Dental Web Marketing

Selling through email

2008-08-28T10:04:00.001-06:00

Just a thought - When you build or update your dental website, you may want to make sure the pages you develop, not only help generate leads, but also help you close the deal by turning prospective patients into actual patients. Utilizing links to these important pages in your follow up to email leads can be an effective way to:

1. Get potential patients back to your site so they remember who you are and to brand your site/practice, and

2. Communicate a lot more detail to prospective patients, without having to compose or send bulky emails with large bodies of text.

Your dental website will almost always generate more email leads than telephone leads. Make sure you really think through how you can better leverage email-based communications and sales.

Bill
Page 1 Solutions

Common Website Writing Mistakes

2008-08-22T09:54:00.001-06:00

So, you're a cosmetic dentist. You've got a website but you’re not getting any leads. Your first thought should be to critically review your website content.

Your written content is probably the single most important key to generating business from the web. From a search engine perspective, search engines are trying to provide their users results (read listings of websites) that are most relevant to the user's query. So, search engines want to deliver listings of websites with rich and relevant content. That way, the user is more likely to trust the search engine's results and continue to use that particular search engine rather than another one.

From a dental consumer's perspective, they also want substantive relevant information. The potential dental patient wants to see that your practice has the specific expertise in the type of procedure they expect to undergo. Most important, however, the potential patient wants to see how your expertise will benefit him or her. Does your practice’s website explain that?

Here are some common mistakes we see when we review cosmetic dentists websites:

1. Lack of relevant content. Far too many dentists just list the types of procedures they perform without going into detail about each type of procedure or area of expertise. You should have a separate page for each type of procedure. Your website is not like a brochure. You don't have to pay to print each page. Yes, it is a little more work up front, but the resulting website will be far stronger.

2. Failure to focus on the benefits to your prospective patient. What is the goal here? You want to generate leads ... prospective patients who have important dental health concerns. Think of it from the prospective patient’s perspective. They assume that you graduated from medical school and have some experience. What they want to know is how you can help them. You have got to communicate that your focus is to help each patient get the treatment that best suits him or her. But it is more than a simple tagline. Your entire website has to speak to them. Sell your expertise and the benefits of becoming a patient with you.

3. Use Testimonials. This can be a challenge in some states because of laws limiting the use of testimonials, but if you are in a state that permits testimonials, use them. Use them throughout your site, not just on one page. Everywhere the prospective patient looks, a testimonial should be staring him or her in the face. A third party endorsement speaks far louder than you shouting how great you are.

4. Ask for the Business. I can't tell you how many websites we see that don't ask the prospective patient to take the next step by contacting the practice. If you don't ask, they may just look at your website as a good information source and move on. Each page should offer a free consultation. You have a great selling point in that you don't charge a fee to learn about your potential patient’s needs and expectations. Use a web form rather than just an email address as they tend to generate more information.

There is a lot more to effective website content development for a dental practice than what I have described above, but this is a start.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Flash Web Site Designs for Cosmetic Dentists

2008-07-24T09:48:00.002-06:00

A few years ago flash was all the rage. Every client I spoke to wanted a flash web site because it looked cool. There were two problems with this. First, flash can take a long time to load. This is less of a problem now because most web site design firms now build flash movies very efficiently minimizing load time. The second problem still exists - the search engines can't read the content within the flash movies.

Google and other search engines are developing new technology to allow them to read the content within flash movies. It's still not there yet, which means, you have to use flash carefully.
We have never been big believers in flash web sites for cosmetic dentists. First, we believe their web sites should be about communicating information, not about pretty pictures. If you are an ad agency or somebody in an industry that sells glitz and beauty, flash makes more sense. In general terms dental websites should not do this.

That doesn't mean there is not place for flash in a dental website. We often incorporate flash into portions of our dental website designs and still keep the sites content rich. Examples of this include Dr. Sue Wendling in Portland, Dr. Charley Varipapa's Center for Esthetic Dentistry in Virginia, and Nature's Design Dental Spa in Vancouver, B.C.

All of these dental websites do well on the search engines even though they use flash technology. The key with each is that they don't sacrifice delivering good information.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Dental Website Marketing

2008-07-23T09:16:00.004-06:00

Dental website marketing starts obviously with a website. There are thousands of website design companies out there, but how do you choose a website marketing company? Start with their philosophy of website design. Do they focus on making an online work of art, or are they more sales oriented, striking a balance between aesthetics and functionality? You really need the latter.

A website marketing firm should approach website design with the following in mind:

1) Function from a marketing perspective - Your website must use intelligent marketing strategies to move visitors through the buying cycle and ultimately prompt the visitor to contact you.
2) Search Engine Optimization - Your website is useless if it is built in a way that will thwart search engine optimization. If no one can find your website on the search engines, you're dead in the water.
3) Aesthetics - Professional design is a must. Your website's image must reflect the image of your dental office: high-end, professional, focused on great results.

Ask to see examples of their dental website design work. If they can't provide you with numerous examples of dental websites, then move along to the next firm on your list.

Remember, dentists need more than just a website, so look for a website design firm that also focuses on search engine optimization. In fact, look for a search engine optimization company that also offers award winning website design.

Of Phone Numbers and Calls to Action

2008-06-26T14:37:00.001-06:00

So why have a website anyway?

If you're a dentist, you may see all the other dentists’ websites out there and say - "I better get one too." And that wouldn't be such a bad idea. A website is pretty much a requirement for any business these days.

It may be that you have enough business already. Maybe you have too many dental patients and you don't want to get bigger. You get all your patients through referrals. If that’s the case, a website can serve as a good credibility reinforcement tool.

If that’s not the case, continue reading. Many dental practices want a website as a tool to generate more patients - patients they would not get through traditional referral sources. Some dentists don't want to advertise on radio or TV like some of their high profile competitors, but they still want to generate patients. Maybe you're a radio or TV advertiser yourself, but you want to appeal to prospective dental patients who are not likely to hear your radio ad or see you on TV. With the growth of the audience on the World Wide Web and the differences in the demographics between the typical TV generated patient and the typical internet surfer, you can appeal to a whole new group of prospective clients with an effective web presence.

So, if you want to generate new business directly off the web, why in the world would you make it hard for a prospective patient to contact you? You've got me. Then why do I see so many websites out there that hide their phone number or make you go through multiple steps to contact them? If you build a website so you can generate patients, make sure you prominently place your phone number at the top of every page. In addition, give the prospective patient easy access to an email inquiry - put a mini-contact form on every page - preferably near the top. And, finally, encourage them to call. Anybody who gets to your website found you. You didn't force them to go there. So tell them to take advantage of a free consultation with no obligation.

You will won't you? Make it easy to contact you and your website will work for you.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Design or Update Your Website

2008-06-19T14:48:00.001-06:00

If you are creating a new dental website, or making an update to a current one, be sure to get a search engine positioning expert early in the process, if getting it to show up high on the search engines is an important objective.

How a website performs on the search engines is directly tied to how a website is organized, written, programmed and optimized. This is magnified even more when you are in a large, highly competitive market area (such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc.).

Unfortunately, most dental website design firms or independent website designers are not search engine optimization or positioning specialists. They simply design websites. Engaging a search engine positioning expert after a website is completed, may require you to redo elements of your website to make it more search engine-friendly. Involving a search engine positioning expert at an early stage will save you valuable time, money and frustration.

Bill Fukui
Page 1 Solutions

Do It Yourself SEO

2008-06-11T15:04:00.002-06:00

Many cosmetic dentists are interested getting their websites to show up on the top of Google and Yahoo for important search phrases. Only a few will succeed. The question is, should you do it yourself or hire a search engine optimization expert who specializes in dental website marketing.

Here are a few things to consider when evaluating that question:

Time vs. Expertise. Search engine optimization is an extremely time intensive process. If you have the time to learn the tricks of the trade and implement them - or if you have someone on your staff with the time for this endeavor and the commitment to succeed - you will probably outperform most of your competitors including many who hire professional search engine optimization firms. SEO is not rocket science, but it does take time.

First, you need the time to learn the basics of optimizing your website.

Second, you need to determine your target search phrases.

Third, you need to implement and incorporate your search engine optimization techniques on your website.

Fourth, you need to register with the search engines and directories.

Finally, you need to consistently work on your link popularity over an extended period of time. And, it's not over yet. You still have to track your results and tweak the optimization as well as add content to your website on a regular basis. Now, if you have enough time to devote to this process and the commitment to succeed, you will surely do well. But be honest with yourself about how much time you can devote.

Time vs. Cost. Search engine optimization firms like Page 1 Solutions charge a lot of money for their expertise and resources. If you do it yourself, you will save these out of pocket costs. You have to consider, though, whether the time you spend optimizing your website would generate more money if you devoted it to working your cases.

The question is one of opportunity cost. It is a lot easier to evaluate if you charge a fixed fee like $200 per hour. Then you can make the determination pretty easily. Ultimately, you must decide if your time is better spent working your practice and procedures or working on your website.

If you do decide to do your own website optimization and you have the passion and dedication, you will probably do very well. If you are not happy with the results or figure out that you don't have the time to devote, you can always call a professional search engine optimization firm.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Search Engine Registration for Cosmetic Dentists

2008-05-29T11:33:00.001-06:00

So you've got your dental website up and you want to get it registered on the search engines. There are literally thousands of search engines and directories where you can submit your site. A successful search engine optimization program will get you listed in as many of these as possible. However, if you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, here are a few of the big ones:

The Open Directory - It takes a while, but it is worth it. Don't use self promotional language describing your site in your submission.
The Yahoo Directory - In addition to the Yahoo! search engine, Yahoo also has a directory. The cost is $300 per year, but it is well worth it.
Google - some people say that you should not submit to Google. Let the Googlebot find your site. If your site is listed as a link on other sites that Google spiders, this strategy will work, but you can also submit to Google directly and avoid the wait.
Yahoo - Also covers FAST And AltaVista.
MSN - The last of the big three.

There are many more places to submit your site, but this is a starting point. You should also check for any websites that list local businesses in your area.

Good luck with it!

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Pay Per Click Search Engines

2008-05-21T09:34:00.000-06:00

Many cosmetic dentists are now familiar with the two major pay per click options - Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. There are others, but these are the two most important ones. If your practice is using (or considering using Pay Per Click - PPC), you should start here. The way that I look at PPC is that it is great for a limited time focused on a specific campaign, especially when there is a lot of news on the subject. With YSM or AdWords, you can pretty much ensure that your site gets a lot of play and a lot of traffic - as long as you are willing to pay.

With Pay Per Click, you pay every time somebody clicks on the sponsored listing for your site. If they see your site, but don't click, you don't pay. Typically, the ads run above and to the right of the search results.

YSM is used on Yahoo and MSN as well as a number of other medium sized search engines. AdWords is used on Google and AOL and other search engines as well. They each control slightly less than 50% of the market.

With YSM you can control where you are positioned in the sponsored results- first, second, third, fourth, etc. It is all based on how much you are willing to pay. If you want to be number one for a particular search phrase, you either need to have software that constantly monitors your position/ranking or you need to manually update your bid. You can set caps on how much you want to bid per click, per day, per month, etc. You can also just prepay a fixed budget and when it runs out, you stop showing up until you put more money in.

With AdWords, it is more complicated - everything with Google is more complicated. With AdWords, your ranking depends not just on how much you want to pay, but on how frequently people click on your listings/ads and how long they stay on your site. Theoretically, you could be willing to pay more than your competitor, but he could get the top spot because people click on his ad more frequently and stay on his site longer. (Yes, Google tracks this.) This means, you have to have a very compelling ad and a strong site to keep people on it. Google also shows your ad on an irregular basis if you do not have a large enough overall budget to ensure that you can pay for all the click throughs. One major advantage of AdWords, however, is that you can be live with AdWords within minutes (they have an editorial review after you go live and may turn off or pause your campaign at that time) while YSM does a review before you go live which may take a day or two.

PPC is a great tool if you know how to use it, but don't ignore the natural listings. That is how you win the marathon. Both PPC and natural listings require lots of work and time and attention.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Marketing in an Economic Slow-Down

2008-05-14T13:54:00.004-06:00

Most dental practices pull back on their marketing spending when economic times get tough. This is a mistake. Especially where web marketing is concerned, practices will fair hard economic times better if they stay strong in their marketing. They will see more new patients come in the door.

Sure, they'll have to work harder for the patients that they get than when the economy was flush with dollars for elective medical procedures like cosmetic dentistry, but the point is that the patients will come - IF you continue to market for them.

Web marketing is the most cost effective marketing medium out there. Imagine trying to launch a TV campaign for $20,000. There are monthly costs to doing SEO, but they pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that you might spend on TV air time. The web is also cheaper than radio and direct mail. The beauty is that Internet marketing is also more effective because, unlike TV, radio, direct mail, and other forms of interruption advertising, the internet is targeting people that have already signaled that they are interested in dentistry by searching for dental phrases on Google and the other search engines.

There is an added penalty for pulling back on web marketing. Websites have intertia on the search engines. The more you put into your web marketing, the more that your website will build momentum and will be more likely to show up for searches in the future. When you pull back on your web marketing, you lose momentum and can even begin building negative momentum that is hard to recover from. If the search engines begin ranking your website as a has been, it is difficult to turn that impression around and show them that you're a source of high-quality, new information. This means that if you pull back on your web marketing now, when the economic market turns around and dentistry is hot again, you will suffer a lag time in getting your web marketing back up to speed.

In these times of economic slow-down, swim upstream and surpass your competitors that use the economy as an excuse not to market. Take this opportunity to be aggressive in your web marketing.

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Jonathan's Web Marketing Blog
Page 1 Solutions

The Importance of Prominent Contact Information

2008-05-08T15:01:00.001-06:00

Almost every day I come across beautiful dental websites with rich, well-written content, but they overlook some mighty important things and therefore fall short of their potential to generate new patients. Since people who are searching on the Internet for a cosmetic dentist proceed in a "scan mode" until a website can draw their attention into more of a "reading mode," it is vital that your website include prominent displays of practice’s location, contact information (especially a phone number), as well as graphic and textual links to a main practice contact form.

Getting your website to the first page of Yahoo!, Google, MSN, AOL, etc. search results is critical, and will certainly increase your practice’s exposure to people looking for a dentist. But too many practice’s websites neglect to register as high up on the page as possible the fact that their offices are in the locale that matches the consumer's search, and fail to display their phone number in the field to which the consumer's eye is initially drawn. If I need a dentist and conduct an MSN search for "cosmetic dentist San Diego," and then click onto one of the first page links in the search engine results, it gets my attention to find immediately that the website on which I have landed represents a practice located near me. Having a phone number prominently displayed in the header of the landing page increases the odds that I will contact that practice.

It is also important to provide graphic and textual links on every page of the website that navigate site visitors to what should be the primary target destination page of your site: the main contact form. Graphics with human images of surgeons or other office staff begin creating the bonding with site visitors that evolve into actual relationships, and if these graphics are associated with mini-contact forms or link directly to a main contact form, odds are greater that site visitors become practice contacts. Links within the text of every website page are essential, too, such as "Click here for a free consultation,” or “0% financing on dental procedures."

If the goal of having a website is to help generate patients for your practice, or if you are only interested in being as helpful to site visitors as possible, providing prominent location and contact information is fundamental. Prompting site visitors to your main contact form via purposeful site navigation is indispensable to getting the information and developing the relationships that will bring you new patients.

Jessica Espinoza
Page 1 Solutions

Google's Page Rank

2008-04-30T10:22:00.001-06:00

Those of you who are actively promoting your practice’s dental website on the web are probably aware of your Page Rank. If you have downloaded the Google Tool Bar, you can see the Page Rank of every website you visit. Page Rank (or PR) is Google's way of telling you its perception of the relative value of a given website on a scale of 0 - 10. The more websites (especially more credible websites in related fields) that link back to your site, the more likely you will have a higher PR. Keep in mind, however, that PR is only just an estimation of the relative value of your site. Don't live or die by it.

Typically, sites with higher PR values rank higher on searches on Google, Yahoo and MSN. While this is not always the case, it tends to be true. It is especially true with very competitive search phrases.

New sites typically start at 0 and gradually increase their PR over time. It is very unusual to see a PR of 10. Naturally, Google has a PR of 10. Few other sites ever get that high. Many good sites have PRs of 4-5 and in some cases even lower.

Over the last week or so, you may have noticed that Google updated your PR. If yours went up, keep doing what you are doing. If yours went down, don't panic. Just keep trying to add relevant content and encourage more related sites to link back to your website. There is no shortcut here. You have to keep working it.

If you're struggling with your PR, let us know, we can help.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Mini Contact Forms Can Yield Major Results

2008-04-16T10:46:00.001-06:00

Who has the time or wants to give a lot of personal information through a long and tedious contact form? Not many people do. The solution? A mini-contact form!

By creating a call to action that appears on almost every page of a dental website, it is appealing even to the most cautious consumer and can even be extremely professional.

There are several styles or layouts one can choose for a mini-contact form, but they all have the same idea in mind. *Get the potential client to contact your dental practice by providing a haven for them wherein they only have to provide the most basic information possible.

This information includes:

Name
Phone Number
Email Address
Comments section

This is a great, non-threatening approach to justifying why they should submit an inquiry. Plus, by making the Name, Phone Number and Email Address fields required, all the information a practice needs to contact the person is right there.

For example, check out: Wendling Cosmetic and Reconstructive Dentistry. You don’t even have to scroll down the page any. It is just right there, in plain sight. This is a wonderful example of how a practice can use a mini-contact form to draw in patients as a call to action. They want people to know that they can “ask Vicky a question NOW.”

Mini-contact forms can be a great asset to any practice’s website. Page 1 Solutions will help answer any questions you have about the functionality or easy installation of a mini-contact form. In essence, by providing an alternative contact means for the consumer and customizing it to fit the practice’s needs, successful leads through the web are bound to increase.

Noël Otten
Account Manager
Page 1 Solutions

Link Building

2008-04-09T15:43:00.001-06:00

The major search engines today rely on incoming links as a major part of their algorithms in determining the credibility and ranking of websites in the free search results. Accordingly, it is essential for you to develop as many incoming links as possible. Following are a few things you should do:

Make sure all of your listings with professional societies include a link to your website.

The same applies to all other organizations to which you belong - make sure they list your website and link to it when listing you as a member.Try to get an acknowledgement on the websites of the charities that you contribute to. Each charity should acknowledge your contribution and if they have a website, ask them to acknowledge your contribution and link to it.

There are hundreds of directories on the Internet. You should try to get your website listed in as many of them as possible. Many directories are general directories with many categories of website listings. Your website might be able to be listed in the cosmetic dentistry area or in the section for your city or state. There are also some directories out there that offer free listings. Make sure you are listed in these. Again, each listing should link back to your website.

Another suggestion is reciprocal linking. This can be taken to an extreme, but a basic approach would be to exchange links with your friends – surgeons or doctors in other areas - and vendors or colleagues in your own community.

Some listings are better than others. However, with the exception of link farms, it is almost always a good idea to try to get as many links to your website as possible.

If you need help with link building, you should call a website marketing firm that specializes in dental websites - Page 1 Solutions fits the bill.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Google vs. Yahoo

2008-03-26T15:28:00.001-06:00

If your practice wants to generate dental patients through the search engines, which search engine is the best? The answer is you need to do well on both Google and Yahoo to be successful with your practice’s Internet marketing. In fact, you shouldn't stop with Google and Yahoo. MSN is a strong third choice and there are many other second and third tier search engines that also generate a lot of searches - and hence a lot of search results for cosmetic dentists who have a strong presence on them. The second and third tier search engines include AltaVista, AOL, Ask, A9, Lycos, HotBot, and more.

Now, getting back to Google and Yahoo. The consensus is that Google is more important, but it is close. The numbers vary depending on who you ask. I have seen numbers in the range of Google generating about 39% of the searches while Yahoo generates about 31%. That is probably close, but your guess is as good as mine. MSN comes in around 12%.

The latest battle seems to be about how big their indexes are. Yahoo just recently claimed an index database of over 19 Billion webpages, plus images, music, etc. Google, by comparison claims its indexed database is about 8 Billion webpages plus images, etc. Who really cares? There aren't that many dentists or dental practices in your market. The question is - are you indexed and how do you rank on both of these important search engines - to say nothing about MSN and the second tier search engines I mentioned above.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Search Engine Optimization is the Foundation

2008-03-19T13:59:00.002-06:00

Search engine optimization is the foundation for a successful web marketing strategy. Some dentists make the mistake of thinking that if they're doing search engine marketing, then they should be raking in patients from the Internet by the bunches. This can be true for some dentists, depending on their market, the competition and the website itself, but more often than not, search engine optimization is a platform from which a complete web marketing strategy will build.

So, if search engine marketing is a foundation, how do we know when and what to build? Ultimately, you'll need a search engine marketing company that specializes in the dental industry to help you, but it's important that you understand the basics.

Search engine positioning will make sure that search engines find your website.

Optimization (frequently used synonymously with search engine positioning) clarifies the subject matter of the website for the search engines. Websites have certain cues built into their guts that optimization can play upon to send the clear message, "This is what I'm about. If you're looking for a top notch cosmetic dentist, then this is the right place!"

Search engines judge sites by more than their first impression. They judge sites according to a multitude of criteria (this is why you should hire professional search engine marketers). To name a few:

1. Optimization
2. Depth of Content
3. Freshness of Content
4. Link Popularity

Of all of these, I would say that most cosmetic dentists’ websites lack link popularity the most. Just go to Google and type in dentist and then your state. It's highly likely that of all the listings returned by Google, the vast majority of the first page listings are dental directories. Why? Because they have an incredible number of incoming links, and their sites are typically massive.

In order to compete with directories on the search engines, you need to begin accruing incoming links to your site. When you start doing this, you'll notice that your results will begin to rise. This is because search engines view incoming links as votes for your site. If someone else is linking to you, then that must mean you have something good to offer.

Depth of content is actually very simple. Just write quality, informative content. Organize the content well, and keep it coming. Remember, a website is NEVER complete.

You can make sure that your website has fresh content by manually adding new sections and pages, or you can make it easy on yourself. Once you have the core of the site (a page focusing on nearly every key area of your practice), add a blog like this one. When search engines find that your site is updated three or four times per week, they begin to list your website as a search engine result more readily as a source of up-to-date information for a given subject.

When your web marketing addresses all of these criteria, you'll find that your site appears more frequently and consistently on the search engines, but bear in mind, search engine optimization is a foundation. Without it, a search engine marketing effort will falter, but a search engine marketing strategy consisting solely of SEO is just a doomed.

Always glad to help,

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Page 1 Solutions

Link Popularity

2008-03-14T09:04:00.001-06:00

SEO is a foundation. If the site is well optimized, it will do well. However, in today's competitive search engine world, good optimization may not be enough. You also need regular content updates, lots of deep content, and lots of links coming into your website.

How do you know how many links your website has compared to your competition? There are link popularity tools that can help with this. Here is one - http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/. Try this and find out how your website stacks up. If your competition is doing better than you, find out where they are getting their links. Maybe you can get them too.

Ultimately, if you have good content, other webmasters will link their sites to you. You can speed up the process if you actively develop your own link building strategy. This is something we do for our clients here at Page 1. At its basic level it is part of the overall search engine optimization strategy. However, we can take it to a whole new level for our dental clients who want to get more aggressive.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

How Long Does it Take to get Good Search Engine Results?

2008-02-27T13:25:00.001-07:00

The answer is - it varies.

Each search engine is different. And the answer varies on a case-by-case basis, so we can only speak in generalities. Of the major search engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN -Yahoo and MSN tend to index new sites a lot faster than Google, but that is not always the case. On the other hand, if you add a well-optimized page (say for a new type of procedure or service) to a website that is already performing well, Google is often quick to find it. This is particularly true if your dental website makes regular updates and Google is on alert for them. It is even truer if the case is a topical news item - like a new prescription medication for dental problems or major dental technology breakthrough. In those situations, Google seems to go out and look for new material on the subject.

If you have a type of procedure or technology that you want to promote aggressively, the solution usually is an aggressive pay per click ("PPC") campaign on Google, Yahoo and MSN. With PPC you have much more control over where your listing shows up. In that case, it is always best to be one of the top two listings (top three may work also), so your listing appears above the natural listings.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

The Importance of Frequently Updating Blogs

2008-02-15T08:47:00.001-07:00

It may sound silly, writing on a blog about the importance of updating a blog, but keeping fresh, new content flowing can significantly increase exposure and search engine results.

There are many variables concerning how well a blog will function. One of the main idiosyncrasies is the frequency of updates. But, along with quantity, quality must be provided as well.

A dental website’s visitor will usually not want to read the ranting and raving of a generic topic that yields no useful information to them. Instead, use specific topics relating to dental health or other specific procedures with constructive, interesting or unique content. Give potential dental patients your perspective.

It is critical to think about these tips when making an update:

Write about something that is familiar. Who is better qualified to write about a topic than someone who is well versed and experienced in that area?
Keep the blog entry concise, yet informative. Clearly an entry could go on for eons, but no one would want to read it. By making the entry short, sweet and educational, the visitor is left with helpful information and an appetite for more.
Update the blog at least two times a week. A great way to build readership is to be constantly adding fresh, new content. Updating the blog at a minimum of two times a week can start paving the way to blogging success.

By adding content frequently, search engine spiders recognize the additions. The spiders will come back to index the information over and over as long as there is something new to read. This not only helps with search engine positioning, but it also creates an environment conducive to overall success on the web.

In essence, frequently updating a blog with clever, informational content will add zeal to the blog. Not many things are reliable, but a habitually updated blog will assist in the quest of positive public exposure and good search engine rankings.

Noël Otten
Account Manager
Page 1 Solutions

Online Inquiry Management

2008-02-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

Does your practice consistently bring in potential patients through your website? What percentage of these leads are actually converted into patients? If you think that there is room for improvement in this area, maybe your practice should consider implementing a database-driven software program to help augment this conversion percentage.

Page 1 Solutions offers a client relationship management capability called ‘virtual counselor’ that automatically tracks and manages incoming email inquiries generated by the website. The system helps your practice’s staff monitor inquiries, automatically sends customized responses and follow-up reminders, and provides a prospect database capability to ensure valuable inquiries are properly managed to avoid ‘losing prospects’ through inactivity or omission.

There are several key elements to this system. Because it is a database driven program, there is virtually no data entry to do. When a prospective patient enters their information on your website contact form, the information automatically flows into a database. Virtual counselor will automatically send a series of customized emails to the prospect. The emails are spread out over time, to gently remind the prospect to contact you. They are customizable so they can be sent out at any interval. It is important to ‘strike while the iron is hot’, so over a six week time, it would make sense to send the first one out within three days of receipt of an inquiry. The next email would go out at exactly two weeks after the initial contact, then four weeks after the initial contact and lastly six weeks after the initial contact.

The dynamic database interface allows for a dentist (or office staff) to log in and edit information. For example, a person contacts the office. Virtual Counselor follows up with them, and they call for a consultation. An appointment is set. At this point, no further email follow-up is necessary. So, the dentist (or office staff) can log in and change the settings for the individual so they do not receive any more follow up emails. This is a management system, which not only allows for database information building, but also acts as a wonderful tool to recruit and retain prospects.

If automated client management software makes sense for your practice, contact Page 1 Solutions to find out more, we’ll help you get real results from your web marketing.

I Tried Search Engine Optimization and It Didn't Work....

2008-01-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

If you are frustrated by the search engine optimization process, don't be. It is a process and it takes time and consistent effort. Your practice can have one of the dominant dental websites on the search engines in your market if you invest the time - or hire a website marketing firm with the necessary expertise and resources - to make a consistent effort over time to get the results you want.

For starters, make sure that you have optimized every page of your website for a narrow list of search phrases. We recommend focusing on your city and state on each page. In other words the search phrase you use for each page should include your city and/or your state (e.g., Denver cosmetic dentist, Colorado cosmetic dentist). The process of optimizing each page of your website tells the search engines how to index each page. It does not tell the search engines how to rank each page, but it does tell them what each page is about.

How do you optimize each page? That’s a great question. Start by making sure the caption for the page clearly identifies the subject of the page. In other words, if the page is about gingivitis treatment, make sure that is in the caption. In fact, you should also include the location of the practice – Denver, Colorado, in the caption or sub caption if you can. It will help.

Next, make sure these keywords and search phrases are also included in the body text and in the meta tags. For the meta tags, the most important one is the title tag. If these all have the search phrase in them, the search engines will know what the page is about.

The next part of search engine optimization is the hard part. You have to make sure that the search engines see your whole site as a credible resource. This means you have to have lots of links pointing into your dental website. This takes time. Register your site on as many directories as you can. Exchange links to a limited extent - but only with related sites. Finally, encourage other websites to link to you by making sure you have constantly updated relevant content. If you can become THE resource for your area of practice in your market area, more sites will link to you and the search engines will rank your pages higher when they index your site.

So, don't say it didn't work. Search Engine Optimization for dental practices is hard work, especially when you are competing with lots of other dentists and practices who want to be on top of the search engines too. You have to keep at it. It will and does work. It just takes time.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

Domain Renewal Commitment - An Easy Google Brownie Point

2008-01-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Recently, Google filed a patent to protect the search engine's technology. As patents are public record, this technology was finally unveiled to the search engine community. We learned a few valuable pieces of information about the inner workings of this search engine giant. One piece was somewhat surprising.

In United States Patent Application 20050071741, Google made apparent its efforts to wipe out search engine spam, stating:

“Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith."

What does this mean? Essentially, Google and other search engines use the length of time that you have your domain renewed for as a measure of your website's longevity and credibility. Search engines are constantly bombarded by fly-by-night websites of little or no significance. These nuisance websites (regarded as search engine spam by Google) typically have domain names that are registered for only one year.

You can send a clear message to Google and other search engines by simply renewing your domain name for a longer period of time. Since the Google patent release, Page 1 Solutions recommends domain renewals of two or more years. I typically recommend a five-year domain renewal period. This gives you an impressive domain expiration date and ensures that when the nuisance sites begin renewing their domains for 2 years instead of 1 (which is almost guaranteed), your site will still stand above the rest.

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Page 1 Solutions

Websites - It's Not Just About You

2008-01-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Is your dental practice’s website just about you? "Well of course it's about me. It's my website, isn't it?" is a common response. True, your website is about you and it is about your practice, but your knowledge and skills exist for the benefit of your patients. If you want your website to really perform, go the extra mile to ensure your website makes your potential patients feel like the website is all about THEM.

1. Make sure they can easily find what they are looking for. Don't try to be too clever or creative with your navigation or descriptions. A well-planned organizational flowchart for your website is a blueprint for success. Navigation that is not consumer-friendly is a recipe for failure. This is magnified if you provide a large menu of specialized services and expertise. Focus on helping visitors reach target "destination" pages.

2. Speak in their language, not in a manner that tries to make you sound so professional your site becomes "institutional". Ideally, your site should be filled with more "you, yours, your needs, your health, your well-being, your life, your future, etc." than "us, we, our practice, our dentists, etc.” Let them know it’s about them and "what's in it for them."

3. Be a resource of important information, and provide materials that have some value to the visitor. Don't just try to "sell" them superficial cookie-cutter or generic copy. Make the information value enough so that they might even print it!

4. Do things that accelerate the "relationship" between your practice and the visitor. For instance, identify "who" they will be contacting when they send your practice an email. I can't recall ever meeting a person in an office named, "info!"

5. Don't assume visitors know enough about dental services and general dental care that you overlook including important information. For example, if you offer services with a certain guarantee behind it, be sure they know that immediately and throughout the site.

6. Provide ample opportunities for visitors to send you an email. Yes, it is important to place phone numbers "above the fold" on every page and to try and generate phone calls. It's understandable that you prefer telephone calls, rather than emails. However, Internet users and most of your website visitors typically prefer corresponding through email. If email is the communication means of choice, then implement some mini-contact forms that make it quick and easy for them to contact you.

7. Don't forget, most visitors that come to your website are seeking help and want to educate themselves on an important decision that will affect them physically. They likely don't have a great relationship with a dentist and are feeling intimidated, confused, scared, and possible frustrated. Be sure you let them know you understand what they are going through, that you will listen, and that you care. Developing trust and credibility is what sets high-performing dental websites apart from those that only serve as an online brochure.

Bill Fukui
Page 1 Solutions

The Importance of Paying Attention

2008-01-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

In the movie True Stories, David Byrne from the Talking Heads plays himself exploring the eccentricities of a fictions small town in middle Texas. At the beginning of the movie Byrne says that it is exciting to get or go someplace new. But after a while, he says, the newness fades and the intricate details die away. People stop noticing all the things that made it exciting in the first place. Individuals get used to it and it just becomes part of the big picture.

What does this have to do with websites? It has everything to do with websites. It can be a very exciting to participate in web marketing and Search Engine Optimization. But after a while of receiving results, a lot of businesses forget about the details. SEO or web marketing just becomes “something they do.” Many individuals just glance at their results while some ignore them all together.

This month, I received a call from a client who was comparing his results from last month and the month before. By doing this, he noticed that his website’s first page listings were down slightly. It was really refreshing to have a person be concerned for the welfare of his web marketing. “I want to know how this drop is going to affect us,” he said. I was glad he asked.

I made several recommendations based not only on the number of Page 1 listings he had, but also on his web traffic reports. His average user time on his site was down. We took a thorough look at the site and decided to update some of the older pages. By adding new, fresh content, I can bet that his Page 1 listings are going to rise along with his average user time.

This success story was brought to you today by: “The Importance of Paying Attention.” If this client hadn’t reviewed his reports every month, he may not have noticed the drop and there may have been a continuous downward spiral.

It is just as key to pay attention to the results of marketing efforts as it is to market in the first place. If no one is paying attention, how does anyone know it is working? And if it is working, why not try to make it work better?

Noël Otten
Account Manager
Page 1 Solutions