Frank Taylor & Associates looks at different ways you could improve the online visibility for your dental practice

What is your approach to online marketing?

If you are like a lot of dental practices, you may have spent a lot of effort getting a website up and running and then, with a sigh of relief, sat back and waited for the phone calls and emails requesting appointments to flow in.

But nothing happened.

There may have been a couple of enquiries, but on the whole things chugged away like they’ve always done and you are starting to wonder what the point of the website is. Do people really use the internet to find dentists?

Well, the quick answer is yes, they really do. For example there were 3,600 searches last month for ‘dentist in Cambridge’ alone (and it’s likely to be similar in your town/area). But these days there is far more to attracting potential new patients online than just having a website. Whilst a website is the essential starting point, the key is to ensure it is visible.

What is online visibility?

Put simply it’s the likelihood of your website being found. For Google this means being shown in the search results list for terms like ‘dentist near me’ or ‘affordable teeth whitening in [your area]’. And unfortunately it’s not a foregone conclusion that because you provide dental services in Cambridge (as an example), anyone searching for them in Cambridge will automatically be shown your site.  And whilst people use search engines to find specific things, they tend to spend more time on browsing social media, blogs and newspaper and magazine sites. Visibility encompasses being seen across all these platforms, not just relying on the search engines to bring your site new visitors.

Making Sure You’re Visible – A Checklist

So what can you do about it? Here are some of the key things that increase your likelihood of being seen online:

1. Is your website properly set up to be found by the search engines? Is there enough text containing the right keywords for a search engine to recognise what your site is about?
2. Has your site been correctly set up for use on mobiles?
3. Have you registered on ‘Google My Business’? This will ensure that your website is shown (on a map) when people make local searches for dental services
4. Do you have Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter business pages/profiles that you post to regularly?
5. Do you have a blog area or resource area where you have helpful articles of at least 300 words each that also contain keywords that you want to be found for (e.g. affordable teeth whitening)
6. Have you considered online advertising either with Google, Facebook or others to ensure that you are found at the top of search engine listings and also on social media?
7. Is your website linked to from other websites such as your suppliers?
8. Do you encourage your patients to leave reviews? Reviews are one of the most searched for topics when it comes to people researching who to buy from.
9. Do you have listings in all the popular online directories such as Yell.com, Thompsons and Yelp (these are free)

So, how likely are you to be found right now? Why don’t you check your own site’s visibility using our free tool – here’s the link: http://ftadentalpracticemarketing.com/visibility-index/.