Beyond the desktop: Why your practice’s website should be optimized for any device

Upgrading your practice’s website to adopt certain design principles, also known as “responsive design,” will enable your site to look and function effectively across all devices and screen sizes. This can significantly impact new patient flow, referral success and, ultimately, case starts and profitability. Here are three ways your practice can benefit from doing so.

1. Improve prospective patient experiences

Mobile devices have become more advanced, and consumers now expect more out of their web-browsing experiences. On a typical day, a prospective patient might browse the web on a smartphone, a laptop and a tablet, each with a distinctive screen size and web browser platform. No matter which device your patients use, they want to have an optimal experience with your website, not a version that has limited functionality on other devices. In fact, 61 percent of those who visit a website that isn’t mobile-friendly will leave the site to visit a competitor. [“Mobile-friendly sites turn visitors into customers.” Google. September 2012.]

By optimizing your website experience for mobile users, responsive designed sites ensure that your practice puts its best online foot forward, on every device and screen size, every time.

2. Increase social media referrals

You work hard to create a great experience for your patients. Make it easy for them to share their experience with their social media networks!

If a new patient has a great first visit at your orthodontic practice, he might post a status update on Facebook from his smartphone, which includes a link to your website. Several of his friends — some on smartphones, some on tablets, others on laptops — might then see his post and click the link. With responsive design, everyone on your patients’ social networks will view your site exactly as it was designed to be viewed, ensuring you make a great first impression online.

3. Be better prepared for the future

New devices and screen sizes are constantly entering the marketplace, and your patients will continue to take advantage of them. If your site has a responsive designed framework, you won’t have to worry about building another app or adding another separate website for a specific device category.

Invest in a responsive site today, and your practice will continue to garner increased visitors and new patient calls regardless of what new devices come to market.

Note: This article was published in Ortho Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 8, No. 5/6, Fall 2013 issue.