SiteMedic audited six independent Dublin dental practice websites directly. Here's what we found about booking, pricing transparency, and patient trust signals.
Of the six practices audited, four offered a visible online booking option; two required a phone call or email to arrange an appointment. Given that patients increasingly search for care specifically to avoid a phone call, this is a meaningful, fixable gap — one that costs enquiries silently, since a visitor who wanted to book online simply moves to the next search result rather than switching to a phone call.
Only one of the six practices published a complete, itemised price list covering examinations, hygiene, extractions, and cosmetic work. One other had a dedicated prices page referenced in navigation. The remaining four gave no visible pricing information at all. Given how consistently cost uncertainty is cited as a reason patients delay booking, this represents the single largest, most consistent gap found across the sample.
Three of the six practices had specific, dedicated content addressing patient anxiety — either a standalone page, sedation options explained plainly, or repeated, specific testimonial language about how nervous patients (including children) were put at ease. The other three had no such content at all. Given how much of the decision to choose a dentist is emotional rather than purely logical, this is a low-cost addition with outsized potential impact on conversion, and the practices that had it presented some of the most persuasive, specific trust signals in the entire sample.
Two of the six sites displayed a footer copyright year several years out of date — a small detail, but one that quietly signals a site hasn't been reviewed in some time, regardless of how current the actual practice and its care are. One site had an internal "Prices" link pointing to an unrelated staging domain rather than its own live pricing page — a broken link a visitor would likely notice and lose trust over.
None of these findings require a full website rebuild. Adding online booking, publishing at least indicative pricing, and adding a short, specific section addressing patient nervousness are all achievable without touching the underlying site design — and, based on this sample, would put a practice ahead of a meaningful share of its local competition.
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