A website is a powerful tool – and, in our era, an indispensable one. But while it’s simple for anyone to get a website and begin engaging in self-promotion, it’s tricky to decide exactly what that website should contain. The possibilities are limitless. There’s an open-ended quality to your website that can actually become stifling in its potential. How do you decide what to include and what to avoid? Dr. Web Solution is here to help with a list of factors that you simply must include in your practice’s website. Some may seem obvious, but are surprisingly easy to overlook.

5 Things to Include on Your Dental Practice’s New Website

1. Contact information, hours, and address. While no one forgets to put a big phone number in the header (establishing a means of connection is the point of the site, right?), they often neglect to make the location and business hours as much of a priority. Patients want to know when and where they’ll be able to see you, and a lack of clear information could lead them to navigate away.
2. Your credentials. Patients need to be told why you’re the one to visit. Your “About Us” page should include your degrees, history, and even interests. Establish yourself as a human being to gain patient trust.
3. Your practice’s services. Feel free to set up your service pages in whatever way promotes the treatments you’d like to focus on. No matter the layout, the service pages should contain clear, well-organized content concerning the treatments patients will be able to pursue with your practice.
4. Before and after photos. Visual examples of the quality of work available will sway reluctant patients, and show off your skills in the most expressive way possible.
5. What sets you apart. This is the most difficult and most important part of your website. Take time to articulate what it is that makes your practice special, and then put that into concise phrases and images. You’ll see new patients respond.

Creating Your First Website

Looking for a helping hand? Our dental marketing company is up to the task. Get in touch online or at (630) 209-8195.

No matter how perfect your dental practice’s website is, it has to be seen in order for you to garner new patients. So, how do you get your site seen? It’s a simple- (and even silly-) sounding question, but one that actually requires serious SEO know-how to answer. While there are things we put in place on our websites that appeal to prospective patients, getting your site to rank high in listings (and get clicks) depends on how you appeal to the search engines. As these search engines are essentially robots with constantly-changing preferences, they can be fickle creatures. That’s where search engine optimization should step in and takes control.

Getting Your Dental Practice’s Website to Rank

“Rankings” are the places a website holds in different search engine listings for different keywords. Sound convoluted? To put it plainly, we’ll use an example. When you search for “local dentist,” there will be a certain practice that comes up in the number one position. This is the position you strive to claim for your practice.

But what about every other dentist in your area working toward that #1 spot? Rankings can be a bit of a battle, and staying current is key. Keeping up with the ever-evolving search algorithms (which aren’t always well-documented, and can take some time to puzzle out) is a must. Act in ways the search engines prefer in order to see your dental website rise to the top of the heap.

It’s also important to discover which keywords are ranking well for your website. That way, you can emphasize the right services to appeal to your target audience. Understanding and working closely with Google Analytics and Google Adwords are great places to start this keyword research.

Help with Your Dental Website’s Rankings and SEO

Looking for a helping hand? Doctor Web Solution is prepared to come to your aid. Get in touch with us online!

Social media was conceived as a way for users to connect with one another. While most social media platforms had the initial purpose of entertainment value, businesses have hopped on board. Platforms like Facebook are now an incredibly useful tool for small and large businesses alike. Using Facebook for your dental practice can help you get draw in new patients, communicate with current ones, and educate the world at large. Don’t be intimidated by this social network – a few tips will get you started on your own social media marketing.

Facebook Marketing Is Entertaining But Effective

“Fun marketing” doesn’t need to be an oxymoron. There are ways to get your message across without being dull. Social media is one of the simplest ways to make your marketing more interesting. Simply establishing an active presence on Facebook will get your practice name in current and potential patients’ newsfeeds (and on their minds). Try using Facebook in the following ways:

• Post your own content. Blogging but feeling unnoticed? Posting your own articles on your Facebook will get them seen by patients, and show that you’re interested in staying current and communicative.
• Garner likes. When someone “Likes” your practice’s Facebook, they’re signing up to see your updates in their Newsfeeds. This connects the two of you and keeps them posted in your ongoing activity. The more likes your practice’s page has, the bigger its social circle and impact.
• Make new connections. Current patients who post on your page or share your posts are bringing you into their friends’ spheres. The written/visual recommendation of you and your practice has a significant impact on those who see it.
• Advertise specials. Events, special pricing, and new treatments or technologies all deserve announcements. Get them noticed by detailing them on your practice’s page and calling patients to action.

Social Media and Your Dental Practice

Getting started with social media marketing is as simple as contacting Dr. Web Solution to begin developing your web marketing. Contact us today!

Don’t let the phrase “marketing plan” intimidate you. You’re interested in providing excellent service to your patients, not setting up a complex plan of attack. But if you want to continue bringing in new patients (which goes without saying), your practice will need to engage in web marketing efforts. Even a basic marketing plan will help you determine what your web presence should be like, and how it will draw in prospective patients. The crux of online marketing is establishing your personality with only your website as a means of conveying it. Strike a balance between professionalism and personal appeal, and new patients will be walking through your front doors.

Define Your Practice to Choose the Proper Marketing Tactics

Defining your practice is a little trickier than it sounds. You provide dental care and help your patients build strong oral health. But so does every other dentist – and if every dental website discussed this mission, patients would grow bored and quickly navigate away.

You need to decide what it is that sets your practice apart, and then make sure your website communicates that in an appealing, strong manner. If your purpose is primarily to provide aesthetic dentistry, you’ll want to emphasize images, especially Before and After shots. If your practice is pediatric, work on some kid-friendly pages and approaches. If you provide endodontic treatment, work on laying out the reasons your practice rises above others in terms of patient comfort and sedation. No matter your practice, there’s something unique and special about it (not to get too motivational speaker on you – it’s true). Find that and you have your marketing approach.

Establishing Your Dental Practice’s Appeal on the Web

You’ll also benefit from determining exactly who it is that you want to serve, and how to appeal to them. Different forms of social media, frequent blogging, PPC campaigns, and other marketing measures implore varying types of patients to visit. Understanding how to appeal to those you want to appeal to will make all the difference.

Our dental marketing company would love to help you build your web marketing plan. Get in touch for a complimentary website evaluation, and the beginning of your marketing discussion.

What’s cool and up-to-date on the Internet is (literally) constantly changing. The thing that everyone was talking about on Monday is often totally obsolete by Tuesday. This can make web marketing an ongoing challenge. Understanding how to make a website look contemporary requires an eye for design and an encyclopedic knowledge of what’s happening on the web – as well as an ability to predict what’s going to be happening on the web tomorrow. This may sound like an impossible task, but that’s where Doctor Web Solution can help. We’re ready to evaluate your practice’s web presence and determine the steps you need to take to bring it to a more current place, through website redesign.

Redesigning Your Dental Website

Is your website behind the times? There are a few ways to evaluate whether it may be the right time for an update. Simply ask yourself a few of the following questions.

• How is your website’s design? Web design can be a fickle creature. The design aspects you love may not appeal to patients, and vice versa. Put that aside and consider only how current your site’s design looks. Modern websites prize minimalism and sleekness over super comfortable, friendly-looking websites – but there are ways to combine the two to great effect. A professional web designer certainly helps.
• On what does your website focus? Is your site still promoting the services that you’re currently invested in promoting, or is it still talking about techniques and products you introduced to your practice five years ago? If so, it’s time for a change.
• Is your site’s content current? Recent before and after photos and reviews show new patients that you’re working hard and continuing to keep your existing patients happy. Fresh content and images also communicate to patients that you’re invested in your web presence.

Preparing For A Website Redesign

Redesigning your website doesn’t need to be a trial. Get in touch with Doctor Web Solution’s team to find a crew of professional designers, writers, and marketers suited to the task.

After finishing the process of developing and launching a new website for your dental practice, you’re probably looking forward to a break from online endeavors. But even if your dental website is in place, you’re still not done with your web marketing efforts. The Internet is fluid – it’s always changing, and your website needs to keep up. Search engine optimization is the practice of keeping pace with the rest of the web. By engineering your website to appear to search engines, you help it to draw in new patients. Read on to learn the basics of dental SEO, and what you can do to make your site a success.

The Steps of Dental SEO

Even if your practice’s new website is stunning, it’s not going to draw in new patients without SEO. Imagine a desert island. It’s beautiful, and filled with natural resources; but there’s no way to access it, and no one knows about it. It remains untouched. If that desert island becomes a stop on a cruise line, or if we build an airport on it, it’s going to become a destination.

SEO is the route of transportation between your website and users of the Internet. While that concept is simple, it can be difficult to execute. Search engines are constantly evolving and placing different demands on sites. While receiving that top ranking can be an elusive task, there are a few basic steps you can take to help your website rise in local searches.

• Link building – This is practice of building links to your website across the Internet. The sites linking to your own need to be relevant to it in some way, as well as relevant in the search engine’s eyes. While some link building can be achieved through submission to directories, you’ll also need to build relationships with other dental sites, blogs, and professionals to share links.
• Social media – Social media is the user-friendly method of link submission. As your site’s social posts are viewed and shared, links to your website build. Social media is both search engine- and searching human-friendly; just as it appeals to computers, it appeals to people and shows your practice’s fun, friendly side.
• On-page SEO – Building your website’s pages correctly is key to being recognized by search engines. This involved targeted keywords, appropriately structured content with headings, alt text for images, and useful URLs.

Engaging in SEO for your Dental Practice

We know SEO can seem daunting, and we’re here to help. Get a free website consultation and discuss what SEO could do for your site by contacting us.

The prospect of redesigning your dental website can seem intimidating. The biggest question on most dentists’ and office managers’ minds is: where to begin? As a dental marketing company, our recommendation is to begin with a professional web designer. This blog post will walk you through the steps involved in collaborating with a designer to create a new website that encompasses all you want to get out of your web presence. Prepare for the process by understanding what will be asked of you, what you should have decided on, and the resources you’ll need to provide.

Redesigning Your Dental Website

Working with a website platform can be tricky, which is why we recommend employing a professional designer. Of course, since the website will be your own and represent your dental practice, the designer will need your help to get an idea of what you want your online identity to be. This will involve the following steps:

• Establishing the look of your site. You’ll need to decide on a logo, color scheme, and layout. While the designer has an eye for what works, and will offer you suggestions, you will need to determine which is most in line with your practice.
• Creating strong images. While stock photos of beautiful, anonymous people are all well and good, it’s vital that you establish a picture of what your practice and dental work (especially cosmetic treatments) actually look like. You’ll need to take photos of your practice, before and after shots of patients, and pictures of your team. Being able to see the office and its employees before their first visit comforts patients, especially those with dental anxiety.
• Determining what’s important. Choosing certain services to emphasize is key. If your site discusses the full realm of dentistry, patients will likely grow bored or overwhelmed and search elsewhere. Giving your patients reasons why your practice stands apart (e.g. laser dentistry, mini dental implants, or facial aesthetics).

Web Design with Doctor Web Solution

Should you decide to work with Doctor Web Solution, we’ll provide every step of the design process, and then place SEO on your site to make sure it shows the new patient results you’re hoping for. Get in touch to get started.

Your marketing efforts don’t all have to be humdrum. Social media marketing has become a huge part of building a strong web presence. Not only does social media aid your dental practice’s SEO efforts, it shows your existing and prospective patients that you are human and approachable. Social media can be used to advertise, educate, and entertain. Regularly use your social media presences to do all three and you’ll begin to see new patients on your schedule.

How To Use Social Media for Dental Marketing

One of the most intimidating things about social media can be the need to regularly provide new content. By creating something as standard as blog posts, you’ll have a weekly post that’s entirely yours, and specific to your practice. What do you post the rest of the time? Anything on the web that pertains to you, your services, or your patients’ interests is fair game – and that encompasses an unbelievable amount of web content. Split your time between writing your own content and finding applicable articles, pages, and photos on the web for consistent social media material that doesn’t wear you out.

We mentioned earlier that there are specific tactics you should embrace in your social media efforts. Allow us to expand on exactly how social media fosters those tasks.

• Advertise – Social media sites like Facebook offer built-in ad campaign opportunities, in which you can set daily budget limits for ads to be shown alongside local users’ feeds and pages. Others (like Twitter and Pinterest) offer great opportunities for posting links to practice specials and pricing, getting patients intrigued and ready to schedule.
• Educate – Posting educational materials and information about procedures that take place in your office is simple on social media. Patients will see you as an expert and appreciate the opportunity to learn more about their own treatment.
• Entertain – Users of social media are ready to click on things that look appealing; that’s why they’re perusing the sites during their workdays or weekends. Find fun, dental-related photos, infographics, and facts, and your patients will love you for the entertaining moment, however brief.

Getting Into Social Media Marketing

Doctor Web Solution would love to guide you through the world of social media. Get in touch to learn more about the first steps.

Long ago, marketing once meant little more than word of mouth. For medical practices and healthcare providers in particular, there’s always been a slight remove between the practice and its marketing efforts. Shouldn’t you be able to get new patients by simply providing excellent dentistry? In this day and age, that’s simply not enough. Patients seeking a new dentist will still ask their friends and family for recommendations, but they’ll likely make the final decision based on their own web research. When patients search for a local dentist online, it’s vital that your practice attract their attention. In order to get your practice to where it needs to be (high in the search engine rankings!), you’ll need to engage in some practice promotion.

Methods of Online Marketing

Tooting your own horn is no longer something to be looked down on – it’s just necessary! The internet makes a lot of promises to its users – in fact, any user can say absolutely anything without reproach. In order to stand out from the mass of hyperbole, you need to show potential patients just how amazing your practice is. Fill your website with

• Before and after photos showcasing your impressive aesthetic talents
• Credentials that detail your background and experience
• Information about the range of services available with your practice, and why you’re special

In addition to appealing to humans online, you’ll need to appeal to the search engines. These are the tools that connect potential patients to you. If you’re not speaking their language, your website just won’t be visible. Appeal to search engines by

• Optimizing your content with appropriate keywords and structure
• Building links to your website
• Using a variety of social media platforms

Dental Marketing with Doctor Web Solution

All sound like a little too much self-promotion? Let us do the work for you. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to get behind the helm of your practice’s web marketing. Contact us to learn more about the first steps.