3 Pitfalls to Avoid in Your Dental Website Design

In designing and optimizing websites for search engines we at the The SEM Firm has come across some common mistakes that are made in the initial stages of a website design that continue to haunt the site well after it has gone online.

Design Flexibility

The most important thing to consider when getting a new site design is how much out of pocket payment are you going to have to make if you need to make changes to that website. In many cases, to make even the slightest text change to the website you are looking at several hundred dollars. If you are needing a design element changed, you will be expected to pay more.

Don’t make this mistake at the outset of your design. Ensure that you will be able to make periodic updates to your site at the very least. The ideal situation is that you would be able to add fresh content to the site every other week or so to keep the search engines coming back frequently and ranking your site well.

Getting Too Fancy

Many dental website owners think that they need to “wow” their potential clients with fancy Flash introductions, music or other bombastic elements.

The truth is that your potential clients want to see an image of you and your staff. They want to see your phone number, address and a map to your location. They want to have a warm feeling on your site.

Steer clear of “loud” website designs.

Search Engine Unfriendly Sites

In order to be found on a search engine a website must be search engine friendly. If you are having a website designed, ensure that (at the very least) you are getting:

- Optimized Title Tags (on every page)

- Optimized Meta Description Tags (on every page)

- Optimized <h> tags (on every page)

This will require that your design firm has done a little bit of keyword research for you.

Avoiding these mistakes will help to ensure that you can continue to enjoy your dental website design for years to come.

March 21, 2009 Posted in: Uncategorized