A website is a crucial element of your dental practice’s marketing plan. A website can inform prospective patients about your services and facilitate their communication with you. However, no matter how well-designed your website is and how well it is performing in search rankings, there will come a point when it needs to be revised or overhauled.
The marketing industry standard is to update your website every two to five years to ensure that you are offering the most up-to-date information available for your patients and those interested in seeking your services. However, determining the best time to revise or overhaul your website isn’t based solely on the calendar. It also depends on changes to your practice and the desire to meet marketing objectives.
Revision or Overhaul: What’s the Difference for Dental Practices?
Revising or refreshing your dental website is necessary to update photos to depict your current practice. This may include removing photos of providers or other staff members who no longer work there or aligning your website logo or color scheme with your current branding or marketing efforts. Website revisions tend to be more budget-friendly than a complete overhaul, and they can be performed more quickly, as much of the existing structure, information, and functionality will remain the same.
On the other hand, an overhaul or website redesign involves significant changes to the code and visual appearance of your site. Overhauls are necessary when you are experiencing situations such as:
- You’ve completely changed your brand.
- Your current website is underperforming and no longer meeting your marketing expectations.
- Your website is slow or difficult for users, relies on old technologies, or doesn’t work on all devices.
Overhauling your entire website is a process that takes time and careful consideration. Website overhauls require more work and more investment, so budgeting for it is a must. Beyond a fresh start, however, there are many other benefits to overhauling your practice’s website. Redesigns can take advantage of the newest security measures, keeping patient information and other data safe from hackers and malware. Your page optimization can be improved, leading to a more efficient and faster site.
How a Website Overhaul Can Impact Your SEO
Redesigning your website can have either a negative or positive impact on your SEO efforts. A bad website redesign can lead to broken links and impact your bounce rate. Your bounce rate is the number of users who access your site and then leave it without clicking through to view any other pages. Furthermore, without knowing how each page of your site is performing, you risk removing information that was performing well.
By working with a digital marketing and SEO services provider, you can prepare for a website redesign the right way through these actions:
- Use the assistance of marketing experts to define your marketing goals.
- Track website analytics and user data to guide these goals.
- Audit your current site to determine positive features and pain points.
- Test your changes before the new site goes live to ensure that all added features are working properly.
- Continue to test, analyze, and track your site to ensure that it is meeting your defined marketing goals.
The process of revising or overhauling your site is never finished. Your website should be dynamic, growing and changing along with your company.
What If You Need a Website Overhaul, But It Isn’t In Your Budget?
Suppose it has been a while since your website was redesigned. Your brand has changed, your staff has changed, or you have marketing goals that aren’t being met. Should you wait until you have the budget and then plan for an overhaul?
Several things can be done to update your website as you’re saving the money needed for a redesign. If your site is a year or two old, it is important to ensure that it aligns with Google standards to provide a quality user experience for your patients. Updating photos or adding content can also give a lively boost to the look of your site.
It is also a good time to ensure that you have updated staff information and featured your providers on service pages. If you’ve added services during this time that haven’t been added, now is a good time to do so, and the same goes for providing accurate address and contact information for new locations. Tracking your website analytics and user behavior data is another proactive step in preparing for an overhaul while waiting for your budget to align with your goals.
Trust Market My Market to Help With Your Website Revision or Overhaul
Your practice’s website is one of the most important marketing tools you have. Even successful websites need to be regularly updated. The diverse and experienced team at Market My Market can help you determine the changes that are needed for your website, evaluate your existing website’s data, and brainstorm with you to create a site that accurately represents your marketing goals and your business mission. Whether you’re looking to simply refresh your content or you are prepared to start from the ground up and build something new, we’ve got you covered.
We can work with your website hosting company to access and rebuild your website and take your existing SEO goals into consideration when planning your changes. Your input is an integral part of our process, and we are committed to keeping you in the loop, providing a comprehensive plan with 30, 60, and 90-day goals. For more information, call us at (866) 270-2250 or use our online contact form to schedule a Zoom call with us.
