As an orthodontist, your website is like the digital version of your practice. It’s the first thing most patients will come in contact with before they ever walk through your door, and it’s important that your website gives them the same impression of your brand that your physical office does. Just like it’s important for the interior and exterior of your office to be updated and welcoming for your patients, your website should do the same. Unfortunately though, orthodontic websites often take a back seat in terms of priority when it comes to the effort and expense required for updates.

If you’re wondering whether or not your website could use some updates, or even a major overhaul, we’ve compiled a brief checklist to help you make a mental note of the state of your website.

Look at Its Lifespan

When was the last time your website received a complete overhaul? These days, websites have a lifespan of about 3-5 years. Technology is changing so quickly and websites need to keep up with it. If it’s been a few years since your website had a complete makeover, it’s probably time to invest in one.

Your Website is Still Static

Is your website still built with HTML, or does it utilize a content management system (CMS)? If you’re not sure about the answer to that question, ask yourself if you’re always having to contact a website admin/developer to take care of any updates or changes to the site, or if it’s easy for your in-house team to log in and do it themselves. If your website doesn’t already use CMS that makes updates simple and user-friendly, it’s probably time for an update.

Responsiveness

Did you know that there are likely more people who will view your website on a mobile device than they will on a desktop computer? If your website doesn’t incorporate a responsive design that is friendly for mobile viewers, you’re probably losing a lot of viewers quickly. Having a responsive website that is viewable on a wide range of different mobile devices is a must to compete in the marketplace.

Social Media

Does your website incorporate social media? At the very least, your site should have buttons that make it easy for viewers to access your different social media channels. Luckily, this doesn’t require a complete site overhaul to incorporate. If you haven’t done this with your site yet, it’s a fairly simple fix that you should take care of ASAP.

Poor Content

You can have the most updated, well designed website in the industry, but if it has poor content, your website still won’t be doing its job. Content can truly make or break your website. But what exactly is considered poor content? If your website currently has content with any of these qualities, you should look into improving it:

• Minimal word count: If your website has only a few sentences of content on each page, it won’t be very effective in encouraging new patients to make an appointment. Websites with very low word count also don’t have much potential with getting ranked well in search engine results. A good rule of thumb is to make sure the major pages on your website have at least 300 words of content.
• Duplicate content: Is the content on your website just copied from another orthodontic website? Duplicate content goes against best practice guidelines for search engines and could prevent your site from ranking well. Not sure if content on your web pages is duplicated? You can check easily using www.copyscape.com.
• Generic content: Is your content too generic? Is it something that your viewers could read on practically any other orthodontic website? Or is it unique to your practice and incorporates your own individual voice and style? Generic content is rarely enticing for new visitors, so try to add some originality to it if it doesn’t have any already.
• No calls to action: If your website content doesn’t incorporate any calls to action, it acts as more of a general information site rather than a marketing tool. Make sure your content has effective calls to action that encourage viewers to click, call, or message.

 A quality website is an essential investment into your brand as an orthodontist, and it’s important that you keep that investment up to date. We hope these tips have helped you take a closer look at your current website and think about how you can make it the best it can be to get new patients through your door each month.