Archive for April, 2010
Smile Reminders & Roadside Multimedia Announce Partnership!
April 28th, 2010
Posted in Online Marketing
Over the years that we here at Roadside have worked in the dental web design field, we have had the opportunity to research many reminder and survey websites, but one has always stood out and that is Smile Reminders. Reaching over 15 million patients every month, Smile Reminders is an excellent platform for reminding patients of appointments and receiving feedback.
Because of that excellent service they provide, Roadside Multimedia is proud to announce a partnership with Smile Reminder. If you are a doctor with a marketing plan with us, ask about the Roadside discount you can get when you sign up for Smile Reminder. If you’re currently using Smile Reminder but not marketing with Roadside, give us a call and we can get you started with a great marketing package that includes the best SEO available, social media and more, at a discount- all because you’re already using a great marketing tool in Smile Reminder.
For all the great doctors who are already using Roadside and Smile Reminder, we haven’t forgotten you! Call or email me and we’ll get the word out for you, and show you how to get the most out of the combination of your Roadside dental marketing package and Smile Reminder.
At Roadside, we take pride in what we do- the websites we design, the marketing we do and the great doctors who are our clients. Therefore, we are equally proud to be partnered with a great service in Smile Reminder.
Live from the AACD!
April 28th, 2010
Posted in Site News
Well, semi-live! I (Dean) am posting this on behalf of our crew down at the AACD. Shannon, Ethan and Kevin are down in Grapevine, Texas, manning booth #623. Some pictures after the jump:
Hide & Seek
April 26th, 2010
Posted in Blogging & Social Media, SEO
Remember playing hide & seek as a kid? The game changes a little as you get older- now you want to be found. In fact, your success depends on it, and when people come looking for you, you don’t want to be hiding from them.
Statistics show that people are using Google for seeking- to the tune of 80 million searches every day. Ten years ago, you wouldn’t dream of not having your practice in the phone book, right? Your online presence is that important today. In fact, it’s even more important because now prospective patients see a little bit of you before they ever pick up the phone.
Your blog is a powerful tool, both for improving your personal brand as well as your SEO. How can you do both at the same time? Here are a couple ideas:
Highlight a Service: The majority of the time, people are not Googling your practice- they are seeking a service you offer. So make sure Google- and therefore the person using Google- know that you offer that service. Write about why you offer that service, and why you believe in it. Try to include a link back to the services page of your website- this tells Google that you are what you say you are, and gives the prospective patient more information.
Be Findable: No, I am not being redundant here, given that this whole blog post is on being findable. I mean it literally this time. Be sure to mention regularly the areas you serve. It does very little good for someone in New York to be finding you if your practice is in San Francisco. So at least every few posts, mention some of the areas you are marketing to- Google will associate you with those areas in future searches.
Hopefully by this point you see where this leads to- think in terms of the average Google search- it goes something like this: (service)+(area)=you, right? So a fresh blog post that highlights services people are looking for, in an area people search in, will result in Google directing people to you.
So maybe we should rename the game- now we’ll call it seek & find. If you’re found, you win. For more information on how you can be found online, don’t be afraid to ask!
Roadside is Headed to the AACD!
April 26th, 2010
Posted in Site News
We are all very excited to be represented at the American Association of Cosmetic Dentistry Scientific Session in Grapevine, Texas this week. Shannon Mackey, Ethan Austin and Kevin Gentry will be there at booth #623, showing off the latest in Dental Web Design. We will also have a few specials for the AACD:
Free Hosting for 1 Year with the purchase of a new website.
Before & After photos for all services & Six Smile Gallery For only $250- A $1,250 value.
Free Marketing Analysis for your organic dental online marketing plan- a $250 value.
So if you’re going to be at the AACD, stop by booth #623, and if not visit our website. We’ll be posting some pictures over the next couple days, as well as Tweeting live from the event, so be sure to follow us on Twitter.
Improve your Google Ranking
April 20th, 2010
Posted in SEO
Why do you want to be ranked as high as possible on Google? The truth is, it doesn’t matter if you want to be- You need to be findable on Google. The numbers don’t lie: 65% of people use Google. 20 million dental terms are searched every month on Google. The front page results account for over 60% of the clicks in a given search.
Why not just pay-per-click and get on the front page automatically (these can be seen on the right hand side of the page when you search)? Because 65% of people ignore the paid results, and focus solely on the ‘organic’ results. Therefore, focusing on improving your ranking within the organic results will be more cost-effective and yield greater results.
So how do you do it?
There are many different theories on how to improve your ranking, but there are proven methods for doing so. One essential element is making sure you are ranked highly for the right thing. It does you no good to be the #1 result if no one searches for it. But if 30,000 people search for something every day, then you most certainly want to be the first name they see! Proper keyword research is essential. At Roadside Multimedia, we do all that for you; Identifying your target market and what they are searching for.
Google is constantly striving to better determine what it’s users are searching for, and we strive to better your website to match what Google is looking for. One of the ways we do this is through links. Google loves to see links to and from your site, but in it’s efforts to refine its searches, no longer pays attention to ‘link farms’- which were websites that simply contained links to other sites and nothing else- but only regards links from established, reputable sites. Our expert team of link-builders does not just put links out there where we can get them, we target the same sites Google knows and trusts, and get your site linked too. As that trust is established with Google, you’ll see your ranking climb steadily.
So if you want to improve your ranking on Google or any other search engine, give one of our experts a call and we can get you started. You can then watch your ranking climb!
How to Overcome Writers (Blog)
April 15th, 2010
Posted in Blogging & Social Media
If you’ve been blogging for any amount of time, you’ve been there- sitting at the computer, with maybe a half hour set aside to post something. You’re ready to write and… Nothing. You draw a blank. You glance over previous posts, but they provide no inspiration. Before too long, your mind wanders to your next appointment, and before you know it the time you set aside to blog is gone- along with any potential post. If you’re new to blogging, I hate to be the one to tell you that this will happen.
Make no mistake, blogging is crucial to your online success. It helps your SEO enormously, as Googles ‘spiders’ check for fresh content regularly. It also helps your patients form a personal attachments to you, which brings them back and gives them confidence to refer new patients to you. But what do you do when you’re in the above situation? Here are a few tips I use to keep my creative juices flowing:
- Keep a notebook handy. I try to jot down every idea I have for a post. When I get writers block, I flip through the notebook. I find inspiration rarely strikes when I’m sitting in front of the computer, so if I have a way to remind myself of inspiration I’ve had, posting becomes that much easier.
- Broaden your horizons. Don’t restrict yourself by just posting about ‘business stuff’. Talk about yourself and your hobbies. What made you want to become a dentist? Parents with school-aged kids would love to know- maybe their children are considering it. What are your hobbies? There are plenty of people out there who share that hobby, and they all use the internet, and some of them are probably already your patients. When they have common interests with you, they will feel at home, and be inclined to visit more often.
- Read other blogs. Find other dentists blogs (if you need help finding some, email me and I’ll send you some). Comment on them- and have a link to your own blog in your signature- and write your own posts in response. Blogs are meant to be personal and opinionated, so don’t be shy about sharing your opinions and feelings- don’t be dogmatic, though, and risk alienating some readers. A polite, respectful, intelligent opinion is the best thing a blog can have. People will be more inclined to read your work and share it with others, even if they don’t agree with you.
There are just a few tips. I started this post having no clue what I was going to write about, and am approaching 450 words, and all I did was follow my own advice, so I can say with confidence that it works!
How does your personal brand affect your practice?
April 13th, 2010
Posted in Blogging & Social Media
In today’s connected world, your personal brand is more important than ever before. But just what is your personal brand? How does it affect your practice? And how can you use it to improve your practice?
In short, as a dentist, your personal brand is you. You are who your patients come to see. You are who they recommend to their friends. Yours is the name on the sign in front of your practice and on your website. How can you use your personal brand for your practice?
Think of the big name brands, and the knee-jerk reaction you have to them; Apple, GMC and Starbucks, to name a few. Those are all easily-identifiable, and people have very strong loyalties and opinions about them. Your practice is no different, although it might be slightly smaller in scale. When people hear your name or hear about your practice, you want them to associate it with positive things- that much is obvious. What are some ways you can do that?
One of the methods that all three of the companies I just mentioned have used with great success is the use of Twitter. Regular brief updates keep them in the forefront of the consumers mind. Your patients can benefit more than anyone from you using Twitter.
Instead of sending postcards, can you tweet something as simple as “when was the last time your teeth were cleaned?” with a link to your website allows patients to request an appointment as soon as they see the tweet, instead of putting it off. Best of all, it’s free. It costs you absolutely nothing to use, and you can simply assign one of your office staff to make sure something is tweeted every day.
Remember- your personal brand is just that: you! If you aren’t reaching patients by means of Twitter yet, give us a call and we can help you set it up. It only takes a few minutes.
What Is “SEO”?
April 12th, 2010
Posted in SEO
Just what is “SEO” and how can it work for your website?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. It involves making your site easy to find by search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
In the early days of search engines, there were a lot of techniques web designers would use to try to cheat the system and get a higher ranking. It was common practice for sites to stuff their titles and meta tags with keyword spam. Some would hide spammy keywords on the page by making blocks of text the same color as the website’s background. Still others would exchange links with sites that are what’s known as “link farms”; sites that are nothing more than a single page with dozens or hundreds of links out to other sites.
While these methods may have had some small measure of success in the past, programmers that work at the big search engines have made it their goal to punish those that use such techniques. With modern search engines, it is vitally important to your site to use “Organic SEO”.
Organic SEO and Your Dental Website
“Organic SEO” is a technique that is actually encouraged by Google’s Best Practices, as well as other search engines. Rather than focusing on trying to get the search engines to see your site, Organic SEO focuses on the user experience.
If you want Google to find your site, so that potential clients can find you, then it has to make sense from the user’s point of view. This involves using headings, keywords and even image names and alt-text that are accurate and easy for the user to search through.
In the coming months, we will be discussing many of those Organic SEO techniques on the Hands On Dental Marketing blog and how they can work for you.
Can Social Media Help Your Practice?
April 7th, 2010
Posted in Blogging & Social Media
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter often have the stigma of being mundane or for teens attached to them. In reality however, they can be powerful tools for your practice. How can you make the most of them?
Facebook is a great way to connect with current patients, and draw new ones in. How?
By reaching out to your existing patients, you can thank them for their loyalty. This will mean a lot to them, and keep them coming back. That personal touch will also cause them to recommend you to others, bringing in more patients.
It also makes you more available to anyone who wants to find out about you. With so many people on Facebook, they can find your profile, which will help them to see the human side of your practice, and hopefully feel a personal connection with you.
Twitter is a powerful tool as well. While you can’t say a lot in 140 characters, by saying the right things, you can keep your business in the front of patients minds.
Something as simple as “when was the last time you had your teeth cleaned?” or “Have you wondered what the best method for teeth whitening is?” will remind people to make appointments for those things – often something they’ve put off before. You’re blog posts can also be linked to your social media sites, quickly drawing more people to your website.
And finally, you can run specials specific to Facebook and Twitter. Twitter’s online dictionary refers to them as “twecials” – Twitter Specials for those who follow you on Twitter.
Be inventive. Most of all, be yourself and you’ll be sure to get the most from your social media! And if you do not have social media set up for your practice, contact us at Roadside and we’ll help you get started.
Blogging and Your Practice
April 6th, 2010
Posted in Blogging & Social Media
More than ever before, all types of businesses are connecting with their customers through blogging. People read blogs at home, at work and on the go using laptops, PDA’s and personal and work computers. At Roadside Multimedia, we want to help you get the most out of your blog.
Starting your blog is incredibly easy. Your Roadside website is set up with a built-in blog, so all you need to do is log in and start writing. A reasonably sized blog entry is around 150-200 words, but can be longer if needed. Alternatively, you can break it up into multiple posts. When you write, have a purpose in mind; are you using this post to highlight a technique or specialty? Or to allow your patients to get to know you better as a person?
Talk about yourself, your interests and your feelings. In the health care field more than any other, your patients need to be comfortable with you. A well written, personable blog can go a long way towards that goal.
In addition to the ‘human’ side of blogging, regular updates will pay dividends for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google ‘Spiders’ regularly check for updates on the internet, and seeing fresh content will keep you at the top of the Google rankings, bringing potential new patients to your site – who will then see your personal touch on your blog. It’s a win-win situation for you and your practice!
