Getting More Dental Patients Using Search Engine Optimization

Not more than a few days go by without a dentist asking someone in our office, “How are the web pages found from the Dental Practice Dashboard get listed in the top of Google and the other search engines so prospective patients can find them?”

In today’s article, I’m going to tell you what we tell them. More importantly, I’m going to tell you exactly… with no fluff or hype… what’s really required to get a dental practice website to the top of the Google and the other search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (otherwise known as SEO) is all the buzz these days.  Everyone’s doing it and everyone is the best and will get you on the first page of Google in 3 days.  You have probably heard this many times already from these marketing and SEO companies targeting dentists.

Quite frankly, with the vast amount of garbage information about SEO (search engine optimization) being circulated it makes me sick. Dentist are getting ripped off half the time and paying far too much money for something they don’t understand.  This article is long overdue and I can’t take it anymore.

So, here’s the truth about what it takes to get a dental practice website listed at the top of Google. It’s a little bit technical at points but, I promise you… if you hang with me until the end… you’ll understand exactly how to get your site to the top of Google (without falling for any of the nonsense or expensive fee’s out there).

Let’s start with a basic principle: web-pages get indexed and listed in Google. Not websites.

In other words, you don’t optimize a website for the search engines. You optimize the individual pages.

So, what that means for you is that you can get different web-pages on your website listed and indexed in Google for different terms and keywords.

Next…

Google, and the other search engines, look at two categories of factors to determine how high one of your web-pages should be indexed: On-page Factors and Off-Page Factors.

On-Page Factors are all of the things that can be done on a web-page to optimize it for the search engines.

On-Page Factors include things like: the title tag of a webpage, the Meta description, the Meta keywords, the H1 tag, the alternate text of images on the page, and the frequency of how often a keyword is used on the page.  And not only that, Google changes what they look at all the time, this is not just a static set of rules, it is ever changing like the internet.

These things are directly in our control and can be tweaked and adjusted for each page to ensure every page on your website gets listed for the correct phrases in Google.

In the case of the Dental Practice Dashboard, we customize the on-page factors for EACH DOCTOR so their web-pages are found when a prospective patient in their geographic area searches for a dentist (or related information) in their local area. For example, a dentist using the Dental Practice Dashboard based out of Pacific Beach, CA, would have phrases like “dentist in Pacific Beach, CA” in their different on-page factors. This ensures the different web-pages are optimized for the doctor, their name, their specific location, etc.

Now, truth be told… On-Page Factors are only half the game. The other half is in the Off-Page Factors.

Off-Page Factors include the quantity of in-bound links pointing to your web-pages, the quality of the pages where those links are found, and the exact phrase (anchor text) that is hyperlinked in the link.

Let me explain each:

An in-bound link is when another web-page out on the Internet has a link on it back to one of your web-pages. The more of these links any web-page on your website has, the more important Google feels it is. But, it doesn’t stop there…

An in-bound link from a quality web-page is better than a link from a poor web-page.

What determines whether a web-page is quality or poor?

Well, it’s simple…

The more in-bound links a particular web-page has, the higher it’s quality.

A web-page with thousands of in-bound links – other web-pages linking back to it – the higher the quality or authority it has to Google. And, if there’s a link on one of those high-quality, high-authority web-pages that links back to your web-page, it’s much more valuable.

For instance, having a link on CNN.com pointing to one of your web-pages is worth a heck of lot more than having a link pointing to one of your web-pages from theguynextdoorwithawebsite.com.

So, the more in-bound links you have, from high-quality web-pages, the better. In this case, the more of these links you have the more important Google will think you are and the higher your web-page will get indexed.

But, there’s still one more factor with these links.

What you ideally want is to have lots of high-quality links pointing back to your web-page… with the phrase you want your page indexed for as the text that is hyperlinked. In other words, you don’t just want your web address posted on another web-page. You want a specific phrase on these other web-pages to be linked back to your web-page. Using our above Pacific Beach example, we might want the phrase “dentist in Pacific Beach, CA” hyperlinked. So, when someone clicks on that phrase it brings them to your web-page.

What this does – the use of proper anchor text – is it tells Google that for that exact phrase your web-page is extremely important… especially since you have lots of high-quality links using that same phrase… and so it indexes your web-page higher and higher.

I can’t stress enough how important using proper anchor text really is. It’s one of the most important elements of getting any web-page listed high in Google.

Let Me Prove Just How Important…

Go to Google and do a search for the phrase “Click Here”.

What you’ll see is that the number one listing on Google is Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Why is that?

It’s certainly not because Adobe optimized all of their on-page factors with the phrase “click here”.

No. It’s because there are thousands, and thousands, and thousands of links out on the internet pointing back to that Adobe Acrobat page with anchor text that says “click here”. That’s the power of in-bound links with targeted anchor text.

Bottom Line Is This:

Getting, and keeping, a web-page at the top of Google requires optimization of both on-page and off-page factors.

Don’t get too involved with all the technical stuff, you are dentist but know that these are the real factors that make SEO work.  Years ago, on-page factors were the most important. Today, off-page factors are more important and in fact, video, with correct SEO is even better (a topic for another day).

Another powerful way to get FREE search engine optimization is by using a dental practice blog.

http://www.moredentalpracticepatients.com/ten-reasons-why-need-dental-practic...

Google realized it’s easy for people to manipulate the search engines with on-page factors. It’s not so easy to do that with off-page factors. Hence, the heavier weight and value on off-page factors (in-bound links, anchor text, quality of web-pages linked to).

Being found on a local search results for your keywords are extremely important in order for your dental practice to be found, but that is only half the battle anyway because most of the mistakes being made by 9 out of 10 dental practice websites happen on the website itself, which are things you have the power to change.
       

How To Plan Your Business Blog

Are you thinking about launching your business blog? You're not alone. A recent study by GuideWireGroup revealed that approximately 89 percent of businesses polled use blogs as a way to communicate with their customers. In another survey, Burson-Marsteller found that 15% of Fortune 500 companies have blogs. A successful business blog can generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each year, with figures for large corporations typically much higher.

So, business blogging is becoming a mainstream marketing tool. That does not mean, however, that blogging comes easily or naturally for many companies, their owners and employees. Blogging, like any form of content, is a commitment of time and resources - namely, you have to know how to write (or have access to good writers) and you have to maintain your blogs with fresh, original and insightful new material on a regular basis.

This should not scare you away. It should, though, inspire you to learn the basics of business blogging before you turn your baby loose on the world. Planning out your blogging strategy first is a wise move, because it gives your blog a greater chance of success. Here are 10 tips for launching your business blog:

1. Identify your readers.
Before you start writing anything, make sure you understand who your target market is. This is also known as your "buyer persona", which marketing guru David Meerman Scott defines as "...a distinct group of potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach." Basically, you want to tailor your topics to the groups of people who are most interested in your company. Otherwise, you're missing the mark and losing out on potential leads and sales. To identify these buyer persona's, there are 3 questions you should ask yourself--

     Where do your customers come from?

     What type of content will be useful to them?

     Where do your customers hang out online?

2. Create social media accounts.
If you haven't already done this, register accounts with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Start with these and expand later. This is important because you need places to post links to each new blog, so that your groups, fans, and followers can read them. Posting on social media also encourages people to subscribe to your RSS feed, another great way to promote your blog.

3. Establish your social media presence.
Lay the groundwork for later blog promotion by establishing relationships with your target markets. One of the best ways to do this is through social media. Now that you have accounts started, you can go in and join forums, listen to conversations and hear what people are saying about your industry. Add thoughtful and insightful comments whenever possible. Hire employees to do this if you don't have time, but try to contribute every once in a while if you can.

4. Determine where to place your blog.
You can either put your blog on a page within your website or give it its own domain. Your choice depends largely on your goals. Do you want the blog to be part of your site, and linked to it directly? Or do you have plans to use your blog for other purposes, such as to earn revenue through ads or creating a secondary business from it?

A blog can help your website to rank higher, and it can also rank highly on its own. So, think about your long-term objectives when deciding where to place it.

5. Use the right keywords.
If you're placing your business blog on a page within your site, most likely you'll be using the same keywords for your blog that you are using for your site. If you've done good keyword research, then these are the keywords that reflect your business and are the search terms that people are using to find you. If your blog is separate, consider if any keyword changes need to be made. You may want to take your blog site in a different direction from your site. Again, this depends on your goals for your blog.

Incidentally, if your blog does have its own domain, you'll want the domain name to be brandable, easy for consumers to recognize and search engine-friendly.

6. Choose a blogging platform.
You have options here. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, but you can also check out Joomla, Blogger, TypePad and others.

7. Plan your posts.
Think about the direction you want your blog posts to go in. A good way to stay on track is to start with one main topic and draft a few blogs in advance. Post them on a regular schedule and you'll have a supply of targeted blogs that add fresh content to your site and point back to your company each week. Coming up with topics can be a challenge, but there are a lot of helpful resources on the Web if you get stuck.

8. Network with influencers.
Once you've got your blog started, it's a good idea to look around at other bloggers in your industry. See what they're doing, what they have to say, and leave insightful comments on their blogs. This kind of web networking will help you establish relationships with these people, which in turn will prompt them to help spread the word about your blog and your company. This kind of free advertising is invaluable. It connects you to credible and respected individuals within the blogosphere and markets your business for you.

9. Promote your blog.
As mentioned earlier, offering a blog subscription through an RSS feed is an effective way to promote your blog. There are other ways to get the word out, as well. Write an optimized press release, submít articles to directories that link to your blog page, submit your blogs to social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg (or set up an account with Ping.fm and have it done automatically). Make sure that you link to your blogs in your social media posts.

10. Measure results.

If you're going to take the time to blog for marketing purposes, you'll want to know how well you're doing, right? Since it relies primarily on the building of human relationships over time, blog ROI can be tricky to measure. But, you do have many tools at your disposal to help you determine how much or how little your blog is contributing to the bottom line.

Free online tools like Google Analytics and Google Alerts provide you with information about how your customers are finding you online, and can tell you a lot about your blog page, in particular. Facebook Insights is a way to track activity on your Facebook account. Other tools are available, so look into them.

Launching your business blog is, like any project, all about preparation. If you do your homework and lay a solid foundation, your blog will produce results. Keep in mind that blogging is a form of content marketing and, as such, is primarily about building relationships with customers. So, be patient, follow these tips, and watch your business grow!

 

How to Successfully Market on Search Engines

By Karl Walinskas

As more and more people jump online and get comfortable with the ease of plunking down their bank card for purchases, it is becoming apparent that traditional marketing such as diréct mail, advertising, and telemarketing just won't be enough to get your small business over the top. Changes in the world that small business now sees are nothing short of mind-blowing. If you want to get your business, product or service noticed, you need to be marketing for search engines (SEM) and on board with the social media impact on business. Online tools today have changed the game and created new rules for information exchange and information commerce. Software as a service application, better known as SAAS, is bringing everything from Aunt Sadie's bookkeeping services to your kid's martial arts training regimen online as part of the mysterious but ever-expanding Cloud. Your business needs to be visible in the cloud, and marketing for search engines is your primary tactic of being found.

The 4 C's of SEM

Here are the 4 Top Guidelines you need to know about successful marketing for search engines:

Content

If your website is your printed brochure and you like it that way, please click off of this page now! You cannot have any success online driving traffic to your site from search engines without content. Gobs of content! Oodles. Insane amounts of words, pics, video, music-whatever floats your boat. By insane amounts, recognize that there are millions of websites out there with, sit down, 1000s of pages of content!

Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo look at content as a measuring stick of how relevant your business is in the world. There are plenty of strategies, and unless your resources of money and bodies are endless, you can't do them all. Article writing, for my blog and similar versions for dozens of other's blogs and article sites, is a favorite strategy of mine. If you're paying attention you just learned one way to get written content for your site. Syndicate it. This is great for those who fear content creation, don't have time for it, or simply lack the confidence that anything they have to say is worth broadcasting. There are millions of bloggers and poor man's authors out there dying for you to publish their material on your site for the simple favor of a return link or three to their websites or blogs.

Don't like to write? That's OK. Know what a ghost blogger is, Mr. big-time CEO? And in today's full-color world, Google rewards pictures, properly tagged, even more. Even better is video. People, if you've been to my VBlog and seen me interviewing subject matter experts, it's not because I think I have a career in film making or replacing Larry King. I want to get great information to my readers and video works fantastic, but it also boosts my search engine rankings in a major way. Boo-Yah!

If you want to know how to really beef up your content, just get a hold of me and I'll give you some free tips and some other things you can do. I can even interview you for your site promotion.

Connection

It ain't a once and done world. Any good marketer knows that it may take a while for someone to warm up to your content, so you need to have plenty of it and keep refreshing it... a lot! Your goal is not to have them look on your site or blog once, but to bookmark it, subscribe to your RSS feed, and basically give you permission to market to them again and again. It's that repetition of content in different forms, if possible, that wins over people. Once they subscribe, you're now beyond idle chit chat and into the hand-holding phase of the relationship. Keep going and you just might get to second base, where they like you enough to want to talk to you.

Conversation

Ahhh! Now we're getting comfortable. If you subscribe to or read any blog posts, you know that 99.9% of them have a box to encourage you to have a take and don't suck about it. You also see all those tiny little squares on websites, all over the place (just check mine-get your dead cat out again), asking you to follow them on Facebook, re-Tweet them, subscribe, StumbleUpon, or otherwise talk to the site, rate the blog, or product, or picture - get it! This is just marketing recognition of the importance of dialogue and chatter in today's world. Exploiting this correctly is the main way social media helps small business. Everybody is a critic, yes, and torque-off the wrong, angry blogger or hacker at your ówn risk, but most ordinary humans have real lives without the time to spend it on wrecking yours with vitriolic bile in cyberspace. Create a conversation with your customers, and soon you'll have them creating positive, happy, fluffy conversations about your business. Do this right and go viral and you're a celebrity in your little business niche, and that ain't chump change, friends.

Consistency

This is the most important C of the Big 4 for marketing for search engines. Every day, millions of pages of content get loaded onto the Internet and indexed by Google, Yahoo and the boys. Not to mention, the rules and algorithms that the major search engines use to determine relevance in the world are constantly changing. What that means to you is, if you are trying to get any search engine traffic at all to do enough business for you to purchase a Happy Meal, you need to be engaging in this stuff weekly. Monthly? Cute. Once per quarter? Google does not suffer fools easily. The Internet is a - what have you done for me lately - world. On top of the world today, living in a refrigerator box tomorrow.

Don't let me be misunderstood (note to self, try to develop some lyrics around that), you need to consistently market to the search engine universe to succeed at the game. Having said that, if your content is wholesome, good stuff, the huge benefit of the online world is that your stuff doesn't ever die! I heard a guy on a YouTube video say, "Google never forgets." I have articles from 10 years ago that are ranked in the top 3 of certain undisclosed keywords to this day! It can be a beautiful thing. The problem is, you don't ever know what is going to last. It's simple really. You don't know what the rest of the world is going to do that might be more relevant than the pearls you posted last week. The best you can do is keep going. You'll hit some grand slams at times, but you will end up scoring more runs in the long run with singles, walks and being hit by the pitch. Grab your Louisville Slugger and step up to the plate.