It’s a fact of life that people spend hours each day on their phones. Who knows? You could be reading this on your phone!

The point is, a mobile-friendly website matters. If your orthodontist website looks outstanding on your laptop but cluttered and messy on your phone, you have a big problem.

You could be losing dozens of patients who take one look at your site and think, “This orthodontist is stuck in dinosaur times! I’m not wasting my time on this website!”

Your business depends on engaging local clients where they are — on their phones. You need an attractive, professional, easily navigable, and mobile-friendly website.

Let’s dive deeper into why mobile optimization is so important and what this means for orthodontic website design.

Why Your Website Must Be Mobile Friendly

It’s hard to overstate the importance of a website for a local business like a dental clinic. An expertly designed website amplifies your outreach, reinforces your brand, and drives local traffic, especially when optimized with local SEO for dentists.

That all sounds great, right? Well, here’s the tricky part: A high-quality website must perform equally well on all devices, especially mobile devices. Here’s why.

Most of Your Traffic Comes From Mobile

Did you know that mobile browsing currently accounts for nearly 60% of all online traffic?

Over 45% of all Google searches include local intent. People tap to the Google app to look up local businesses, including orthodontists, on their mobile devices. 

So if you’re an orthodontist wondering if you need to bother with a mobile-friendly website, you do!

Google Now Ranks Mobile First

Google shrouds its precious ranking algorithm in mystery, but here’s what we know for sure: Google’s algorithms heavily favor mobile-friendly websites.

A few years ago, Google started using mobile-first indexing, which means Google’s bots use the mobile version of your site to rank it.

So why should you care about that? After all, Google’s bot isn’t going to book a consultation about braces. 

Here’s why this matters: Fast-loading sites with a mobile-friendly layout rank higher in Google for your potential patients, even the ones who search from their desktop computers.

To earn a place in Google’s all-powerful 3-Pack — the top three search results — your website has to be mobile-friendly.

Patients’ Expectations Have Changed

Gone are the days when patients were willing to put up with slow-loading mobile pages or a clunky mobile experience. If your site takes too long to load or has buttons and text overlapping all over the place, patients will click the X button faster than you can say “Invisalign.”

If your local competitors already have mobile-friendly websites with responsive designs, you won’t entice any new patients with your charmingly outdated site! 

Potential patients expect your website to look professional, load fast, and provide key information at a glance on mobile. Actionable buttons, click-to-call numbers, and geolocation have all become standard for dental sites. 

Mobile Visitors Can Contact You in One Click

Convenience is king, and by convenience, we mean single-click contact. 

When people find your website on mobile, you can make it easy as one-two-three to call and make an appointment. Actually, you can make it as easy as “one” — with a click-to-call phone number.

Sharing Content Is Easier From Mobile

“Check this out, people. Shining Smiles is offering a special deal on Invisalign right now.” If you want your patients to make social media posts like this, a mobile-friendly website with built-in social sharing buttons is a must!

Online sharing is crucial because genuine endorsements from your real patients can create a stream of organic traffic. 

With a mobile-friendly web design, you make it easy for your patients to promote your clinic to their Facebook friends, Twitter followers, you name it. 

Okay, I’m Convinced. But How Do I Create a Mobile-friendly Orthodontist Website?

Congratulations on taking the first step towards more leads: admitting you need to make changes to your website.

But what exactly does “mobile friendly” mean in the context of dental website design?

1. Responsive Design

A responsive website performs equally well on all devices. iPhone? Clunky desktop computer? Tablet? It doesn’t matter — your website will adjust and look great on them all.

The basics here are that buttons, images, and text automatically shift and resize to fit whatever screen size your potential patient is using. 

A mobile-responsive website design is sparser and cleaner, focusing on key elements and omitting non-essential images.

2. Hamburger Menus

No, this doesn’t mean your clinic starts offering a burger with every dental appointment. 

The hamburger menu is a key feature of mobile web design, and you’ve probably seen one before! It appears as three horizontal lines at your site’s top-left corner. 

A hamburger menu saves space, reduces visual clutter, and allows your main brand message (“top-rated orthodontist in X area”) and CTA (“book your appointment today”) to shine.

3. Short Loading Times

Page load times beyond two seconds will cause users to become frustrated and bounce. For you, this is bad news that means losing patients and tanking your ranking in Google’s algorithm.

When checking your site’s mobile friendliness, focus on speed. If you notice slow loading times, contact us at Evolvs to turbo-boost your load times to ensure patients stay on your site and convert.

Pop Quiz: Is Your Site Mobile Friendly?

If you already have a website, how well does it perform on mobile? Find out by running a few simple tests. You can:

1. Browse your site on mobile. Does your homepage look clean, inviting, and professional? Do pages load fast? Are your phone number and contact form easily visible and clickable?
2. Use Google’s mobile-friendly test. This free tool lets you know whether your site is usable on mobile devices.
3. Ask Evolvs. Our expert web design team will audit your site and suggest strategies to make it more responsive and mobile friendly.

Evolvs: Your Friendly Neighborhood Experts in Dental Websites That Rank on Mobile

So, here’s the bottom line: Mobile-friendly websites matter. But your specialty is orthodontics, not web design. Leave the hamburger menus and responsive layouts to us at Evolvs! 

Our expert team of dental branding and web design pros will design a top-performing mobile-friendly website for you to bring your practice not just into the modern age of SEO-optimized websites — we’ll help you outrank the competition. 

Schedule your consultation today!