I just checked my Facebook page and found an ad for a Dentist with the copy:

“Have you been looking for a good dentist but didn’t know where to look? Well
look no further, our practice is the ideal place for you!”

Here’s the problem, I live in Nevada, and this dentist is in Tampa, FL.
I wonder if there will be a return on this advertising investment? There must be a return, but I don’t think they return has anything to do with new patients it has to do with search engine optimization(SEO) and showing a customer great search results. According to the search engine’s paid placement isn’t supposed to help with Organic search performance, but I am in agreement with Mark Jackson at Search Engine Watch and his article: There’s No Shortcut to Good SEO…Or Is There?
It appears that for some this type of paid link placement helps with organic search results. The real question remains, how many people will find a new dentist with a Google search or a Facebook ad? Anyone have some experiences to share?

With the start of the New Year, I started to consider why a dentist would want or need a website for their office. Many dentists have them, many never look at them once their built, and some use them very effectively. I’ve come up with 6 reasons so far(and more to come I’m sure) to start a website.

1. A website is a great way to communicate who you are to your current patient base and the potential new patients they may invite to your practice. Your website might be the first impression of who you are and the fact that you have a website might be enough for a new patient to consider your services.
2. A website can display your menu of services. A common misconception is that all dentists do all things, if you do some things and not others, a website is a great way to differentiate your services.
3. Your website is the best place to keep up-to-date current information about your office. Think of testimonials, patients of the day/month, contests, new staff members, staff news(marriages,births etc.)
4. Many patients refer to the internet to begin to solve a problem or potential problem. Why not have your site be the source to answer these questions: What to do when a cap falls off? What about dull tooth pain? My gums bleed when I brush? My tooth hurts when chewing?
5. Show off your work! This is a no brainer, patients want to see what you can or can’t do…. For this make sure it’s your own work, and your own photography, stock images don’t work very well.
6. It is now very easy to incorporate any web site into your practice management system and offer the ability to accept online payments and check account info, send secure communication, and much more. This is cutting edge stuff.

So far I haven’t mentioned because your friend has one, that isn’t a very good reason, if your going to build a website, do it to make your practice better, do it to communicate better to your patients, do it show off who you are…

About 3 or 4 times a year I get a call from an Internet company trying to earn my business by explaining that they have figured out the search engine magic that will lead great patients to your door month after month. So I ask a few questions about what methods they use to achieve such traffic and most answers revolve around paying for Google Adwords or other pay for traffic sources. Google Adwords works by bidding for specific search terms or phrases, for instance your site is about Cosmetic Dentistry, you would bid for Cosmetic Dentistry and you could bid for the words separately. You place a bid per click, so if a user finds your ad on a Google search and clicks your link to goto your site you pay for that visit. Depending on how much you bid for that click you could pay as little as a few cents all the way up to many dollars, I really don’t know what Cosmetic Dentistry’s current price is but I’m sure it’s up there. So basically, you decide that your going to pay $3000 for Google Adwords and you were able to purchase the keyword Cosmetic Dentistry for $100/click then you would get 30 clicks and then your ad would be removed. Ok that’s a brief and probably incomplete description of how the system works but that’s not really the purpose of this post. The purpose of this post is to discuss the words that people actually use to solve a dental problem.

I currently use Google Analytics for my site statistics, and if you aren’t using analytics talk to your web guys and get them hooked up today. When I review the Keywords that are used for people to find my site, I only get a few visits a month from the search term “Cosmetic Dentistry in Las Vegas”, but I get 10 times the visits from the search term “Dull Tooth Pain”. I even get a few more visits from the search term “how does tooth decay happen” then Cosmetic Dentistry. So what does this mean? It might mean that my website is boring and not flashy enough to pull a cosmetic oriented patient. I am more inclined to think that people are using search engines to solve problems and are more inclined to type in natural phrases for solutions to problems.

“Dull Tooth Pain” sounds like a patient looking for answers to their dull tooth pain.  My website has an article that discusses different types of tooth pain and this page is shown as the first listing on Google, and on that page there are no paid ads, nobody has bothered to buy the search terms Dull Tooth Pain. So the question worth asking is if I were a patient trying to fix my smile what would I type into the search engine bar? Would I search for Cosmetic Dentist Your Town? Would I search for something quite different, such as Fix My Smile Your Town?

The search engines are always changing they way they look at web pages, years ago, you could game the system by using correct placement of keywords and keyphrases, now the game has changed, the search engines are now able to determine the content of an actual webpage, so virtually any page that is one your site is a potential entry point to your site and to your practice. Content is king, the more content, and the better the content the better the search results. So if you really want to get better results from the search engines start creating content that people will find interesting and in their language. The search engines will think it’s interesting too.

So a new year begins in a few days, so the question is will a new website for your office be in your future this year?
If so, why do you feel compelled to build a new website this year?
Are you unhappy with the performance of your office site? Are you unhappy with the look and feel of your office site?
If the answer is No, then why not? Now may be the best time to find the time to work on a new site.

A few years ago I started a blog called Dental Marketing Sucks, I got the idea are reading the book Your Marketing Sucks., and thought that might be a clever idea. Well I think that blog lasted about 3 posts, and I grew tired of thinking about ways dental marketing sucks. So I’m back at this blog idea with a different approach. Over the past few years I have grown more and more interested how marketing interacts with dentistry. I have an interest in how the search engines work, how social media applications interact with end users and the internet in general. So this blog is an attempt to discover new ways that all these things come together…

Hi, My name is Douglas Sandquist, I am full time practicing dentist in Las Vegas, NV. I am a fan of technology, golf, photography and model railroading! I use this space to talk about the things I love…

2012’s Photo a Day gallery can be found at: http://www.sandquistphotography.com/Photography/Photo-A-Day-2012
2011 Picture a Day gallery can be found at http://www.sandquistphotography.com/Photography/Photo-A-Day-2011
I am a huge fan and supporter of Smugmug as a place to host my photos. For a few bucks off a years service follow this link: https://secure.smugmug.com/signup.mg?Coupon=8v0X3g7f8J58s
A blog of the Sandquist Railway can be found at http://www.douglassandquist.com/trains or visit my YouTube page for Train videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/dougsandquist
I also blog a bit at http://puregrace.com
Follow on Twitter: @dougsandquist
and I can be found once in a while on Google +  https://plus.google.com/u/0/100662758486338431135/

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