Given that over two-thirds of their target audience is likely to be active users of the internet, it is abundantly clear that dentists should have a website to give them an online presence and to help promote their dental practice. How to have a website built can differ, but not every way is suitable if a dental business wishes to attract new patients and be able to expand.
First, we advise dentists to not use the “Do-It-Yourself” approach. Dentists are experts at oral health not building websites, and just as you would never ask web designers to fill cavities or give dental implants, dentists are best served not building their own websites. It might seem a cheaper option, but it will take longer, and the results will almost certainly be suboptimal.
Another option is to buy a template to either try to build a website or to ask a freelancer to build it. Now, there are lots of excellent freelance web designers, but even here, the result is not going to be as good as if you follow the path that we suggest. That is to have a custom website designed and built by a professional web design agency. Here are 7 reasons why custom web design beats using a template every time.
It Is Unique: Why would you want a website for your dental practice that looks the same as others? Better to have a unique website that can be created for your objectives in a style and with functions that you believe will augment your website’s effectiveness.
You Can Brand Your Dental Practice: A huge benefit of a custom web design is that it can match and augment your dental business’s branding. By using brand-specific colours, logos, graphics and fonts, the whole website can make your brand stronger.
It Functions Better: Nothing will see website visitors disappear faster than the website they land on having errors and functions which do not work. Templates are notorious for these issues, plus they have limited functions to start with. A custom website built by experts will function reliably.
It Loads Quicker: No one likes slow websites, but, unfortunately, that is often the case when a template is used. Slow loading pages means lost visitors and it can also negatively affect rankings on Google which makes it a double blow. Conversely, custom websites load quickly meaning visitors stay and rankings improve.
Its Security Is Higher: Online security is a huge issue across the internet and one which must be factored into any website design. by far the most effective way to have a secure website is to have it custom built where the web design agency will include several security enhancements within the site.
It Can Be Expanded: Ideally, you want your website to contribute to the growth of your dental business, and when that happens there may be a need for your website to also grow. That can be difficult if you have used a template, but straightforward if you have a custom website that can easily be upgraded.
SEO Is More Effective: Template websites tend to have basic SEO built into them, but with a custom website the sky is the limit, or rather the #1 ranking on Google is the limit. If you want traffic from Google then the primary way is with a custom web design that can be fully optimised for Google’s ranking algorithms.