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Dentists and the web: 5 actionable tips to improve your online exposure
This week, we are publishing a guest blog by Alex from FireCask on how you can improve your online exposure.
Alex is a Director at FireCask, an online marketing and web design company in central
Manchester. He has written over 10 WordPress plugins attracting over 750,000 downloads,
speaks at industry events and has written for publications such as The Guardian, Huffington
Post, Smashing Magazine and Econsultancy.
I have been working in online marketing for nearly 10 years now. In that time I’ve worked with
100’s of businesses in all kinds of verticals and helped them get ahead online. Dentists are
actually in a competitive vertical when it comes to ranking within search engines so it’s important
to know that your online exposure is improved as much as possible to ensure you get new
people walking through the door and into the dentist’s chair.
Tip #1: Write something relevant on your site
You may have been advised to write on your site’s blog or you may have a company writing blog
posts on your behalf. One piece of advice is to ensure that the content is of the utmost quality
rather than content being produced for the sake of publishing content x times per month. As well
as this make sure your subject matter is relevant and possibly attached to current affairs.
I’m still unsure why no dentist has taken advantage of the Suarez biting incident. It’s current,
popular and you have the opportunity to sell yourself whilst using something such as humour as
your outlet.
Tip #2: Make sure your Website is user friendly
Ranking well in Google is great, but it’s only half the battle. Once someone enters your site they
need to find what they’re looking for whilst you try and make them convert. A conversion for you
may be as simple as sending you an email, picking up the phone or finding out your location but
these things need to be easy for the user to do.
Ensure your website has this information to hand on every page. It’s also important to have your
site mobile friendly meaning that someone on a mobile (or tablet) device can read and navigate
through your site just as easily as they would a desktop computer. As someone who wrote the
chapter on Mobile SEO for Econsultancy, I understand that dentistry is a vertical where the
majority of people now will view your site on a mobile, and because 2014 is the year that mobile
use overtakes desktop use for browsing the web, it’s vital to cater for mobile users.
By the way, we make great websites at FireCask :)
Tip #3: You’re the Authority, not the building you work in
If I want to research into my next dentist or I want to know more about a certain procedure I
would have more trust in you if you were the ones who authored the information. For example, if I
need a root canal and read information about it (sources of the issue, what to expect on the day,
approximate costs) I’d be much more comfortable knowing the information was provided by the
dentist that could potentially be performing the procedure.
People love people, not brands. This means that if you want to attract a new client they have to
connect with the people, not the building the people work in. You will be in more demand if you
become the authority on dentistry (or your specific area of dentistry).
Tip#4: Get recommendations from your customers
At FireCask we don’t have a sales team so most of our work comes from the oldest method of
social networking known to man word of mouth. Online, a good recommendation written by a
satisfied customer has a wider reach and is permanent (unless of course the customer decides
to remove the recommendation at a later date which is very uncommon).
You can receive recommendations offline (via post, or filling out a form) which you can then
publish on your website. Asking for marks out of 5 can help you produce the 5 star rating system
as seen in some of Google’s results pages such as this. Online, you have various options for
recommendations:
? Facebook: your company may have a Facebook Page. If so, ensure it is set as a Local
Business where people will then be allowed to rate you out of 5.
? Linkedin: people can recommend you as a dentist within Linkedin. For me, I find this
invaluable as I now have over 35 recommendations spanning over 5 years. Business
pages used to have recommendation options but have now been replaced with
Showcase Pages which I suggest you look into.
? Google+: as with Facebook, your business’ location can receive reviews if you have a
Business Page. If you don’t have a business page I suggest you create one as soon as
possible so you can be located on a map (such as if you search for dentist in
manchester)
Tip #5: Add to a Discussion
As well as the above, social networks also let you, as a person, get involved with discussions.
Here’s a few places you can go to and become an authority on dentistry within the networks
themselves:
? Linkedin Groups you will see suggested groups to join, as well as being able to search
for groups in the search bar at the top. ? Google+ Communities similar to Linkedin. Find some relevant communities and
contribute to them.
? Facebook Groups search for groups with relevant terms.
? Niche sites as well as GDPUK, there will be other sites that cover dentistry from the
customer’s point of view. Contributing to those sites will help you also become an
authority, especially if they’re locally based. Searching for terms such as dentist forum uk
can help (and I notice GDPUK is number 1).
I hope that this post helps you be able to become more involved online not only to grow your
business but also your personal profile. Some people of course don’t have the time to do all this
which is why they hire companies such as my own in order to help them improve their online
exposure and conversions.
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