Modern Dental Practice Marketing

Social Media for Dentists: More Information on Facebook’s Algorithm

Shauna Duty — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:38:03 +0000

On Tuesday, we discussed how Facebook delivers information to newsfeeds via its algorithm called EdgeRank. Like Google, Facebook wants its users to have access to statuses and updates that are most relevant to their needs and activity on Facebook. If you plan on using a Facebook business page to promote your dental practice, understanding Facebook’s EdgeRank is important for maximizing your reach to potential new patients through social media. The three most important elements of using EdgeRank to your advantage are affinity, recency, and Edge weight.

Social Networking for Dentists on Facebook

Affinity – This term refers to the score Facebook’s algorithm gives you for each person or page you interact with. This score involves how often you communicate with a particular page or user and their communication with you in the form of “likes”, comments, and profile/page views. In simple terms, Facebook’s EdgeRank scores the level of interaction between two parties to help discern which items appear in each user’s newsfeed.

Recency – Unlike Twitter, which compartmentalizes information in a chronological order, newsfeeds display the most recent information on Facebook. This means that your new statuses will appear in other people’s newsfeeds. This is why it is important to update your Facebook business page on a regular basis. If your page is inactive, your statuses, new photos, and other forms of interaction probably won’t appear in others’ newsfeeds.

Edge Weight – Every status is ranked differently by EdgeRank. This algorithm routinely favors statuses that contain links to other websites, videos, and photos to statuses that only contain text. When you post a video or photo, you increase the likelihood of your post appearing on the newsfeeds of others. The more exposure you have with other Facebook users, the more likely you are to broaden your audience and create a welcoming environment for interaction.

Stay tuned for more news on SEO for dentists, social media, dental website design, and Internet marketing tips by subscribing to our blog. Be sure to check out our Facebook page, too. For dental marketing services, websites for dentists, and social media management, contact Jill at (972) 781-8861.

SEO for Dentists: Glossary

Shauna Duty — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:06 +0000

You have probably heard about the importance of search engine optimization at a dental convention. You, as a dentist, might be aware of how important keyword-rich dental websites, blogs, and microsites are. If you have done research on SEO, you might be facing some confusion, too. The Internet is full of contradictory or irrelevant speculation about which SEO tactics produce the best Internet marketing results. To add to the confusion, SEO blogs and web publications typically use verbiage you may not be familiar with. To help our clients and readers understand what SEO is really about, your friends at Modern Dental Marketing have composed an easy-to-understand SEO glossary for dentists.

Modern Dental Marketing’s SEO Glossary

Sitemap – An index of the pages of a website, a sitemap helps users navigate to specific pages. When your dental website goes live, we submit a sitemap to Google so that your site can be indexed by spiders for SEO.

Backlinks – This term refers to an external website embedding a hyperlink to your dental website or blog as a reference. Backlinking from your blog to your dental website (or vice-versa) is especially useful for receiving higher search engine rankings.

RSS Feeds – Blogs and other news sources may be accessed through RSS feeds. This term stands for “really simple syndication”. When we stock and launch your dental blog, we will submit your new blog to five RSS feeds.

Meta Tag – A Meta Tag is an HTML tag that allows for a website administrator to add important keywords and descriptions. Many popular search engines use Meta data to index websites.

Indexing Spiders – Sometimes referred to as “crawlers”, Google, Yahoo!, and Bing utilize software programs that literally move from web page to web page via hyperlinks to index websites. For example, Google has indexed billions of pages and each day that number grows.

For more information on SEO for dentists, debunking SEO myths, and information on dental marketing, check back with our blog. Feel free to network with us on Facebook, too! To talk about dental websites, blogs, and SEO, call Jill at (972) 781-8861.

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“Find Us On Facebook”: What You Need to Know About Edgerank

Shauna Duty — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:00:30 +0000

In the past, we have blogged on the importance of social media in building a web presence and attracting SEO attention. Major corporations and high-profile public figures utilize Facebook to connect with their consumers and audiences. As Google uses algorithms to determine a website’s page rank, Facebook also employs similar technology for generating what types of objects show up in newsfeeds and searches. This technology is called Edgerank. Facebook posts, pictures, and comments are analyzed into data which ultimately affects how your business page will appear on other’s newsfeeds.

Engaging Your Patients on Facebook

For our clients with Facebook pages, we want to ensure that your business page shows up in your clients’ newsfeeds. In layman’s terms, you want Facebook’s algorithms to acknowledge your page. Below are a few tips to help promote your Facebook business page and increase your Edgerank.

Build followers. When your patients come in for treatment and dental checkups, encourage them to “like” your page on Facebook.
Encourage interaction! Aside from posting oral health articles or blog posts, provide status updates that encourage your clients to comment. For example, post a status update asking them to tell you what their favorite brand of toothpaste is. The more interaction and activity on your page the better.
We’ve encouraged our clients to comment before in previous blog posts. Devote a few minutes a day commenting on your patients’ Facebook walls. A simple happy birthday comment on a user’s wall can increase “likes” to your business page.
Your comments and the comments on your business page increase the chance of your posts ending up on a patient’s newsfeed. Inactive business pages tend to be hidden on other user’s newsfeeds.
Edgerank researchers have found that asking questions prompts more “likes”. Remember the five W’s: who, what, when, where, and why. This can significantly increase user feedback which ultimately promotes your page to new people.
Researchers have noticed that media is more likely to appear in newsfeeds than simple status updates. Photos, videos, and links to articles on the internet increase the chances of your page attracting Facebook’s attention.

Consider social media, such as a Facebook, an effective and inexpensive marketing tool. By simply committing to spending a few minutes a day, you can increase your web presence and potentially gain new patients!

Modern Dental Marketing’s New SEO Booster Packages

Shauna Duty — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:25:35 +0000

Have you noticed a drop in your dental website’s traffic? Perhaps a competitor in your area has slightly better SEO than your dental website and blog. In addition to our packages for dental websites, blogs, and dental microsites, we are now offering an SEO booster package. This package is perfect for regaining your competitive edge or to help boost traffic when a new dental website is launched. Although a SEO booster package can help improve site traffic or increase page rank it is not intended to replace the need for a dental website, blog, microsite, or active social media accounts.

Dental Marketing SEO Booster

An SEO booster package for dentists includes:

We submit your blog RSS feeds
We provide comments that link to your blog from other dental-related sites
We use social bookmarks to promote your site or blog
We utilize Google+ to draw attention to every page on your dental website and dental blog
We write and post articles to various sites, and the articles include backlinks to your website

Who Needs an SEO Boost?

The simple answer is this: any dentist can benefit from an SEO booster package. These packages are especially helpful to new dental website launches, dental websites that may have seen a drop in SEO due to the latest Google algorithm updates, or dentists who want to rank higher than a local competitor. Dentists may also purchase the booster package as many times as they feel necessary.

The Basics are Still Important

Although an SEO booster package is certainly helpful, it does not replace the need for a dental website with original content, an active dental blog, and social media activity. Think of an SEO booster package as a supplementary service for your existing dental marketing strategy.

To talk about your dental website, blogs, microsites, or SEO needs, contact our CEO, Jill at (972) 781-8861 or send an e-mail to info@moderndentalmarketing.com.

Dentist Guest Blogs & SEO Booster

Shauna Duty — Sun, 20 May 2012 20:34:21 +0000

Have you heard about guest blogs and backlinks? Both are great for SEO. Here’s the scoop:

Backlinks: The best backlinks for search engine optimization (SEO) are hyperlinks to your dental website from another dental-related website…or blog.

Guest Blogs: Guest blogs are blogs written by a friend or expert, then posted on your blog. The most beneficial guest blogs have original text that isn’t and will never be published elsewhere online.

It’s All About SEO

The benefit of having guest blog posts on your blog are twofold. 1) Your blog gets more content for Google to index, and that’s always good. 2) You can swap guest posts, so that you get to be a guest blogger and reap the benefits of backlinks to your website or blog. At MDPM, we want to help you maximize online marketing so that you get lots of traffic, and as a result, lots of new patients.

Get in the Game with Guest Blogging

If you would like to try guest blogging, send me an email. I’ll partner you with another dentist who is not in your region. You can check out the “partner” dentist’s website and blog, if you like. Then, with the approval of both parties, we’ll ghostwrite search engine optimized guest blogs and post them. You will get a well written, professional blog post on a non-competing dentist’s blog. The post will include backlinks and be written by your current MDPM content manager — a writer who knows you, your target market, and your services.

In return, the non-competing dentist’s guest blog will be posted on your blog. Our writers will write all of the posts, so they will be top-notch. Cost of this service is $99 per guest blog. Let me know if you’re interested!

More Backlinks, Bookmarks, and Boosting

If your SEO needs a boost — your rankings aren’t what they need to be — our new SEO Booster program might be just what you need. The services is like a 5-hour energy drink for a dental website. It includes: RSS submissions; 2 ore more custom articles posted on dental sites; pingbot submissions; backlinks on dental sites; bookmarking; Google+ post from MDPM; and comments with backlinks. You can add this powerful SEO energy shot to your Internet marketing strategy any time you like. We recommend the SEO Booster for new websites, websites that aren’t ranking high but have all the essential elements for good SEO, or as a monthly supplement to an aggressive SEO strategy. If you sign up for monthly SEO Booster, we’ll include an additional service — linking to your blog posts from about 20 different bookmarks and social networking sites.

See all of our new SEO services for dental websites.

One more thing – over the next month, we’re posting articles to www.mdpm.info for all of our blog clients, at no charge. Your article will be a brief overview of your services, but it will contain hard-core SEO tactics, including backlinks to your website. Why are we doing this? Because your success is our success. It’s that simple.

Dental Websites: More SEO Tips for Content Dental Marketing

Shauna Duty — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:35:04 +0000

SEO techies are still speculating on the impact of the latest and ongoing changes with Google’s algorithms. While some information on the impact of these changes have yet to be determined, SEO experts agree that original content on websites and blogs is becoming more important than ever before. Modern Dental Marketing offers a deeper insight into beneficial characteristics of website and blog content.

Write with Authority

As a dentist, you’re an expert in your field. You have the degree and experience to prove it. Your dental website and blog should reflect this concept. Dental website copy should convey to your readers and to search engines that you possess expert level knowledge in the information you are presenting.

Compose Content with Value

Each page of your dental website should offer specific information to your readers. For example, a dental web page on porcelain veneers should contain enough information to give your readers a good idea of how porcelain veneers can improve the appearance of their smile. The information you present also must be seen as valuable by search engines. Search engine spiders will index your dental website based upon the relevance of your website’s copy.

Avoid Redundancy

The pages of your dental website should be unique. Each page’s content should be original and present new, fresh information to your website’s visitors. If each page presents similar or redundant information, your visitors will quickly leave your website.

Change or Remove Pages with Little Value

If your website is outdated, removing old web pages may improve your ranking. If a web page is redundant or offers little new information, either rewrite the page or remove it.

Check back with our blog for more no-nonsense SEO tips in the future. Feel free to “like” us on Facebook, too. If you need a dental website, microsite, blog, or a complete SEO overhaul, call Jill at (972) 781-8861.

Five Common Problems with SEO – from Google

Shauna Duty — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:00:32 +0000

The video below, by Google, reviews five mistakes common to SEO techs. I’ve outlined the five problems so that you can quickly skim them, but you might also take time to watch the video. It’s great for dentists who manage their own SEO.

Include your value proposition: Your value proposition is the page description, in technical terms. This should be a statement that is highly attractive to potential site visitors/patients. This should separate you from your competitors!

Don’t take a segmented approach: Consider the entire user experience – for patients and returning patients. You should integrate all marketing into your overall marketing strategy. This means, your print, radio, and television advertisements should be aligned with your websites, blogs, videos, and online articles.

Avoid workarounds with SEO: Use fetch as googlebot instead of uploading new sitemaps. Don’t use canonical workarounds, but rely on the newer prev/next technique.

Avoid SEO trends: Google says, don’t chase SEO trends, but always, always, always focus on original, compelling content that will appeal to potential patients. The text will naturally rank high. Use good keywords in the text and tags.

Plan and execute: Define goals, implement improvements, measure results, create new improvements, prioritize improvements based on your market. Don’t chase trends, but do use techniques that work. Attract links, +1s, and follows. Stay relevant and fresh: make sure your site is visible on mobile.

SEO for Dentists: A Brief History of Google

Shauna Duty — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:13:35 +0000

If you’ve been reading our blog or if you’re a current client of ours, you have probably noticed that we talk about Google—a lot. As the most respected and widely used search engine across the globe, Google truly is the gatekeeper to having great SEO and traffic to your dental websites, blogs, and microsites. Since we discuss Google so much, we found it fitting to provide a brief history of Google and some facts about this intriguing company.

Google Trivia and History

Google was founded in 1996 by Stanford University graduate school students.
In 2010, Google had over 450,000 servers across the globe.
Over 600 million people use Google each day.
The corporation refers to their employees as Googlers.
Almost all of Google’s revenue is brought in by their advertising services.
Google possesses the largest index of web pages in the world.
In most cases, Google delivers search engine results in less than one second.
In 2006, Google purchased YouTube.com for a whopping $1.65 billion.
Over 90% of web searches and 95% of mobile searches are conducted through Google.

Google’s Impact on Your Dental Website and Blog

Although other search engines like Yahoo! And Bing are important, none of them are as important as Google. If you follow the rules on favorable SEO practices such as relevant keyword density, original content, and search engine-friendly code, your site will be properly indexed by Google’s spiders. Your dental website will begin showing up in search engine results pages within a few months. Once your dental blog goes live and is stocked with at least four original, keyword-rich posts, Google’s spiders will index your dental blog within two to three days.

Now that you know a little bit more about Google and its stronghold on the SEO industry, we encourage you to consider the importance of incorporating Internet marketing in your overall dental marketing strategy.

To talk about dental websites, dental blogs, and SEO, contact Jill at (972) 781-8861.

Dental Websites: Choosing the Right Dental Copywriting Company

Shauna Duty — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:27:01 +0000

If you know about SEO or have paid attention to news reports about Google, you might have picked up that Google and other search engines are huge fans of original content on a website. In fact, if your website contains stock copy, you might find your dental website pushed further and further away from the first page of search engine results. If you need a dental website, or need to update your website with original dental copy, you’ll probably need to find a writer—and not just any writer. You need someone who has impeccable grammar, word usage, SEO understanding, and knowledge of clinical dentistry.

Dental Copywriting at MDPM

At Modern Dental Practice Marketing, we employ top-notch writing professionals. Our writers come from a variety of academic backgrounds and have been extensively trained on clinical dentistry. Led by our COO, Shauna, our writers’ work is edited and polished to perfection. Prior to beginning the copywriting process for a client, our writers take a thorough look through your interview notes to gain a deeper understanding of your practice philosophy, services, and the needs of your community.

Our writers are also trained to place a high priority on client service. Unlike large, impersonal dental marketing firms, our writers and team members communicate frequently with our clients. Our clients’ e-mails, texts, and phone calls are answered as promptly as possible. After the extensive editing process, a dental website’s copy will be sent to our client for their final approval. When writing dental websites, we communicate with our clients from start to finish so that we ensure our clients are completely satisfied with their new dental website.

If you’re in need of an SEO-friendly dental website or dental copywriting services, contact Jill at (972) 781-8861 or e-mail us at info@moderndentalmarketing.com. We write and build dental websites, microsites, and blogs. We also manage social media, your Internet reputation, and SEO.

Do You Need a Micro Dental Website?

Shauna Duty — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:08:52 +0000

Perhaps you have a great dental website built with beautiful code and original content. Maybe you have a blog, too that is linked to your social media accounts. If you’re doing all the right things to impress Google and other search engines, you’re probably seeing great SEO results. But, what if your SEO could improve even more? That’s where a micro dental website (or microsite) comes into the picture.

What is a microsite anyways?

A full-size dental website normally contains about 25 web pages, and in some cases up to 40 web pages. A micro dental website is a smaller version of a website that is geared to a specific subject. While your dental website offers information on ALL of your services, a dental microsite’s scope focuses on one facet of your practice such as neuromuscular dentistry or sleep apnea treatment.

What’s the point of a micro dental website?

The point of a microsite is to optimize your web presence for a specific service. Perhaps you just invested in new technology to detect TMJ disorder and want to expand your web presence to attract new patients searching the web for TMD treatments.

What does a micro dental website look like?

A microsite can look any way you want. Our team at Modern Dental Practice Marketing can even build a microsite with the same logo and color scheme as your current website and blog to maintain brand continuity. Your microsite will also contain attractive pictures, keywords, and contact information. Your microsite’s copy will be composed just for you by one of our trained dental copywriters. If you choose, your microsite can also contain a blog. Unlike a general dental blog, a microsite’s blog will focus on one specific area of dentistry such as cosmetic dental procedures or sleep apnea. Microsites are great for those who want to build a stronger web presence, specialists, or dentists seeking to market a particular area of their practice.

If you’re interested in learning more about micro dental websites, dental copywriting, or a complete SEO dental marketing package, contact MDPM’s CEO, Jill at (972) 781-8861.