Newsletter Sample

OK Peter, let's start with the basics...Why do dentists need a Web site?

The simplest answer: patients, both new and prospective, will expect a dental office to have a Web site and if they don't find one, they will be disappointed. It has become a cost of doing business. Just as the rush to fax machines decades ago, having a Web site today is the newest way to create a more positive, modern image for any business.

For a dental practice, a Web site works as both an important marketing tool to attract new patients, and a place for current patients to learn about services and procedures, see before and after photographs, print medical history forms that can be filled-out at home, find driving directions, send an email to the office, and many other conveniences.

Knowing all the marketing mix tools available to the dentist...how does having a Web site mesh with them?

A Web site is the most important marketing tool. Essentially an online brochure with no limits, a Web site lets prospective patients virtually "visit" the dental practice, "meet" the doctor, "tour" the office, learn about services and "see" before and after examples. It's the next best thing to literally having the patient walk in the door.

In relationship to the marketing mix, a Web site bolsters a dental practice's other advertisements. Radio, television, and print ads are all limited by size and time. However, add a Web address to them and now people will have access to everything they should know about the practice. Most people would rather not call, feeling obligated that a phone call means setting up an appointment — they'd rather learn more and the Web site offers them just that. For every person who wouldn't call, now a percentage will visit the Web site taking one step further and increasing an advertisements conversion potential.

And with all of this, a Web site is one of the least expensive marketing tools, and by far the most cost-effective. There are no scaling circulation or distribution costs — imagine a brochure with no printing or postage costs.

Since most doctors attract patients from their local community and the Web offers such a global presence...Can the Web really target and drive only local Internet traffic to their Web site?

Absolutely! When people try to find something on the Web, they use a search engine like Yahoo or Google. As part of their sophisticated algorithms, geography is a factor when displaying and ranking search results. It's called "geotargeting" — based on the Internet address your Internet Service Provider assigns each time you connect to the Internet, the search engines can determine your general physical location (state, county, and/or town).

At Arexa Dental, we also take extra steps to assist search engines in determining a Web site's targeted local audience through our search engine optimization services. So, for example, we'll optimize a site for a dentist in Little Silver, NJ to show up at the top of the search results when someone searches for keywords: "dentist Little Silver NJ."

We hear and read a lot today about "SEO" - Search Engine Optimization, in fact it will probably be the sole topic of a future dedicated Newsletter this year...Why should the doctor's site be "search engine optimized?"

Without proper search engine optimization, a dentist's Web site will not show up for related searches. Much of search engine optimization is simply laying out and coding the Web site according to standards.

Most design companies do not adhere to technical standards and it's not surprising that searching by the full name of a dentist, including middle name and degrees, doesn't produce his/her Web site in the search results at all.

When a Web site is built properly, it will show up. The real "art" of search engine optimization is making a site rank as high as possible, if not #1, in the search results. At Take 42 and Arexa Dental, we've built a reputation around our ability to maximize a site's search engine rank. Take 42 has clients from around the nation exclusively using our search engine optimization service. It works.

The search engines — the giants of the Internet — can make or break a business. Ranking high maximizes traffic to a Web site, but ranking low or not at all is almost the same as having no Web site at all. That's why search engine optimization is essential for any Web site.