If you run a dental practice, your website is often the first room a new patient walks into. They have not met you. They are on a phone, deciding whether you feel like the right place. A website for dentists has one job before anything else: help that person feel sure enough to get in touch. Most owners have no idea how their site is actually doing. You can find out, free, in under a minute.
I'm Jamie. I design websites for small businesses. It is just me, not an agency. On my site there is a free website check-up. Pop your address in, no sign-up, and in under a minute you get an honest report in plain English: an overall grade from A to E, scores for five things that matter, a real screenshot of your homepage, and what to fix first. It works for any website, not only the ones I build.
A dental site is not a poster. It is how a nervous patient, a parent, or someone new to the area decides whether to call. It does not need to shout. It needs to be clear, calm, and easy to use on a phone.
People judge a practice quickly. Tiny text, a stock smile, and a homepage untouched for years all say the same thing: nobody is looking after this. A proper website for dentists shows who you are, and explains treatments the way you would at reception.
Someone ready to get in touch should not have to hunt. Phone number, how to register, where you are, and opening hours should be easy to find on a small screen, not tucked away in pale grey. I will not promise you a pile of new patients. If the path is muddy, a lot of people simply leave.
I built the check-up because guessing is a poor way to look after a website. You pop your address in. There is no sign-up. In under a minute you get a report with no jargon dressed up as advice.
You get one overall grade, A to E, and a score for each of five areas:
You also get a real screenshot of the homepage, so you are looking at the page, not a bare score. Then plain-English notes on what to fix first. If you want the full write-up, you can have it emailed. If you do not, you still see the result. It works for any website, including one someone else built years ago.
The grade is an honest read of the page, scored the same way each time. It is not a promise that you will rank first, and it is not a verdict on your dentistry. It shows which bit is letting you down, so you are not rebuilding everything for the sake of one fix.
On your site, a parent wants to know what you do, whether it will hurt, how long it takes, and what it costs if you publish fees. Plain language is respect, not dumbing it down. If the point is not clear in a few seconds, people leave.
Implants, whitening, emergencies, a welcome, three banners and old news, all fighting for the same space. A clear layout does more than a clever one. Say who you are, where you are, and what you want the visitor to do. Give the rest a page of its own.
On the reception computer a heavy page can feel fine. On a phone, full of huge photos, it drags. People do not wait. They tap back and try the next practice. That is why speed is one of the five scores.
Being found on Google is not magic, and a new site does not guarantee page one. Plenty of dental sites give search very little to work with: thin pages, the same title everywhere, no clear mention of the treatments you offer. The check-up spells that out in plain words.
A poor grade does not always mean start again. Sometimes the bones are fine and only the surface is tired. Sometimes it is the other way round. The report puts things in order, so you are not buying a new site just because someone said you should.
While you read your own result, these are the questions I would ask of a website for dentists:
Fix what the report puts first. A phone number will not save a slow, confusing page. A fast page that never says what you do will not either.
Sometimes the honest answer is a new site. You deal with me, not a rota of account managers. I design and build it. I do not run your practice, and a website does not replace good dentistry. What you get is a clear, fast, mobile-friendly site in plain English, set up so search and the newer answer tools have something solid to read.
You tell me what the site needs to do. I show you a layout before anything is built, then I change what is wrong. The price is plain figures, not a package name. I do not promise a set number of new patients, calls or rankings, and I say so if an idea will not help.
If you have a website for dentists and you are not sure how it is doing, run the check-up. It is free, there is no sign-up, and it takes under a minute. You get a grade, five scores, a screenshot and what to fix first. When you want to talk about the site itself, you will find me at ArloWebStudio.