Dentists wear many hats as self-employed business people. We are human resource departments, deal with the IRS, marketing agents, retirement planners, equipment repairmen, and real estate negotiators. The list of jobs, aside from actually doing dentistry, are endless.
So why not add another hat, perhaps in a color to match our favorite tie, and do our own websites and SEO? I did, spending endless hours working with a generic website designer and wrote my own text. I even did my own SEO (search engine optimization); I had dozens of User names and Passwords to sites I had never heard of before. Why, with all my peer review accolades and my credentials posted on the home page of my website, was I not getting more new patients? The answer is simple: when I Googled dentist and my zip code or dentist and the city where my practice is, I was never better than page three of the list of dentists in my area.
My frustrations and failure led me to Mark Abrams and Advanced Media Web Designs. I checked references and every dentist I spoke with told me to just do as he says and don’t ask why, you won’t understand it anyway. One of his clients, a Manhattan dentist, wouldn’t answer my questions until he went to my website and called me back at that office number to insure I was not a local competitor!
Mark redid my website and continually monitors SEO results. My website is now patient friendly. It may not read like a dentist wrote it, but is geared to what a consumer is looking for. I no longer spend hours on hold at lunch and on my day off trying to talk to customer service representatives trying to optimize content on websites that would help SEO.
Google dentist and my zip code or city and I’m listed first directly under the ads. I’ve been there continuously for months. I EXCEEDED the number of new adult patients in 3 months. More than I had the entire prior year! As I move forward I can gear, with Mark’s help, the web content to attract the type of patients I want.
Web content is equally imperative. Sit down and talk with the patients who came as referrals and most will tell you they “checked you out” on your website before making an initial appointment
Was tossing Mark this hat worth it? In addition to attracting more of the type of patients I want, I’ve eliminated almost all other advertising. The phone book sales representative hates me. My advertising budget is actually less than it has been in years and my ROI is higher than it’s ever been since 1989.
Paul W. Callahan DDS
Callahan Dental, Sterling VA