by AdminPosted on Posted in local search

How do I get my patients to leave positive feedback in Google+ Local for my dental practice?

The question above is in the top five of all the questions we are asked about dental marketing and in particular the best ways to optimise for local search. To recap, “local search” refers to the results that Google now presents very close to the top of page one when it detects a user is actually searching from a computer based in that location.

This has been quite a challenge in the world of SEO for dental websites because Google can now show local sites who have done very little optimisation above sites that have been optimising for many months. This is particularly true for websites that are based just outside of the local search area – for example, a website for a company based in Colchester could previously rank well for nearby locations e.g. Basildon and Brentwood but could now be displaced by “local” results for those areas.

However, its not just a simple case of having a website and then expecting it to be picked up in the Google local search results (often know as the “7 pack”) – this is still an extremely competitive environment and a number of factors dictate how prominently you will appear as follows….

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

Which marketing techniques deliver best ROI and more patients?

Around 8 months ago, a dentist local to our offices refurbished his practice and started to implement a range of “traditional” marketing upgrades. New external signs appeared, the practice manager started to drive around with a logo emblazoned on her car and a range of glitzy new leaflets appeared in the reception area. Accompanying this was a new website which replaced a much older version that had held a steady page one position for a number of years. What happened next?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

How does your dental marketer work and who do they work for?

Surprisingly, a number of marketing companies are providing SEO services to more than one client in the same business sector and same location. Unfortunately this is also true for dental marketing. By checking certain features of a website, including an inspection of the back-link profile (i.e. which other sites link back to the target site) this practice is fairly easy to identify.

The visibility of the SEO work carried out by some marketing companies is also questionable e.g. only offering limited access to website usage statistics, so it’s most important to check what you are getting before proceeding.

So what do you need to ask before engaging a dental design and marketing company for ongoing SEO services? (more…)

by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

If your website domain name is an exact match to your keywords, there may be trouble ahead….

Over the weekend of 29/30 September, Google rolled out the latest update to its search ranking algorithm, this time aimed at penalising domain names that are “exact match” i.e. web addresses that have a very close match to your targeted search keywords. An example might be www.invisalign-braces-trumpton.co.uk. This update is now starting to hit UK search results – so what are the implications for dental websites?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Literature

Some “traditional” dental marketing methods still work

As dental marketers we spend the vast majority of our time researching and implementing the best techniques to build a dental practice’s profile on the web. This is because we know that the web generally provides the best reach and return for the time invested. However, some “traditional” dental marketing methods are still cost-effective and do deliver great results, particularly for local marketing campaigns. Here are a couple to consider….

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

Why your stand-alone dental website isn’t enough

2012 has seen a huge change in the tactics needed for a successful web marketing campaign. Historically, a decent website, perhaps supported with some SEO, was sufficient to ensure that you were in the mix for attracting new enquiries from the large number of patients searching for dental services online. However, the online marketing landscape has changed significantly and several channels now need to be exploited to ensure that your internet dental branding remains prominent. So just how important is this? (more…)

by AdminPosted on Posted in Mobile

A mobile optimised site is now an essential web marketing tool.

Traffic to dental websites via mobile devices now regularly exceeds 20% and continues to grow. Given the magnitude and upward trend it is now more important than ever to ensure that a mobile website is part of your overall dental marketing platform. We know from Google Analytics statistics that the bounce rate for mobile traffic to non-mobile websites is very high – in simple terms this means that the mobile user can’t use your site properly, leaves and goes elsewhere. What are my options to address this? (more…)

by AdminPosted on Posted in Dental Video

Use of video on your website to encourage new patient sign-ups

Word of mouth referrals and personal recommendations are very powerful ways to bring new custom to your business. Your website is your 24/7/365 shop window and offers a great opportunity to exploit the power of referral using patient video testimonials. Data from Google Analytics shows a high level of conversion activity i.e. phone calls and contact form submissions, directly after potential clients have viewed patient video testimonials. Here are a few tips on how to implement this excellent dental marketing technique:

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by AdminPosted on Posted in social

Maintaining progress in Twitter, Facebook and Google+

It is now universally accepted that social media activity is not only important for patient engagement but also critical to support effective SEO. It is also expected that the weighting Google applies to social activity will increase as “shares”, “re-tweets” and “likes” start to complement back-links as an indication of a website’s relevance and authority.

Here are a couple of quick tips to help keep the process efficient and the momentum going….

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

*Significant* changes in SEO since April 2012

It is accepted that promoting your dental website to a prominent position on page one of Google is the most important element of your dental marketing campaign. 60% of all new patient referrals come via websites and 65% of all Google searches for dental services go to the top three sites in the rankings.

Up until April of 2012, it was reasonably straightforward to promote a site quickly to prominent positions – this involved seeding your pages with your preferred keywords in the correct positions and then building lots of back-links to those pages using targeted anchor text for the links. (more…)