by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

What are they and why are they important for your dental practice website?

improving Google rankIn our last post we looked at how “on-page” SEO factors are often skimped by web designers and how it usually takes a website audit to unearth them when the owner realises the site isn’t working as expected.

Following on from our last blog where we discussed how web page titles can make a significant difference to how a website performs in Google, this article takes a look at web page meta descriptions and the role they play in helping to attract website traffic.

So what is a meta description?

The meta description is a “hidden” web page element that is used to provide a summary of the content of the page. Whilst the title also does this, the meta description is longer – in fact up to 160 characters. So you have a couple of sentences in which to summarise the visible page content as accurately as possible.

You may wonder why the meta description actually exists; particularly given that the page title is also a mini summary of sorts. Well, when the search results in Google, Bing and other engines are displayed, you will see a several pieces of information displayed. The main ones are the URL (the “www” address), the title and the meta description for the page. Whilst the first two element, the URL and title, are known to be ranking factors, the meta description actually isn’t. So then, why is it still important?

Given that the meta description is highly visible in the search results, even though it isn’t a ranking factor within the Google algorithm, it is still very important in that users will likely read it to determine more about the page they are just about to click through to. So a well written, compelling meta description can be the decider between a searcher clicking on your result rather than the results just above or below it.

Beware the lazy web designer

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

An important web page element worthy of your attention. Optimise for Google and users too!

I was recently approached by a dentist to perform a website performance audit where the site concerned had been live for around 5 months but was failing to bring in new patient enquiries. His dental design partner had provided assurances that all was well but closer inspection of the website showed up a number of significant content flaws which, collectively, were undermining the performance.

I’ll cover each of the problem areas I uncovered in more detail over the next few weeks and how upgrading them made a substantial improvement to the site concerned. The first on-page design element we will discuss is the page title.

How a poorly configured website page title can set you back in Google search

This is a simple page parameter and yet one of the most important to get right when it comes to configuring a web page for optimal Google performance. First off, let’s recap on what it actually is and then move on to how to configure it for best Google effect.

The web page title is the short descriptive text you see in the browser tab at the top of your page. This is also shown in the search results (at least where it hasn’t been automatically replaced by Google). You have up to 60 characters to use for the title but by keeping it to 55, you are guaranteed that your title will show correctly in the vast majority of applications. The title is important in that it provides a short summary of the page for the user and for search engines.

Optimising the page title

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by AdminPosted on Posted in pay per click

Broad or tight targeting for PPC campaigns?

Google AdWords is becoming increasingly popular with dentists, particularly where a website is new or where the competitor websites on page one of Google are entrenched and need many months of SEO to overhaul. Although the traffic from paid ads. typically converts into new enquiries worse than organic (free) Google positions, pay-per-click is still worth considering when free traffic is hard to come by.

To recap very quickly, AdWords is a bidding process whereby you can place an ad. very high on page one of Google simply by paying more than your competitors when your ad. is clicked. It’s actually a fair bit more complex than that, but in principle, the more you are prepared to pay, the better exposure you can get, both in terms of how often your advert is shown to searchers and where it appears on the Google results page.

AdWords is a complex tool and not really for do-it-yourself configuration and management. In the hands of the inexperienced, it’s possible to lose a lot of money very quickly on poor quality traffic and clicks which stand little chance of converting into meaningful dental enquiries.

Poor AdWords campaigns are something we see regularly when we inherit accounts, either where one of the dental practice team have tried to set up, or where an inexperienced agency has configured a “fire and forget” campaign to earn some quick cash. Usually there is a lack of understanding about the fundamental parameters and “must do” basics to ensure that campaigns do not leak cash. Similarly there is little or no attempt to measure the success of the campaigns, and so the advertiser ploughs on regardless, and usually with no idea if the campaign is actually worthwhile or not.

Targeting options

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Website

6 dental design company tricks to watch out for.

When a dentist decides to move on to a new web design company, you would hope that the process is fast and trouble-free. However, as we regularly find when welcoming new clients to Dental Media, this is often not as easy as we, or the client, might have expected. So what obstacles do we often have to overcome when bringing new clients on-board and how do some web companies actively make it difficult for clients to transfer away?

Incorrectly registered domain names

Unfortunately this one is a regular occurrence and results from the incumbent designer having registered the client’s domain name in their name and not that of the client or client’s business. Whilst this will not affect how a domain name functions, it could cause ownership issues if the original registrant decided to lay claim to it. The domain name should always be registered in the name of the business or the name of the business owner. If it is not, then a convoluted transfer process needs to take place to switch the name across to the correct registrant. This can cause delays and also relies on the original registrant being willing to undertake the process.

The “exit” fee

If not pre-agreed, a design company is at liberty to charge you a fee to release your website assets. We have seen examples of extortionate exit fees being levied by a couple of well-known companies in the dental design sector, so it pays to understand what this might be before you agree to use their services.

Ownership of your website

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Optimised messaging = increased engagement and new enquiries

It’s a well known fact that you have only a couple of seconds to grab your user’s attention when they land on the home page of your website.

If it’s bland, old-fashioned and unnappealing, then it’s no surprise that these visitors will simply choose to look elsewhere for their dental services – web users are fickle so it’s essential to convey the right message quickly.

Perhaps what is less well understood is that new websites can also be fairly poor at grabbing the attention of visitors too; even websites which look “nice” and adhere to the latest functionality guidlelines such as optimisation for mobile devices. Where these websites fall down, is that they haven’t been optimised for the messages that the business needs to convey to potential new patients.

We often receive requests from dentists asking for help after their new website has failed to deliver. This is typically where their chosen designer has used a standard WordPress template or similar and added a few stock dental images along with some generic, bland text to produce another “samey” looking design . It’s usually the case that the sites are either too confusing or simply that no-one has considered how to optimise the site to a) grab the user’s attention quickly and b) encourage them to get in touch. The bottom line is that websites need to work and looking “pretty” is only a part of this.

Conveying the right messages about your business – quickly and effectively

Getting the message across in the short space of time that you have available involves how your website is laid out, your use of text and also how you employ visual aspects such as images and video. Getting the combination right will increase your new dental patient enquiries significantly, indeed research shows that the effectiveness of websites which have been optimised this way can be increased by 30% or more. Failure to address the basic aspects means lots of users (and new enquiries) that you are throwing away.

To get your website messages right, you need to consider how your users are seeing it and the questions that are running through their own minds when they land on your pages. The following elements are key when considering the web page design and the messaging therein:

  • is it immediately clear what your business is about?
  • what makes you different from you competitors?
  • did you set appropriate expectations for the user?

Let’s take a look at these elements in a little more detail and where many dental websites go wrong in their implementation.

Can a user tell immediately what you do?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Financial

A quick calculation to help validate your marketing spend.

Whilst many dentists are very close to the “numbers” for their business, perhaps surprisingly, lots aren’t. Maybe this is due to focusing on clinical aspects, lack of experience or simply coming out of dental school with limited training in business skills. This has become increasingly apparent over the last few years when I’ve been discussing the cost/benefit of marketing for dentists looking to increase new patient acquisition at their practice.

Often the dentist would comment that the monthly fee, let’s say £350 for SEO for illustration purposes, seemed excessive and could not really be justified from their budget. However, when we proceeded to dig into the cost/benefit a little further, it would become clear that they had limited idea on how to calculate the return-on-investment for that spend and consequently the opportunity being missed from failing to proceed. The overriding factor appears to be that people see the ‘£350’ as an absolute fee and dismiss it, but without factoring it against the value of the new patients it delivers.

Additionally, there is still a tendency for some to believe that online marketing is ‘easy and quick’ and perhaps limited appreciation of the hours of work and experience which are brought to bear to achieve success. In reality, bespoke marketing campaigns take time and diligent application to deliver results.

So how do you calculate the return-on-investment for your marketing budget?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in local search

Now more important than ever…..

example of online reviewI’m regularly asked how the members of the dental practice team can contribute to the overall marketing effort rather than the practice simply relying on an external marketing partner for everything. Whilst there are some overarching fundamentals, for example developing the team to become “brand ambassadors” for the the business, at the other end of the scale, there are some much more specific tasks which also need to be tackled.

One of these tasks relates to how the business is marketed via the Internet and specifically, how it appears in Google’s local search results which appear on page one. For those who are unsure, these are the results which appear on the first page of Google, usually associated with a map and brief business details, when a user searches for a business in their local area. Google (and other search engines such as Bing) always include several results for local business, prominently on page one. These attract lots of clicks and it’s easy to see why they are very important for all businesses, not just dentists.

Bottom-line is that any business which is serious about their Google positions and the large number of new patient enquiries which originate from there, needs to secure entries in their local search results on page one.

Why should a dentist secure local ranking results?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

Why your keywords may not be bringing website traffic!

Does your SEO team present you with a monthly report which shows you that your website is top of Google for a bunch of fairly obscure terms? Phrases such as “direct access hygienist Newmarket” or “air polishing Grimsby”? Stuff that on a shiny report may look good but practically means very little. The bottom line is that no-one actually searches for these terms so presenting them as SEO “wins” is of limited use other than to try to make out that the SEO company is doing a great job.

Whilst it is important to understand that “long-tail” keywords are important in bringing traffic to a website (more here), using their ranking position to measure the success of your SEO team is not very smart and something that all dental business owners need to be aware of.

The general lack of understanding around this along with the sneaky tactics some SEO companies use, was brought home to me recently when a client presented a free report she’d been sent, apparently detailing her website performance and how to improve it. A large section of this covered how the prospecting company could get her website to prominent positions in Google for a range of meaningless terms. Fortunately it was easy enough to illustrate why this was a scam and how such “work” would add little to her already excellent ranking positions.

Appropriate keyword markers

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Financial

Why most practices don’t need to pay £2.5k per month for dental marketing.

Readers of our blog and customers of our business generally, tend to be quite savvy about business expenses and the avoidance of unnecessary costs. Indeed, we get a steady stream of new clients who have become disenchanted with overcharging by their existing supplier and migrate across for a better deal.

Whilst this steady influx of new clients is excellent for our own business, the root causes of it, i.e. overcharging and hard “up-selling”, are worrying reflections of some sectors within the dental marketing business.

Not all companies do it, but it seems that the “hard” up-sell is becoming widespread. Maybe I’m too cynical but perhaps the trend is driven by the misnomer that all dentists are “loaded”? Or maybe that increasing competition in dentistry and the need to keep attracting new patients, forces the uninitiated to purchase any old thing in the effort to stay ahead?

The trend also seems to be exacerbated by information broadcast within the dental marketing business advising what a dental business owner needs to do to stay ahead of the game. Just recently I read a blog post which advised that practices generally need to spend at least 5% of gross revenue on marketing along with some interesting recommendations for how the spend should be split.

This loosely translated to £5k for a dental website (!) and £2.5k per month for various other marketing tools; e.g. £1k on pay-per-click, £250 on SEO, £750 on email marketing etc. This type of generalisation is not too helpful in my opinion and can completely confuse dental business owners about what they actually need to budget for their marketing. As you’d expect, each business is different and the majority don’t need to budget anything like those figures to be successful. 15 years of experience and lots of data gives us the real picture.

Horses for courses

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Training

Marketing Training – Health Education, East of England – Ipswich 2nd December

training session for dentistsWe are pleased to have been invited to run a short course on dental web marketing by Health Education, East of England at the Ipswich Postgraduate Medical Education Centre. The course will run from 09.30 to 16.15 with classroom lectures and break-out sessions for hands-on activities.

The course will deliver 6 hours of CPD.

The training session is designed to give a basic understanding of internet marketing and why it is important for dental practice growth. The following topics will be covered:

  • Digital (web) marketing versus traditional marketing
  • The essentials of the web marketing tool-kit
  • The modern dental website
  • Blogging
  • Email marketing
  • Social media
  • Search engine optimisation (SEO)
  • Pay-per-click advertising
  • Measuring the return on investment – analytics and reporting
  • Setting up – outsource, DIY or a combination of both?
  • Training
  • The cost-benefit equation – how much does it cost and what returns can you expect?
  • Spotting and avoiding the dental marketing up-sell

There will also be ample time for questions and answers as well as practical demonstrations. Course notes will be provided.

Intended learning outcome and how to book

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