What About Website Marketing?

1)What do you want your site to accomplish? Do you want to tell the public the office hours, directions, fees, show your cases, give coupons, etc.?
2) Secondly, draw a rough outline of the layout of the site, the navigation, links, etc.

3) Develop a logo or image package. Check out the following sites newpatientsinc.com, www.curtisgroup.com.

4) Make sure the graphics on your site are consistent with your image. No dancing toothbrushes, etc.

Finally, find someone to build your site. There are a lot of great companies that can do the work for you. The best way is to surf the net and then contact the programmer.

I did my entire website myself. I did have a programmer design some of the graphics but as far as the layout, pictures, text, everything, I did it all. And I did it using Microsoft Frontpage. It is an average program but it is very easy to use. It won’t let you do anything fancy like flash, but for a basic site, it does the trick.
Socalsam, Official Townie

Having your own URL makes no sense, and if you would like an example why, just try a search on MSN, Yahoo, Excite, etc. and type "dentist" in the search box. You will get anywhere between 100,000 to 600,000 possible sites as a result. You would have to pay Yahoo $75,000 per year to have your website listing show up near the top of this list when someone searches for a "dentist" on the Internet.

The only solution is to have a dental website directory for all dental practices, just like your telephone directory. This directory would be searchable by state, city, zip code, with maps and driving directions, office hours and services offered, etc. The public needs to be able to go to a directory that organizes this search.

Website construction is expensive, from $500 to $10,000 (and more). I've seen monthly hosting fees for $29 to $99 a month. Every dentist in the United States already has a free, professional website, and it is located at www.usadentaldirectory.com.
Alanft, Official Townie

There is an important consideration when selecting to use a free hosting service such as usadentaldirectory.com to host your web page. Namely, search engines tend to rank your site higher if you have your own domain name. Having a page as a directory, e.g. yahoo.com/DrMyOffice.com, does not sit well with robots and spiders...keyword relevancy is lost, and ranking right along with it. Search engine ranking is a dynamic science and many factors in addition to URL address will determine a site rank.
Technetx, Official Townie

Anyone who has ANY experience on the Internet would NOT type in just "dentist" to do a search. It is commonly known that you need to be more specific unless you want 200,000 hits. Type in "cosmetic dentist Palm Beach" and you will find my website in the top 10 usually...sometimes in the top THREE. Guess how much I paid? NOTHING! Zero! My website is listed in most dental directories. But I only use the "free" ones.

Yes, website design can be expensive. It's important to find the right website designer. Preferably one with a very good background in dental marketing...like our friend here, Howie Horrocks. I did my own. I don't necessarily recommend it, however, unless you have a LOT of time, and are comfortable playing with computers. My hosting costs are $20 a month. That's it. Maintenance and changes cost me nothing... I do it myself. It's easy now.
Mike Barr, Official Townie

At one time, all submissions to Yahoo were free. Nowadays, ALL commercial sites and businesses MUST pay. In fact, the only way you get a free listing in Yahoo is by verifying that you are a "non-profit entity". Yahoo set the trend in charging submission fees. Now others are following the lead.

Let's say you have a budget of $6,500 dollars for your web site. My point is that you are better off spending $2,500 dollars for a really nice site and $4,000 for "SEO" to insure a VERY HIGH RANKING in the major search engines rather than buying a really gorgeous site that doesn't get you any ratings in the search engines. I suspect that many dentists won't agree. They want the prettiest, fanciest web site that money will buy even if BY DESIGN it forces them to be on page 12 of a search engine. This is very lucky for me.
Mgoodman, Official Townie

To spend $4,000 on search engine optimization is a complete waste of time in my opinion. From what I have seen and read search engines should only be a part of your marketing strategy for your website, not the only strategy. For that $4,000, you could send every person in your area a postcard telling them about the website (much more targeted than the search engines). I am not saying to not be near the top, but just don't spend $4,000 getting there.
Socalsam, Official Townie

How do I bring patients new & old to my website? Obviously folks go to the net for health information, and a dental website can be an invaluable resource for the patient, and the practice. I would hazard to say that all practices would do well to be online soon, but only if their sites are informative, attractive, and have features to keep people coming back (newsletter, event notification etc.)-like DentalTown.
Michael_bonner_dds, Official Townie

There IS a way to DRIVE folks to your website. One idea is the ValPak co-op mailers. Many folks, even wealthy folks, look at these things--not to find deals, but just out of curiosity. What if they were going through the stack of 'coupons' and found one sheet that was, for instance, a glossy full-bleed (no white borders) black with white lettering. There would be something in white lettering above a thin horizontal white line, and under the white line it would have your website name such as DentalMiracles.com. So above the white line you could have things like: "Tired of having SENSITIVE TEETH?" (in large font), and then in smaller font underneath (just above the white line) "check it out." And there are a million other attention-getting questions or statements. Many, many variables and eye-catching graphics. And this type of marketing is cheap. When they get to your website, they MUST be attracted. If you've got great info to show them, don't stick it under some stupid heading like "FAQ's". Put it all up front with interesting topics on your home page. This way, if there is information that they are interested in, they can go directly to it.
Rod, Official Townie

Forget about "boilerplate" freebie websites. Make yours PERSONAL. Convey information in a way that speaks about SOLUTIONS and BENEFITS from a patient's perspective. Don't tell them how you actually perform procedures! Also...don't make your website too general. Show the viewer how you are different! Don't simply list a menu of "services" like: gum treatments, wisdom tooth extractions, root canals, cosmetic dentistry, fillings, crowns, dentures, bridges. BORING! Look at most yellow page ads. Same thing...a menu! Tell the viewer about what you do best. How is your practice unique? It may not even be the actual dentistry, but rather, how you cater to the patients on a personal level.
Mike Barr, Official Townie

Does anyone know or can suggest a web design firm with experience doing dental sites?
Wtwilliams, Official Townie

Unless you have lots of time and like doing it yourself, I highly recommend checking out excelident.com They have some great ideas and tie in other parts of your practice in unique ways. The site is so interactive with newsletter, recall, new patient contacts, etc. that I hope patients will keep coming back to the site (something very rare for most dental sites).
Toddsmith, Official Townie

As far as design firms, here is a partial list that you can check out:

www.vab.com
These are professional firms that do a lot of dental sites. They may charge a bit more but they have a large portfolio that you can look at.
Socalsam, Official Townie

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In Memorandum
Dr. John Witzig
1927 – 2001

Dr. Witzig, considered by many to be the ‘father’ of modern day functional orthodontics, died in early December 2001.

After studying at the universities of Bonn and Vienna in 1972, Dr. Witzig returned to the U.S. and began moving teeth by using functional appliances instead of traditional brackets and wires. In the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Witzig introduced functional appliances for orthodontic treatment to the dental community.

Dr. Witzig spent most of his career practicing and teaching. For the past 16 years, he was in the exclusive practice of orthodontics and TMJ disorders. He is the Founder and Director of the TMJ Institute of America and author of The Temporomandibular Joint, Vol III.

Dr. Witzig once said, “The great advances of orthodontics, have been made by clinicians out there treating patients every day.” His notorious ‘mini-residency’ orthodontics training seminars will continue with instructors Dr. Witzig taught. If you have any questions concerning the seminars, please call Tracy or Ann at (763) 544-0301.

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