5 Website Features Every Dental Practice Needs

by Sammi Dittloff, NexHealth

Whether you’re building out your dental practice’s website for the first time or undergoing a redesign, there are certain things you should keep in mind before you hit “Publish.” From elements on your homepage to your blog content, this article covers major features you need on your website to maximize your ability to attract and convert patients. 

Easy access to contact information 

Having a website without contact information is like running a restaurant with no menu. You’re just going to confuse and frustrate your visitors, and likely have a lot of people leave. If current or future patients can’t figure out how to contact you from your site, they may end up putting off reaching out, or they might switch to a different dentist completely. 

These contact pieces are essential: 

  • Office locations with full addresses 
  • Email address 
  • Phone number(s) 

While these are optional, but great to have: 

  • Contact form
  • Chat functionality 

Today’s patients (and consumers in general) want websites to be easy to navigate and use. Provide a contact form where visitors can submit questions. Better yet, add live chat functionality to your site. These will help your patients and prospects get in touch in a way that doesn’t involve waiting to get through on the phone or going back and forth via email. 

“Book Now” button 

Because patients today want every website they visit to be easy, adding a “Book Now” button to your site will also give you a leg up. For younger visitors, digital communication has become far more popular than phone calls. If patients can book from your website without ever having to pick up the phone, it’s a big win. Make sure to put booking buttons in prominent, above-the-fold areas of your website, so that they see them when they first arrive on the page. You can also use booking buttons on your social media pages, in emails, and on any local listings you can customize. 

Blog content 

It’s true – these days it feels like everyone has a blog, but there’s a good reason for that. Writing regular, up-to-date content shows Google that you are properly maintaining your website. Plus, the more content you publish, the more search engines can figure out the context of your website and rank it with the proper context. Your blog strategy shouldn’t be willy nilly. Make sure you work with someone who specializes in SEO (search engine optimization) to plan for relevant content that can also get you to appear in search results. Remember, this technique will result in a slow build of traffic, but long-term success can be very worth the planning. 

Review/testimonial area 

When prospective patients are on the fence about which dentist to choose, they are going to do their research. They’ll look at scheduling information, services you offer, and most importantly, reviews from current and former patients. While it’s great to have reviews visible on Google My Business, Yelp, and other local listing pages, use your website to highlight some of the most glowing accounts. If you can record video testimonials, even better. Including positive words from your patients is one way you can add social proof to your site, an important part of your overall web presence. 

Newsletter opt-in 

And finally, you want to make sure that visitors who are not yet your patients have the opportunity to hear more from you without navigating back to your website. Create a newsletter opt-in to capture emails from people who may want to know about specials you’re running on services like teeth whitening. An opt-in can exist as a slim banner at the top of the page, a slide-in pop-up, or a form somewhere prominent on your website. Don’t discount the value of email. As the years go on, it continues to show a strong return on investment. For every $1 you spent on email, you get an average of $38 back. Gathering email addresses and marketing promotions to that list is always worth your time. 

Just by making these five changes to your website, you’ll be closer to driving traffic, building leads, and converting new patients!


About the Author

Sammi Dittloff is a marketer and writer for NexHealth, a telehealth platform that allows for online booking, reviews, appointment reminders, payments, and more. Sammi loves writing and strategizing about healthcare, food, professional services, and almost any other topic you can imagine. When she’s not writing for one job or another, you can find her crafting, playing with her dogs, or streaming on Twitch. 


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