Dr. Shuman also met with many of our teams and shared his extensive knowledge in dentistry and consulting, giving us extremely valuable advice on how we can grow our company. He stressed the importance of building relationships and fostering education in the dental industry. We gained so much from Dr. Shuman’s visit and are so grateful he could spend some time with us in Seattle!

To learn more about Dr. Shuman, please visit his website.

In order to achieve these operational objectives your practice has likely developed a comprehensive, and perhaps complicated, set of systems to manage your daily activities. This most likely includes systems that address scheduling, appointment reminders and confirmations, education, retention, collections, patient feedback and more. As a busy dental practice with many patients to see each day, it can be easy to focus on patient flow and daily operations and allow the consistent implementation of these important systems to slide. This may have a significant negative impact on your productivity and profitability.

Implementing operational systems requires a considerable time investment by your team and can be costly. Traditionally dental professionals have maintained that personal communication is the key to delivering a great experience for patients. The need for personal contact from a patient’s perspective has been rendered less important with the advent of digital communications, as patients increasingly state they prefer the convenience of online, on-demand information. Interestingly, 93% of patients find it more convenient to find answers online compared to calling the office.¹ Patients have embraced the digital age, and practices must adjust to their preferences and be where their patients are—online

Beyond simply being preferred by patients, these automated and online communications are often far more efficient for your practice than traditional means, and can save time for your team and money for your practice. Download our new guide where we’ll explore several ways you can effectively utilize online tools to help run your practice more efficiently and improve your bottom line.

Hands down, the lumbering giant in the field of search and social search, thus far is Google, but there is one thing even Google can’t index – what our friends and larger community are interested in. In this regard, Facebook is taking a giant and exciting new step into the future of search by allowing its users to find answers to searches within Facebook, based on what their friends (and even those friends’ friends) have ‘Liked’, commented on, and where they’ve checked in. As you could imagine, your practice’s Facebook page just became more important than it ever has been before!

So, what exactly is Graph Search?

Graph Search is a completely new way for users to search their massive web of connections within Facebook. The big idea behind Graph Search is to tie in personal experiences to make searching for people, places, photos, and interests ultimately more social.

With Graph Search, Facebook will now be able to pull data from users’ collected ‘Likes’, check-ins, and other public information to deliver tailored results when someone searches for a specific question, such as “what dentists do my friends like?”

For instance, if a user were to search such a question, relevant business pages of dentists his or her friends and their friends have ‘Liked’ or checked-in to, would be ranked and listed on a results page. In both these examples of searches on Facebook, we can really see that Graph Search is going to provide much more socially relevant results for searches that users rely on. It is important to note that Graph Search hasn’t been fully implemented just yet and is only available as beta to a handful of current Facebook users.

How will this affect your practice?

When Graph Search goes into full effect, a search for results that are relevant to your practice done within Facebook will rank business pages according to some really important factors. These factors include Facebook activity and engagement levels; meaning, how often your audience interacts with your posts will have a direct influence on how you show up in search results.

The photos you’ve been posting to your Facebook page, the status updates you’ve been making, the number of ‘Likes’ you’ve obtained, and the amount of check-ins your page has – these are all built into Graph Search’s indexing system and will dictate your search ranking!

And perhaps one of the most exciting features for businesses in Graph Search is that searches will now factor in “friends of friends.” For instance, results for a relevant search will scour not only the user’s direct friend network but also a much larger network of the friends of the user’s friends.According to a recent study by the Pew Center’s Internet and American Life Project, the average number of friends a Facebook user has is 245. So, for each ‘Like’ of your Facebook page, your network of potential new patients is vastly increased – and reaching that network is vitally important for your practice. The Graph Search will make it easier for that network to find you, but you need to be making the right moves on your Facebook page right now.

As we always stress, the most important factor to your social media success is staying actively involved and engaging your fan base. If your patients are not connecting with your Facebook page and interacting with it, the Graph Search will have no way of targeting you in relevant search results for potentially new patients!

What should you be doing?

Engagement is always the key to social media success, and the only real way to win in the Graph Search is to post content that your patients are likely to interact with. ‘Likes’, comments, shares, and check-ins have always been critical components to reaching a larger network of potential new patients, but with Graph Search, the stakes just became a lot greater!

If you’ve been paying attention to your Facebook page, you’ll know that your patients are looking to see the personable side of your practice. Entertaining photos and posts that tie you into your community generate the most activity, so your focus should be on collecting this sort of content!

Some final notes on Graph Search

While Facebook’s new Graph Search is currently in beta testing (only a handful of users can use it at this point), what you do starting now with your Facebook page can be a gigantic step in the right direction when the new search function is fully implemented. The Graph Search will be collecting data retroactively, so focusing on capturing and posting great content and engaging your audience right away will be a tremendous help.

There are quite a few unknowns with the full potential of Graph Search, so in the future, new ways to take advantage of the feature will present themselves as Facebook refines its service. For now – focus on engaging your Facebook audience in exciting and unique ways!

You may be wondering what this means for your mobile phone. Well, in terms of the iPhone, it means Yelp reviews do matter when it comes to search results. The good news–your practice most likely already has a Yelp business listing set up. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind when maintaining your Yelp business listing:

- Make sure all your locations are listed on Yelp

- Implement in office incentives for Yelp reviews

- Check in on Yelp

- Write a business review for another business and ask them to reciprocate. Think of it as a partnership

We know a big concern is review fatigue–asking your patients to fill out post-appointment surveys, Google reviews and now Yelp reviews. But don’t worry, Yelp has a smaller following compared to Google, so think of focusing your review strategy in the same priority.

Tips for your Yelp account:

Since Apple has taken such a liking to Yelp, we have too. We have been researching Yelp reviews and business pages, and looking at their visibility on the web. What we have found to be the most important aspects of any Yelp listings are your basic information (hours, address, website URL), a strong description of your business, photos and patient reviews.

Basic Information: This is probably the most obvious aspect of your Yelp listing–accurate, basic information. This is where people expect to find your correct hours of operation, website URL and your address. When considering the new mobile focus of Yelp, it’s even more important that that information is accurate and easily accessible for on-the-go patients.

Engaging description: Once your basic information is complete, one of the subsequent pieces of information people will look for is your business description. Make sure to describe your business; are you a periodontist that also does general dentistry? A family dentist that offers Invisalign? This is where you can list all unique aspects of your business.

Photos: The nature of review sites propagates the “choosing a book by its cover” adage. Therefore, it’s critical that you include photos of your office, both inside and outside. It’s also important for you to have photos of the doctor(s) and team, as well as anything that will showcase your practice.

You want to make it concise, but effective, by showing distinctive snapshots of your practice.

Patient Reviews: This one seems pretty self-explanatory, but there are certain things to remember with reviews. Yelp has its own way of sorting reviews on any page; if someone reviews businesses often, their review might go to the top of your page and stay there. If someone never reviews, their review may not show up. Bad reviews might show up on your page and stay there but you have to remember that bad reviews aren’t always bad! If you take the time to respond to a bad review and have several great reviews after it, most people will just assume one person had a different opinion. They will also be impressed with your quick response and the level of your online patient engagement.

With more than 139.1 million consumer utilizing the Internet, on a monthly basis, to seek healthcare information, it’s imperative that you are on top of your online marketing. Your patients have changed the way they search for a dental provider, and reviews are more impactful than ever.

We’re excited to partner with our friends at Miles Global to bring you an all-day seminar full of practical tips on practice management and online marketing.

This interactive, hands-on event will ignite and excite your marketing and patient management, propelling your practice to the next level in 2013. Benefit from practical, easy to implement tools that will guarantee better production, increased new patient flow and higher case acceptance, all leading to higher profits and a positive ROI.

After attending the Savage – Sesame Summit you will be armed with an actionable plan that you can implement immediately in your office.

Where: Seattle, Washington

When: Friday, February 8, 2013

Registration at 8:00am

Sessions from 8:30am-4:00pm

Social to follow from 4:00-6:00pm

Cost: The Summit registration cost is $199 per person/3 CE credits

Click here to book your seat, space is going fast!

Why is this important for your practice? Patients are turning to the internet to find health care providers now more than ever. They will most likely use Google when searching for a local dentist, so your goal is to have your practice appear in the top search results.

How do you do this? Google has specific algorithms to determine their search results, but what better way to improve your rankings than to create profiles on each of their social media sites. Each of the profiles on the Google affiliated sites will serve as incredible drivers of search engine optimization. From dentists who are social media mavens to novices, it’s a no-brainer to add these social media profiles if it helps patients easily find and connect with your practice online.

Google+

Launched in the fall of 2011, Google+ has grown to over 400 million users in just one year’s time. While it has yet to rival Facebook in terms of its reach, Google+ is growing fast. It’s a great tool for developing inbound links. Building your practice’s Google+ business page offers you many opportunities to feature videos, share photos and images, and create direct inbound links, all of which are incredibly important for search engine optimization. Click here to learn more about Google+.

Google+ Local

Remember your Google Places profile? Google replaced Google Places with what is now known as Google+ Local. Not to be confused with Google+, your Google+ Local page is your practice’s business listing within Google. This profile provides the same opportunities for inbound links, images and video as Google+, and it also includes patient reviews which can have a huge impact on your word-of-mouth referrals.  Google creates a Google+ Local page for every business in the country, but it’s up to the business owner to claim that profile and make sure it’s accurate. Being familiar with your Google+ Local page also enables you to monitor what patients are saying about your practice and to highlight these comments (at least the positive ones) through other social media platforms. Click here to learn more about Google+ Local.

YouTube

YouTube is now the Internet’s second-largest search engine. More than 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and over 4 billion videos are viewed a day! Dentists around the globe are finding that including one- to two- minute videos on the practice’s website and YouTube channel can be an effective part of an overall search engine optimization strategy. Video on your practice website can play into Google’s preference for fresh, relevant content, and can help your practice rank higher in Google searches. And the videos posted directly to YouTube drive search traffic to the practice website as well.  Click here for more information about creating your own YouTube account and start uploading videos.

Google is synonymous with online search, and one of the easiest ways to make sure that Google’s algorithms continue to work in your favor is to create profiles for your practice on the Google-affiliated sites. You can reach and connect with patients while improving your search engine optimization at the same time.

Fran Pangakis and Shari Tastad, Co-founders of Ebrilliance author, speak and coach businesses nationally to develop Emotional Intelligence for increased profitability and job satisfaction. Through EBrilliance coaching teams are inspired to solidify their visions and achieve greater successes by discovering and increasing their emotional intelligence.

Last week we turned our attention to the common mistakes we see with dental website designs, and explored five mistakes related to design and functionality. If you missed those tips, click here to read Mistakes to Avoid In Your Dental Website: Part I. Today, in part II, we will cover the next five mistakes to avoid, all related to the content and presentation of your website. This blog series is based off of the Sesame Guide to Practice Success (GPS): The Top 10 Mistakes in Building a Dental Website—And How to Avoid Them.

Irrelevant Content

What makes new patients browse your website in the first place? They visit to learn about the treatments you offer, as well as learn more about you as a doctor and your practice. Prospective and existing patients want to connect to you, as a clinician and not necessarily to learn about your hobbies or things that are unrelated to your role as a dentist.

Think about it this way: you have less than 90 seconds to engage a prospective patient and persuade them to further explore your site. Thus the content on your website should emphasize how much you and your staff care about your patients and their families’ well-being. A positive attitude such as, “I love my patients!” or “We love our community!” can go a long way in building trust with patients.

Impersonal doctor and team member bios

The most viewed page on a practice website is the “Meet the Doctor” page. Patients love getting to know their doctor, and spend a lot of time finding out “who you are.” When getting ready to compile photos and bios for your staff, think about someone who has never stepped foot in your office, or perhaps feels nervous about visiting a dental professional. Most patients may not be eager to visit a healthcare practitioner. Your bio gives you a chance to show them, not just tell them. A photograph of you with a family member, child or pet can reinforce your commitment to treating not just the patient, but their entire family as well. Instead of merely listing your and your team’s credentials and using medical terminology, tell them in easy-to-understand terms what your credentials, experience and continuing education means for them and their family.

Doctors also love individual photos because they are easy to update—they don’t require re-taking group photos and are more personal than group photos; just add a new photo or swap one out. Simple.

Clinical images and photos

When choosing photos for your bio, it’s important to keep it personal, but not too personal. In other words, less photos of a hygienist reaching into a patient’s mouth, and less photos that are too clinical. Tools, scrubs, blood or masks may scare off someone who is already apprehensive about visiting a dentist or orthodontist.

Since patients will be spending one-on-one time with your staff, they like to see who they will be working with—they want to “pre-meet” you and your team before booking their initial visit.

Including happy, cheery photos of confident people throughout the site—and especially on the home page—underscore the office’s warmth and approachability while helping your patients relate to you. In fact, featuring actual patients or photos that feature people who look like your patients, gives the personal, unique touch. Photos of actual patients also not only show off your work, but also show a strong relationship between you, your patients and the community. Warmth always wins!

Buried contact information

Imagine visiting a website and being unable to find the phone number or other contact information. Remember, the name of the game is to get patients to call or email you. Make sure your office’s contact information is readily available for new patients to be able to book that first appointment.

Research shows patients are more likely to call rather than email to schedule their first appointment or consultation, and they’re more likely to do so if they easily find the information they’re looking for on your website. And what’s more helpful and convenient than having the number available to them displayed at every click?

A lack of a “call to action”

Once a prospective patient reaches your website, it’s up to you to compel them to learn more about your office and pick up the phone to schedule an appointment. Adding a “complimentary consultation” or “schedule your regular checkup” button on your homepage or one that is prominently displayed within your website compels patients to make that first move. If your office targets the working demographic or a particular area, a button that reads “We’re in the heart of Manhattan!” may also be a good idea.

Again, the point of your website, besides your virtual introduction to a potential patient, is new patient acquisition. It’s all about the patient. Avoid sounding salesy or gimmicky with text such as “50% off teeth whitening – summer special!”

For the full list of mistakes to avoid, click to download a copy of the latest Sesame GPS: The Top 10 Mistakes in Building a Dental Website—And How to Avoid Them.

Remember, even prospective patients who hear about you from a family or friend are still likely to check out your practice website before making the decision to book an appointment. So, in this day and age, when most, if not all, of your competitors have a website, how does your practice stand out? Your prospective patients are online. Once they find your website, what will make them choose you?

Your website is your best opportunity—outside of a face-to-face discussion with a patient—to communicate what you and your staff value, and what makes your practice unique. Building a website that is primarily focused on patient needs, is user-friendly, and is search engine-optimized can be challenging. It starts by asking yourself the following: “What will prospective patients look for when they visit my site, and what elements could potentially turn them away?” In this two-part blog series, we’ll share the top ten mistakes to avoid in building a dental website, and how to avoid them. Today’s blog, part I, will focus on the design and functionality of the website. Part II, which will be released soon, will focus on the content and presentation of the website. This blog series is based off of the Sesame Guide to Practice Success (GPS): The Top 10 Mistakes in Building a Dental Website—And How to Avoid Them.

For now, let’s explore the first five mistakes to avoid with building your dental website:

Splash Pages and Animated Introductions

Splash pages, or the pages the user sees before they actually visit your website, are typically built in flash (an outdated animation platform) and offer some kind of introductory animation. Not only are splash pages outdated, they are also terrible for your website’s search engine optimization, or SEO.
The bigger problem, however, with splash pages, sometimes called landing pages—or any kind of animated introductions—is distraction. Remember, most visitors to your site want to be informed, not entertained; they are looking to solve a problem like tooth pain or crooked teeth. Any animation on your site is a major barrier to getting patients to pick up the phone and call.

Music and Sound Effects

Again, distractions … distractions … distractions. Prospective patients may want to visit your site privately, without anyone else being within earshot of your website’s music. So, unless you sell music, it’s best to stay clear of music on auto play. If music, which makes your website look dated, absolutely must be present, give viewers the option to opt-in. In other words, give visitors the option to turn the music on manually. But, by default, keep the music off.

Thematic Websites

Patients visit your website to learn more about the dental or orthodontic care at your practice, so your marine- or golf-themed website might not necessarily appeal to a mom in search of a dentist or orthodontist for her pre-teen child, for example.

Focus on a design that promotes the quality, friendly care at your practice, not your hobbies. Besides being confusing and looking out of place, a themed website may also inadvertently cause a potential patient to scratch their heads and ask, “Am I paying for his ski trips?”

Broken pages and bad links

There’s no way for patients to imagine what you might have said about a service you offer if they cannot access that information. Bad links or pages that are labeled “under construction” or “coming soon” not only prevent potential patients from accessing pages on your website, they may also annoy them to the point of moving on to a competitor’s website.

Search engines tend to send visitors to websites they know are maintained and trustworthy before sending them to a website that hasn’t been maintained by the business in months.

Finally, missing and broken links send a bad message to prospective patients: If you can’t take good care of your website, why should people believe you can take good care of their teeth?

Slow-loading web pages

Because Google wants to provide a positive experience for its users, the search engine will try to send users to websites that load quickly. Currently it’s a moderate ranking factor, but Google and Bing have both declared that this will be a metric they will be placing more focus on with each update.

Again, anyone who is visiting your site will want to find what they’re looking for pretty quickly. Avoid at all costs anything that can slow down the load time of the website, such as pop-ups or unnecessary animations.

Check back next week for part II, which will focus on the content and presentation on your website. In the meantime, click to download a copy of the latest Sesame GPS: The Top 10 Mistakes in Building a Dental Website—And How to Avoid Them.

Adam brings over 15 years of experience in dealing with the practical issues business owners face. His prior experience includes former Big Five accounting firm Arthur Andersen, Veros Partners, as well as work in health benefits and cabinet manufacturing industries. He truly enjoys working as a partner with the business owner and their practice in setting and achieving their personal and professional goals.

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