Modern Dental Practice Marketing

Google looks at rel equals author in HTML 5 when gauging SEO rankings. Want that in English? You need a Google+ profile linked to your blogs and websites.

About the middle of last year, in this blog, I told dentists that Google says you need to be seen as an expert. Using the authorship tag, ie: linking your Google+ profile with your blog, counts toward your expert status.

Have you seen Google results that feature a person’s photo next to a result? Those photos are pulled from Google+ profiles. By creating a back-and-forth link between your blog and your Google+ profile, your photo could start showing up next to your blogs – AND you’ll be seen as more of an expert by Google, which helps with SEO. This is just one more reason dentist need to blog.

Step by Step

This may be a bit too technical for you, and if so, MDPM can help.

1. Create your personal/professional Google+ profile. Upload the profile picture you want to show up next to your Google results.
2. Go to this Google Developer page and follow the instructions for embedding linking buttons for your blog, website, etc.

Need Help?

MDPM’s website, microsite, and blog clients have access to our Google+ setup package, which includes creating your personal/professional page and implementing the linking buttons mentioned above. If you are not an MDPM client, but would like to discuss your SEO and marketing strategy, call MDPM Consulting today at 972-781-8861 or email us.

If you’ve discussed SEO (search engine optimization) with a techie, you might have thought he was speaking Klingon. The truth is, SEO is complex, but it can certainly be understood. Einstein once said, you don’t really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. At MDPM, we’ve broken down SEO into digestible parts. Just as a dentist can explain demineralization and caries formation to a patient, we can describe search engine optimization to our client dentists.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Google holds over 90% of the market for both mobile and PC search, so logic dictates that Google is the search engine to cater to when it comes to SEO. By adhering to Google’s SEO guidelines, you’ll automatically appeal to other search engines, like Bing and Yahoo. The only additional component to add to your site is meta-keywords (in the code), which Google will ignore, but other search engines will factor in to SEO computations. Let’s look at your dentist Internet marketing strategy from a copywriting perspective.

Copy (or Text)
Rule number one is, a website should have original text. Google actually published advice in the Webmaster Tools Blog, stating that any “duplicate” content (that is, text that appears on other websites) will hinder a website’s full SEO potential. If your dental website features library articles, they should be unique. Can every dentist have an original webpage on crowns? Absolutely. The SEO writer’s job is to make it happen. Read the rest of this entry →

A new year, in this generation, brings changes from Google, along with a landslide of projections about marketing trends. Last year, while Jill and I were at the Chicago Midwinter, Google rolled out Panda. This bulk of changes to Google’s algorithm prioritized original text, which only proved that MDPM’s approach to Internet marketing is on target.

Any time now, Google will launch it’s 2012 overhaul, Search Plus Your World. This article explains the changes in detail. If you prefer the short version, here you go.

When you’re logged into your Google account, Google is going to integrate your personal search preferences and trends with the results you see on SERPs (search engine results pages). If you shared a photo of your puppy with 10 people and you do a search for puppy photos, your shared photo will come up in the results with a note reminding you of how many times you shared it. Rest assured, Facebook and Twitter are not allowing Google to infiltrate personal data (or so we’re told), but Google+ is fair game. We’re promised that the results are personal to the user and won’t compromise privacy.

What will Google Plus Your World do for dentists? Maybe nothing. Or, if you play the Google game, maybe a lot! Read the rest of this entry →

This article is published in Med Monthly Magazine, Sept. 2011.

Has MDPM lost weight? New haircut? Nope. We’ve added the Google +1 widget to our sidebar!

Everyone seems interested in Google+ since its launch a few weeks ago. In fact, just yesterday, MedMonthly asked me to write an article on the new social network. (Stay tuned for the article with all the juicy details.)

Just this morning, I read a Google Webmaster News blog post that reminded me, it’s time to add the +1 widget to the website. So, over in the right sidebar, you’ll see a little white box with the Google colors. If you’re already on +1 (you have to be invited, can’t just sign up), click the +1 icon as a special favor to me, your marketing diva. If you’ve not signed up for Google+, but you want to stick  your head in the room and look around a bit, email me, and I’ll add you to my MDPM circle.

Don’t know what a circle is? Circles, IMHO, are what set Google+ apart from Facebook. I’m not insinuating that one is better than the other (we don’t want FB to start pulling G1′s hair), but there differences that make them each special in their own way. Circles are groups that allow you to organize your G+ friends. I have a family circle, MDPM pals circle, friends circle, and an oft untapped circle of cheerleader moms (yikes). These circles let me show certain people what goes on inside my G+ page. If I don’t want my parents to know I’m headed to the lake after work to have a few beers with my old high school friends, I simply don’t let the family circle see that post.

That’s all for today, folks. More to come, I ‘m sure. If you like the tips we share here, subscribe to the blog in the right sidebar. Then you’ll get emails every time this digital diva pens a post. Until next time, peace, love, and good ROI to all of you. Tata.