By Bruce Stephenson, DDS, FAGD
Ways to get more patients is a constant source of discussion among dentists. New patient acquisition should be the primary function of a dental website. However, this will not happen if the website is “buried” on the back pages of Google! Having a beautiful website on page 22 of Google searches is like have an attractive, eye-catching sign for your office but hiding it in the back alley!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the label for the collection of the efforts we make to get our websites ranked higher by search engines, especially Google. The higher the page ranking, the closer to the top of the Google searches and the greater the chance that more new patients will see the website. “Getting to the top of Google” has become the “Holy Grail” for dentists wishing to get more patients from the Internet.
How can you do this? Even better, how can you do this without doing much work or spending much money?
Experts suggest videos on your site as a way to increase your dental website page ranking. Videos can be very effective “Google Bait.” However, not many real, live people will recommend a site to others because it has a self-serving video on it.
What would happen if your site had a video that was interesting, entertaining and funny? People might actually tell (email, Facebook, Tweet) their friends about it! Are potential patients more likely to go to a new dentist who seems more “human” and has a sense of humor? Yes!
Almost as importantly, the increase in the number of “hits” on the site will increase the Google page ranking. More new patients will see the website!
Why don’t more dentists create funny videos for their websites? Because it is difficult! The famous last words of the great comedian Ed Wynn were, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard!”
Some dentists can pull it off and have very popular websites as a result. Here are two very amusing videos from one dental website that increases the popularity of the website and the practice:
“Get your teeth fixed … or don’t”
What can the rest of us not-so-creative people do? We can get others to do the work for us! We can post links to some of the very witty videos from YouTube (available free and all the work done by others) on our own website. Then we need to let people know the videos there.
We can include a link in a newsletter “eblast” to patients, post it on our Facebook page and have signs around the office (“Visit our website to see some really hilarious animal videos”). I rarely see a patient waiting in an operatory or reception room who is not holding a mobile device. Give that person a reason to come to your website, be entertained, get a better appreciation of your practice “brand,” and increase your traffic and paging ranking!
Here is an example of a dental site that does just that
You may have heard the old joke, “Where is the best place to hide a dead body?” “On the second page of Google because no one ever looks there!” Get your site off that second … or twenty-second … page of Google! It’s fun, easy, effective and free!
Bruce Stephenson has been a practicing general dentist in San Leandro, CA for 38 years. He has published several articles in Dentistry Today, has consulted and lectured nationwide including both the ADA and AGD annual meetings. He now limits his part-time “retirement practice” to Invisalign. He is also a partner in Today’s Dental Consulting doing practice enhancement consulting, training and coaching. You can reach him at [email protected] or 209-603-9944
Here is an example of a nice website! It visually promotes the practice’s great online reviews and invites the prospective patient to read them. It does not use “stock photos” but has real pictures of the office so patients can feel comfortable about visiting. It builds the reputation and “brand” of the practice by having a page dedicated to free funny animal videos that the dentist updates himself.