New design features make your dental website more interesting and improve user experience, commonly referred to as UX. Because the public is increasingly knowledgeable in Internet technology, your site must be engaging, informative, and entertaining, or visitors will quickly move on.
Enhancing your dental website with the latest interactive features can help increase the time visitors remain on your site, interactivity with visitors, and the potential for converting a web visitor to a new patient. When managed properly, your website will deliver patients right to your office with little effort on your part.
What are some of the cool new features for dental websites?
Parallax Scrolling
While today’s Internet user prefers being entertained at a fast pace, they also enjoy interacting with a website when it’s convenient to do so. Parallax is an innovative design element that encourages scrolling “below the fold” so a visitor is more apt to stay on your site longer.
Parallax scrolling is the new and improved way to keep your viewer engaged. With this exciting feature, we use attractive imaging, professional design, and just enough information to keep the user scrolling so he can learn more about you and what you can provide. With each scroll, something visually stimulating happens. For instance, a background can remain stationary while text and other elements move over the top of it.
Parallax gives the user an active role in engaging with your site, increasing your chances of turning a prospective patient into a new and loyal patient.
See Parallax in action here. (Teeth background remains still, while text moves over.)
Sticky Ad
The sticky ad is a pop up ad’s respectful older brother. While a pop-up ad unexpectedly shows up to cover a page, which can be extremely frustrating, a sticky ad stays calmly on the sidelines, but remains “sticky” as the page is scrolled. It doesn’t go away, but it also doesn’t block view of the page’s content.
We can incorporate a sticky ad to show off special offers, new patient programs, new technology, or anything you want potential patients to see and click on to learn more. If you’re collecting email addresses for your monthly newsletter or email blasts, a sticky ad can prompt the beginning of a sales funnel. With this strategy for email acquisition, website visitors click on a sticky ad that promotes a free report, worksheet, e-book, quiz, or something of great interest. Visitors are directed to a landing page that explains the offer and requires them to provide their email and name to receive the promoted item.
See a sticky ad in action here. (Pop Quiz! Right side of homepage.)
Video Modal
Did you know that the average Internet user will spend almost 90 percent more time on a website with video? It’s important to sprinkle fresh and exciting videos throughout your website, so the visitor stays engaged. A video modal is often referred to as a “child window.” It pops up (when prompted by visitor interaction) and displays in front of the main screen (parent page). This feature generally requires the user to click an X to return to the main content of a webpage.
When used correctly, video modal windows can improve your website’s design and usability. Displaying videos within your webpage with modal windows keeps the reader engaged on the main webpage. Websites with videos that require long load times or multiple clicks between pages to retrieve the information have a higher abandoned rate than if the video were to immediately pop up.
Modals can be used for contact forms and information, in addition to videos.
See a video modal in action here. (Click “learn more” on main header image.)
Longer On-Site Time Equals Better SEO
One of the bits of data Google Analytics tabulates is how long a visitor remains on a website, and on each webpage within the site. If your site has a high on-page time, it receives more credibility with Google. The search engine understands that the user has found what he was looking for when visiting your site. Behind the scenes, this adds up to better SEO for your website. So, leveraging interesting website design features to keep visitors on your site longer has multiple benefits!
Let’s Update Your Dental Website
If you would like to learn more about new dental website features, call me, Shauna Duty, at 940-395-5115. You can also email me at [email protected]. I look forward to providing you with a complimentary assessment of your current website.
