Are you worried that your dental practice isn’t reaching the right amount of people? An inadequate web presence could be to blame.

According to the latest statistics, 95% of consumers have used the Internet to search for businesses in their area. Is your site optimized to capture your prospective audience?

Today, we’re breaking down just how important a functional and compelling website is when building your dental practice marketing approach.

Ready to learn more? Let’s go!

1. Great Content Draws Visitors In

Strong content is the backbone of any dental practice marketing strategy. Delivering smart, informative, and concise information is a great way to establish thought leadership and stand out from your competitors.

Focus on creating content that is fresh and unique, yet easy to read. Many dental practices will publish content that is overstuffed with keywords in an attempt to boost search rankings, and end up turning an interested reader off.

Ensure that your content is relevant to your profession and features dental concepts and products like Crest whitening strips.

Not sure where to distribute all your data?

Try creating a blog section on your website to host your published content. Then, link to these pages through posts on your social media profiles. If your content is fresh enough, people will click on the link and begin to explore your site.

2. Web Design Builds Brand Identity

When it comes to dental practice marketing, your website serves as a salesperson for your business. It should communicate information about your company through a design that’s clean and user-friendly.

Purchase a high-end design template or hire an experienced web developer to design a one-of-a-kind website for your business. Increased exposure and sales will gradually offset the extra costs.

3. Dental Practice Marketing Converts Visitors into Leads

The most important step in a dental practice marketing strategy is to turn your website visitors into concrete leads, and eventually into customers. Here are a few ways to accomplish this:

Call-to-Action Phrases

Place Call-to-Action (CTA) phrases strategically around your site. A CTA phrase is any statement that encourages readers to take your web content a step further.

For instance, a CTA phrase at the end of a blog article might say, “Contact us today to learn more about our services!” You can also implore your visitors to share your content on social media.

Social Media Management

Secure more leads by making sure your social media posts are timely and relevant. Respond to comments as soon as you’re able, and make sure service requests are funneled through to the appropriate personnel.

Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through. People are more likely to invest time in your business if you can come across as likable.

Visible Contact Information

Make sure your contact information is visible on every page of your website and linked at the bottom of your content. You don’t want to miss out on potential customers because they are unsure of how to contact you.

Incorporate User Experience (UX) design into your contact forms to make sure everything is accessible from the perspective of your clients.

Increase Your Exposure and Widen Your Reach

The purpose of your dental website is to give prospects and patients a quick and accessible way to reach you and learn more about your business.

Yet, managing a website can be difficult on your own, especially when problems arise. Once your site is up and running, you’ll want to keep it that way with website monitoring services.

Contact us for more information on how we can help keep your site running smoothly!

Every business has been there. The day is trucking along, but it’s quieter than normal. The orders aren’t coming in like they normally do, and you can’t pinpoint why.

Then the news comes in. Your website has crashed.

If you’re like most businesses, you have someone on board to correct the problem. But you’ve already lost an entire day of productivity, plus however long the problem takes to fix.  But why is it happening in the first place?

So why is it happening in the first place?

There are a few reasons for a potential website crash, and we can’t list all of them. But we can give you the most common so you can head off trouble before it happens.

So while your tech support team is getting your website back up and running, let’s look at the five most common reasons for a website crash.

1. The Code is Off

Code is the building blocks of the entire internet. Without it, the entire age of technology crumbles.

And while the most worrisome thing here may be the entirety of modern civilization balancing on the backs of web developers, we’re talking about why your website crashed.

If any part of the code for your site is broken, the entire site can potentially go down. Even if the mistake is relatively small, it can cause a website crash.

This is a common problem, especially right after you’ve made updates to your site. So if you’ve recently launched a new website or made recent changes, this is probably your issue.

Even the best web developers sometimes send up with errors in their code, and while it can be tedious to fix, it isn’t a catastrophic problem.

2. You’ve Got Bots

The Internet, as it has developed, has become similar to the human body. In among the inner workings are endless little parasites. Similar to human germs, these spam bots and viruses can cause endless trouble for your website.

Bots and viruses are constantly searching for weaknesses in the back ends of websites. Once they find a weakness, they wriggle their way in and cause mayhem, eventually causing a website crash.

Worse: once you’ve caught the attention of one of these little guys, chances are, more will come running. They are attracted to certain red flags on websites, and if you’ve gotten the attention of one, the others are sure to be close behind.

And worst of all? Spam bots and their ilk don’t even have to break all the way into your website to make it crash. Enough of them trying to break in will do it.

It’s vital to invest in solid security for your site. It helps protect you against bots, but also against physical hackers and malware.

It’s also important to know the red flags that attract these types of bots, and make sure your site doesn’t have any of them.

3. Too Much Traffic

I mean, is there any such thing as “too much traffic”? Well, if you want to keep your website up and running, there is.

Websites are sort of like freeways. They can fit a lot of cars, and you can have a lot of cars on them and still have traffic flowing freely. But put too many cars on one road and everything grinds to a halt.

The analogy isn’t perfect, but the visual still works. If you see rapid growth in terms of your client base and website traffic, but you don’t upgrade the amount of hosting service, you have the perfect recipe for a website crash.

This is especially troublesome if the traffic spike comes out of nowhere. Sometimes, it isn’t true traffic, but bot traffic artificially inflating your numbers, which is a whole problem of its own.

Keep tabs on your web traffic so that you are prepared for surges ahead of time, and keep an eye on any out-of-place surges so you can stop bot traffic before it gets out of hand.

4. Expired Service

This one is an easy fix, but it’s more common than you might think.

You pay to host your website and to own your domain. That yearly fee goes to make sure your website stays up and running. But if for whatever reason, you forget to renew those services, your website simply ceases to exist.

This is especially common if you pay for your website every two or three years. When you’re used to paying bills every month or every year, it can be easy to let a tri-annual bill slip through the cracks.

The easy fix here is to set up your hosting and domain payments on auto draft, so you don’t have to think about them.

5. Faulty Plugins

Most websites allow third party plugins that can help boost your website’s productivity and effectiveness.

Unfortunately, these plugins can also be a vulnerability when it comes to invaders. They can also wreak havoc with your code if they aren’t compatible.

Plugins may also be out of date, which makes them buggy.

Plugins can be a great addition to your website. Just keep an eye on them to make sure they are still doing their jobs and not becoming obsolete.

So What Made Your Website Crash?

It could be any number of things, from code issues to faulty plugins to malicious malware.

A lot of these can be headed off ahead of time.

Make sure your hosting is up to date, keep an eye on your numbers to avoid traffic overload, and stay on top of security measures.

For added protection, take advantage of a service that lets you know when your site is down so that you know before your customers do.

Chances are you came across this post via a Google search or a link from one of your favorite sites. Wouldn’t you like potential customers to do the same when it comes to your products and services?

Digital is the top way to market these days. The $194 billion spent on digital advertising last year says so.

If you haven’t integrated a digital marketing campaign into your company’s overall strategy, it’s time to start doing so.

Here’s how you can catch up.

1. Create a Digital Strategy

There is a misconception that digital marketing revolves around trends, but that isn’t entirely true.

Trends come and go. A successful and enduring digital presence for your business or brand is based on what makes you unique.

Before setting out to conquer the online world, be sure to analyze every aspect of your traditional business model. Iron out any flaws you find before broadcasting them online. For example, any online ordering system will fail without effective procedures and people to back it up.

A digital strategy consulting session with an outside party can help you to pinpoint these weaknesses before you start work on a digital marketing campaign.

2. Know Your Aims

Assuming you already know your target market intimately and have studied all your competitors’ moves, it is time to set some goals.

You cannot measure the success of your digital marketing campaign without knowing what you wanted to achieve in the first place.

Set up a number of “baby steps” or benchmarks for each of your stages and measure them constantly. Educate each member of your team with regard to his or her role in these stages and provide accountability.

3. Be True to Your Brand

Research keywords and search inquiries related to your products and services. Try to choose no more than five keywords to target in all your communications.

Set up a brand book for the use of these as well as your company’s  logo, colors, tone of voice, and brand personality. Then design, check and re-check your marketing efforts well in advance with these guidelines in mind.

4. Set Up Your Empire

You have an awesome, fast, up-to-date website that works all the time right? Use it.

Your website is the gateway between you and your customers. Check out how you can optimize your site with your newly elected keywords. Focus your efforts in the meta-titles and descriptions, Alt text and page URLs.

Every item of your social media campaign and other online marketing efforts should lead here. Planning this pathway is at the core of every digital marketing campaign.

Track your online efforts constantly and hone them accordingly.

5. Guide Customers Along the Purchase Journey

Knowing what to do with your customers once you have lured them to your website is a key part of planning your strategy.

Will a service consultant call them? Will you send a follow-up email? Will they leave with a free gift?

All these options should be aimed at one thing: getting the sale. Plan the stages beyond the digital realm carefully to ensure your business prospers.

Taking Your Digital Marketing Campaign to the Next Level

All these stages can be broken down into much smaller, more intricate steps.

There are many online resources and digital marketing experts to help you make sense of the process along the way.

Once you’re up and running with your digital campaign, make sure your site is live and active so visitors can find you! Contact us for more information on how we can help!

When people think about going green, they most often think of recycling, buying sustainable goods, and investing in energy-efficient products.

However, you can also go green with your SEO strategy.

When it comes to increasing your online exposure, going green can offer a huge advantage.

Unfortunately, many companies are so focused on selling their products and services and ranking for competitive keywords that they overlook the value of green SEO.

What’s so great about going green? Let’s take a look at why a green SEO strategy may be just what your site needs.

Your Customers Are On Board

Even if your company isn’t solely driven by helping the environment or attracting environmentally-friendly customers, (i.e. a farm to table restaurant), your clientele will still appreciate your efforts.

In fact, according to GfK MRI’s gold-standard Survey of the American Consumer, over half of Americans would be would opt for a slightly more expensive product if it’s good for the environment.

Plus, being eco-friendly isn’t just something customers prefer, it’s something they expect.

According to the Cone Communications/Ebiquity Global CSR Study, “Nine out of ten consumers expect companies to do more than make a profit.” They also expect them to put effort into addressing social responsibility and environmental issues.

By going green with your SEO, you could gain a new level of respect with your current customers and attract a wider customer base. It is very unlikely that a customer will turn you down because of your green efforts.

Highlighting Going Green With SEO

Whether you practice sustainability in your work place, sell eco-friendly products and services, or partner with sustainable companies, you need to find a way to let your customers know about it.

This is where green SEO comes in. Here’s how you can make your SEO “greener”:

1. Keywords

You already know you need to optimize your site with relevant keywords in order to boost your rankings.

But, don’t forget to include eco-friendly search terms while doing so. Search terms like “green”, “green business”, “environmentally friendly”, and “eco-friendly” should be listed next to your products and services and your business name.

For example, if you’re a scrap metal business, your search term could be “scrap metal prices per pound for green roofers”.

You should be incorporating these keywords into your content, content headers, title tags, and images.

2. Backlinks

Building links can be a time-consuming endeavor, no matter what line of work you’re in.

However, link building is important for increasing your brand’s visibility, boosting your traffic, and establishing an online reputation.

And luckily, there are many great resources out there for building links with green businesses. Local business directories that promote green businesses are a great place to start.

Be sure to check out Green America National Green Pages, GreenMeLocally, and Greenopia.

3. Social Media

Remember, linking your site content to your social media accounts and vice versa is an important part of SEO.

Therefore, you’ll also want to go green on your social media accounts. 

You can do this by sharing green tips with your followers and asking them to share theirs back, highlighting green initiatives in your community, and show-casing other, non-competitive businesses offering green products and services.

Green SEO: Wrap Up

Hopefully, this article gets you excited about launching your green SEO strategy.

Launching this kind of SEO can make a huge difference for your business, as you’ll be able to attract more environmentally conscious customers.

Plus, it’s a great way to get involved in an important cause.

If you liked learning about green SEO tactics and you’d like to learn more about SEO, be sure to check out this beginner’s guide to SEO and PPC campaigns.  

The dental hygiene industry is booming these days. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, many dental practices are seeing a spike in new and recurring patient visits.

The key to getting your fair share of the growing population of dental patients is to make your practice more visible.

And what better way to do that than through the internet?

Building a professional website and posting regularly can drive foot traffic to your dental office.

In order to do this successfully, you’ll need to sharpen your dental website marketing skills.

Read on to learn how to do just that.

Enhance Your SEO Marketing Strategy

Search engine optimization will help Google index your pages higher on the results list. And this will ultimately assist your audience find your website in the first place.

It’s important to have a keyword list that is specifically targeted towards your customer base. If you need help with keyword research, you can always consult with an SEO expert.

Combine Social Media with Your SEO Strategy

You shouldn’t believe that SEO is all that’s needed for your dental website marketing plan. In order to up your return, you’ll need to dive into the wonderful world of social media.

Social media plays a big role in ranking websites and attracting audiences. If you don’t already have any social media profiles, then it’s time to make one and start posting useful content.

Research where your audience hangs out and create profiles there.

Is your target audience on Facebook? Are they frequent Instagram posters? Do they mainly use Pinterest?

Take the Time to Claim Your Business Listing

And when you do, make sure to update all of the information. Fill out as many of the details in your business listing as possible. Make sure they match across all platforms.

Doing this will help users find accurate information about your business, such as phone numbers, hours of operation, payment options, email addresses, the website URL and physical address.

Also, take special care to ensure your company name is spelled accurately. For example, Orthodontic Associates can easily be misspelled, which could hurt your SEO and traffic.

Start a Blog On Your Website

Having a blog will allow you to use more of your target keywords, which will help boost your website ranking.

It can also help draw in bigger crowds. If your headlines and topics are catchy and valuable, you can promote them on social media and help draw attention to the company.

Some content ideas you might consider include advice columns, how-to pieces, prevention tips, case studies and even video tutorials. Videos and images are also a must-have to make your content more appealing and engaging.

Continuously Audit Your Dental Website

Is your current strategy the best strategy? Or are there areas that need tweaking? Is your website down too often? If so, you need a way to check it to ensure your hosting provider is working correctly.

It’s important to audit all aspects of your strategy to see what’s working and what’s not.

Analytic tools will prove useful in these instances. You should monitor incoming traffic to determine if your keywords are working and whether your social media profiles are performing optimally.

Identify what needs to be changed and start A/B testing until you get it right.

Stay On Top of Your Dental Website Marketing

The more you know about website marketing, the easier it will be to use the web to attract more patients. Hopefully, you’ll find this guide useful in your journey to grow your dental practice!

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!