7 website mistakes that lose a new patient in ten seconds

Seven website mistakes lose a new patient in the first ten seconds: a page that loads slowly on a phone, a hidden phone number, no obvious way to book, silence about prices, a homepage that never says where you are, no sign that real patients rate you, and text written for clinicians rather than patients. Ten seconds is roughly the patience of someone comparing three practices from a Google search – and most arrive exactly that way: 71% of patients check online reviews as the first step in finding a new doctor (Software Advice), then click through to the website to confirm. Here are the seven, in the order a visitor meets them.

Mistake 1: slow to load on a phone

The ten seconds start before your site appears. A homepage built from full-size photos and a decade of plugins can take most of that on a phone signal – and the back button is quicker. The fix: test your site on an ordinary phone on mobile data, not the practice wifi. If it feels slow to you, compress the images and ask whoever built it what else can go.

Mistake 2: a phone number that needs hunting

Many new patients still want to ring. If the number lives on a separate contact page, in a footer, or inside an image that can’t be tapped, you have added three steps to the one action they came to take. The fix: number in the header of every page, as tappable text, next to the hours. It should survive a squint.

Mistake 3: no obvious next step

A homepage that describes the practice but never says what to do next leaves the visitor to invent their own plan – and invented plans happen later, meaning never. The fix: one clear button on the first screen: “Book an appointment” or “Register as a new patient”. One primary action, not six competing ones.

Mistake 4: silence about prices

For private clinics, no prices reads as “expensive, and awkward about it”. Patients don’t need a full tariff on the homepage – they need evidence you’ll tell them before they’re committed. The fix: a fees page with at least from-prices for common treatments, linked from the main menu. “New patient consultation – from £65” answers the question that decides the click.

Mistake 5: never saying where you are

“Caring for our community for 30 years” – which community? A visitor who can’t see a town name and a landmark in the first screen assumes you’re not near them and leaves. The fix: put the location in the headline or directly under it: “Private dental care in Shrewsbury – free parking on site”. Local is the whole sales pitch; lead with it.

Mistake 6: no sign that patients rate you

People trust people before they trust websites: 76% of consumers regularly read online reviews when browsing local businesses (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2023), and 46% trust them as much as recommendations from friends and family (BrightLocal 2023). A homepage with no rating, no review snippets and no link to your Google page makes the visitor go and check anyway – on a page you’ve put no effort into. The fix: show your genuine Google rating and a couple of real quotes, linked to the source. Real and checkable beats polished and vague – never fabricate or cherry-pick a rating you don’t hold.

Mistake 7: writing for clinicians, not patients

“Comprehensive multidisciplinary periodontal therapy pathways” loses the reader by the second line. Patients scan for their problem in their words. The fix: name the visit reasons plainly – “Toothache? Same-day emergency appointments”, “Nervous patients welcome”. Read the homepage aloud; anything you wouldn’t say across the reception desk gets rewritten.

The ten-second test

Hand your phone to someone who has never seen the site and count to ten. Then ask: where is this practice, what do they do, what does it roughly cost, do other patients rate them, and what would you tap next? Five answers in ten seconds keeps the patient. Since NHS.uk closed its public star-ratings in 2025, that Google-search-to-website journey is the front door for nearly every new patient – it deserves the same care as the waiting room.