There are an estimated 195,941 dentists in the U.S., and approximately 154,000 practices. The cost of opening a dental clinic is about $1 million, and recent data shows that the cost of running a practice is approximately 60% to 80% of total annual revenues. If you are running a dental practice, standing out from the crowd can be difficult, and running an efficient practice is important in staying afloat. Marketing your practice to an online audience can help you gain more clients, but you would first need to set up a dental website. Choosing the right dental website design can be difficult. Here are 3 factors that you should look for.

Professionally Pre-Designed Templates

Having a website that stands out from the crowd is important in making a good first impression. Rather than trying to create a design and template yourself from scratch, opt for professionally pre-designed templates as pre-designed templates tend to be cheaper than custom made ones. 

Choose professionally designed templates with attractive graphics, and with a structure that is easy for visitors to navigate through. This can help improve the search engine optimization ranking of the site. Although attractive, most professionals would recommend straying away from templates that have a strong reliance on animation. This is due to the fact that the software or scripting needed may not be present on some of the older desktop designs, which may cause failures in loading the website.

HIPAA Compliancy

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have set up rules and regulations regarding the expected security that dental website designs should have in order to protect sensitive and confidential patient information. When choosing a dental website design, look for a design company that can produce HIPAA compliant results. If a website is HIPAA compliant, it indicates that the website has a secure software that enables absolute security of patient information.

The dental website design companies are required to provide details regarding how patient information is stored and kept confidential. The website design will also offer a Compliant Notification logo that shows patients that the website is secure. 

Responsive Mobile Design

By the end of 2014, data has estimated that mobile users will surpass desktop users. In fact, mobile traffic accounted for 16% of all web traffic in 2013, and 16% of these smartphone and tablet users claimed that they would leave a page if it was loading too slowly. Website designs are not always compatible with mobile devices, and most professionals would encourage getting a mobile design along with the website design. 

Having an established dental website is not sufficient for drawing in clients. It is crucial that your dental website design also comes with a responsive mobile design; otherwise, your practice will easily miss out on many clients who opt for accessing your website through mobile devices rather than desktop devices. It is crucial that the mobile design is compatible with an array of different devices, loads quickly, and has an easy-to-use interface where visitors can easily access the information that they need. 

Conclusion

With so many dentists practicing in the U.S., standing out from the crowd can be difficult. Traditionally, most dentists would advertise their business in the local papers or through local advertising; however, this type of advertising strategy may not be effective in today's day and age as more people rely on the internet to find the businesses and products that they require. Taking an online marketing approach can help your practice gain more exposure and more clients in the long run; thus, helping your practice grow and expand. Most dentists have seen positive results in the growth of their practice upon opting for online marketing.  

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