Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 130. To enjoy the full conversation between our very own Carrie Webber and Nate Porter, you can watch on YouTube or listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

https://youtu.be/R6tkUfzI8dg

Nate Porter Talks About Improvements You Need to Make on Your Dental Practice Website

Carrie Webber:

I'm so glad to be joined once again by my teammate and Jameson's Chief Marketing Officer, Nate Porter, because today we're going to be talking about a very popular topic in dental marketing. Your dental website. And what website mistakes to avoid. So if you're taking a look at your website and curious how you can make it better and what needs attention, this is for you.

Nate Porter:

Yeah, so I tried to pick some things that were really unique to 2021. It seems like every few years there's something that changes or shifts in web standards. Ten years ago we were talking about mobile responsiveness and now it’s become mainstream, crucial to your “core web vitals,” which is Google's tools to identify how your website performs on different devices and things like that. 

Website Mistakes to Avoid #1: Extras Penalized by Google

Pop-ups

But the first one that I want to talk about today is something I saw a lot during COVID, and that's interstitial screens or “pop-ups.” We know that when Google’s bot sees that someone came to your website and there was something blocking their user experience, they can penalize your website for that.

Carrie Webber:

What do you mean by a pop-up in this respect?

Nate Porter:

There's a couple of different examples that I see a lot. One is simply a notice about COVID changes. You see on a lot of websites that have a pop-up telling you what you can expect during COVID and how the office is taking these precautions. And it's blocking the user from seeing the website because it's covering a part of the screen. And that's something useful, and Google doesn't mind if you do that for a couple of weeks. But if it's a year later and you still have that on your website, you're getting crushed.

Carrie Webber:

So how is Google penalizing you?

Nate Porter:

Google looks at that and, you know, nobody knows exactly how things are weighted, but certainly on mobile devices, they penalize anything that's going to interfere with someone seeing or engaging with your website content. And there's different levels of penalization. 

Chat Tool

For instance, another example I've been seeing an explosion of recently is these chat tools. So you see these chat tools where you visit the website and this chat tool takes up, you know, 30% or even sometimes close to 100% percent of the screen, especially on mobile. And it's interfering with your ability to engage with a site. That's another thing that can be penalized. It's fine to have chat tools on your website. They just shouldn't take the screen. They should ideally load in a minimized view.

Carrie Webber:

When you use that kind of function, how do you feel like it should best be configured?

Nate Porter:

Google's algorithm always goes by what's best for the user. So you don't have to be a scientist or researcher to know, you just have to think about things from a patient's experience. And it makes sense, if you logically think about it, that if a brand new visitor comes to your website as a result of a search, interrupting them with a big pop-up that says, “Would you like to schedule an appointment today?” isn't the best experience for them. They're going to want to learn more before they decide when they want to interact with you. And so it’s  best to have it be minimized if you're going to have a chat tool.

Be Sure to Measure Effectiveness

Of course, your marketing team needs to be tracking how your site is being used. Did you used to get a phone call, but now people are interacting via chat? Or whatever.