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A few dental marketing “gotchas”

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A couple of key items to look out for when negotiating your dental marketing services

This week we have been involved in a protracted exchange with a web marketing company who’s client is transferring their services to us. The exchange centered around two domains names that the company had registered to themselves and not to the client, effectively giving them legal ownership. They then proceeded to demand additional fees to transfer the domain names to the rightful owner knowing full well that their client neither had the stomach nor the funds for a legal exchange. Fortunately we have been able to demonstrate the error of their ways and the domains are now on their way to the rightful owner. Unfortunately this type of practice is rife and prompted me to document a few other “gotchas” to look out for when agreeing to your web marketing services.

  • domain names – make sure they are registered to you and not the marketing company
  • long-term monthly contracts – read the small print and fully understand what you are paying for. We see many examples where the services offered are routine and should not be subject to additional fees over and above an annual web hosting charge
  • SEO – does the initial design include on-page SEO or is this something that you will be asked to pay extra for on completion?
  • “free” treatment text for your website – check that it is unique and not just two short paragraphs that is very similar to everyone elses.
  • dental animations – are they yours to keep or part of a convoluted monthly payment scheme?
  • SEO services – are they full transparent? Ensure you receive a monthly report compiled by a person and not just auto-generated from a statistics package
  • SEO link building – ensure you get a monthly report that indicates what link activity has been undertaken
  • Analytics accounts – make sure that the Google Analytics account is in your name and that you can access it
  • Ask about the quality of the internal pages for your new website – how often do you see “glitzy” home pages and then the designer skimped on the rest? Remember that high-quality pages are needed throughout the site, not just for your users but also to help secure a good ranking in Google
  • Ensure that legal ownership of the web design passes to you on completion of the project

There are plenty more areas where the uninitiated can and do get a raw deal so we encourage you to check carefully to make sure that the initial design meets your expectations and that you don’t get sucked into lots of unnecessary ongoing cost.

Please call us on 01332 672548 if you have any questions about a potential new or existing service contract. We will be pleased to offer no-obligation advice.