Writing Content for Your Dental Practice: The Dos and Don'ts

The Dos

When writing content, there are a lot of things to think about. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the possibilities, and ultimately end up with writer’s block. We will start with some things that you want to do when writing your content:

• Do keep it short and to the point. When people visit your website, there will be a lot of information for them to absorb. It is best to keep your content concise and to the point, making sure that it is easy for users on your website to learn as much about your practice as possible with minimal reading. In the age of social media, people want to consume visual content with minimal reading, and this applies to website content too. Additionally, having shorter content improves the overall look of your website, allowing the design to shine!
• Do include important information about your practice. If someone is visiting your website, they are trying to learn more about the practice and may be considering scheduling an appointment. Details about your location, practice philosophy, mission statement, financing options, membership programs, amenities, and more are all things that potential patients would be interested in knowing about. Remember to include what makes your practice unique and features of your practice that would make new patients want to pick up the phone to schedule an appointment!
• Do create original content. Your content is reflective of your individual practice, and should be as unique as your practice is! Having cookie-cutter or templated content will fill the space on your website, but ultimately will do you a disservice. Using content that you have repurposed from another site or practice will both create a poor user experience and could actually hurt your search ranking. Putting the time in to make good-quality, custom content will help your website stand out from the crowd!
• Do include important keywords and services. You want to feature the things that you do best and show off what your practice does best. If you specialize in certain services or have technology that many practices do not, these are great points to include in your content. You do not want to force keywords into your content, but you do want to organically weave these topics into your content where it is possible. Not only will this help patients learn about what you have to offer, but also can potentially benefit your SEO.

The Don’ts

Now that we have gone over what you do want to include in your practice content, let’s talk about what you want to avoid:

• Don’t write in an overly technical way. When writing your website content, you want to write to your audience, which is patients, not other dentists. Many patients have little understanding of dentistry, and may become confused or overwhelmed by technical terminology. Content should be accessible and understandable to everyone who visits your site, so when writing, remember to keep accessibility in mind. Your content should make sense whether a person is a highly-skilled reader, a non-native speaker who is still getting a grasp on English, or anyone in between. If you do have to use more technical terms, remember to define and explain the terminology to ensure clarity.
• Don’t sound unnatural or robotic. Incorporating keywords and other information is important, but you want to let your voice shine through. If you try to write just for SEO purposes, this can lead to your content being both uninteresting and cold. You want your patients to get to know you and your team, so remember to let your personality and your practice’s ethos show when you are writing your content. 
• Don’t use old or outdated content. Since your website is a sort of platform for your online presence, it is important that you keep your content up to date and accurate. If you wrote your content four years ago, there may be new qualities that you want to feature or changes that have been made which you want to highlight. Remember to review your content regularly to ensure that it is as up to date as possible!

Now that you have a better understanding of the dos and don’ts of content writing for your dental website, it’s time to sit down and get writing! When in doubt, start with an outline of the things you want to include and build from there. If you are still facing issues with writing your practice content, reach out to the Lasso team for more resources!