Checklist

Dental website checklist: 12 things that make patients book

By the ClinicEcho team · Updated October 26, 2026 · For US med spas and dental practices

Most dental websites were built to look good to the dentist on a desktop. Patients see them on a phone, at 9 pm, after reading your reviews. Twelve things that decide whether they book, and how to check your own site in 15 minutes.

In Tebra's June 2025 survey of 3,964 US adults, 56% start looking for a provider on Google, 41% check the practice's website before booking, 44% say the website influences their choice, and 16% would consider switching over an outdated one. The site is not a brochure; it is the step between the search and the call. Here are the twelve things that decide whether a visitor becomes a patient, in roughly the order a new patient meets them.

The checklist

1. A tap-to-call number in the header of every page

On a phone, your number should be a button at the top of every page, not text in the footer. Most new-patient contact is still a call, and nobody should scroll to find it. Open your site on your phone and tap the number; if it doesn't dial, that's your first fix.

2. A booking button above the fold

Next to the number, a "Book" button that leads to real online scheduling, or at minimum a short request form. Tebra found 34% of patients call online scheduling important and a lack of it a reason to leave, and 65% would switch providers for better digital features. One button, every page.

3. It loads fast on a phone

Google publishes the thresholds it considers "good": main content painted within 2.5 seconds, response to a tap within 200 milliseconds, layout shift of 0.1 or less, at the 75th percentile of visits, and says meeting them "aligns with what our core ranking systems seek to reward." Test free at PageSpeed Insights, mobile tab. Heavy themes, uncompressed photos and tracking scripts are the usual culprits.

4. It's built for the phone first

Since July 2024 Google crawls and indexes every site with its smartphone crawler; content that isn't accessible on a mobile device "will no longer be indexable." Beyond indexing, a desktop layout squeezed onto a phone means tiny links, sideways scrolling and a number nobody can tap. Design for the phone first.

5. One page per treatment you want to grow

Implants, Invisalign, emergency visits, whitening: each needs its own page with what it is, who it's for, what it costs, and a book button. Patients search for the treatment, not for "dentist," and Google ranks the page that answers the search. These pages are also where your ads should land; an implant click sent to the homepage is the first leak in cost per booked patient.

6. Prices, or at least ranges

"How much is a crown?" is the question most visitors arrived with. A range per treatment, with "the exam sets the exact fee," keeps them on your site instead of a competitor's. Use your own fees, not national averages.

7. Insurance and payment, plainly

List the plans you're in network with, say whether you take HMO, and name your financing option. A visitor who can't tell whether you take their plan assumes you don't. Keep the list current.

8. Reviews on the site, and replies on Google

Tebra's survey: 79% of patients read reviews before choosing a provider and 53% won't consider one rated under 4 stars. Show recent Google reviews on the site and link to the full profile. Reply to negative ones: 70% said a provider's reply to a negative review improved their opinion. Google's local-ranking guidance also counts reviews and rating toward prominence.

9. Real photos of your team and rooms

Patients are choosing who to let near their mouth. A stock model in a chair tells them nothing; the real front desk, dentist and operatory lower the anxiety that stops bookings. Compress the photos (item 3).

10. Hours, address, map and parking, matching Google

Hours and address in the footer of every page, an embedded map, a line on parking. Name, address, phone and hours must match your Google Business Profile exactly; Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and inconsistent details hurt all three. Add Dentist structured data.

11. Accessibility basics

The Department of Justice's 2022 guidance says the ADA applies to what businesses open to the public offer on the web, and lists the common barriers: poor colour contrast, images without alt text, videos without captions, forms without labels, pages that can't be used by keyboard. The American Dental Association recommends meeting WCAG 2.0 Level AA and putting that requirement to your web developer. Fixing these is cheap; a demand letter is not.

12. Something that answers at 9 pm

Everything above gets the visitor to the point of contact; then most dental sites offer a form that gets read tomorrow. Tebra found 82% of patients give a provider one or two chances before switching; an unanswered evening form is one of them. The fix is a chat on the site that answers questions about treatments, prices and hours from what you approve and books the visit, with the phone covered the same way after hours. The after-hours call test shows where you stand.

Check your own site in 15 minutes

Open your site on your phone, on cellular. Time how long until you can read the headline.
Tap the number. Tap the book button. Count the taps until an appointment is requested or booked.
Search "[your city] dental implants". Does a treatment page appear, or just your homepage?
Find the price of a crown and whether you take Delta Dental, using only the site.
Run PageSpeed Insights, mobile.
Submit the contact form at 8 pm. Note when anyone replies.

One point per pass. Under four, the website is costing you patients you already paid to reach, through ads or through Google.

What to fix first

In order of effort against effect: tap-to-call and book button (an hour), prices and insurance (an afternoon), treatment pages (a week), speed (a day to a rebuild), then the answer-at-night layer. If you run Google Ads, fix the treatment pages before raising the budget; our budget guide explains why. If a rebuild is on the table, here is what we put in every clinic site.

Hear what your patients would hear

ClinicEcho's AI receptionist is answering a demo dental practice right now. Call it, ask about an appointment, try to book. Then request a free audit and we'll call your own clinic after hours and show you what happens.

Call the demo: (602) 536-0014 Get a free audit

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to rebuild my dental website to fix these?

Usually not. Items 1, 2, 6, 7, 10 and 12 are content and settings changes a web developer can make in a day. Speed (item 3) sometimes needs a rebuild if the site runs on a heavy theme with a dozen plugins. Run the checklist first, then decide.

Should I put prices on my dental website?

A range for your most-searched treatments, with the caveat that the exam sets the exact fee, answers the question patients came with. Practices that hide prices still get asked on the phone; they just lose the visitors who leave first.

How fast is fast enough?

Google's published Core Web Vitals thresholds: main content painted within 2.5 seconds, interaction response within 200 milliseconds, layout shift under 0.1, at the 75th percentile of real visits. Test free at PageSpeed Insights and read the mobile score, not the desktop one.

Does ClinicEcho build dental websites?

Yes. The build is included in ClinicEcho Growth when you run ads with us, or available on its own for a one-time fee quoted after a free audit. Every site ships with tap-to-call on every page, treatment pages, and the same AI receptionist that answers our demo line, (602) 536-0014, as a chat that books. You keep the site and domain.