Dentist landing page: the search behind the ad

A search ad sets a question in the visitor's head, and the landing page has a few seconds to answer it. Someone who typed dentist accepting new patients wants to know whether this office will see them, not how the practice began. If the headline says Your smile starts here and the first screen shows a whitening offer, the visitor reads that as the wrong office. Some scroll to find the hours and the phone number. Others go back to the results and tap the next ad, which may be the one that answered them.

• Does the headline use the words the search ad was bought for?
• Are the hours and the next open day visible on a phone without scrolling?
• Does the page say whether the office takes new patients and which insurance plans it works with?
• Is there a plain line for an urgent problem, placed above the request form?
• Is the phone number printed as text, so a visitor can read it and dial it?

A landing page is bought for one search, and the first screen should be the answer to that search. Dentists often build the page from the homepage, which speaks to everyone: cleanings, cosmetic work, children, implants. A visitor who searched for a specific need has to read past all of it. Compare the exact words of your ad with the first heading and the first sentence below it. If the ad says accepting new patients and the page says welcome to our family, the visitor has to do the matching work, and many will not do it. The first heading is the line a visitor reads first, so it carries the weight.

Read the first screen on a phone, with the ad's words in mind. Count how many seconds of reading it takes to find the hours, the plans and the next open day. Write the count down, with the ad open beside it. A visitor who can answer their question in that time has a reason to stay. One who cannot is likely to scroll once and go back to the results.

Landing page testing

Many dental pages turn the search into a request form. The form asks for a name, a date of birth, an insurance member number, a reason for the visit and a preferred time, and only then says someone will call back. A visitor with a question about their plan has to give the office most of their personal details to ask it. Some stop at the date of birth field. Others leave the page and phone a different office that answers the question on the page.

Count the fields before the first sentence that says what happens next. If the form asks for an insurance number before it says whether the office takes that plan, move the plan question above the form. If the form sends a code by text to confirm the number, a simulated visitor cannot receive it, so the test will stop at that code and the report will show the screen.

A tap-to-call link works only on a phone that can place a call. On a laptop it may do nothing useful, so the number has to appear as plain text too, with the hours beside it. The test can check that the number is printed on the page and that the call link is present, with the number inside it. It cannot place a call, and it cannot tell you whether the line is answered during the hours you list.

Check the number against your hours in the same session, on a laptop as well as a phone. A visitor who dials at the time the page says you are open, and reaches a voicemail, has learned that the page was wrong. That is a problem the test cannot see, so ring the number yourself at the same time a visitor would.

Each new ad group, promotion or office opening can send a search to a page whose first screen answers a different question. Run each ad's wording through the page after every change, on a phone, and again before a new campaign goes live. A draft behind a site password can be checked before anyone sees it.