Buying a dental website in the UK: requirements, costs and ownership

Disclosure. This site is published by the company behind Dental Mastery, which sells marketing and enquiry services to dental practices. The criteria here apply to any supplier.

A new website is usually bought on looks. It should be bought on three things you cannot see in a design mock-up: whether it meets your regulatory obligations, whether it turns visits into enquiries, and whether you own it.

What the website is for

For most practices the website has one commercial job: when someone has decided they might want treatment, make it easy to call, book or ask a question. Everything else, including design, supports that. Write that down as the first line of your brief, and judge every proposal against it. The dental website brief template starts there.

What it must show

The General Dental Council sets out what a practice website must display ^[1]:

• the name and geographic address where the dental service is provided;
• contact details, including an email address and telephone number;
• the GDC's address and contact details, or a link to the GDC website;
• the practice's complaints procedure, and who patients can contact if not satisfied (the relevant NHS body for NHS treatment, the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment);
• the date the website was last updated;
• for each dental professional named, their professional qualification, the country it comes from, and their GDC number.

The information must be kept up to date as the team changes, and the site must not compare one professional's skills or qualifications with another's ^[1]. Put this list in the contract as a requirement, and ask who keeps it current.

Turning visits into enquiries

Many patients will find you on a phone, so test there first. Check that:

• the phone number is a tap-to-call link at the top of every page;
• each treatment you want to grow has its own page, with fees or a fee range if you publish them;
• forms ask only what you need to call someone back, and show a clear confirmation once sent;
• online booking, if you offer it, works without zooming or switching apps.

The full list is in the booking and enquiry usability checklist. A beautiful site that loses enquiries after the click is a common problem, and the follow-up side is where I spend most time with Dental Mastery's enquiry capture and follow-up.

Speed and accessibility

Google's Core Web Vitals give measurable targets: the main content loading within 2.5 seconds, responses to taps in under 200 milliseconds, and layout shift under 0.1 ^[3]. Ask suppliers to commit to these on mobile for your key pages, measured after launch.

For accessibility, WCAG 2.2 at level AA is the standard UK government services must meet ^[2]. It is a sensible benchmark for a practice website too, because many patients use larger text, screen readers or keyboard navigation. Ask which level the supplier designs and tests to.

Cookies and enquiry data

Analytics and advertising tags store or read information on visitors' devices, which needs consent under UK law beyond narrow exemptions ^[4]. The site needs a cookie banner that actually blocks optional tags until people agree. If the supplier hosts your forms or stores enquiries, they are processing personal data for you, and UK GDPR requires a written contract setting out what is processed, why and for how long ^[5].

Pricing models and full-contract cost

Dental websites are usually sold in one of two ways:

• One-off build, often with a separate hosting and maintenance charge.
• Pay monthly, where design, hosting and updates are bundled into a subscription with a minimum term.

Compare them over the whole minimum term, not by the monthly figure. As an example, one supplier publishes pay-monthly dental website plans at £59, £129 and £399 a month with setup fees of £199, £299 and £399, on minimum 24-month contracts, with prices excluding VAT ^[6]. Over the minimum term that is:

Neither model is wrong. What matters is what you have at the end of the term: a site you own and can move, or a subscription you must keep paying to stay online.

Ownership: domain, hosting and content

• Domain name: registered in the practice's name, on an account the practice controls.
• Hosting and the website platform: the practice holds an administrator login.
• Design, text and photos: owned by the practice, or licensed to it permanently, including after the contract ends.
• Exit: a full export of the site and its content, in a usable format, within an agreed time.

If a supplier includes the domain in a package, ask whose name it is registered in. Score every proposal on these points with the website procurement scorecard.