Dental marketing expert Angela Homer lists the essential topics that should always be up for discussion with a website designer… before hiring them.
From branding and design to development and copywriting, your practice website must be aesthetically pleasing, technically sound and optimised to perform well, attracting the type of patient for your practice while adhering to GDPR and General Dental Council (GDC) regulations.
A robust digital presence will include a social media strategy across multiple platforms and paid lead generation, most commonly through Google and social paid ads. It should also support a great-looking and high-converting website. Organic and local search engine optimisation (SEO) are vital elements, which I hope to focus on in a future article.
But what are the methodologies and tools that create patient-centric marketing campaigns? How will your website designer personalise engagement strategies and utilise data-driven approaches to foster stronger connections between your dental practice and patients that will support a growing business?
It’s not just about building a website. It’s about nurturing a thriving online presence that reflects the excellence of your dental practice.
Asking the right questions can help clarify expectations, gauge the agency’s expertise and ensure a successful long-term partnership for creating a website that meets your practice needs.
This article presents some crucial topics you should consider when appointing your next website design agency – and why.
Experience and portfolio
Experience, personality and flexibility are essential ingredients when choosing the right web design agency for you. What experience does the agency have in creating websites for dental clinics? Can the agency provide examples and evidence of successful results? Ask for references or case studies from previous dental clinic clients and check any testimonials or reviews.
It is essential that you choose an agency that works with you, actively listens and engages positively, and is honest and manages your expectations.
Communication with the agency is critical to keeping the project moving in a timely manner, so if you are a hands-on principal working in the practice, ask if they have flexible working hours to suit you.
Customisation and branding
Customisation, design and great function are all critical essentials in website design. They must reflect you and your dental practice: an excellent website accurately represents the brand with language and imagery tailored and unique to you and attracts the right kind of patient.
Are you looking for a solid clinical design or a more fun approach? Do you want bold or subtle? How will the agency ensure the website design aligns with your practice branding and identity? Can it accommodate specific design preferences or incorporate existing branding elements into the website? Branding and design across all channels should be consistent, and a good design agency will help seed your personality into your website and marketing.
For most principals, the practice is an extension of them, and the online presence should reflect this. Ensure the agency team understands who you are.
You may already have a strong brand and excellent marketing skills, but now you need to hand over the reins to an agency to help you rebrand or bring the brand to life. Ensure you give them a strong brief and discuss whether they have an artistic licence or need to work within the guidelines; communication is critical.
Functionality and features
A dental website design agency should understand the features and functionalities that will enhance a dental practice’s website and the overall efficiency of its online presence.
Embracing tools that increase the patient experience – such as online scheduling and chatbots – demonstrates a commitment to staying current. It shows an awareness of evolving patient expectations and a willingness to adopt technologies that improve the patient online journey.
Therefore, a dental website agency should have a range of add-ons at its fingertips to create a user-friendly, efficient and competitive online presence for the dental practice.
These features all help to contribute to improved patient satisfaction, streamlined operations and a positive overall image of the dental practice.
Content management and updates
The website should allow your team to update and manage content independently. Most agencies provide training or support for maintaining the website after it’s launched.
Ensure a dedicated person within your team can access the website to update staff members, change opening times, or access the fees page, for example. This will save you incurring charges and, more importantly, time waiting for amends to be actioned.
Desktop and mobile versions
How will the dental website agency ensure the website is mobile-responsive and user-friendly? Will your website be a bespoke design, customised, or template version? With approximately 80% of your patients looking on a mobile device, it is more important than ever to ensure a great user experience by being quick to load and easy to navigate, especially the mobile version.
Some web designers will build with a mobile-first approach, allowing you to influence the mobile layout; this means you can decide where on the screen the most important, converting content appears and can limit the amount of text scrolling that can sometimes turn off prospective patients.
Security and compliance
Ensure the website is kept updated to avoid any vulnerability in the site and safeguard your patient’s data.
GDPR laws were introduced to keep the patients’ data safe, and your agency will guide you to ensure the website is compliant.
GDC requirements are more about providing information to ensure patients can make an informed decision when choosing the practice. This includes information about dentists, including GDC number and qualifications, contact details and complaints procedures for the practice, which are easy to access online.
Timeline and deliverables
Establish an estimated timeline for the project. Can the agency provide a detailed breakdown of the project milestones and deliverables?
Asking these questions helps establish a clear understanding between you both, fostering a smoother development process and ensuring the final product meets your needs and expectations.
Understanding the estimated timeline helps plan other business aspects, such as marketing and operations. It also allows the dental practice owner to align the website development process with their overall business strategy.
Proactive problem solving ensures the project stays on track with regular check-ins at critical milestones. And don’t forget, if you want a job done well, it might be worth waiting for the right person.
Cost and payment structure
What is the agency’s pricing structure for website design and development? Are there any additional costs, such as ongoing maintenance fees, that you should know about?
A clear understanding of the costs – and how these are timed with the project’s development – aids the project’s budget management. It lets you plan and allocate funds accordingly, preventing unexpected financial surprises – and ensures the agency delivers on time.
Ongoing support and maintenance
What ongoing support or maintenance packages are offered once the website is live?
There will always be a few snags, functionality, content, and imagery amends, so make sure you know what timeframe you have to proof and amend post-launch.
Work patterns and support availability
Is the agency available at the right time? This is important as many practice owners are so busy working ‘in the business’ that very often, the only time they get to work ‘on the business’ is outside of their practice’s opening hours.
An accommodating agency will work around your hours and may even have late-night working hours to accommodate their clients.
And finally, look to the future…
Where do you want to be in 12 months – or five years? At the start of your journey, share your business plans with the agency so they can build a website on the right platform. This is a significant investment for your business, so making sure it can scale with you is crucial.
You may have a modest, small practice right now, but big development plans to change the site and build the website that represents where you are going so it has longevity.
If you have plans to expand, will this be by acquisition and have multiple brands or set up squat practices? Will the website become a multi-site, and can the site you are developing accommodate that?
Key questions to ask a website designer
- What experience does the agency have in creating websites for dental clinics?
- Can the agency provide examples and evidence of successful results?
- How will the agency ensure the website design aligns with the practice’s branding and identity?
- Can the agency accommodate specific design preferences or incorporate existing branding elements into the website?
- How will the agency ensure the website is mobile-responsive and
user-friendly? - Will the website be a bespoke design, customised, or template version?
- Can the agency provide a detailed breakdown of the project milestones
and deliverables? - What is the agency’s pricing structure for website design and development?
- Are there any additional costs, such as ongoing maintenance fees, that you should know about?
- What ongoing support or maintenance packages are offered once the website is live?
- Does the agency offer flexible working hours?
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