[00:00:00] So we're going to talk about the best orthodontic and dental websites. What does it take to have the best website? And when we say best, it's ranking number one for the most terms, right? Yeah. And it's converting traffic that's coming to it because if you rank, you get the click, but you can't convert. It defeats the purpose. So I feel like those two things, is it ranking number one for the top searches and is it actually converting traffic?
[00:00:27] Great question. And the best orthodontic website is not just the one that's ranking number one. Obviously, that's the goal for SEO, but it is conversions, right? Without conversions, you're not going to have any growth. Are they calling? Are they requesting a consultation? Are they using the contact form? Are they chatting with the AI bot? Like all of those things, is it working?
[00:00:52] I would say the first thing that is mandatory on a site is obviously optimizations. And even when I audit a site, I know it sounds silly, but I find things like page titles not correct, not optimized for location. Home. Yeah, home. Yeah, it just says home, right? So that, the first thing is just having just the SEO 101, page titles, meta description, optimized content, images, that basic stuff, correct. Like that's number one that you need
[00:01:21] on your site, right? That's the start of it. Number two, and I think this is more important than ever now, is credibility builders and trust. You know, I look at a ton of analytics and all of the accounts, the second most popular page, do you know what it is? Mm-mm. It's the doctor page. Mm-mm. That makes sense. And think about it, if you're going to get any type of procedure done, you want to know, is this- Who am I going to? Yeah.
[00:01:50] Are they qualified to do this? Right. And I think we quickly forget and we abandon that idea. Like, we'll just do a quick bio maybe. But imagine as soon as someone hits your homepage, there's credibility builders, there's trust factors being built in, and we can display that. Now, we don't want to take away from the SEO optimizations. Sure. But we want to, you know, combine the two so that we can rank number one, but also when
[00:02:16] someone hits, we're instantly building trust. And especially with AI Search now, they're reading the site with specific language. So the more credibility we can build, the better on the site. So that's number two. Hmm. So I'll piggyback off of that. I think number three is design. So you talked about a doctor page. When I go to a doctor page and there's not a photo of the doctor, I'm, see, I'm highly visual. Some people are auditory. Some people are kinesthetic. So how's, how's
[00:02:46] it make them feel? You have to think through those things. Like, I don't know that a lot of people when they're reviewing their site, they put themselves in the patient's shoe and try and dismiss, okay, this is my business or my practice. How would that person view the site? Is there great photography? Sometimes I see pixelated photos or it looks like a photo that was taken 15 years ago. So are you keeping up with the site? Is there good design? You
[00:03:15] know, are the images clear? And I would say if we're going to, you gave what, two? Yeah. The third would be design. A fourth would be, is it optimized just for mobile phone? So I could go search, you know, we search a lot on our computer because we're at work and we live on a machine. Most people don't. This is what most people have and they run their life from
[00:03:39] this. So does your site work well on a phone? Is it optimized? Is there an easy way to call to request a consultation? So that's number four. Number five, I asked this question and I don't think it's ever gotten answered in 12 years of doing this going on 13. How much money, and I hate to say it this way, but how much money does your website produce for you every
[00:04:07] single year? And sometimes I'll change the question of like, how much money did your site make you this month? Or how many new patients did your site bring you this month? So I'll ask it different, but no one can ever tell me, oh, uh, I'm not sure. I'd have to find the report or we don't track that. Or yeah, I think Susie does that. I'm not really sure. And it's like, man, if that's a core asset from my business, I want to know. Yes. It ranks. Yes. People are
[00:04:37] coming to it. Yes. People are clicking. Did I get five new patients this month? Did I get 10? Right. Because then it becomes more scientific, right? And just like orthodontist and dentist, they want to know what works, like what moves teeth, what data proves it, like where are before and afters, right? You can substantiate the claim. Is it actually working? Are we actually tracking it?
[00:05:03] So I think that's number five is like, how many new patients a month am I getting from my website? If you review it and it's zero, or if you're a dentist and it's two or three, you know, if you're orthodontist and it's one, that's not good enough. It should be bringing you many, many more new patients if the site is working well and doing its job. I think, and I'm glad you mentioned that. I think that's probably the most important thing about the site. That's the most important. Yeah.
[00:05:31] Along with call to actions, right? You want call to action. So I guess very similar. I guess that can be six would be call to actions, but that drives it right to some type of CRM system that you can measure because there's a lot of vanity metrics out there. Just like you mentioned, like TikTok, oh, I got all these views. Same thing happens with SEO. They want to know, am I ranking? Okay. Yes. Of course we know that is a good sign for strong SEO or ranking. Did I get a lot of traffic? Okay. But
[00:06:00] what kind of traffic are we getting? Right. Would you rather me say, hey, we got 5,000 people to the site this month, or would you rather me go, hey, we had 37 people fill out a consult, 21 of them turned into starts and five of them want to maybe think about it, right? Like having that data is so much stronger than just, I got 5,000 people to your website. Exactly. And then if all those things are
[00:06:25] working and people are calling, requesting appointments, but maybe they're not coming in, or maybe they are coming in, but they're not starting, it allows you to then look at what is happening after that. Yeah. All right. Well, let's listen to the first phone call. Let's record some consults. But if you're not tracking any of that, a lot of times people's minds go straight to, well, the marketing's not working. Well, you don't have the data, right? So it's like, you know,
[00:06:53] the patient who comes in and says, hey, this Invisalign's not working. Well, it's like, they're not wearing the trace. So of course it's not working, right? So I feel like you really have to have the data to know what is or isn't working. So I would say those are the six must-haves in 2026 for your site to work well if you're an orthodontist, dentist, or practice owner.