In short, the recipe for natural link building looks something like this:

* One part the most useful, relevant content that provides the best resources, tools, services, etc. in your industry .
* One part patiently waiting for others on the web to find and decide to link to you.
* Repeat, repeat, repeat!

If this sounds intimidating, that’s because it is. So it’s important to have a plan and stick to it. Utilize your blog to it’s full extent by writing (often) about what you know. Incorporate style and flair, and always try to consider what information your readers are looking for. Eventually, you will be gifted with those links and the traffic that is directed to your site and therefore through your office doors!

Like my beverage-of-choice, organic link building takes time, patience, and effort, but it’s worth it! We know the end goal is directing traffic to your site so new clients can find you. Natural link building has real business value, you just have to have a long-term view and commitment.

Link building of course, is only a part of the SEO puzzle. So why put all the effort into it? Especially when you’ve got CE credits to keep up on, new technology to learn, and, oh yeah, dentistry to perform! Well, here at Roadside Multimedia, we think that link building as a means for directing traffic to your site and attaining an optimal page ranking is invaluable. We know this because natural link building is what powers most of the top sites on the internet. It’s a formula that takes consistent effort, but is proven to work!

So, whether you’re a client of RSMM already, or considering hiring us to create and market your site, contact us today to learn more about all aspects of SEO, including organic link building!

Personally, I can think of about a hundred ways to use my phone directory, including but not limited to:  booster seat, fire starter, door stop, protection from home invasion, Dustin Hoffman impressions, etc.  The point is that the Seattle Times, and everyone here at RSMM agree that the Yellow Pages are no longer the relevant research aid they may have been years ago.

In decades past, it would have been simply ludicrous not include Yellow Page advertising in your dental marketing plan.  However,  as the majority of people are looking exclusively to the web to search for everything from dental offices to doggie day cares, money spent on Yellow Page advertising sits unviewed on kitchen counters and propping up table legs.

Marketing in the Yellow Pages was simple, step one: buy the biggest ad, step two: wait for phone to ring.  Comparatively, on-line marketing seems so complex:  SEO, the importance of links, page ranking, where do you start?!  A great first step would be to contact Roadside Multimedia today, let us be your guide to dental web marketing!

Tynisha was sharing her bubbly personality with some young girls by fostering an entertaining trip to the ice rink to celebrate school being out last Friday. The girls were starting off their Summer vacation right until Tynisha, masterful multi-tasker that she is, encountered an unexpected divot of ice. She was uncharacteristically taken off guard and unable to negotiate the ice. Her toe pick (every time I hear that term I think of The Cutting Edge!!!) got stuck and her momentum instantly shifted to her left ankle, breaking the bones and requiring surgery. She has survived the surgery and hospital stay and is now resting up at home.

Our office will miss Tynisha’s chipper personality while she is recovering, but will continue to handle all of our clients’ social media needs. When she is able to return, she will be ready to get back to work for you in helping your social media to rock!

Thanks for all your hard work, Tynisha. Get well soon!!

(P.S. Heather is lonely on her coffee runs….just sayin’…hurry up and heal already!!!)

Here she is smiling in her hospital bed…it might be the fun stuff coming through the IV that was bring that on though!

A study conducted by the Society for New Communications Research sheds light on how social media is affecting business and decision-making. No surprise to anyone here at RSMM, but to sum up, social media is having a tremendous impact on how professionals make and gain support for decisions. What this means to our readers: Failure to utilize social media outlets as a means to market your practice is simply not an option.

If you have time, please follow the link below to the blog of on the the study’s authors, Don Bulmer, and read the complete findings of the study. If not, here are some of the points we at RSMM thought were striking:

• Through the use of social media, customers and patients now have an instantaneous platform for discussion of their ideas, experiences and knowledge. Which means that the word-of-mouth advertising that you know brings in the best patients is now happening via social media sites, not just around office water-coolers.
• The professionals surveyed for this study trust online information from social media almost as much as information gotten in-person. Wow!
• Social Media uses patterns that are not pre-determined by age or organizational affiliation. A presence on social media sites can help you reach and influence potential patients of all ages and walks of life.

We know what you’re thinking; Facebook and Twitter were not subjects you covered in dental school, where do you start? Call our office today, we’d love to point you down the right path!

Click here to read Dan Bulmer’s blog!

With that #1 rank goal in mind, how can you optimize your site to help you achieve it?

Have a plan: If you’ve heard that before, you may have read previous posts.  But it applies to to every aspect of SEO.  Develop a strong keyword strategy. Know what keywords and phrases apply to you that people are searching for.  Be aggressive.  Have a strong, well written landing page optimized for each of your phrases.  Make sure the page is between 200 and 600 words long, and your keywords account for at least 3% of the total word count- try to stay below 10%, though- be wary of keyword spam (there are plenty of tools around to help with this).

Start early: The reason a lot of people are gun-shy about spending time on-page is that they do not address it early enough.  If you write solid, optimized content while developing the site, it’ll save you time after the site is launched- which allows you to spend time on things like link building.

Watch the competition: Odds are you’re not #1 right now, but you want to be.  So take some time and look at who is there right now.  What are they doing right?  What are they doing wrong?

In the case of the former, do it better than them.  For the latter, do it right!  This obviously is broader than just on-page, but if your competition has great links but shoddy content, they’re neglecting a large part of their SEO, not to mention conversions.  If they’re going to leave that open, take advantage of it!

Stay ahead: SEO is an ongoing process, and the competitors you pass on your way to #1 aren’t going to be content to slip- just as you weren’t.  For most, looking at ways to improve off-page is standard, as it should be.  But few examine their on-page to see where they can improve. Remember: your competitors are probably looking at your site in order to figure out ways to beat you- Don’t let them!  If you find think chinks in your armor first, you’ll maintain your ranking.  It’s often surprising the opportunities a simple on-page analysis will reveal.

Stay fresh: Offer something new?  A new product or service?  Time for a new landing page!  Don’t cram it onto existing ones- this will water down the strength of your current landing pages.  Maintain a blog, and update it regularly- at least once a week.  Search engines are always watching for new content- give it to them!  A blog is a great way to do that, not to mention it is awesome for conversions, and much more (which I may have mentioned once or twice).

That covers the basics of on-page optimization, and hopefully dispels the myth that you shouldn’t spend time on it.  Tomorrow, I’ll address some methods for using your on-page optimization in conjunction with link building to seriously improve your SEO.

Oftentimes, people will try to put percentages on the various aspects of SEO- “Links are 80% of your SEO”.  That ignores the good- or at the very least minimizes- any on-page optimization.  The truth is that there is no hard and fast rule or percentage for what part of SEO  does what amount of good- because it all works together.  If you had great links and horrible content, you won’t rank #1.  And if you have great on-page and tens of thousands of Page Rank 1 or 2 links, you won’t rank #1 either.  But if you have good on-page optimization, good links and it is well presented, you can rank #1.  Please note two things in that sentence: 1: I say good, not great.  You should aim for great, but when you finish, you should always look at your SEO and say “it can be better”- SEO is ongoing.  And 2: I say you can rank #1, not that you will.  I try not to make promises I can’t keep, so whether or not you rank #1 is up to you (or Roadside if you hire us…).  So what constitutes a good link?

If you don’t have it already, get the Page Rank tool for your Google toolbar.  Page Rank simply ranks a website, based on a variety of factors, on a scale of 1-10.  In short, it measures how trustworthy a site is, and therefore how much importance to attach to links from it.  The New York Times, SEOmoz (who have an awesome SEO toolbar) and Smashing Magazine are a few examples of high (9, 8 & 7 respectively) Page Rank sites, and therefore sites that a link from would be great for SEO (hint, hint to anyone from those sites reading this).  In turn, Page Rank 1, 2 and sometimes 3 sites should be avoided.  Case in point as to why: I am not even bothering to find PR 1,2 & 3 sites, and I came up with 3 high PR sites off the top of my head.  Google is simply putting that kind of recognition and trust into a number.  Incidentally, Roadside Multimedia currently resides at 4, which I hope to see go up as we get more links from sites like those mentioned above and we improve the on-page of our new site (coming soon!).

So when it comes to links, throw the little fish back- PR 1-3, land several medium sized fish- PR 4-6, and definitely try to hook a marlin- PR 7+.  But don’t build links at the expense of other aspects of SEO- neglect your on-page and you will fall in the rankings- I will talk about ways to optimize on-page tomorrow!

The first thing I want to say about making your social media marketing (hereafter SMM) work is that I don’t have all the answers or options- the absolute best way to use your SMM is in whatever way your imagination can come up with.  What I’m providing here are some tried-and-true ideas that you can adapt to your practice.  Use them as a starting point, not a guide, and if you come up with something you’re not sure of, tweet me or email me about it.

With that out of the way, let’s tackle SMM.  In a large way, SMM is like building a house.  How so?  Let’s examine, step-by-step:

Have a Plan: Without a plan, unless you are very lucky, your SMM will fail.  So sit down and outline a plan.  Are you going to handle all of it?  Are you going to delegate?  What is your objective?  Do you want new patients?  Or more repeat business?  Clearly define those things- and more- and then sit down with everyone who is going to be involved and go over it with them.  Spend time on this- a good plan now will save you time down the road.  A faulty house plan can lead to expensive changes down the road, and a well-though-out plan will turn out beautifully.

Build a Foundation: Get people who already know you and visit you to follow you on your social media.  Target your niche- it won’t do you any good to have random strangers following you.  If your current patients are the first ones involved, it will be easier for you to interact with them.  Make friends with them- the key word in ’social media marketing’ is ’social’, not marketing, so be social!  Remember, this is your foundation, so what comes next is supported by this- so make sure it’s strong!

Create a Strong Frame: Ask your ‘foundation’ followers to retweet and recommend you to their friends.  Make sure your social media links are in your signature on your email,  on any forums you use and on your website.  Interact with anyone who follows, recommends, likes or mentions you- it will make them more inclined to pay attention to you.  At this point, your house is almost ready- what’s missing?

Sell it: Make it look really, really good.  If your construction is solid, a few finishing touches will really sell it.  And if you have followed your plan, it will take a lot less work to get to this point than if you approach your SMM haphazardly.  This is the part where you sell yourself- promote your business, your services and yourself.  At this point, you should have a good mix of followers who you can appeal to and who respect you, so when you say you believe in a given treatment or services, they will trust you.  Share any specials you run with them and offer services especially for your social media contacts.  This is the part where you bring it all home (pun intended)!

One More Thing: Yep, there’s more- Do it again!  Stay involved, and stay on top of social media trends.  Be involved in new successful social media sites and you’ll continue to see the results, in your patients and your online reputation!

If you have questions about social media, dental marketing, or social media campaigns, give us a call and we’ll be happy to help.

So how do you bridge the gap, and take them from the doubting 86% to the trusting 80%?  You and I know that you’re honest, trustworthy and provide the best care around – but how will they know?

The two best methods are ones I’ve written about several times before- Facebook and blogs- but here I’ll examine each in the context of ‘bridging the gap’; that is, the gap between the click and the conversion.

When someone searches for one of your keywords, they will end up on a ‘landing page’- usually your homepage, but sometimes a services page, depending on the search.  What happens then is the ‘Billboard Effect’- they look at it, read it over and ask “OK, what’s the real story?”  At that point, they are solidly in the 86% camp- with full knowledge they are being advertised to, but they want to know about the service, so they look for more information.  Enter your blog and Facebook.

I will pause here to blatantly plug Roadside, so pick which camp you’re in (word-of-mouth or advertising): If you have a dental website designed by Roadside, you have links to your blog and Facebook (as well as any other social media) already on your website.  Most dental website design companies do not do this (If you picked the word-of-mouth camp, please feel free to ask and  look around).  End of Roadside advertisement!

Using your blog to bridge the gap: Be regular- no one likes to visit a blog to only see the welcome post and little else.  A blog with lots of content tells prospective patients you care enough to write regularly.  And as they delve deeper, what will they find?  Make sure you have written about your services- especially if they are services that are often searched for- porcelain veneers and sedation are two of the most searched dental terms- if you offer them, blog about them.  Services which have several different brands for both the dentist and patient to choose from make for compelling blogs.  Teeth whitening and invisible braces are hot topics, with several brands competing in those fields- your patients, new and old, will want to know why you chose the brands you use.  All this goes to show you are passionate about providing the best care possible- getting them on the bridge from being advertised to, to trusting what you have to say.

Facebook: Be involved! By connecting with your current patients on Facebook, potential patients will see your interest in them.  They will also see the trust that is built with those who are already your patients, and that they care about you in return.  This gives them exactly what they want- the whole story, the impressions and feeling their peers have.  So on your Facebook page, include photos of your current patients.  Get them involved, ask them to pose for a picture and tell them you want to feature them on your Facebook page.  It gets them excited about it, and they will likely pass it along to people they know- getting you even more referrals!  And, again, it will help anyone who is just hearing about you to see you care for your patients.

So use your blog and social media to bridge the gap from click to conversion!  If you have any questions about other ways to reach more patients, or how you can use social media in other fields, feel free to ask!

It is because of this that SEO exists.  Simply put, SEO is determining what Google- and therefore- people are looking for, and making your site findable (sound familiar? That’s why we say that).  But because it is fairly new, there are widely varying theories, and many of them, to put it bluntly, are wrong.  This can be for a variety of reasons.  The most common is being misinformed.  What worked in the 1990’s (remember them?  Dot-com boom and all that?) will not work today- link farms, keyword spam are things of the past thanks to the efficiency of Google.  So along those lines, I will put to rest some of the outdated practices and myths we hear, and explain why they don’t work- and best of all, offer solutions that do get your ranking up.  Read on!

Myth #1: It’s all in the URL.  This is the most common, and probably the most damaging.  The notion that you have have to have the exact URL that people are searching for, or that multiple URLs will drive up your SEO is simply outdated and wrong.  Google largely ignores URLs because of the dot-com boom, and knows that domains are bought and sold and are largely irrelevant to a given search.  Multiple URLs are ‘grey-hat’, that is a questionable SEO practice, and Google will see right through it and will often penalize it as spam- which will keep your ranking down forever.

Myth #2: Pay-Per-Click Marketing works. There was no nice way to say that, and a lot of people have spent a lot of money finding it out the hard way.  Now, that is not to say you’ll never see traffic or customers if you do a PPC campaign, but statistics show that 60% of people ignore the PPC ads, and focus solely on organic results.  couple that with the fact that the first three results in a given search account for over 60% of the clicks.  So the numbers don’t lie- an effective organic SEO campaign will get you way more clicks- and more than that, more conversions since you’ll actually be what people are looking for, not just what’s thrown at them.

Myth #3: Social Media is a Fad. This falls under the category of “ignore at your own peril”.  More statistics: If Facebook was a country, it would be the worlds fourth largest.  95% of the users on Twitter are connected via mobile phone, laptop or PC 24 hours a day.  Will social media change?  Yes.  Will Facebook and Twitter be the social standard for years to come?  No one knows.  But one fact is undeniable: social media is here to stay.  Over the next year, more people will use social media than ever before, and if you are not using social media marketing, you’re in danger of being left behind.  It’s not a bandwagon; it’s not a fad- it’s the future of marketing.

I (and the rest of the SEO team here at Roadside) do our best to stay on top of the latest in what works in SEO- not by hearsay, not by rumor, but by the numbers and facts.  If you have questions about SEO, or have heard something you’re not sure of, email us or follow me on Twitter