Dental website design, SEO, and social media services connect dentists to new patients
It would be nice if a dental practice website was like the famous line from Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” In today’s competitive landscape, that is an impossible dream. The fact remains that once you build a practice website, you need to make sure it’s mobile-friendly and appears on the first page of a Google search. Without these key features, your website is as visible as a ghost in a cornfield. Search engine optimization (SEO) equals visibility, which equals more traffic, which equals new patients; in other words, SEO equals new patients and new revenue.
Implementing SEO best practices is timeconsuming and can be difficult even for the techsavvy. That’s why many dentists have turned to the digital marketing specialists at VivioSites to customize a strategy and set benchmarks for success. VivioSites builds both custom and semicustom websites that are designed to convert site visitors into new patients. They are also experts at driving websites to the top of a Google search.
Best Practices for Implementation
The facts in support of making your website mobile-friendly and search engine optimized are overwhelming: Approximately 75% of all potential patients searching for a dentist online click on one of the top 3 listings in their Google search. And 94% of clicks are confined to the first page of that search. In other words, if you’re not on page 1, new patients aren’t finding you. So how do you get to page 1, and how do you rank above your competitors?
“In 2018, every website needs search engine optimization, and original, relevant content is essential for SEO,” said Amanda Deltuvia, SEO strategist at VivioSites. “Creating new and unique content consistently on your website is time-sensitive yet vital to getting your website onto the first page of a Google search.”
The importance of optimized content isn’t just the opinion of VivioSites. In a recent survey by Ascend2, a majority of marketing influencers cited on-page content—such as blogs, articles with keyword mapping, and source code elements such as title tags and meta descriptions—as the most effective SEO strategy. Notably, more than half the respondents cited link-building as the most difficult tactic to implement, followed by website structure. This is why VivioSites partners with dental practices at the onset to ensure they optimize correctly.
“Many of our customers are in very competitive markets and are competing with multiple dental practices—they’ve come to us looking for a little edge or a little advantage in attracting new patients,” Deltuvia explained. “Once we’ve identified the types of patients they would like to see more of, we complete a competitor analysis that analyzes the top dentists in the area who are ranking in the top spots on Google. We use this as further research to determine the keywords we’ll be using to optimize the website. Work involving metadata and linkbuilding follow.”
The Mobile Conversion
Every dental practice website created by VivioSites is mobile optimized so it shows up when patients search for a dentist on their mobile devices and can be read easily on small screens. This allows patients to quickly find the information they’re seeking without needing to poke around and expand their screen with their fingers. Each mobile site is also built for conversion with onetouch call, map, and appointment request buttons at the top of every page. Unlike many other companies, VivioSites includes the mobile-friendly site with every one of their dental designs at no additional fee.
Timeliness & Transparency
VivioSites’ strategies for helping dentists find new patients are working, according to current customers. In a recent Dental Product Shopper evaluation, dentists rated the company’s New Patient Finder advanced SEO platform a Best Product. One of the standout qualities in the evaluation was the timeliness and availability of customer service, which was rated a nearly perfect 4.9 out of 5. Evaluators also gave high marks to VivioSites for communication, transparency, and reporting.
At the end of every month, VivioSites sends each SEO customer a detailed report containing keyword rankings and trends, the number of visits to the practice website, which keywords were used to access the website, and where content has been submitted. The team also stays up to date with the latest Google guidelines, algorithms, and methodologies to match the constantly changing world of Google.
Building a complete web presence that meets all of Google’s new guidelines and attracts and converts new patients is challenging. At a time when SEO best practices are increasingly important but everchanging, dentists continue to rely on VivioSites as a trusted partner in the ongoing quest to remain visible and vital in the modern marketplace.
SEARCH ENGINE SATISFIED
Jeffrey Cummings, DMD, began working with VivioSites’ web design services in 2013. Today, he uses their New Patient Finder SEO services for the 2 websites he manages with VivioSites: NK Family Dentistry and Jeffrey S. Cummings, DMD. Here, Dr. Cummings shares the most helpful aspects of the services and what sets VivioSites apart from other digital marketing providers.
The SEO world has evolved since I started working with VivioSites. I feel like they understand that well, and they’ve essentially partnered with me and guided me into doing what I need to do to maintain my position on the first page of a Google search.
VivioSites also understands that SEO is just part of the strategy; Google has a local business feature, as well. They’ve guided me to obtain one good Google review per month from a patient, and that’s really what I’ve needed to maintain my position. They also work with me to create a list of keywords to optimize the website.
Another thing they do really well is the linking strategy, which is a real, tactical strategy that you can use to improve your links and optimization. No other company that I’ve worked with has tackled this strategy so well.
Every month, VivioSites sends a report for the keywords we have chosen, and they are totally accountable about how the words are performing. Their reporting is very good, and they’ll talk to you about how you can improve. No other website solutions company I’ve worked with has been as transparent.
