Dental Marketing: Some Straight Talk About Google Plus

More than ever, your dental marketing plan needs to include Google Plus.

The new Search Plus Your World algorithm seems to be leading to continued consumer adoption of the top brands on Google+.

Digital marketing agency BrightEdge Technologies is reporting that the top 100 brands on Google+ have grown by over 1,400% in the past month.

The number of people including the top 100 brands in their circles went from 222,000 to over 3.1 million. The majority of the expansion was limited to the top 10 brands on Google+, which taken together account for over three million users.

Google CEO Larry Page estimates Google+’s general user base at 90 million. Some reports say Google+ users are predominately male and account for approximately 67% of Google+ users.

Google recently announced its plan to link user data across its Google+, video, and other services to create a better user experience. The plan is to provide Google users more targeted search result, while assisting businesses in locating potential customers.

For example, if a potential dental patient uses Google to search for dental implants, then the next time they sign into YouTube, they might see recommendations for videos featuring dental implant technology, dentists performing implants and ads for dentists who perform implants in the potential patient’s geographic area.

Imagine what this experience will be like when these search results also include recommendations from friends within their circle for a dental practice that specializes in dental implants not far from where the potential patient lives.

Google likes to report that those users who agree to see personalized ads from Google are 37% more likely to respond to those ads.

What does this mean for dental marketing? It means that having a search engine optimized dental website that integrates with Google+, so that prospective patients easily find you, has now become more vitally important than ever before.