The Proceptive Perspective Dental Blog

I will post the second part of the article soon…Enjoy!

A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Marketing…

As the Internet continues to grow, more and more dentists are going online in an effort to expand their market and increase their patient base. What many of these dentists are now discovering is the tremendous amount of time, investment and labor required just to get a website listed and ranked on the major search engines.

It is can be extremely hard to make an educated decision on search engine optimization when you have limited to no knowledge on what a search engine spider is, why links effect your rankings or how long it takes a typical website to get listed in the various search engines. What makes the choice for an optimization program even more difficult is the handful of unethical search engine optimization and marketing companies preying on this lack of knowledge in order to sell inferior and unnecessary products at inflated prices.

Steps to successfully create, promote and market a website online…

There is no one step to ensure top rankings in the search engines. Each engine has its own algorithm, with some of them determining ranking results from the calculation of over 100 factors. What this means is that a website might perform well in MSN, but may falter in Google and not even show up in Yahoo. While some of these factors may play a more important role (link building, on-page optimization), all of them contribute to the overall success of a website.

Since none of the search engines provide detailed information on their proprietary search algorithms, it is up to each SEO company to develop cost effective programs that successfully incorporate optimization techniques and delivers results. While there are several common techniques that all SEO companies agree are effective, each company has its own take on the best way to implement them.

The following guide has been written to help dentists who are new to the Internet by explaining some of the fundamental steps of search engine optimization and the importance each step plays in the generation of top rankings.

• Purchase Relevant Domain Name

The first step in the development of a successful website is the domain name. Your domain name needs to not only reflect your specialty and area of practice, but should also be memorable in order to build branding (i.e. yourtowncosmeticdentist.com). Make it easy for your patients to remember your site so they can easily return or tell others about your site.

Domain names also play a small role in the rankings for your website. A domain name that incorporates the main keywords for your practice can give your overall rankings for those keywords a slight boost.

• Create A Search Engine & Consumer Friendly Website Layout

Websites need to be designed to not only make it easy for your visitors to find your various dental services, location, hours and other information on your site, but also to provide good internal link structure in order to get top rankings in the search engines. A properly designed website will also allow the various engines to find and pick up all of your website’s pages (this process is called “spidering”) for inclusion into their index. This can also be accomplished through a site map.

If you are looking to generate leads for new patients from your online visitors, make sure that your contact information and phone number are prominently displayed on each page, or make it extremely easy for the visitor to find new patient forms from the home page. Some successful sites will place a small contact form on every page of their site to ensure that their potential client can easily contact them.

A successful site should also incorporate calls to action, which might guide the visitor to fill out the new patient form, or ask them to “call now” to set up an appointment. These calls to action are proven techniques utilized by successful websites in other service industries.

Finally, a great dental website should be an accurate reflection of the dentist and the dental practice. Even in this day where people are contacting more and more electronically, people still want to connect with people. They want to feel comfortable and make a connection with the dentist, especially if they are a new patient. That is why it is imperative that you have warm, friendly pictures that highlight you, your staff and your dental office.

A well planned out and successful dental website should be designed to offer an enjoyable user experience, capture potential patient leads and be built with a solid foundation of search engine optimization and marketing techniques. These components will create a website that is not just an online place holder describing your dental office, but an active marketing tool which consistently brings in new patients for your practice.

• Keyword Research

Keyword research is not only one of the most important steps in successfully marketing a website, but it is also one of the most overlooked. The purpose of keyword research is to determine what phrases your potential patients are using in the search engines to find your services. By utilizing optimization campaigns that focus on these targeted keywords, you not only increase your market visibility but also increase the chance you will be found by more of your local potential patients.

Effective keyword research takes the main services that your practice offers and finds the different search term variations that are being used to find them. As every individual has their own method for searching, the combination of relevant keyword phrases is nearly endless. If you were to ask ten different individuals to search the web for the same product or service, you are likely to find that each individual used a different search phrase in the search box to find the same item.

Proceptive Dental researches and creates these different phrase combinations, analyzes them for popularity and relevancy, and then compiles a keyword list designed to maximize exposure for each individual dentist in their local area.

•On-Site Search Engine Optimization

A great looking website and a high ranking website don’t always go hand in hand. In order to have a chance to achieve the top ranking positions for the important keywords relevant to your practice, your site must be optimized correctly. There are numerous factors involved in the on-page optimization of a website, including correct title tags, descriptions, keywords, meta tags, headers, keyword density, links and more.

On-site optimization is the first major step towards getting your site placed with the various search engines. For a small number of websites in non-competitive markets, on-site optimization might be all that they need in order to get top rankings. For the majority of sites, programs that include link building, monthly maintenance and off site support are necessary in order to get the desired results.

An important issue to consider is that the search engine algorithms regularly change, so while your website might be optimized correctly today, a change in an algorithm could make that optimization ineffective. That is why many websites elect to enroll in monthly optimization campaigns that continuously monitor search algorithms, and make needed optimization changes in order to stay relevant and effective. Most of these monthly programs include regular ranking reports and analytic programs in order to gauge the progress and success of the campaign. This information also allows the SEO company to make minor “tweaks” and changes to your campaign in order to achieve higher placement for your practice’s important keyword phrases.

•Website Hosting

Anytime your website is down, you lose business and potential patients. It is imperative that you entrust the hosting of your website to a reputable company with a strong history of reliability. Having your site down for any length of time can also cause your search engine rankings to drop.

In the second part we will discuss Link Building, Pay Per Click Search Engines and more!