Websites do have “Sell by Dates.” More to the point, they have expiry dates — sites which past their best are easily identified by patients. There is no hiding place for an outdated website. They feel and look well yes, outdated, and that harms your practice.
Remember that old saying you can’t make a first impression twice? Patients who come across an old fashioned, cluttered, unappealing website will draw a direct conclusion that the dental practice is equally outdated, and maybe lacks the modern-day dental technology today’s patients expect.
Any tired and outdated site has little traffic/site visitors since insufficient, or no SEO work has been done on the site to continuously keep it looking fresh and in line with the latest requirements demanded by Search Engines, in particular by Google.
What exactly is the lifespan of a website and in particular that of a dental website? There is no cut and dry answer to that question as it depends on how advanced the site was, at the beginning. A top quality site will have, by definition a somewhat longer life cycle compared to a poorly developed website.
What we can say with conviction and certainty is that a site that is older than 3 years is already stale.
The large corporations regardless of the types of business they are in will redesign their websites comprehensively every 2.7 years.
That brings the need for redesign back to the typical dental practice where there is usually no need for such an aggressive approach as taken by the “big boys”. What needs to be clear, however, is that the speed in which technology changes and with it the need to continually keep websites updated, no site can be left alone after they have been created for years on end without getting any attention.
We provide some pointers which could indicate that your website is ready for a redesign.
- Is it mobile friendly?
Websites must be mobile-friendly and responsive. If your dental website is not, you are guaranteed to lose site visitors and ought to redesign pretty quickly. Almost 50% of all searches happen on mobile devices. Google is focusing on mobile-friendly websites, and if your dental website does not comply with Google standards, you will not get traffic.
- Has your practice changed since the site was launched or last redesigned?
Maybe you added a new office location? Any staff changes? Have you added new technology or dental services? Did you redesign your office? If yes, you need to update your website as well.
- How modern does your website look?
If the site is not keeping up with dental industry trends or standards, you have to bring it to life and in line again by making changes to the design at the very bare minimum.
- Are you 100% certain that your site is showing correctly on all the different tables, browsers and very important, is your website displaying correctly on all the different screen sizes?
Maybe it once did comply with all of the points mentioned above, but that was then and may no longer be true today. Since you had your website developed, new browser versions are in existence, new and different screen sizes have come to the market. You must make sure that your dental website is correctly view-able on all devices with all of their various technologies. In case your site has technical problems, you are losing valuable patients.
- How does my dental website compare to the sites of my competition?
Has any of my competitors a new website? Is their site more attractive than yours?
- Are you getting more as a result of your website?
If you cannot verify or track in detail, any new patient leads you to receive from your website; then your website does not do the job for you. You should invest in an update to achieve better results. There will always be a need for following on conversations after the initial one on one consultation that has to be more detailed when we discuss the development and implementation of new marketing strategies to replace those which might have become less effective over time.