by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

Google’s all-new search algorithm – what does it do?

Just over a month ago, Google introduced another huge change into the world of search and how it calculates which websites to return when a user enters a search query.

This was called the “Hummingbird” algorithm update and it differed from earlier updates in that it was a complete re-write of the core ranking system which they use.

Google is well known for algorithm updates, for example the “Panda and Penguin” updates which were designed to tackle spam and penalise over-optimised websites. However, “Hummingbird” is different – if you think of the overall search system as being similar to an engine and its component parts; the Panda and Penguin updates were akin to engine component changes e.g. a new oil filter whereas Hummingbird is effectively the same as a complete new engine – so quite a radical change and in fact the first complete overhaul since 2001.

What does the new algorithm do?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Website

Planning and testing to ensure success

Have you ever seen those new dental websites which are launched prematurely with huge sections missing? The phrase “coming soon” where the treatment gallery should be or missing photographs of key team members? There’s no better way to undermine the impact of a great new website by launching it in a half-baked fashion which will simply serve to put potential new clients off.

This is why a thorough web development plan is needed which should cover all parts of the process, including client research, design, development (coding), content generation, testing and finally launch.

Key steps and preparation in the design process

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

What we do and how we do it

It’s great to see dentists starting to ask all the right questions of their web marketing partners. With lots of useful, easily accessible information available, it’s now relatively straightforward for business owners to compile a list of pertinent questions to ask of potential suppliers, so ensuring that they receive the right services at sensible costs.

Here are some recent questions asked of the team at Dental Media and the answers we gave. Hopefully this will provide a little more insight about us and also provide a set of typical questions you may wish to ask when seeking out a new supplier.

Marketing for dentists by Dental Media

Q – can you tell me a little more about the history of Dental Media and how your reputation developed?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Which is best for my website promotion?

PPC and SEO for Google SEMThis is a very popular question asked by dentists who are trying to determine which web marketing channel will deliver “best bang for buck” – SEO or pay-per-click?

Before we explore further, here are a couple of very quick overview definitions:

  • SEO – the process whereby the search ranking of a website is progressively improved using techniques such as ethical back-link acquisition, content generation, blogging and social media. There is no direct fee other than to your optimisation partner.
  • Pay-per-click – paid advertising e.g. Google AdWords, where your advert position is governed by how much you are prepared to bid for each click.

So let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of each method…..

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

How to engage visitors and keep them on your dental website

Website “stickiness” is a term that has been around for a number of years – always important but even more-so now. This term is self-explanatory in that it describes website content which is sufficiently engaging and interesting to encourage users to “stick” around without bouncing off to view your competitor’s site. The longer they are on site, the more chance of them getting in touch via the contact form or picking up the ‘phone to give you a call.

However, there is now another very important reason why you must present interesting and engaging content i.e. Google. The search giant always preaches about providing a great user-experience and rewards sites that do so with prominent search rankings. It is now accepted that Google actually measures how long users dwell on a web page and uses this data as a key measure of just how useful that page is. In simple terms, low dwell times infer poor, uninteresting content whereas longer dwell times are an indication that the page is useful and worthy of a better search position.

Website components which introduce “stickiness”

So now that we understand why it is important to present web pages that hold the users (and Google’s) attention, which design elements can we use to enhance this?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in pay per click

Simple tips to optimise your pay-per-click campaign

Ad extensions for PPC campaignsWith Google announcing preferential positioning for Adwords campaigns which utilise “extensions” correctly, it’s worthwhile a quick review about Ad. extensions generally and how they can benefit your PPC campaign.

What are Ad. extensions?

Google allows advertisers to extend their Adwords ads. with additional features (extensions) which give better opportunities to showcase your businesses and services and hopefully, drive more traffic.

There are a number of extensions which can be used (11 at the last time of counting, including beta versions) but in this particular article I will only cover the five which would be most useful for dentists .

Site links

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by AdminPosted on Posted in blogging

WordPress plugins to boost your blogging efficiency

Using plugins to optimise a dental WordPress blogWhilst WordPress is arguably not the best tool for building admin-friendly dental websites, it is our tool of choice for building blogs.

WordPress was initially developed as a blogging platform and in the opinion of many, is still best suited for that purpose today. In fact for publishing blog articles simply and quickly, there is currently no better tool.

One of the strengths and weaknesses of WordPress is the huge range of “plugins” that are available to boost its functionality. Why strengths and weaknesses? Well, the core code which runs WordPress is updated very regularly, typically half a dozen times per year and more. Unfortunately this often means that popular plugins developed outside of the WordPress core become incompatible and can “break” the platform.

So on one hand you have a wide variety of tools available to enhance the core system; on the other, there can be fairly serious compatibility problems if you don’t choose plugins which are well-maintained and kept in step with updates to the main system.

So when using WordPress for dental practice blogging you have to exercise some caution when selecting plugins to enhance the core functionality. In this article we will take a quick look at some of the popular plugins that fit the bill and which shouldn’t cause any conflicts when the WordPress core is updated.

Useful, well-supported WordPress plugins

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Website

Updating your website every 2 – 3 years makes sense….

Whilst some may consider that an article of this nature is simply designed to create new business, I hope to show that this is not the case and in fact that it’s in a dentist’s best interest to keep their web presence as current as possible.

The world of dental web design moves quickly and competition is quite intense – in turn this has stimulated design companies to seek out and implement new techniques such as responsive design and state-of-the art content management platforms in order to differentiate. Consequently, many of the latest websites for dentists are considerably ahead of similar developments in comparable sectors such as the legal profession and pharmacy. This rapid progression also means that dentists who haven’t upgraded for several years are left with a web presence which starts to look very dated and also doesn’t “work” well to attract new patients.

London Perio-Implant - new Dental Media website

As the realisation spreads that the web offers by far the best return on marketing spend, more and more dentists go online with the latest website that helps them make a quick jump ahead of their local competition – at least whilst the website remains fresh.

My website is 3 years old – why do I need to update?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Affordable visual branding solutions for dentists

First impressions count – although our parents always advised that you should not judge a book by its cover, that principle cannot be applied to businesses. Making a professional and memorable statement about your business via your visual branding is a critical first step to engaging with potential new patients and selling your services. So it pays to take time and invest wisely when setting out to create a visual brand which will convey your message in an appealing way. This principle is equally applicable to dental practices as to any other small business.

To ensure you are taken seriously, you need a professional web presence complemented with high quality stationery, all built on a coordinated and consistent brand identity.

Practice Branding For Dentists

For dental practices, the key thing to appreciate is that developing a professional brand identity need not cost the earth. Basic elements such as a logo and stationery can be developed for hundreds, not thousands of pounds.

Developing the basics of your visual brand – the dental logo

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

The importance of secure passwords and regular back-ups

My day has been delayed somewhat thanks to Adobe – the makers of web and print design software. Thanks to their insecure data storage, 2.9 million user accounts were hacked resulting in the loss of personally identifiable data including addresses, passwords and bank card details – our business account included. They advise that critical data was encrypted but having spoken to their customer support today and having been met by chaos and confusion, frankly I don’t trust that. Consequently I personally spent three hours this morning painstakingly going through all of our data to make 100% sure that none of the compromised details had been used elsewhere.

Fortunately our own strict policies meant that we could relatively quickly isolate the problem to the Adobe account and then contact our business bank to have the potentially compromised card cancelled. So thanks Adobe and we’ll be sending a bill….

What did we learn from this?

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