Can Google Find Your Office?

Where do you look for items you want to purchase or services you need? Well, the answer for most people is that they look on the internet!

We are an internet crazy, iPad loving nation and that trend will not be reversing.

Knowing the internet is the place you need to be seen, the question you need to ask is, “how easy is it for LOCAL area people to find me on the internet”?

When someone types ‘dental office my city name’ into their Google or Bing search engine – do you pop up near the top? Is your dental office on the first page for your city search? If not – YOU LOSE!

Although the internet is worldwide, you are really only working on marketing to the area local to your office. You need to focus your marketing of your website to target the people who are looking for your services.

It is NOT expensive to tune your website to draw viewers from local area, both in organic (free) traffic and in paid traffic (Google AdWords& Bing/Microsoft Search). Paid traffic is very inexpensive because you will be targeting a very small demographic area.

In future posts – we will talk about how to accomplish these vital marketing steps. You MUST be near the top in web search for your area – any less is a huge financial loss for your office.

Dr. Corey Gold

President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems

www.aces4ce.com

Paid Search for Your Dental Office Website

Have you ever wondered why there are specific websites recommended on the top and side of the Google and Bing searches?

The answer is that those businesses pay to be shown when you make a specific search. Every time a person clicks on one of these recommended links, the advertiser pays a fee for that traffic.

Dental offices can use Google (AdWords) and Bing paid search to make sure that their office websites are being seen whenever someone types in a specific set of search terms. You can pay for very specific searches. For example if your office was in the city of Anaheim, California the you could pay for the specific search terms such as: Anaheim Dentist, Dentist Anaheim, dental office Anaheim, etc… Your website would only be recommended when those specific terms were entered into the Google search box and you only pay when someone clicks on your specific ad – this is highly target advertising – you are only getting viewers for people looking for your office.

You want your search terms to be very specific. If you were just to ask Google to send you traffic for the search term Dentist then you might get 100,000 viewers to your website but 99.9% would be from over 100 miles away from your office and not legitimate potential customers. You would also have to pay for 100,000 clicks on your ad to Google which would be a ton of money. You must be specific – you want to pay for targeted viewers.

Setting up your Google and Bing advertising is very simple but learning how to use the marketing features takes some time. You shouldn’t just set your marketing up once and never return. You should go back on a very regular basis and adjust your bids and make other adjustments to your online paid marketing campaigns.

You might be best off to pay your website designer to help you set up your marketing if they also offer that service. It will cut down on your learning curve.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Dental Website SEO

You have built your beautiful and functional dental office website but it will do you no good if no one ever sees it!

Step one is building a great website then step two is setting it up so when your patients type in that they are looking for a local dentist in your community that your website pops up at the top of the search list. This is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

I would suggest hiring a local SEO company to help you with this task. They will check to see how Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines actually read your website. They will also make adjustments to help the search engines properly find you.

Your website should be optimized for a specific kind of traffic – local traffic. Your website SEO should be tuned to draw traffic from people looking for dentist in the cities near your office. Your SEO company will be inserting key words and targeted webpages that draw the search engine’s attention for searches that match those of your most likely patients.

SEO sounds straight forward but it is a bit of an art form. You will be working with a local SEO company for a bit of time and adjusting your site content to maximize the potential local viewers over time.

Getting SEO maximized for your website is a huge move forward in marketing your website.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Do I Need a Website for my Dental Office?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First let me start by saying that I do not make or sell dental websites. Why am I saying this upfront, because I am about to sound like a dental website sales person. If your practice does not have a website, then you are INVISIBLE to the majority of people who are looking for you.

The days of the Yellow Pages is long over – I am not saying not to be in your local book but rather it is only 1/10th as valuable to you as your practice website (and I am being kind to the local directory guide).

Everyone has computers, iPads, tablets and phones connected to the internet today and people believe that anything they want to find information about should be available to them within seconds online.

Not only should your practice have a website – it should have a quality website. If I was to look for a dentist and find a cheesy or sloppy website, I would move on to the next website option immediately. I would also leave any dental website that had outdated information, multiple typographical errors or non-functional links.

Your website is the face of your dental office and you should spend some time and thought on how you want the world to see you. I would hire a professional website developer who has done dental offices in the past and understands the key areas your patients will want to explore on your website.

Smart offices make sure that their phone number, office hours and location are easy to find.

We will talk about elements of a great local area dental office website in other articles. Also – making sure your website is one of the first ones that people see when they look for a dentist in their area is just as important as having a great website. Having a great website that no one ever sees is no good either. We will talk about how local area website SEO (search engine optimization) in future articles. Bottom line –the #1 area you should be putting energy into to increase new patient business is your website!

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

You are never private on Facebook & Twitter

Be careful what you write on your Facebook Wall and tweet on Twitter!
br/> You need to be aware that what you post for your friends and family can usually also be seen by your current and potential patients.
br/> While comments that you write may make sense to your buddies it will often sound crazy to a patient. Pictures that are fun to share with old fraternity buddies just appear creepy to a potential patient.
br/> Be aware that potential patients will often Google or Bing your name in searching for your office. This means they are most likely to see your social media accounts during their business search.
br/> I am a social media fan but I am also aware that everything I write or picture I share will be online forever. I am also aware that no social media is truly private. If you don't want your patients to see it - then don't post it or tweet it.
br/> Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

What are the most important things to have on your website?

This is an easy question for people familiar with web browsing habits. The most important things are the things you look for when searching for a restaurant, local store or gym.

Where are you located? Your potential patient wants to know if you are conveniently located. Put on your address! What shopping center or professional building? A MAP is perfect! What are located near (the mall, 24 Hour Fitness, super market, hospital). Write it out and show it - maps and pictures are great tools.

1                     What is your PHONE NUMBER?

2                     What are your office hours - highlight this if you are open weekends, early mornings or evening hours!

3                      Insurance is Welcomed!

These are the four most searched items when searching for a general dentist - where are you located, what is your phone number, what are your hours and will you take insurance!

All the rest is just extra stuff - remember they know what dentists do :)

Dr. Corey Gold

President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4.ce.com

Does My Office Need a Website?

Probably the most common question I get asked by dentist is “do I need a website for my dental practice”? In 2012, the answer is an emphatic “YES”!

Today, people go to the internet for almost everything. Whether we are surfing the net on our computer, iPad or phone – we are all internet crazy. If you are still paying for a Yellow Pages ad and you don’t have a practice website then you have it backwards. People look for a local dentist much more often online than in the local phone books.

In future posts I will discuss what features that you should have on your website and what features actually are liabilities for your website. For now, the important concept is that you must have a website.

Another quick tip – unless you are a legitimate website designer, DO NOT try to build your own practice website.  Nothing will send a prospective patient running to another dental office faster than a practice website that looks amateurish. The prospective patient will think if your website looks crummy then your technical skills might be as well. Your website does not need to look all tricked out it only has to look professional and clean.

In future posts, I will also discuss the benefits of hiring a local website designer to build your site versus hiring a company that specializes in creating dental office websites. Both options have advantages but I do prefer one option over the other. Your website does not need to be expensive to be effective for your practice.

There will be many dozens of future posts about how to make the internet your practice’s best friend. Don’t worry – you don’t need to be an internet wizard to make the web work for you.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Is Your Office Google Friendly?

Where do you look for items you want to purchase or services you need? Well, the answer for most people is that they look on the internet!

We are an internet crazy, iPad loving nation and that trend will not be reversing.

Knowing the internet is the place you need to be seen, the question you need to ask is, “how easy is it for LOCAL area people to find me on the internet”?

When someone types ‘dental office my city name’ into their Google or Bing search engine – do you pop up near the top? Is your dental office on the first page for your city search? If not – YOU LOSE!

Although the internet is worldwide, you are really only working on marketing to the area local to your office. You need to focus your marketing of your website to target the people who are looking for your services.

It is NOT expensive to tune your website to draw viewers from local area, both in organic (free) traffic and in paid traffic (Google AdWords & Bing/Microsoft Search). Paid traffic is very inexpensive because you will be targeting a very small demographic area.

In future posts – we will talk about how to accomplish these vital marketing steps. You MUST be near the top in web search for your area – any less is a huge financial loss for your office.

Dr. Corey Gold

President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems

www.aces4ce.com

Paying for Visitors to your Website

Have you ever wondered why there are specific websites recommended on the top and side of the Google and Bing searches?

The answer is that those businesses pay to be shown when you make a specific search. Every time a person clicks on one of these recommended links, the advertiser pays a fee for that traffic.

Dental offices can use Google (AdWords) and Bing paid search to make sure that their office websites are being seen whenever someone types in a specific set of search terms. You can pay for very specific searches. For example if your office was in the city of Anaheim, California the you could pay for the specific search terms such as: Anaheim Dentist, Dentist Anaheim, dental office Anaheim, etc… Your website would only be recommended when those specific terms were entered into the Google search box and you only pay when someone clicks on your specific ad – this is highly target advertising – you are only getting viewers for people looking for your office.

You want your search terms to be very specific. If you were just to ask Google to send you traffic for the search term Dentist then you might get 100,000 viewers to your website but 99.9% would be from over 100 miles away from your office and not legitimate potential customers. You would also have to pay for 100,000 clicks on your ad to Google which would be a ton of money. You must be specific – you want to pay for targeted viewers.

Setting up your Google and Bing advertising is very simple but learning how to use the marketing features takes some time. You shouldn’t just set your marketing up once and never return. You should go back on a very regular basis and adjust your bids and make other adjustments to your online paid marketing campaigns.

You might be best off to pay your website designer to help you set up your marketing if they also offer that service. It will cut down on your learning curve.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Does Your Office Need a Website?

Probably the most common question I get asked by dentist is “do I need a website for my dental practice”? In 2012, the answer is an emphatic “YES”!

Today, people go to the internet for almost everything. Whether we are surfing the net on our computer, iPad or phone – we are all internet crazy. If you are still paying for a Yellow Pages ad and you don’t have a practice website then you have it backwards. People look for a local dentist much more often online than in the local phone books.

In future posts I will discuss what features that you should have on your website and what features actually are liabilities for your website. For now, the important concept is that you must have a website.

Another quick tip – unless you are a legitimate website designer, DO NOT try to build your own practice website. Nothing will send a prospective patient running to another dental office faster than a practice website that looks amateurish. The prospective patient will think if your website looks crummy then your technical skills might be as well. Your website does not need to look all tricked out it only has to look professional and clean.

In future posts, I will also discuss the benefits of hiring a local website designer to build your site versus hiring a company that specializes in creating dental office websites. Both options have advantages but I do prefer one option over the other. Your website does not need to be expensive to be effective for your practice.

There will be many dozens of future posts about how to make the internet your practice’s best friend. Don’t worry – you don’t need to be an internet wizard to make the web work for you.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Paid Search for Your Dental Office Website

Have you ever wondered why there are specific websites recommended on the top and side of the Google and Bing searches?

The answer is that those businesses pay to be shown when you make a specific search. Every time a person clicks on one of these recommended links, the advertiser pays a fee for that traffic.

Dental offices can use Google (AdWords) and Bing paid search to make sure that their office websites are being seen whenever someone types in a specific set of search terms. You can pay for very specific searches. For example if your office was in the city of Anaheim, California the you could pay for the specific search terms such as: Anaheim Dentist, Dentist Anaheim, dental office Anaheim, etc… Your website would only be recommended when those specific terms were entered into the Google search box and you only pay when someone clicks on your specific ad – this is highly target advertising – you are only getting viewers for people looking for your office.

You want your search terms to be very specific. If you were just to ask Google to send you traffic for the search term Dentist then you might get 100,000 viewers to your website but 99.9% would be from over 100 miles away from your office and not legitimate potential customers. You would also have to pay for 100,000 clicks on your ad to Google which would be a ton of money. You must be specific – you want to pay for targeted viewers.

Setting up your Google and Bing advertising is very simple but learning how to use the marketing features takes some time. You shouldn’t just set your marketing up once and never return. You should go back on a very regular basis and adjust your bids and make other adjustments to your online paid marketing campaigns.

You might be best off to pay your website designer to help you set up your marketing if they also offer that service. It will cut down on your learning curve.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Dental Website SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

You have built your beautiful and functional dental office website but it will do you no good if no one ever sees it!

Step one is building a great website then step two is setting it up so when your patients type in that they are looking for a local dentist in your community that your website pops up at the top of the search list. This is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

I would suggest hiring a local SEO company to help you with this task. They will check to see how Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines actually read your website. They will also make adjustments to help the search engines properly find you.

Your website should be optimized for a specific kind of traffic – local traffic. Your website SEO should be tuned to draw traffic from people looking for dentist in the cities near your office. Your SEO company will be inserting key words and targeted webpages that draw the search engine’s attention for searches that match those of your most likely patients.

SEO sounds straight forward but it is a bit of an art form. You will be working with a local SEO company for a bit of time and adjusting your site content to maximize the potential local viewers over time.

Getting SEO maximized for your website is a huge move forward in marketing your website.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Is a practice website really necessary?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First let me start by saying that I do not make or sell dental websites. Why am I saying this upfront, because I am about to sound like a dental website sales person. If your practice does not have a website, then you are INVISIBLE to the majority of people who are looking for you.

The days of the Yellow Pages is long over – I am not saying not to be in your local book but rather it is only 1/10th as valuable to you as your practice website (and I am being kind to the local directory guide).

Everyone has computers, iPads, tablets and phones connected to the internet today and people believe that anything they want to find information about should be available to them within seconds online.

Not only should your practice have a website – it should have a quality website. If I was to look for a dentist and find a cheesy or sloppy website, I would move on to the next website option immediately. I would also leave any dental website that had outdated information, multiple typographical errors or non-functional links.

Your website is the face of your dental office and you should spend some time and thought on how you want the world to see you. I would hire a professional website developer who has done dental offices in the past and understands the key areas your patients will want to explore on your website.

Smart offices make sure that their phone number, office hours and location are easy to find.

We will talk about elements of a great local area dental office website in other articles. Also – making sure your website is one of the first ones that people see when they look for a dentist in their area is just as important as having a great website. Having a great website that no one ever sees is no good either. We will talk about how local area website SEO (search engine optimization) in future articles. Bottom line –the #1 area you should be putting energy into to increase new patient business is your website!

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

You are never private on Facebook & Twitter

Be careful what you write on your Facebook Wall and tweet on Twitter!
br/> You need to be aware that what you post for your friends and family can usually also be seen by your current and potential patients.
br/> While comments that you write may make sense to your buddies it will often sound crazy to a patient. Pictures that are fun to share with old fraternity buddies just appear creepy to a potential patient.
br/> Be aware that potential patients will often Google or Bing your name in searching for your office. This means they are most likely to see your social media accounts during their business search.
br/> I am a social media fan but I am also aware that everything I write or picture I share will be online forever. I am also aware that no social media is truly private. If you don't want your patients to see it - then don't post it or tweet it.
br/> Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Is Your Office Google Friendly?

Where do you look for items you want to purchase or services you need? Well, the answer for most people is that they look on the internet!

We are an internet crazy, iPad loving nation and that trend will not be reversing.

Knowing the internet is the place you need to be seen, the question you need to ask is, “how easy is it for LOCAL area people to find me on the internet”?

When someone types ‘dental office my city name’ into their Google or Bing search engine – do you pop up near the top? Is your dental office on the first page for your city search? If not – YOU LOSE!

Although the internet is worldwide, you are really only working on marketing to the area local to your office. You need to focus your marketing of your website to target the people who are looking for your services.

It is NOT expensive to tune your website to draw viewers from local area, both in organic (free) traffic and in paid traffic (Google AdWords & Bing/Microsoft Search). Paid traffic is very inexpensive because you will be targeting a very small demographic area.

In future posts – we will talk about how to accomplish these vital marketing steps. You MUST be near the top in web search for your area – any less is a huge financial loss for your office.

Dr. Corey Gold

President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems

www.aces4ce.com

Does My Practice Need a Website?

Probably the most common question I get asked by dentist is “do I need a website for my dental practice”? In 2012, the answer is an emphatic “YES”!

Today, people go to the internet for almost everything. Whether we are surfing the net on our computer, iPad or phone – we are all internet crazy. If you are still paying for a Yellow Pages ad and you don’t have a practice website then you have it backwards. People look for a local dentist much more often online than in the local phone books.

In future posts I will discuss what features that you should have on your website and what features actually are liabilities for your website. For now, the important concept is that you must have a website.

Another quick tip – unless you are a legitimate website designer, DO NOT try to build your own practice website.  Nothing will send a prospective patient running to another dental office faster than a practice website that looks amateurish. The prospective patient will think if your website looks crummy then your technical skills might be as well. Your website does not need to look all tricked out it only has to look professional and clean.

In future posts, I will also discuss the benefits of hiring a local website designer to build your site versus hiring a company that specializes in creating dental office websites. Both options have advantages but I do prefer one option over the other. Your website does not need to be expensive to be effective for your practice.

There will be many dozens of future posts about how to make the internet your practice’s best friend. Don’t worry – you don’t need to be an internet wizard to make the web work for you.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Can Google Find Your Office?

Where do you look for items you want to purchase or services you need? Well, the answer for most people is that they look on the internet!

We are an internet crazy, iPad loving nation and that trend will not be reversing.

Knowing the internet is the place you need to be seen, the question you need to ask is, “how easy is it for LOCAL area people to find me on the internet”?

When someone types ‘dental office my city name’ into their Google or Bing search engine – do you pop up near the top? Is your dental office on the first page for your city search? If not – YOU LOSE!

Although the internet is worldwide, you are really only working on marketing to the area local to your office. You need to focus your marketing of your website to target the people who are looking for your services.

It is NOT expensive to tune your website to draw viewers from local area, both in organic (free) traffic and in paid traffic (Google AdWords & Bing/Microsoft Search). Paid traffic is very inexpensive because you will be targeting a very small demographic area.

In future posts – we will talk about how to accomplish these vital marketing steps. You MUST be near the top in web search for your area – any less is a huge financial loss for your office.

Dr. Corey Gold

President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems

www.aces4ce.com

Does Your Need a Website?

Probably the most common question I get asked by dentist is “do I need a website for my dental practice”? In 2012, the answer is an emphatic “YES”!

Today, people go to the internet for almost everything. Whether we are surfing the net on our computer, iPad or phone – we are all internet crazy. If you are still paying for a Yellow Pages ad and you don’t have a practice website then you have it backwards. People look for a local dentist much more often online than in the local phone books.

In future posts I will discuss what features that you should have on your website and what features actually are liabilities for your website. For now, the important concept is that you must have a website.

Another quick tip – unless you are a legitimate website designer, DO NOT try to build your own practice website. Nothing will send a prospective patient running to another dental office faster than a practice website that looks amateurish. The prospective patient will think if your website looks crummy then your technical skills might be as well. Your website does not need to look all tricked out it only has to look professional and clean.

In future posts, I will also discuss the benefits of hiring a local website designer to build your site versus hiring a company that specializes in creating dental office websites. Both options have advantages but I do prefer one option over the other. Your website does not need to be expensive to be effective for your practice.

There will be many dozens of future posts about how to make the internet your practice’s best friend. Don’t worry – you don’t need to be an internet wizard to make the web work for you.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Paid Search for Your Dental Office Website

Have you ever wondered why there are specific websites recommended on the top and side of the Google and Bing searches?

The answer is that those businesses pay to be shown when you make a specific search. Every time a person clicks on one of these recommended links, the advertiser pays a fee for that traffic.

Dental offices can use Google (AdWords) and Bing paid search to make sure that their office websites are being seen whenever someone types in a specific set of search terms. You can pay for very specific searches. For example if your office was in the city of Anaheim, California the you could pay for the specific search terms such as: Anaheim Dentist, Dentist Anaheim, dental office Anaheim, etc… Your website would only be recommended when those specific terms were entered into the Google search box and you only pay when someone clicks on your specific ad – this is highly target advertising – you are only getting viewers for people looking for your office.

You want your search terms to be very specific. If you were just to ask Google to send you traffic for the search term Dentist then you might get 100,000 viewers to your website but 99.9% would be from over 100 miles away from your office and not legitimate potential customers. You would also have to pay for 100,000 clicks on your ad to Google which would be a ton of money. You must be specific – you want to pay for targeted viewers.

Setting up your Google and Bing advertising is very simple but learning how to use the marketing features takes some time. You shouldn’t just set your marketing up once and never return. You should go back on a very regular basis and adjust your bids and make other adjustments to your online paid marketing campaigns.

You might be best off to pay your website designer to help you set up your marketing if they also offer that service. It will cut down on your learning curve.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Dental Website SEO

You have built your beautiful and functional dental office website but it will do you no good if no one ever sees it!

Step one is building a great website then step two is setting it up so when your patients type in that they are looking for a local dentist in your community that your website pops up at the top of the search list. This is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

I would suggest hiring a local SEO company to help you with this task. They will check to see how Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines actually read your website. They will also make adjustments to help the search engines properly find you.

Your website should be optimized for a specific kind of traffic – local traffic. Your website SEO should be tuned to draw traffic from people looking for dentist in the cities near your office. Your SEO company will be inserting key words and targeted webpages that draw the search engine’s attention for searches that match those of your most likely patients.

SEO sounds straight forward but it is a bit of an art form. You will be working with a local SEO company for a bit of time and adjusting your site content to maximize the potential local viewers over time.

Getting SEO maximized for your website is a huge move forward in marketing your website.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com