Dentist Internet Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Your dental website is your most important marketing tool. A properly designed dental website is more than a business card or description of your practice. Many of your new patients will find you through a search engine, so your website needs to be a dentist Internet marketing tool. Far too often, though, dentists’ websites turn off prospective patients rather than bringing them in. Does your dental website make these common dentist Internet marketing mistakes? Dentist Office Music on Autoplay Audio on autoplay is one of the most common peeves listed by Internet users. If you must have audio on your website, skip the music and don’t set it to play when the page loads. Most people find autoplay music or audio annoying rather than helpful. If your dentist Internet marketing expert talks you into an autoplay video, insist that he also provide an obvious way to turn the audio off. Generic Templates Skip the “professional dentist templates” if you want a website that will bring in new patients. Consider the market you want to reach and have a website designed specifically to appeal to them. If you’re a pediatric dentist, for example, make sure you include information that parents want and create a family-friendly feeling. If your practice focuses on high-end luxury cosmetic dentistry, your dental website should have a sophisticated, high-end feel and look. No Pictures The common wisdom when designing websites that load fast has always been to keep pictures to a minimum. Throw the common wisdom out the window. Keep images light on the home page and landing pages, but provide plenty of photos elsewhere on your website. Potential patients want to see your work and want to feel comfortable with your surroundings. Post photos of your dentists and assistants – and make sure they look friendly and approachable. Put together a before-and-after album of your patients. Put your office on display with photos of your waiting area or any special perks that are a selling point for your services. Don’t forget to post photos of any community events in which your office participates – sponsor a softball team? Put them on your website. Do outreach at local schools? Show photos of your staff with the kids. For a dentist, Internet marketing is more than just SEO. It’s not enough to get people to your dental website. Once they’re there, you have to engage them and convince them to call for an appointment. Avoid these common dentist Internet marketing

mistakes and you’re well on your way to that booking.

Top Dentist Internet Marketing Tips

If you want to be a successful dentist, Internet marketing is a must. Once upon a time, dentistry and marketing didn’t have a whole lot to do with each other. You hung out your shingle, put an ad in the local Yellow Pages, and if you were a good dentist, word of mouth took care of the rest. In just a few short years, that’s all been turned on its ear. The Yellow Pages are online and a listing in your local phone directory isn’t enough to bring in new patients. If you’re going to bring in new patients – and serve your existing ones to the best of your ability – you need a well-designed dental website. If you don’t have a dental website or if your existing website isn’t delivering the results you need, try these Internet marketing tips to get your website and your dental practice noticed. Let a Pro Handle the Work You know the old saying: as a web designer, you’re a fantastic dentist. You wouldn’t want a website designer working on your teeth, right? Shop around for a web design form that’s got expertise in designing websites for dentists to create your dental website. Understand What Goes Into a Dental Website That doesn’t mean you should sit back and accept whatever you get. Learn enough about dentist Internet marketing so you can give your designer direction. Look at websites put up by your competition to get a feel for the various dental website options so you can show the web designer examples of what you want and don’t want. Use Niche SEO Marketing Search engine optimization is vital to getting your website discovered when people are searching for a dentist. Avoid using overly general keywords – optimizing your dental website for the keyword “dentist” is a losing proposition. Dig down and go niche – are you a “family dentist” or a “pediatric dentist” or a “TMJ dentist” or a “cosmetic dentist”? Those keywords help your potential patients find you. Use Local SEO Marketing Dentist Internet marketing also counts on going hyperlocal. If you have a dental practice in Houston, it doesn’t help you much if someone in Schenectady finds your website. Use local keywords: “Houston TMJ dentist” is better than either keyword on its own. The more local you get, the better the chances of your dental website

coming up when someone searches for, for example, “Hunters Point dentist.”