5 Other Places Where Your Practice Needs to Be Online: Having a Website is Not Enough!
Total Online Presence. Does that sound familiar? It does if you are a client of Practice Treatment Plan. Our clients often hear us say, “It is not enough to just have a website to market your practice online! It requires a Total Online Presence.” Total Online Presence is a system of connected links, listings and content pages that raise your online profile for search engines.
Here are 5 other places where you need to be online:
Directory Citations: Simply put, citations are listings of your practice on directories or other searchable websites like Angie’s List & Merchant Circle (to name a few of the 20+ quality directories out there). Google and other search engines use these listings to further legitimize your business. The more quality citations you have, the more search engines will move you up the list. The key point to remember here is the importance of a consistent “NAP” or Name, Address and Phone number. Every time you enter your practice information into each site you must be consistent. Your website rankings will suffer if the “Googlebots” see inconsistencies or duplicate entries.
Search Engine Map Listings: These are free to create, and critically important. Creating a search engine listing allows you to show up on the map when patients are looking for a dentist. As more and more searches are happening on mobile phones (currently 60% of all searches on Google are from a mobile device), this will become even more important.
Online Review Websites: You have heard us say this a number of times in previous blog posts but you need online reviews to boost your rankings and the chance that a patient will choose your practice over your competitor. New studies have shown that consumers are giving verified online reviews almost the same importance as a referral from a friend!
Social Media: Many doctors feel that social media is a colossal waste of time. The truth is, if used efficiently it can be a great way to drive new patients to your practice. Social media sites, when linked to your website, can also provide a nice Search Engine Optimization bump. Also, data is showing that more and more people are using social media a search engine. Instead of going to Google and typing in the word “dentist”, they are doing that on Facebook, so that they can immediately see dentists that their friends like.
Blogs: We include a blog on all of our client websites. We do this because Google will consider the blog’s content to be educational instead of marketing. Google gives greater weight to educational content. Don’t believe me? Go to google and type in the word “dentist”. Nine times out of ten Wikipedia’s description of what a dentist is will be in the top 3 results of your search. If you blog frequently (about dental issues, ways that you are involved in your community, etc.) Google will see the fresh content and move your site up the rankings.
Have any questions? We have answers. Just email me at ben@practicetreatmentplan.com.
Practice Success,
Benjamin Suggs
New Patient Marketing Strategist
Practice Treatment Plan, Inc.
