Beat the Heat with a Refreshing Glass of June Marketing Tips
Back in May, we talked about what makes a good website and we touched on the opportunities of online social networks. This month, we’ve got an ice-cold pitcher of SEO tips ready to pour you a tall glass... Bottoms up!
What Is SEO Again?
The term “SEO” (the acronym for Search Engine Optimization) has multiple facets. “Onsite” or on-page SEO is done to your actual website, and then there is “offsite” or off-page SEO, which is done externally.
On-page SEO is done through what is called “metadata,” which is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. Examples of this are metatitles/page titles, hyperlinked text, meta descriptions (sometimes called description tags), and meta keywords (also known as meta tags). In our professional opinion, that is their order of importance for efficacy. Below are brief descriptions of each of these SEO methods:
Page Titles
Are the words displayed across the top of the internet browser window. These should be written with the keywords that you want to be positioned well for in the searches. For example, you probably want your city or town and state with your name and “dentist” in the title of your home page. Additionally, we’ve been seeing more and more that domain names with the word “dentist” and geographical info, such as city name, are really boosting dental practices’ SEO, so keep that in mind when purchasing domain names to point to your website.
Page titles also become hyperlinked text. Hyperlinked text is the linked text (one line) that you click on in Google’s or Yahoo’s (or whichever engine’s) search results to go to a website. The metadescription is the text after that hyperlink (which shows 150 characters until it ellipses...). Here’s an example:
After a Google search of “Practice Cafe,” “Dental Marketing by Practice Cafe” is the hyperlinked text, and the words that follow (“At Practice Cafe, we provide...”) are the meta description.
Meta keywords or meta tags
Are becoming less and less important for Google’s determining that a site is relevant to certain searches, but they are still worth doing. There’s a place in the code where you put all the metadata, and you can list as many meta tags as you want. The recommended number per page is 10-12, and these should all be relevant to the specific content of the page in question. The days of “tricking” search engines with superfluous and irrelevant tags are at an end.
Other methods having to do with keywords involve the actual HTML code. You can code headings with <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc., and you can code images with the “alt” attribute, which allows web pages to assign specific text as “alternative” content for those images. Again, all of this coding should be written with the keywords that you want to be positioned well for in the searches. You can also apply bolding and italics formatting to words to help the engines’ web crawlers recognize the added relevance and importance of those words in searches, but this must be done with the correct coding (ex: <strong> for bolding).
Don’t Get Burned by the Search Engines
Off-page SEO includes the things you do to promote your site outside the actual design code. At PubCon 2008, SEO consultant Bruce Clay said that “page ranking is dead.” He later elaborated on his statement, explaining that while search engine rankings will always be a factor in the assessment of a website’s relevance, there’s no doubt that in the next few years, website owners and designers will be searching for new ways to check their site’s pulse.
Link up! Establishing inbound links from outside your website that bring people to it is actually one of the most important measures for SEO. It’s called link building. The more links, the better – especially from authoritative resources on the net. In an article titled, “Did You Graduate From Link Building High School Yet?”, HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog orders some of the different techniques and methods for link building in four levels. The methods range from submitting your URL to business directories such as Yahoo’s directory, DMOZ, Jo Ant, and Aboutus.org to blogging and writing online articles. Some directories cost money, while others (DMOZ, for example) are free, but it's worth mentioning that DMOZ has policies to determine whether a site is appropriate for inclusion in the directory. Google's Local Business Center is free and, to our knowledge, lists every business that is submitted.
Also included in HubSpot's bunch of link building methods are taking advantage of free online press releases, and networking by establishing meaningful online relationships (like Practice Cafe posting on DentalTown). Some methods, such as webinars, don’t apply to dental office websites, but the business directories are very applicable!
Additionally, Clay recommended implementing relevant images, maps, and videos. Since personalized and behavior-based searches will be changing the way Google delivers search results, focusing on engaging your customer with the most relevant info that you can provide is key. Remember that the search engines don’t owe you anything, but rather they deliver results based on relevance to the customer/searcher (and probably based on their advertising revenue). Try to keep up with the evolving world of Google and SEO, and also continue to drive traffic to your website from a variety of media – direct mail and internal marketing in addition to your online presence.
You can learn more about all of this at Website Grader, where you can run a report to grade your own site’s SEO. Keep your report grade in perspective, though, by comparing it to your competitors' website grades and not to the world. Your site might have a Google PageRank grade of 3 or 4, which may not seem that good because it's out of 10, but only sites like CNN.com have a "10" rank because they get visitors from all over the world and because CNN has 13 million inbound links! If you have that many links going to your dental office's website, you'll mostly likely have a 10 rank, too, and you should be put in the SEO hall of fame.
Sign up for Google Analytics (it’s free!) to track your web traffic and discover how people are finding your website and, more importantly, if they are staying to look around after they get there. Search robots have very little need for dental care, so when you’re analyzing your SEO and web stats, consider the common search terms that are likely to be used by actual human beings in your area. There are many SEO tools that can take the guesswork out of this process, providing you with a list of the most popular search words and combinations, and how often they’re searched. Smashing Magazine posted an articled called “Complete List of Best SEO-Tools” that delivers more answers about SEO-references and tools.
SEO can seem quite complicated. It is affected by the methods we’ve talked about here, as well as how big your site is (how many pages it has), how old your domain name is, and even sometimes by how much web hosting you’ve contracted. This is why people specialize in SEO services. The trick is to work with a professional who knows how to optimize your site, but who won’t charge you an arm and a leg to do it. We provide standard SEO services with all of our websites, The Visible Dentist is another SEO professional who is on DentalTown, and there are many others. Optimize away!
Marketing Without a Monitor
If it seems like we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on online advertising lately, it’s because we know that it is important to keep your marketing relevant and competitive in your field. That being said, it’s easy to get carried away. Successful dental practices understand that their website is an important element of their larger marketing plan, and they use it accordingly. Don’t forget the warm-and-fuzzy benefits that come from your personal relationships with patients and potential patients. This is important for all of your patients, but especially the elderly who are less likely to use the internet.
If the pressure of the economy is hitting your practice particularly hard, try combating a decrease in cosmetic or elective cases by emphasizing the importance of preventive and restorative care. Also, step up your recall efforts or offer patients a small but still desirable incentive to schedule and keep their next checkups. Pick an approach that works for your practice and execute it consistently. You provide a necessary service that people actively seek out of their own accord, and that’s half the battle. The second half is ensuring that when people look for you, they can find you and they will like what they see.
The No-Mailing Zone...
The success of a June direct mail drop depends on a number of factors: your local school’s schedule, your target demographic, the type of piece you’re mailing, and exactly when your drop will hit. For more information about when to mail and when to hold off, download our Mailing Recommendations. If June isn’t a great time to mail in your area (the end of June through the beginning of July is very rarely a good time), keep in mind that printing and mailing can take up to three weeks. The beginning of August is generally an excellent time for dental direct mail, so now is not too early to get started on your campaign!
June Facts
- In the U.S., Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. The first Father’s Day was celebrated in 1910, and in 1966, President Johnson declared it a national holiday. It wasn’t until 1972 – 63 years after Sonora Dodd first proposed the idea in 1909 – that Richard Nixon made Father’s Day an annual occasion for new ties, golf clubs, and letting Dad know how much you appreciate him.
- Flag Day – perhaps a lesser-known American holiday – occurs on June 14th to commemorate the day Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag. We’re not the only country waving our banner this month, though. June 6th is Flag Day in Sweden, June 12th is Independence Day in The Philippines, and Finland hoists its flag on June 19th to celebrate Midsummer.
- Speaking of summer, if you’re a resident of the U.S. or Canada, you might know that summer hasn’t officially arrived until the June bugs show up. Though the term “June bug” or “June beetle” is used to describe over 260 different beetle species, June bugs across North America share the following characteristics: they’re nocturnal, they live underground until late May or early June, and they have a tendency to fly head-first into solid objects. Believe it or not, underneath their hard, shiny exoskeletons, many species have hairy abdomens. Bet you’re going to think of that the next time a June bug body-slams your porch light.
Happy 4th of July next month! We’ll see you soon, wearing red, white, and blue.