Great, you’ve got a website – but so does 99% of your competition. What’s crucial to your growth as a business is how you use it – and that means creating valuable content for your clients that’s updated on a regular basis.

Why do I need to update my website?

Not only is your website your digital business front, it’s also a key way to stay competitive during our rapidly-changing times, and to make sure you’re still relevant to your target client base. In the dental, healthcare and aesthetics sectors, your treatments, products and services are often cutting-edge and based in the very latest science and innovation. So what does it say about you if your website looks old and dated? Just as your clinic or practice offers a premium experience, so should your website. But, that’s not all. Other reasons to regularly update your website include:

  • Ensuring your information is up-to-date, whether it’s prices or opening times
  • Boosting your SEO, regular updates rank websites more highly on search engines
  • Building trust between your business and your client base

How often should I update my website?

When talking about ‘updates’, it’s good to know that there are different levels. Here’s a quick guide:

– Emergency updates: These could be relating to new legislation, problems with your website’s functionality, or an incorrect price or offer that’s costing you valuable business. These should be carried out as soon as practicable.

– Small updates: These might be small things, like adding SEO keywords to your webpages, uploading new products to your website, or a quick refresh to your homepage. These should be done on at least a weekly basis, as general website maintenance.

– Medium updates: These include new webpages for new treatments, blogs and articles, uploading reviews and refreshing your existing content (for example, rewording or restructuring copy on your webpages). We’d recommend carrying these out every month or two.

– Large updates: These are often around functionality more than anything, but could also include adding a new section to your navigation or building an ecommerce set-up so you can sell skincare online. You might need to do these two or three times per year.

– Website redesigns: This is a from-scratch overhaul of your entire website, from homepage to the links in the footer. It involves planning out your website structure, creating entirely new content, optimising your website for SEO and much, much more. You’ll need to do this every couple of years.

Which areas should I prioritise?

It’s difficult to give a general answer on this as it really depends on your current set-up, your clients and your budget. But, there are four key areas that you should consider with any update you plan to make.

– Usability: If your website is clunky, difficult to use, hard to navigate or covered in pop-ups and ads, your clients will go elsewhere. Build your website with the customer journey in mind and make it clear and easy to find your way around.

– Content: Your website should feel inviting, worth exploring, engaging and informative. Clients will want to know who you are, what treatments you offer, how others rate you and – of course – your prices. Our golden rule for writing content is to always keep that target customer in mind and write as if you’re speaking directly to them. Then, SEO provides the polish that helps people search for you online.

– Optimisation: With more traffic coming from mobile than any other device, you’ve got to optimise your design and make sure it’s responsive (scalable) to other platforms, such as mobile or tablet.

– Personalisation: If you can personalise areas of your website, then do it. This could be simple tricks like a ”Hello, Name” message when a client logs in or showing different content to different locations. At the end of the day, website users want the content to be persuasive and relevant, so the more it’s targeted to them, the better.

– Trust: It’s one of the biggest things we tell our own clients, because ‘trust’ is the basic link between you and your clients. Ensuring you regularly update reviews, respond (and adapt) to criticisms and prioritise your customer service (for example, on email) is key for the patient experience.

How Cosmetic Digital can help

With a team of expert marketers, savvy SEO specialists and knowledgeable developers on board, we’re well-placed to offer our own clients top marketing advice for their business – be it aesthetics clinic or dental practice. From building a website from scratch to helping you manage and maintain your existing one, we can help. Get in touch today by calling us on 01159 140640 or filling out our quick an easy web form.