Google

Why Your Dental Marketing Should Include Google Plus

January 24, 2012 By Jim Du Molin 5 Comments

If your dental marketing plan doesn’t include social media and a geo-targeted dental website yet, now is the time to do so if you want your dental patients to find you online.

Google has just announced that it is introducing three new features to connect Google+ search users to their social networking profiles when they search the web.

According to Google when a user is signed in with Google+, they will receive personal results and profiles of people they know or follow. They will also be able to expand expand their results by discovering people related to their search.

Included in search results will be Google+ profiles and pages, personal photos and posts, and items that have been shared with the search user on Google+. This will mean that whatever Google+ circles a user belongs to and interacts with will have an influence on the Google search results returned.

This marks the beginning of more personalized Google search results.

Also added is a People and Pages feature where Google matches search queries to posts on Google+ that are linked to compatible content. This means when someone writes about a subject on Google+, and people in their circles Google search that subject, the comments and links are displayed automatically on Google’s page one for the Google+ users.

Google has also added the ability to see shared topics by Google+ power users on the right sidebar of the search results page, offering search users the option to connect with them on Google+. All of these are reasons why you want to add Google+ to your dental marketing plan.

Google+ just hit sixty million users and is still in its infancy.

It is important for you to create a dental practice brand page on Google+, and become an active user. Begin asking your dental patients if they are on Google+ and consider offering some incentives for patients who add your practice to their circles.

Internet experts feel more businesses will now be forced get more involved in Internet marketing and hire established internet marketing companies to ensure that their business will be found on the Internet.

Internet dental practice website design has become a major dental marketing strategy for many of The Wealthy Dentist subscribers. How many new patients you obtain from your dental website is determined almost entirely by one factor: your website’s position on the major Internet search engines including Yahoo, MSN and Google.

The Wealthy Dentist is here to help you with the ever-increasing changes in dental marketing.

Dental Marketing: How to Set Up a Google+ Dental Practice Page

December 19, 2011 By Catherine Hughes Leave a Comment

Dental Marketing: How to Set Up a Google+ Dental Practice Page Google has launched Google Plus For Business which now allows dentists to create a Google Plus Page for your dental marketing.

Google Plus For Business is a set of tools that can help you grow your dental practice and enhance your dental marketing efforts.

Setting up your Google Plus Page is simple, just a few steps and you are ready to go.

Step 1: Create a gmail account.

Go to mail.google.com to create a new account. You will see a bright red button on the upper right to create a new account. Make this gmail account your practice name, or geographic location. Stay away from personal names and think of this as an office email address.

Step 2: Create your profile.

This simply involves choosing a photo that will represent this gmail email account.

Step 3: Go to: https://plus.google.com/pages/create

This is where you will create your Google Plus dental practice page. You will be asked to choose your business type and enter your main office phone number and Google will attempt to locate your dental practice.

Step 4: Edit your profile.

This is where you will be asked to create a tagline for your dental practice and then upload a business photo for your page.

And your Google Plus dental practice page is done!

Next you should think about the way that you want to engage visitors on Google Plus with more product-focused content.

Maybe you use your Google Plus page for only sharing special price promotions for people who join your circle. Only offer these promotions on Google Plus so that people have a reason for connecting with you on Google Plus. Offer something they can’t get anywhere else from you.

Some ideas for promotions are –

1. Special giveaways.
2. Free treatment with a scheduled appointment in a certain number of days.
3. A discount on an office visit.

Google Plus supports hashtags, which when clicked will take people to a search for that keyword on Google Plus, as well as any other content tagged with that hashtag. You could create a promotion-specific hashtag like #freeteethwhitening to promote on Google Plus with users in your circle.

Why do you need a Google Plus dental marketing Page?

Because eventually not establishing a page will likely become a missed opportunity in organic search. When potential patients use Google to search for a dentist, they will not only be able to find your practice through search within Google Plus if they use it, but also on Google’s search engine itself which translates into more ways to be found on the Internet.

From a dental marketing point of view that’s reason enough to get to know Google Plus?

Filed Under: Dental Marketing Tagged With: dental marketing, dentist, dentistry, dentists, Google, Google plus, Internet dental marketing, marketing

Friday Random Video: Google 2011 Year In Review

December 16, 2011 By Catherine Hughes Leave a Comment

At the end of each year Google releases a compilation of search content for the year.

It typically involves lists of the most searched stories and keyword phrases searched for throughout the year.

This year, Google has released this content summary in the video, “Zeitgeist 2011 Year In Review.”

See what the world searched for in 2011–

Filed Under: Totally Irrelevant and Random Tagged With: dentist, dentistry, dentists, friday random videos, Google, marketing, search engines, viral videos

9 Ways To Monitor the Health of Your Dental Website

August 17, 2010 By Jim Du Molin 6 Comments

Over the past weeks I've shared some of my favorite Google search tips. Now I’d like to show you how to use Google to monitor the health of your website.

The first and most important thing for any website owner to know is their site’s Google ranking. But that’s far from the end of it!

You can start by reviewing my 9 hot tips for Google searches and 10 cool things you can do with Google.

Here are nine things all owners of dental websites can do to monitor their sites:

What’s your search ranking?

First, you need to know what keyword(s) you’re targeting. (For dentists, this will typically be along the lines of “dental implants Louisville” or “cosmetic dentist La Jolla” or something similar.) Be sure to log out of Google/Gmail and use the “Private Browsing” option under the “Tools” section of your Internet browser. A listing of 5 means that you are the 5th listing on the search results page. (Obviously, lower numbers are better here!)
What websites does Google think your website is related to?

Find out by doing a search like “related:thewealthydentist.com” (except you’ll want to use your own URL, of course). You can also find this option on the “Advanced search” page. It’s a bit unpredictable, but sometimes returns interesting results.
What’s happening inside of your website?

Just add “site:yourwebsite.com” to restrict your search results to pages on your own website. You can quickly find information, or use this feature to see which pages on your site rank highest for specific keyword phrases. And if you forget the “site:” operator, don’t worry: you can do the same thing from the Advanced Search page.
Who’s linking to you?

In general, it’s a good thing to have other websites linking to yours; it improves your site’s standing in Google’s eyes. (In fact, getting other sites to link to yours can be a good strategy to increase your search engine ranking.) Find out who’s linking to you by using the “link:” operator.

You can also see a list of all pages that contain your website URL (even it’s written as text, not a hyperlink) by doing a regular keyword search for your URL.
What does your Google listing look like?

Use the “info:” operator to see a sample listing of your website. The text displayed in your website’s Google description is an important part of your overall internet dental marketing. This text (known as “metatext”) is near the very top of the HTML code for your homepage.
What’s been updated on your website recently?

By combining multiple features of the Advanced Search page, you can tailor your search results. For example, restrict the search to your dental website, and look only for pages updated within the past month to see which pages have been updated recently.
Want to review all the images on your site?

Just go to Image Search and enter “site:yoursite.com” to see all the images on your website.
Is your local listing in order?

Many patients may look for you through Google Local Search or on Google Maps, and it’s up to you to make sure that the information available about your practice is up-to-date and correct. Look up your name in Google Maps, find your listing, click the “more info” button, and confirm that all information is correct. Near the top right corner of that page, you’ll see a link that says “Business owner?” Here, you can update information. In addition, Google Maps appears to give preference in its rankings to owner-verified listings.

Filed Under: Dental Editorials Tagged With: dental website, Google, internet, internet marketing

9 Hot Tips for Google Searches

August 11, 2010 By Jim Du Molin 3 Comments

Last week I shared ideas on 10 cool things you can do with Google. This week, I’m back with nine more hot tips.

If you’re not familiar with Google’s Advanced Search page and features, then you might not be getting as much out of your web searches as you could…

“I’m feeling lucky”

This search option on Google takes you directly to the top search result page. For example, entering “WSJ” and clicking “I’m feeling lucky” will take you directly to the Wall Street Journal’s website.
Check a numerical range

Use the “X..Y” modifier to search for any number within a given range. “Invisalign 2008..2010″ will return results that contain both “Invisalign” and a number between 2005 and 2010, which is particularly useful if you’re looking for a date range.
Search for file types

Searching for “cosmetic dentistry filetype:ppt” will return PowerPoint files with “cosmetic dentistry” as a keyword. You can also use it for other file types: .xls (Excel spreadsheet), .doc (Microsoft Word document), .pdf (Adobe PDF), and more.
Remove results from specific sites

This is particularly useful if your search results are dominated by one website that doesn’t interest you – for example, if you’re in the shopping section and you’re overwhelmed by eBay results.
Avoid results you don’t want

All you have to do is include the minus sign before any word you don’t want to appear in your search results – for example, “braces – Invisalign” would exclude Invisalign results from your braces search.
See it even after it’s gone

Google’s “cached” feature is a powerful tool. You’ll often see a small link that says “Cached” next to individual search results. Clicking that link will show you a snapshot of that website that Google has stored on its own servers. This can allow you see content that has been removed from the live site. It also provides a way to access content on blocked websites or URLs.
Broaden your search to include related terms

Use the tilde (~) symbol to search for related words. Google typically searches for closely related terms (for instance, a search for “pediatric dentist” will also return results for pediatric dentists and pediatric dentistry). The tilde lets you expand that to even more related words or phrases. For example, a search for “~gum disease” will also return results with keywords of gingivitis, periodontal disease, periodontitis, etc.
Narrow your search to include exact words or phrases

You can search for an exact phrase or word by putting it in quotes. With a single word, you can also put a plus symbol in front of the word. For example, “+denture” will return only results with the exact word “denture,” not related words like dentures or synonyms like false teeth.
And remember: the Advanced Search page is your friend!

This is always a small link underneath the main search button. You don’t have to know any special syntax to use the advanced search, because it’s very user-friendly. Here are some of the things you can do from the Advanced Search page:
- Search for an exact phrase
- Exclude words from your search
- Do searches that include OR functionality
- Select how many results to display per page
- Choose your language
- Search for specific file types
- How recent the page is
- Choose where your keywords show up in your results (text, title, URL, etc.)
- Turn Safe Search on and off
- Restrict your search to a particular domain