by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

What is website encryption and why you need it

Encryption for your websiteWithout going into deep technical discussion, website encryption is simply a mechanism whereby any communication from the device on which you are viewing a website and the server where the website is hosted, is encrypted.

This means that any information exchange either way is impossible to read should it be intercepted on route. Even though interception of such data is unlikely, it is possible and consequently it makes sense to protect against this in the event that it did happen.

The encryption is handled via software which is already installed in your browser and software, known as a “secure certificate”, which has to be installed on the server side to complete the encrypted loop. This certificate, often called an ‘SSL certficate’, typically has to be renewed periodically and requires intervention to keep up-to-date. However, once the system is installed and tested, then you can be sure that you website communications are protected.

Why do I need to encrypt my dental website now?

For years, certain types of website needed encryption by default, e.g. banking sites and others where sensitive data was being exchanged. So for example a dentist who was taking referrals and receiving confidential patient information via a website contact form, would have been wise to use encryption. Other websites, e.g. where simple appointment booking was taking place without transmission of sensitive information, would typically have managed without encryption.

More recently, there has been a shift towards all website becoming encrypted, irrespective of their function and this has been driven by two main factors. Firstly, with the advent of the somewhat “fuzzy” GDPR regulations which become law in the UK in May 2018, there is a requirement to protect any information which could be considered to be sensitive and personally identifiable. So even simple contact forms should be protected in case something sensitive was transmitted. A simple disclaimer does not appear to suffice any longer.

Secondly, Google is pushing full encryption for all websites and has publicly stated that it will offer some ranking benefits when it comes to search engine results.

So with these two important elements in mind, the time has come to switch your website to full encryption – showing the padlock symbol and https rather than http.

There are other considerations too, perhaps the main one being public confidence. With the buzz around encryption increasing, website users will expect to see encryption in place and will shy away from websites where their browsers show “insecure” warning messages. This is now very common and quite disconcerting for an average user when the warning pops up.

What SSL website encryption doesn’t do

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Where first with your digital marketing budget?

confused website userThe question of where to use your digital marketing budget is usually a hot topic when dentists call our team for advice. Should they go with search engine optimisation, AdWords (pay-per-click) or jump on the current bandwagon with Facebook advertising? Great question and one that is reasonably straightforward to answer.

But first, there is a step to take before any of the above and this is ensuring that you have a top-quality website already in place to encourage conversions. Indeed, as we’ve discussed in other blogs, we may well decline to offer web marketing services where we know the website is not really fit for purpose when it comes to converting new traffic to enquiries – you would be wasting money.

So given that a suitable website is already in place, then we can move on to consider what type of traffic generation systems are most suitable. Let’s take each case in turn before summarising.

Search Engine Optimisation – Organic (Free) Traffic

SEO is extremely important for helping websites to rise to prominent positions in the search engines and of prime importance in the UK is Google, which sees in excess of 90% of all search queries. Traffic from clicks on these “natural” search results tends to bring the most meaningful enquiries. This is because it is generated by people searching specifically for goods or services with definite intent. Some people also tend to view paid adverts with a degree of suspicion, preferring to click on the organic results (including “local” listings).

So prominent ranking positions in the organic search results really are a key objective, even if Google is continuing to make it harder to achieve them. Those practices with great search results really do pull in lots of new patient enquiries every month.

Google AdWords – Pay-Per-Click

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Video

Benefits of bespoke video presentations for dentist’s waiting rooms

Video Presentation Dental Waiting RoomProviding useful marketing materials in a dental reception area is a well-proven tactic for encouraging existing patients to take up new types of treatments. Whether this is via a “smile design” booklet placed handily on the tables, posters on the walls or leaflets in easily accessible racks, all work nicely to help patients see what you offer to improve their smiles and overall oral health.

But perhaps the most engaging method you can use is the bespoke waiting room presentation on a large flat-screen TV placed strategically for all to view. People are typically drawn to information presented like this in preference to literature, so it makes sense to deploy it professionally in your own reception areas.

Types of dental video presentation

There are typically two main types of presentation – generic and bespoke. Generic treatment information can be made available on your screen via systems which integrate with your TV – you can select which types of treatments you wish to display from a pre-configured menu of treatment types. Whilst this is useful for patient education, it’s not very engaging in that it is very difficult to add any type of personalisation to the presentations. So adding your own branding, photographs of your team and your own case images typically cannot be done. The monthly rental costs of such systems also mount up quite quickly.

The second type of presentation is bespoke i.e. configured specifically for your own practice, team, skill-set and objectives. So rather than a cheesy, generic description of a dental treatment, the viewer sees a presentation which details what your team has achieved for your patients. Your own branding will be included, your treatment cases and even patient testimonials where appropriate.

Overall, a bespoke dental reception area video will serve you much better than generic “off-the-shelf” versions and it will cost you less in the long run too. In many ways this is similar to a dental website, the personalised versions work much better than the generic templates which frankly too many dentists mistakenly choose.

Creating a bespoke reception area video

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

Don’t let your dental marketer exploit your website!

mistake signHere at Dental Media we have many years of SEO experience within our team and we’ve seen quite a lot of “dodgy” SEO tricks come and go. Google is now a lot more capable of finding and penalising sneaky tactics and consequently most of the SEO community has stopped trying to deceive the search engines.

However, this isn’t the case everywhere unfortunately and even well-known companies within the dental marketing community are still trying to get away with techniques which are well outside of Google’s publishing guidelines. So much so that being caught would almost certainly result in the website concerned being demoted or possibly even excluded from the search results.

These types of tactics are never good, but if the companies concerned have full knowledge of the risks and it’s their own website at stake, then so be it. Google will likely catch up with them in the long run and their competitors will ultimately benefit. However, where the SEO company uses techniques which risk their clients’ websites, it’s a different ball-game and completely unacceptable. But we still see it going on and it’s quite widespread.

Bad back-links

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Best and worst web marketing practices summarised

optimising website designA new year arrives and with it a good opportunity to review your dental practice website and the tools and techniques you can use to help boost its Google ranking positions.

Even with the advent and huge proliferation of social media, your website is still the key hub for attracting and converting new patient enquiries – so it pays to get this fundamental foundation absolutely right. With that thought in mind, let’s take a quick look at 4 key factors which you simply must have in place to give your site the best chance of delivering new patient success. Additionally we’ll summarise the top 4 bad practices to avoid which could get you in trouble.

Do these things well….

  • ensure your website is mobile optimised and provides a smooth user experience on desk-top, tablet and mobile ‘phones. Well over 50% of web traffic is now from mobile devices and yet we still see dentists persisting with old-fashioned, desk-top websites from 5 or 6 years ago. The bottom line with this is that over half of your visitors simply can’t work their way through your site without frustration, and the vast majority will simply go elsewhere. You can’t afford not to upgrade.
  • use compelling, comprehensive content on your site which grabs the attention and immediately gives the potential new patient confidence that you can solve their problem. The website should be at least 70% about the user and solving *their* issues and then the rest allocated to your, your team and facilities. Remember that it’s primarily about your potential new patients, not you.
  • invest in a truly bespoke design which will make you stand out from the competition. Generic WordPress templates for $40 off-the shelf with a few dental images and copied text simply won’t cut it and even if you save money early on, you’ll likely regret it later.
  • Understand that an excellent website is just the first step on the ladder to successful web marketing. A great website is essential to give a firm foundation and start on the way to good search engine rankings, but alone it’s probably not going to get you into the top places on page one of Google without additional work and investment. Depending on the competition in your local area, the chances are that you will need to consider and budget for search engine optimisation, social media activity and potentially pay-per-click marketing to stimulate traffic.

Don’t do these things….

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

Your bolt-on expensive SEO package isn’t delivering – here’s why….

minimise irrelevant search queriesI took a call from a dentist yesterday who wanted a review of his SEO campaign which had been in place for 8 months. His SEO company dedicated to dentists, were telling him that he was getting “2 to 3” new patients from his website every day, but his assessment at the practice didn’t support that. He was actually getting new patients, but his strong feeling was that they were coming via word-of-mouth rather than from independent searches in Google.

The dentist had access to Google Analytics but was frankly confused about the data he was looking at. When we researched further, we also noted that the data simply didn’t correlate with the (poor) monthly report his SEO service was providing. All in all, a bit of a mess and perhaps even an example of an SEO company deliberately trying to present data which simply wasn’t accurate?

Analytics data

The data for the dentist’s website showed that he was getting around 12 – 15 overall website visits per day with around 7 coming from “organic” searches in Google. So not much at all. Looking at the “conversions” data we were surprised to see that conversion goals had not been set up and consequently there was no measure of how many contact forms were actually being submitted from the website. And yet the marketing company were presenting data which showed that there were 2 to 3 new patients per day directly from the website? There was no telephone call tracking in place or any tracking from pay-per-click, so this is data which can only have been made up. However, without a working knowledge of the Google Analytics package, the dentist was none-the-wiser.

Google search positions

As part of the overview we also took a look at how the website was faring in Google. The dentist had been told that he was ranking “near the top of page one” for the “dentist in location” term and he thought that this was true. However, he was checking search results whilst logged in to his Google account and consequently was seeing a hugely personalised results. His real positions were a couple of results at the base of page one but with most on page two or beyond. This helps to explain his low level of traffic.

Misguided keyword targeting

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Hosting

Quality and Reliability Matter – Don’t skimp on them!

High quality dental website hostingIn the last week here at Dental Media we’ve helped two dentists recover their websites after their providers folded taking their client’s websites and back-ups with them.

In the first case, the dentist signed up to a service offered by one of his patients, but when the patient moved on, so did the website and hosting and email service without trace. In the second example, the dentist had his website built by an offshore company who also provided hosting – they also disappeared overnight taking the websites and email off-line and untraceable.

Fortunately we were able to find fairly recent copies of both websites on the “Way Back” Machine, an Internet archiving tool, and we were able to recover the files, clean up the code and have the client’s websites back up and running within a day. However, this was lucky and such a recovery is not guaranteed, particularly if your website is database driven.

Avoid the mess

Your website is a critical tool for your dental business. In one of the examples above, the dentist’s site was actually top of Google and he only noticed it had gone down when the regular stream of new patient enquiries quickly dried up. The panic at this stage was understandable and could easily have been avoided simply by recognising the importance of the website and choosing a suitable hosting provider to support that. A situation where you don’t know who hosts your site or if they hold any back-ups is unthinkable, but too many simply take the risk and assume all will be OK.

The basics for robust website and email hosting for dentists

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

How new patients evaluate you *before* they get in touch

website design and updatesWhen it comes to marketing, many dentists have a few leaflets printed, perhaps build a website (often very basic) and little else. They then refocus on their clinical activities and hope that they’ve done sufficient to bring in new patients.

Unless they’re very lucky, this simply isn’t enough. At the other end of the scale, marketing astute dentists understand that a much more comprehensive approach is needed, including a high-performing website, SEO to make it prominent in Google, blogging, social media, local advertising and more.

So how do these elements combine to encourage new patients to get in touch when they are seeking new cosmetic treatments, or simply a family dentist for regular dental check-ups? Let’s look at a how a typical patient might find you, evaluate your services and ultimately make contact.

Before I buy your services….

On my way to work I pick up a local newspaper left on the seat of the bus. In there I see a professionally designed advert announcing the services of a new dentist in my local area. This was fortuitous as I was considering changing dentists and also potentially investing in some cosmetic dentistry to improve my smile. So I make a mental note of the name of the new dental practice and go on my way. On the way home after work, I take out my mobile ‘phone and Google the name of the dentist I’d read about earlier.

Encouragingly, I find a professional website which is easy to use on my small screen and presents exactly the information I need in a user-friendly way. I also read excellent patient testimonials and see examples of how the dentist concerned had really made a difference to people’s lives by giving them new smiles and enhancing the function of their mouths. I was particularly impressed by the short videos which which really held my attention and explained everything I need to know. So far, two points of contact with your brand.

But I don’t call then and there as I’m near my stop, so I park my research until I get home. The fact is, I’d like to check some more things before I make that call.

Further research

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

What does it mean for your SEO and how should you act?

Around the middle of November, Google started to introduce a new character limit for a key display item which appear in search results – the data “snippet”. Today we’ll take a quick look at what this is and how it leverages on the meta description you write for your page, the character limit guideline for which has also changed.

What is a “snippet”

In its simplest terms a snippet is a short piece of information which Google displays at the top of the search results for any given search term. It is very prominent and often used by searchers to get a quick answer to the question they asked and hopefully encourage them to click through to the website in question to gather more detail. Up until recently, the snippet information was taken from the meta description of the page and was typically up to around 165 characters max. But it appears that the maximum character limit is now changing.

What changed and how can SEOs utilise it?

Google has officially announced that both the character limit for snippets and meta descriptions has increased, although there is no definitive number. Data researchers have already started to pull together recommendations which currently sit at the 300 character mark. If you recall, one of the key on-page recommendations for data configuration is a website page’s meta description which has stood at around 160 characters for many years. So quite a change. But how do we as SEO and dental website owners leverage on this latest change?

Given that the snippet is currently being pulled from the meta description of a web page in most cases, it makes sense to revisit our key pages and update the meta descriptions there to reflect the new character limit i.e. 300. So this is primarily about the real estate on page one of Google’s search results and a further technique you can employ to try to maximise your presence there.

What to do next….

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Did your dental supplier give you a bad recommendation you now regret?

clicking on mouseOver the last couple of months we’ve taken on three new clients who needed to move supplier for their website management and SEO. All of them had launched new websites built by designers recommended by other dental suppliers; two by a dental coach and one by a monthly payment plan provider.

All three cases were quite similar in that the dentist had their website designed, signed up to an expensive monthly maintenance and SEO contract and then sat and waited for the anticipated new patient enquiries. However, after 6 months nothing positive had resulted, then after a further three or four months of paying out fees, still no progress.

At this point, all three businesses pulled the plug on their suppliers and went in search of an alternative provider. Understandably so. So what actually happened to cause this and what can you do to avoid a similar situation? Let’s start by looking at the why you need to be skeptical about some business recommendations as they might not be quite as transparent as they seem.

Supplier associations

It’s often said that the dental business is a “small world” and so you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that lots of suppliers have actually set up formal and in some cases informal, associations with other suppliers. So for example, patient payment plan providers will work with a specific web designer and try to push their business exclusively. This is advantageous to the designer as they rely on the regional representatives of the other company to help sell their services. In return, the design company will offer incentives to the dentist e.g. 10% off website design or other similar perks.

In a similar way, trainers and coaches in the profession tend to push the services of companies where they have set-up mutually beneficial relationships, often under-pinned by some form of commercial arrangement.

These types of arrangements are common in all forms of business and should be expected. However, as we see from the examples above, all isn’t necessarily rosy when it comes to some of these recommendations which are arguably driven by incentives, rather than an appropriate fit with the business of the dentist concerned.

Incompatibility

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