On Google Page 1, you now need reviews in order to attract the eye. People click on the websites that have the best star ratings and highest number of reviews even if they don’t read them.

Tip: Tell all your close family, friends and patients to give you a 5 star review.

= Template email / copy & paste below =

Dear X

Please give us your best review and star rating on Google.

1. Go to http://www.google.co.uk and search for “{my practice name} + {my town}” and you will see our listing next to the map.

2. Click on the blue link “Place page”

3. Scroll down our Place Page to see:

Reviews by Google users

Been here? Sign in to rate

4. Click the blue link “Sign in to rate” and login with your Google account.

5. Give us your best review and star rating.

Thank you so much.

= End of template =

This is incredibly important. Do not wait.

Krishan Joshi is ”the Master” at Dental Focus Web Design.

Become his friend on Facebook – www.facebook.com/dentalfocus

Remember to subscribe to the Dental Focus “Secrets” E-Newsletter so you can get the latest dental marketing ideas and video tips immediately by e-mail.

If you would like some free advice, Email Us or call 020 7183 8388.

Over 90% of UK Internet searches are on Google.

You need to be found for all your dental keywords + main location. If you want to grow and expand your catchment then target all your surrounding towns and cities. Google Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is now so complicated, you need Google Experts, not just SEO Experts, to achieve predictable rankings. There’s no point talking about other search engines (Yahoo, Bing, etc) because there is only Google Page 1, that’s what over 90% of people use and then the other search engines try to emulate Google.

Your Google Expert will estimate search traffic volumes to suggest the most popular keywords and ensure you maximise Return on Investment (ROI) in priority order.

Try the Google Keyword Tool yourself:

• Enter a word/phrase per line.
• Tick “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms”.
• Select only “Advanced options > Locations > United Kingdom”.
• Enter the anti-spam verification characters.
• Then Search to find out which keywords get hundreds or thousands of searches each month and which keywords get practically none.

Click here if you want to know more about Google Page 1

The Latest on Google Places (Local Maps) & Natural SEO

Google is changing. They now merged Google Places (Local Maps) and the Natural (Organic) results and everyday there seems to be something new!

Google is now giving everyone a real reason to scroll down the entire Page 1 results. Once you’re on Page 1, your actual ranking position is going to become less and less important throughout 2011.

Why? Because people may never click on your website link or even take a look at your website, unless you have a lot of 4/5 star reviews, a pretty thumbnail photo of your practice (uploaded via Google Places) and a wonderful website “preview image” to attract their interest.

You see, Google now has a little magnifying glass icon next to each website link and, if you hover over this, you’ll see a pop-up preview of your website. And guess what? Flash currently does NOT show up on the previews, just like on an iPhone or iPad. Any Flash element shows up as an ugly big grey box, bad news for full flash websites! And another signal that Flash animation is definitely on its way out so HTML 5 or Javascript animation must now be considered as an urgent replacement.

The good news is that you’ll get a lower Bounce Rate (the ratio for website visitors that leave immediately after just looking at 1 page) – if you ever cared about that! – because those who would leave will simply choose not to visit your website at all.

What about Google Natural Vs Google AdWords ?

I view Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click Sponsored advertising as a short term 1st year fix to gain immediate rankings while you wait for your local and natural SEO to come to fruition over 3-6 months or 6-12 months, depending on the competitive nature of the keywords/locations.  Google AdWords should not become part of a long term strategy.

I know a lot of dentists can SAVE LOADS OF MONEY immediately. All they need to do is STOP PAYING to advertise for their own name when they already rank no.1 on the natural listing for their name.

People looking up your name would normally click on the first link they see and if you’re already no.1 on the natural then it’ll be FREE. If you pay-per-click for your own name then you’re competing with yourself and that is such a ridiculous waste. And you wonder why dentists are paying so much money on Google?

I understand that your Google Analytics statistics may indicate that a lot of people find your website after searching your own name!

Why are people searching for your name and who are they?

1. People google everything, even if they know your web address. They don’t know how to get directly to your website via the URL bar – “The only way is Google!” And that gets reflected in your Analytics.

2. Thus, existing patients coming to see you are Googling you to get telephone/directions/fees before treatment/appointment.

3. Thus, existing patients who have just seen you are Googling you to check out your website after treatment. Hopefully, you reminded all your visiting patients to lookup website!

4. I strongly believe that those who Google your name are existing patients. Not brand new patients, unless you’re doing a lot of direct marketing. Are you?

5. The only way to really find out the truth about your visitors is to have a pop-up window that asks “Are you a registered patient?” Yes/No.

I believe in spending on Natural SEO rankings. The sky is the limit because you can always increase your catchment by ranking on Page 1 for more and more surrounding towns and cities and more and more dental keyphrases.

Just to give you an insight, about 3-4 years ago, I used to spend £600+VAT per month on Google AdWords for Dental Focus Web Design. Over the last 3 years, I stopped AdWords and put ALL my budget into our own TOP natural rankings. Its the best thing I ever did – I’ll never do AdWords again. I strongly advise you to consider this approach.

At Dental Focus Web Design, we won’t manage everyone’s Google AdWords otherwise it would be a conflict of interest by bidding our clients against each other. These days we provide Google AdWords Empowerment for setup and training so you and your team are in full control 24/7.

If I were you, I wouldn’t waste money on pay-per-click unless its a short term strategy just to get out there immediately and the keywords are for high ROI treatments i.e. dental implants. But even then, why bother paying-per-click unless you have really strong Unique Selling Points (USPs) on your website and you can convert the visitors into enquiries. If you can’t convert, then you’re throwing your money down the drain, especially since AdWords is all about current consumption, the here and now!

Remember that natural rankings get more than 80% of the Page 1 traffic. If you put all your eggs in the Google AdWords pay-per-click basket then you are definitely missing out on HUGE traffic – you’re only getting a little taste of it.

If you care about being on the natural listings of Google Page 1 in two years time, five years time or even still in ten years time, then you should really start NOW because Google remembers your historically established relevancy. What you do now or choose not to do, will affect your rankings in the future. That’s why its getting harder and harder for new websites to beat the old websites and new websites will have to do more and more work just to get the same rankings as an old established website.

One last myth I’d really love to bust – Google AdWords does NOT help your local/natural rankings!

p.s.

In 2011, reviews will play a major part of determining whether or NOT people NOTICE YOU and click on you.

On the natural listings, you now need loads of reviews , not just a TOP ranking in order to attract the eye.

People now have a real reason to SCROLL down to the BOTTOM of Google Page 1 – to see if anyone has MORE 4/5 star reviews than you?

For example, Google “dentist london” and you will see the bottom ranking dental practice has MORE 4.5 stars than anyone… which is very attractive to the eye and to the click!

Steps to tell all your close family, friends and patients to give you a 5 star review!

===

Please give me a 5 star review on Google!

1. Google “dentist location” and you will see that I am

no. on the natural listings with

http://www.

2. The results now have “X reviews / Place Page” on the right side of each listing.

3. When viewing my local business “Place Page” on Google ,

you will see the link “Write a Review” which you can use if you login with a Google a/c.

Thank you!

===

Krishan Joshi is ”the Master” at Dental Focus Web Design.

Become his friend on Facebook – www.facebook.com/dentalfocus

Remember to subscribe to our Blog of Secrets so you can get the latest dental marketing ideas and video tips immediately by e-mail.

If you would like some free advice, Email Us or call 020 7183 8388.

Google just launched a new efficient way to show results – in real time without needing to press the “search” button!

Google is going to help you get your relevant results and what you want, sooner rather than later. It’s currently only available if you first login to Google and use its search. But Google Instant is very likely to roll out across the board so you won’t have to login.

This won’t affect your Google rankings but it will affect how patients search for you. Dental patients will be encouraged to search for more specific 2-4 dental treatment keywords, sooner rather than later! Its now time to reconsider what keywords you are optimised for and make sure you are targeting specific keyphrases (including your main city/town and all your surrounding locations) instead of just general keyphrases.

Watch the 2 videos from Google below! The 1st video is a short advert and the 2nd is a very long conference recording (but don’t worry, we’ve bookmarked the 2nd video to jump to the 15th minute time frame so you can get straight to the best bit).

Tweet

For more information , visit www.google.com/instant/

Krishan Joshi is “the Master” at Dental Focus Web Design.

Remember to subscribe to our Blog of Secrets so you can get the latest dental marketing ideas and video tips immediately by e-mail.

If you would like some free advice, Email Us or call 020 7183 8388.

Men and women of course, have different behaviours. Men tend to be concrete thinkers that like to consummate and complete what they set out to do, they like powerful imagery (and sounds) as reinforcement to written information. At Dental Focus Web Design, we encourage our dentist clients to show before and after photographs to give visual evidence of clinical experience and expertise. Women are different biologically, psychologically and socially. They tend to prefer written (or verbal) communication, which leads to deeper processing of information and better recall. We recommend video testimonials to show emotional evidence of your patient’s new smile and outcome; greater confidence and happiness.

How do your patients react to your dental website?

Knowing and understanding your patient base will make your dental marketing more successful. Surveys and questionnaires are very useful in getting inside your customer’s head. Existing patients can and should be your most valuable resource when it comes to figuring out what new patients want on your dental website.

Behavioural Marketing is the targeting of website visitors based on their observed previous behaviour, applying ‘recency’ and ‘frequency’ to consumer data.

‘Recency’ = how recently your website visitor has performed an action

‘Frequency’ = how often your website visitor has performed an action

Changing behaviour is really difficult to do. So it’s much smarter to adapt your dental marketing and dental websites to existing behaviours in a way that gets the patient to think about the dental services on offer. ‘Social media’ isn’t inherently new behaviour; it is simply a new technology that facilitates existing behaviour.

We can also measure and analyse behaviour using website statistics such as Google Analytics.

Adrian the Wizard’s “Top 7 Google Analytics”:

1. Visitors > Overview > Absolute Unique Visitors

- how many people visited your dental website compared to last month?

2. Visitors > Overview > Average Pageviews

- how many pages did people look at compared to last month?

3. Visitors > Overview > Time on Site

- how many minutes did people spend on your dental website compared to last month?

4. Visitors > Overview > Bounce Rate

- what percentage left your dental website immediately compared to last month?

…Is this bounce rate expected or do you need to change your content?

5. Traffic Sources > Keywords

- which keyphrases were used to find your dental website on Google, Yahoo and Bing?

6. Content > Top Content

- which pages were the most popular?

7. Content > Top Exit Pages

- which pages made most people leave your dental website?

At Dental Focus Web Design, all our dental websites include Google Analytics to ensure you can measure the behaviour of your website visitors and your dental marketing success.

Adrian Adler is ”the Wizard” at Dental Focus Web Design.

Remember to subscribe to our blog by e-mail so you can get our latest dental marketing ideas and tips immediately – the Internet Marketing Secrets of “WOW websites that find you and convert you!”

If you would like some free advice, Email Us or call 020 7183 8388.

Google AdWords are the sponsored pay-per-click adverts that usually appear at the very top in a yellow box and then continue along the right-hand side (opposite the local and natural listings). It is important to consider AdWords as part of your dental marketing but more important to do it right otherwise you’ll lose money with little or no Return on Investment (ROI).

A good ‘targeted’ marketing ball-park budget which you can start getting returns on is approx. £500-£600 a month. Yes, the big London boys can spend £5-10k per month on AdWords without blinking an eye – they’ve been doing this for years and are used to it. Others would have a sleepless night trying to compete against them for the top slots just for 1 day. They spend a lot of money to earn a lot of money.

So, how do you get new patients from dental marketing on Google AdWords?

Firstly, your dental website design needs to impress and convert – otherwise it’s a waste of money to start.

Secondly, your dental website needs to show that you are either:

1. the cheapest on the block and you get the price-hunter ‘masses’ converted

2. the expert for a specific treatment on the block and you get the discerning patients converted

3. the best value for money – that’s what your treatment packages have to shout

4. you target the keywords + location phrases everyone uses at the ‘end’ of the online sales process – targeting those who know what they want AND where they want it AND when they want it – NOW!

5. target the high end, big cases only with best ROI

… or pick & mix any of the above…

Thirdly, you need to keep analysing your AdWords conversion rate and optimising it – getting rid of the 20-50% of non-converting, expensive keyphrases and improve your dental practice marketing ROI on every level.

It’s great to use AdWords to get top rankings immediately so that your targeted audience can FIND YOU easily or to simply dominate the 1st page of Google for brand awareness so they can’t escape you. But remember, people compare so you don’t have to pay through the nose to be no. 1 or 2 !

At Dental Focus Web Design, we empower our clients with the knowledge on how to setup, run and manage Google AdWords in-house 24/7 without having to pay extortionate monthly agency fees – the money which should really be invested straight into your own Google dental practice marketing!

Krishan Joshi is “the Master” at Dental Focus Web Design.

Remember to subscribe to our blog by e-mail so you can get the latest dental marketing plan immediately – the Internet Marketing Secrets of “WOW websites that find you and convert you!”

If you would like some free advice, Email Us or call 020 7183 8388.

In April last month, the Local Business listing was officially renamed Google Places. Over the last few years, Google has allowed any dentist with or without a dental practice to register their details for free and have the opportunity to rank at the very top of Google page 1 for location based searches with listings appearing next to a map showing local results; listings link directly to your dental website if you provide a web address otherwise they link to your Google business information page containing the description you submitted or details picked up across the web that Google finds and relates to you i.e. reviews, photos, videos, web pages, etc.

Google Places is the new name given to a well-established, free service that is now just starting to be monetized. The general workings will remain the same, registering a dentist website will continue to be free and rankings will continue to be uninfluenced by money. However, your dental practice marketing will be able to gain greater prominence with e-bay style description Tags under your listing for a monthly Google fee.

Tags are yellow markers that allow dentists to promote important aspects of their businesses. Scroll over Tags on Google or click on the sponsored link to view coupons, photos, or other select features.

It’s going to be a catch-22 situation in which the first dentist that wishes to stand out will create psychological pressure on all local businesses to follow suit and if everyone has enhancement tags then nobody stands out in the end. Thus the only winner will be the billion-dollar search engine giant. This is only just starting to be rolled out in a few states in America so watch this space!

Krishan Joshi is “the Master” at Dental Focus Web Design.

Remember to subscribe to our blog by e-mail so you can get the latest dental marketing plan immediately – the Internet Marketing Secrets of “WOW websites that find you and convert you!”

If you would like some free advice, Email Us or call 020 7183 8388.