Converting Search Engine Traffic to New Dental Patients

When your awesome Google reviews draw attention to your dental practice, how do you turn that into practice growth and get closer to your ever-elusive work-life balance?

When some searchers look for a new dentist, they’ll choose someone in the Local Pack, read a few reviews, and go right to making a call to schedule an appointment. But many others will want to dig a little deeper, and that often means they’ll end up on your website. 

Enlist Your Website as a Salesperson for Your Practice

When a new visitor finds you online and visits your website, it’s time to win them over. There’s a lot of upside, so it’s worth making a few easy tweaks to your website. Here’s why: 

A study of dental and cosmetic practices found that organic traffic made up 35% of website page views and can be the second-highest converting channel with a 3.5% conversion rate (Ruler Analytics).

You can make sure your conversion rate from web visitors to new patients is at least that high, or even higher. 

With more interested prospects, you can either grow your patient list or be more selective about the new patients you accept to your practice. Either way, you’ll be closer to your goals for whatever a successful practice looks like for you.

Here are a few easy strategies for enlisting your website as a salesperson for your practice and getting those conversions up. 

Put Your Best Foot Forward

Your website should make it as easy as possible for a visitor to learn three main things:

1. How awesome your practice is. 

Patient testimonials are a great way to show this off through social proof. Nine out of ten people are more likely to trust what a previous patient says about your practice than what you say about it yourself (WzyOwl). You can even include your hard-earned Google reviews on your website either by using a plugin through your web content management software or adding them yourself.

It’s also smart to show photos of your location and staff so prospects get an idea of what you’re all about. 

2. What you offer. 

Be super clear about what you do and what your specialties are. It’s worth sharing specifically what makes you different from other nearby practices. Why should a patient looking for cosmetic dentistry choose you?

3. How to get in touch with you. 

In some industries, companies put up a lot of barriers to getting in touch with a live person (we’re looking at you, internet providers). Your practice should do the exact opposite. Plaster your hours and contact information in as many places on your website as possible, and encourage prospective patients to reach out to schedule an appointment. You should also make your hours easy to find so they know when to expect a quick response or live phone call answer.

Provide the Right Communication Options

Modern dental patients have modern communication expectations. The days of just listing your office phone number are gone; now it’s imperative to provide at least a few options for prospects to get in touch with you.

There are a few easy tools practices can offer.

You can try adding a webchat on your website. With the right tools, it’s easy to set up a webchat pop-up that prompts site visitors to ask a question or click to request an appointment. By asking their questions right on your site, you start things off on the right foot by showing how accessible and modern you are. 

79% of businesses said implementing a webchat led to increased sales (Kayako).

Many webchat tools let you offer an easy menu where prospects can click on a frequently-asked question and get right to the page with answers, like your hours and location information. 

Texting is rising in popularity with prospective patients. 66% of Americans say they would like the option to interact with a business via text message, but only 23% of businesses actually offer that option (G2). If your business can text via your office number, call it out on your website. You might see some prospective patients reach out who would otherwise be unlikely to pick up the phone.

Ultimately, in 2022 calling is still king, especially in the dental world. 73% of dental prospects who find your practice online prefer making their first appointment by phone call (Ruler Analytics). Make it super easy to find your phone number – everywhere from your Google Business Profile to the top header of your website and on multiple site pages for good measure. Now that many prospects browse the web on their phones, you can turn your phone number into a link they can click to call you. 

Your website is a huge asset in converting the new patients that find you via Google once you successfully rise to the top of your local market. If you use it right, you’ll start to see new patients reaching out who have learned about your great reputation. And don’t forget: those are the very same 43% of patients who will be willing to go out of their way and potentially pay more for your services (Software Advice).

All that’s left to do is keep the momentum going as you get closer to your goals.