer will use this information to create focal points and what are known as “traffic funnels” to make sure that the visitors to your website see the information that you feel is most important to you. For example a cosmetic dentist is going to want to highlight items such as veneers more so than filling repair or cleanings. General dentistry of course will take a broader approach and drive new patients into the office with enticing new patient offers.
5) What features on other website do I want to add to my site?
Have you seen a blog, calendar, custom form, or any other custom feature on another dentist’s website that you would like to incorporate into your website? While some features may not be advisable from a usability standpoint, and any good web designer should be able to steer you in the right direction on that front, it is a good idea to have ready the sites and the specific pages of the feature that you want. This will help the designer give you straight forward pricing, as well as advise you on whether it’s a good fit for future traffic-to-patient conversions.
6) Who is my target demographic?
For some dentists it may be new patients looking for a checkup, for others it may be veneers or sleep dentistry, still for others it is all of the above. Knowing your target demo helps a good web designer to create a structured design that aesthetically stands out, but ultimately helps you meet your marketing goals.
7) I prefer to have patients contact me via email, in person, on the phone from my website.
It may sound like a simple question, “How do you prefer patients to contact you?” but a good web designer will use this information in their “traffic funnels” in order to “nudge” your potential patients to the contact method that YOU prefer. Unfortunately, to many design firms contact is an afterthought, but to a good designer, having patients contact you from your website is the main purpose of having the website in the first place.
8 ) What other sites do I like?
Similar to question #5, but here it’s always going to be helpful to have a few sites that you like either the color scheme, layout, content, pages or some combination of all of the above. Again, to a good designer, it’s all about giving you the best possible site that fits exactly what you want, while also mastering the ultimate goal of converting traffic into new patients.
9) Do I want to be able to make my own changes to the site via a content management system or do I want to work with the designer to make needed updates and changes periodically?
Typically setting up a proper content management system will be more expensive upfront, but can make it easier for you to make your own changes. However, if you’re also running any kind of online marketing campaigns, especially an organic search engine optimization campaign, by changing the different pages from how the SEO set them up may cause shifts in a downward manner for your top rankings.
This is definitely something to discuss with your designer / SEO consultant and come up with the best option for you. Honestly, the best way to look at this is how much do you want to personally work on the website? We always build inexpensive updates into our quotes so that our clients have very little if any future page update costs. For example updating contact information, dates, or simple text should never be a burden to get done.
10) What is my budget for this project?
Let’s be honest, when it comes to the price of just about anything that price can vary wildly. This is especially true when it comes to website design pricing.
Now one caveat here is when we discuss web design pricing we assume that you are only working with a design firm in the US or Canada. Frankly offshore pricing matches offshore quality… In other words do you want your potential patients, when viewing your website, to think that your work is “offshore” or do you want them to KNOW that your work as a dentist is quality? You know when you go to a website what kind of trust factor comes from the way their website looks. Patients WILL judge you by your website. You only have one chance (actually online you have 8 seconds) to make a good impression.
Many dental web designers offer template based designs that do keep the costs down, but you suffer greatly when it comes to quality, conversions, and the ability for the site to rank on the search engines. Typically this is really where most dentists start as the cost comparative to custom are of course lower. Most template companies simply press a few buttons and presto! — They have a site. However, most dentists soon learn that having the same looking site as the “dentist down the street” doesn’t work for conversions. Also Google knows when you are running duplicate content so its search engine ranking can become an exercise in true futility.
Now custom website design is a completely different animal. A custom website is built from the ground up by graphic designers that will create custom graphics and imagery that fit you and your dental practice. A custom design, while having a higher initial cost, pays for itself in spades when it comes to initial conversions and the ability for the site to achieve top search engine ranking. No use of cookie cutter designs here, when you go custom you are making an investment in your practice.
Realistically initial design costs are not even that much higher, sometimes as low as 5-10% more than a template based design, but the lower bounce rates (the amount of traffic that stays or leaves your site immediately) really will make a difference when you start seeing all of the new patients come through your doors.
Ready to get started? We have dental web designers standing by!
