Academy of Comprehensive Esthetics Tampa 2011 Conference on Social Media & Marketing for Dentistry

Slated for April 1st and 2nd, 2011, there are just a few weeks left to sign up. Can you afford to miss it?

If You Build It, They Will Come

Today’s marketing environment has changed dramatically. It’s gone viral, to say the least. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs are the hubs of social media and you can use them to leverage your practice, solidify your brand, and grow your patient base. If you’re not in the social media game, you’re simply not reaching your full potential.

A Social Platform

The benefits of social media marketing:

• Access is easy and inexpensive –anyone with the Internet can be a part of social media
• Increase communication that fosters brand awareness and better customer service
• Your patients become your mouthpiece by sharing information with their social networks
• Create content that attracts attention and generates buzz
• Centralize information and share new developments

For more information, or to sign up, visit ACE 2011 Conference on Social Media & Marketing for Dentistry.

Enter Dr. Mayer Levitt, President and owner of Jodena Consulting, a firm that provides vital support and solutions to dental practices nationwide. Dr. Levitt spent nearly 30 years managing his now 12 chair dental practices before becoming a consultant, and during his last seven years in private practice, he balanced both consulting and practice management. Dr. Levitt knows the business of being a dentist and has worked with over 525 practices on everything from creating profitable hygiene departments, to practice transitions and helping doctors optimize their efficiency and effectiveness.

Dr. Levitt graciously allowed us to pick his brain about practice management today, and to let us in on a few secrets:

DB: As a dentist, what was the hardest thing about managing your own practice?
Dr. Levitt: Unquestionably, finding and keeping a talented, caring, customer service oriented staff. It’s still the biggest problem for dental practices now.

DB: What are some of the worst mistakes a dentist can make when managing his or her practice?
Dr. Levitt: Micromanaging the staff and not allowing them to grow and learn from their mistakes is a big misstep. Also, failure to think outside of the box and stifling creativity is an issue. Sometimes you simply have to leave your comfort zone and remain open to a different approach. If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you’ve always gotten.

DB: What’s the latest piece of advice you’re giving to your clients?
Dr. Levitt: Get going with Internet marketing. It’s an absolute must if you want your practice to remain competitive. You have to have a great website as well as a social media presence. Google is king!

Dr. Levitt also let us in on another secret. Since he is no longer practicing dentistry, he doesn’t get the satisfaction of seeing patients relieved of pain and happy with their smiles. Now he gets his kicks seeing his clients become more successful as they grow their practices. For more great practice management advice, visit Dr. Levitt’s blog. Be sure to sign up for the Jodena blog RSS Feed to receive lots of consistent, practical advice delivered right to you email (you’ll receive a FeedBurner notice via email, so be sure to confirm after signing up). To learn more about Dr. Levitt and Jodena Consulting, visit his website at www.jodena.com.

With much debate in dental circles on whether or not to Web 2.0, Dr. Dalin, a St. Louis dentist, said in his article that he strongly believed in walking the walk, not just talking the talk. And so, using his own website as a case study, Dr. Dalin dove right into a re-skin of his old, stagnant website, hiring TNT Dental to lead the SEO charge. He also gave the go ahead to optimize his new site into a mobile friendly format for display on smart phones, such as the iPhone, Blackberry, and Droid mobile devices.

Besides being more visually appealing, what is Dr. Dalin’s goal with the new website? According to his article, it’s to place higher in search engine rankings, drive new traffic to his site, generate leads that will become new patient conversions, as well as keep his existing patients consistently engaged. Dr. Dalin also plans a series of follow up articles to appear in DE magazine over the coming months chronicling his website’s success. We’re certainly eager to see the results!

View Dr. Dalin’s new website, read his article about embracing dental search engine optimization, and then tell us what you think.

Google Local (Google Maps or Google Places)
This little tool will get your business on the map. The Google Map.

If you don’t claim your listing, someone else may. And there’s nothing you can do about it! Google takes precautions to prevent this, but your best bet is to claim your listing now. It just takes a minute.

Go to http://local.google.com. In the left sidebar, you’ll see a hyperlink that says “Put your business on Google Maps.” Click it! If you don’t have a Google account, go ahead and set one up. If you do have an account, simply choose Google Places from your main Google Accounts page. Then just follow the instructions to get your business listed. Be sure to fill out ALL of the keywords, etc. Stand by your phone because the verification process involves a phone call. Have a pen handy to write down the verification number. Verify, and you’re golden.

You’re going to see ads about paid listings. You don’t need those right now.

Google Alerts
Find out when your business is mentioned online, and keep your finger on the pulse of topics close to your heart. Google Alerts will send you email notifications when keywords that you specify show up on Google that day.

From your main Google Accounts page, choose Alerts, and click Manage. Type in search terms that you want to be notified about: your business name, your competitor’s business name, your name, your city (for local news), and any other topic of interest (ie: cosmetic dentistry, LVI, sleep apnea dentistry). Complete the questionnaire, and you’ll begin receiving Google Alert emails the same day.

These tips were provided by TNT Dental, a leader in custom dental website design and hosting. Call TNT Dental today to discuss your Internet marketing strategy: 877-868-4932.

We can talk about whether Facebook and Twitter are good for dental marketing all day long, and everyone has an opinion…

“I believe social media is one of the most important marketing tools to emerge since the creation of the World Wide Web.”

~ Fred Joyal’s Blog

“No online social networking personally or professionally anymore. Most of it is a waste of time. I’d rather spend the valuable time with my wife and kids who have also decided not to do any of the online social networking anymore.”

~ The Wealthy Dentist Blog

Ohio Prosthodontist

“With social media growing at an unprecedented rate and a large percentage of our patients participating on these popular channels daily, the decision to establish our own space on these social networks was easy. Now our practice can easily distribute office news, dental information and practice promotions to our entire network of patients with the click of a mouse. Not to mention that our patients can always join in on the conversation by providing feedback.”

~Latest Breaking News

Dr. Mary Sue Stonisch

The reality is, you have to ask yourself if social networking:

• Will meet your dental practice’s marketing goals
• Will work for your dental patients
• Will complement your dental practice’s marketing strategy
• Will be something you (or your team) can keep up with

Your Goals

Social networking is not going to bring you a ton of new patients. If that’s your main goal, don’t waste your time. However, if you want to keep in contact with your current patients and foster a friendly, personal relationship, Facebook can help. Twitter can give current patients an update on what’s going on in your office.

Your Patients

Do your patients use Facebook and Twitter? Do they use the computer? How often? Studies show that Facebook is most widely used with a very young population. And, of course, patients in a high income area will be more likely to use social networking. How many of your patients have smart phones? Do they even want to hear from you on Facebook? You can always ask! Survey your patients before they leave the office.

Your Marketing Strategy

Do you blog? Is your website optimized? Are you really on top of your game with Internet marketing, or do you just have a website because you don’t think the phone book has any future? If you’re serious about online marketing and fostering a community in your practice where patients and team members feel like they know one another, social networking may suit your strategy. If you and your staff don’t like the computer, there’s no reason to try to force a Facebook peg into a traditional marketing hole.

Your Busy Life

Keeping up with Facebook and Twitter takes time. If you don’t check your FB account every day now, what makes you think you’ll do it for the office? You may have a front office person who could maintain a Facebook Fan Page, with a little training. Or maybe social networking just isn’t where it’s at for your dental practice.

Advice from Experts

If you’d like a personal consultation about social networking, call TNT Dental and speak with one of our web experts. These savvy folks can answer all of your questions and guide you through the process of setting up and learning about effective social networking. Call today: 877-868-4932, or visit TNT Dental online here.

On HealthVault, individuals can set and monitor weight, exercise, and health goals. The site integrates with certain electronics, like the One-Touch glucometer and Zune MP3. Users can prepare for emergencies by making sure all health records for the family are available online. And data does not have to be manually input. In many cases, health records can be pulled from providers and insurance companies. There’s a long list of health and fitness sites, including American Heart Association and CVS Pharmacies, that connect with HealthVault.

In the virtual realm of dental health, Dental Optimizer™ is a cool new tool/website that can be used with a HealthVault account. Dental Optimizer tells patients how their medications can affect oral health. It also offers customized recommendations – based on a questionnaire – to protect oral health and ward off dental disease. Patients can learn about dental insurance and find dental product coupons on the Dental Optimizer website, as well.

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/191470.php

It’s all about the apps.

Fact: In only nine months, iPod app downloads topped one billion.

What is an app?

App is short for application. A website app is a downloadable version of a website that’s completely user friendly on a cell phone that has Internet capability.

Dr. Lance Timmerman of Seattle has a custom website with TNT Dental. The website features email contact forms, a blog by Dr. Timmerman, video introductions by the dentist, a before-and-after gallery, and many other cutting-edge features that promote conversion – turning web visitors into active patients.

Always on top of state-of-the-art marketing trends, Dr. Timmerman now has a practice website application from TNT.mobile.

Check it out:

Want a TNT.mobile app of your own?

It’s simple. Just call TNT Dental at 877-868-4932 for details. TNT Dental is your Internet marketing partner, and the folks there are anxious to take your practice to the next level!

Video testimonials seem real.

In the post “Why Testimonials Do (and Don’t) Work,” Holly Buchanan of Future Now tells us that testimonials hurt your marketing strategy if people don’t think they’re real.

How’s this for “real?” Dr. Harry Chambers of Oregon, a Gresham dentist, has a great example of video testimonials on his website by TNT Dental. The videos depict his real patients in his real practice telling their real stories.

Video testimonials can answer the right questions.

At www.yesmediaworks.com, The Video Marketing Blog tells us that the best video testimonials are case studies, which, in a causal form, is the style Dr. Chambers instituted on his Gresham dentistry website. The patients in his testimonials answered key questions that the viewer (the potential patient) wanted answered. Like, for instance, What problems did Dr. Chambers’ patient have with his or her mouth? What were the obstacles that kept him or her from solving the problems? How did Dr. Chambers address and correct the problem? Was the patient satisfied?

Video testimonials show and tell.

In your college writing courses, you probably heard “show, don’t tell.” Want better advice? Do both. Video testimonials tell the whole story – right from the patient’s mouth. A viewer feels like he’s sitting in your office, chatting it up with one of your very pleased patients. He feels a connection to the person on his computer screen and, according to studies, over 70% of the time, people believe online reviews or testimonials about services and products.

Let’s look at Dr. Chambers’ videos again. The featured patients are your average American folks who needed a dentist in Gresham, Oregon to solve their problems. They aren’t rich. They aren’t famous… and neither are your patients. Video testimonials seem friendly and genuine – because they are.

So how can you get video testimonials?

You have a few options here. First, you can record the videos yourself, or train someone on your staff to do it for you. Dr. Larry Emmott offers great tips on his blog here.

If you don’t want to hassle with buying equipment, you could use a service, like VSling by Smile Reminder.

And if you really don’t want ANY hassle, hire a videographer and have an after-hours party – a wine tasting or hors d’oeuvres event – during the video shoot. Invite your favorite patients as honorees and enjoy yourself while someone else shoots the video. Simply have your videographer clean up the videos and send them to your web company for inclusion on your site. It can be that simple.

The article also features a downloadable pdf of a testimonial questionnaire for your patients – free! Don’t miss out on this valuable information – it’s a quick read you can’t afford to miss.

For dentists, the first point of reference in advertising guidelines should always be the state board’s regulations. The Texas Dental Association, for instance, does not allow dentists to use testimonials in advertising. Other state dental boards regulate issues like statements of superiority, promising predictable results, and use of misleading statements.

Once your advertisement or website passes through the state board’s filter of regulations, consult the FTC guidelines. New policies prohibit promises of atypical results in testimonials, even with a disclaimer; revealing material connections with endorsers; and even on talk shows and in social media, celebrities have to tell people if they’re being paid for the endorsements they discuss.

These days, with online communities like Facebook and Yelp!, dentists who want to boost their advertising often look for testimonials from their patients. Demandforce and other marketing companies for dentists provide a service to acquire and post testimonials from current patients. Not a bad idea if you don’t know the rules and don’t have the time.

For video testimonials, the new guidelines could mean that you’ll need to script the patient testimonials prior to shooting or edit the videos for compliance before use.

A set of guides are available online to make the “16 C.F.R. Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” a little easier for you to digest. Get the scoop here: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm.

Take a look for yourself, then tell us what you think! If you have a great FB page, link it in the comments section. We want to see it!

http://tips.TNTDental.com

• What’s the big deal about Facebook?
• If Baby Boomers don’t Facebook much, and they’re my ideal clientele, what’s the point?
• Why would I waste time chatting online when I could be working?
• How am I supposed to make time to blog and network? I’m a doctor, for goodness’ sake!

…watch this video. The facts presented here are staggering – and sobering. After the video, read the rest of this blog posted below, and you’ll find practical social networking tips for your dental practice.

As Promised, Social Networking Tips for Your Dental Practice

• Get a website.
  If you don’t have a website, you’re way behind the times, and your practice will suffer. Part of running a successful business is keeping up with marketing trends. The Internet has replaced Yellow Pages.

• Get a blog.
  In short, a blog is like an interactive newsletter that will really help your search engine rankings. Your blog can be a page of your website.
  • Automatically post blogs to Facebook and Twitter with the “Add to Any” widget.
  • Be sure to tag your blogs with relevant keywords and use rich headings.

• Get free Facebook and Twitter accounts for your practice.
  
  • Simply go to www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com and sign up with your practice’s name.
  • Post a footprint advertising your Facebook and Twitter accounts on your website’s homepage.
  • Update your Facebook account daily with your website’s blog post.
  • Befriend/follow your patients, suppliers, employees, and specialists to whom you refer patients.
  • Require that your team members post to your blog, Facebook, or Twitter once a week. You don’t have to do all the work yourself.

This certainly isn’t ALL you can do, but it’s a good start.

TNT Dental, a leader in Internet marketing, offers clients free advice and blog training. Yes, I said it’s free for TNT clients. Also, TNT can write blogs for you – a service they call GhostPosts. So, if you’re ready to take your Internet marketing to the next level, call TNT Dental today at 877-868-4932!

TNT Dental will keep you plugged in with the latest Internet marketing strategies and resources. As a leader in dental website design, hosting, and search engine optimization, TNT Dental can lead your practice into the next generation of Internet marketing. Each week, the TNT Tips Blog shares IT info for dentists, so you can quickly and specifically learn about topics like website design and hosting, blogging and GhostPosts, traffic reporting, search engine optimization, and online forms tracking. Visit www.TNTDental.com or call 877-868-4932 for more information.

5 Reasons to Subscribe to Online Dental News Media

1. It’s easy. You don’t have to search for news, it comes to you from across the globe, each morning, in one location.
2. It’s really easy. You don’t have to subscribe to or haul around magazines any longer. All the industry news you need is online.
3. It’s fast. Internet news is generated at amazing speed, so you get the latest information by the time you wake up in the morning. With print publications, you must wait until the articles are printed and mailed. By the time you read it, the story is no longer news!
4. It’s deep. In online news articles, further information is literally a click away. Hyperlinks imbedded within articles will direct you to the news source and related websites, so you get more bang for your buck.
5. It’s free. Not much in life is, so take it when you can get it.

How to Subscribe to DentalBlogs.com
If you want to subscribe to the DentalBlogs feed, simply click that (+ subscribe) button in the upper left of this page or at the end of this article. From there, you can subscribe to the RSS feed and put DentalBlogs news on your Internet dashboard, or you can have DentalBlogs sent directly to your email each day.

You may also want to become a Facebook friend of DentalBlogs at www.facebook.com/dentalblogs. While the actual blog features one or two original, daily articles, the Facebook page provides to-the-minute news with direct links to the source pages online.

Your Dental Blog, Twitter, and Facebook Page
What DentalBlogs does for you, you can do for your patients. TNT Dental, a leader in custom dental website design, marketing, and hosting, recommends a blog for just about every dentist who has a website. They say a blog is the new newsletter. In addition, to supplement your blog’s efforts toward attracting new patients, a Twitter and Facebook page will help. These two free services are simple to set up, and you can announce your blog posts on the social media forums, then link to your blog.

5 Reasons that You Need a Blog

1. It’s a better newsletter. Communicate oral health information, promote services and products, share and specials or events with your patients and potential patients. Your blog can incorporate photos of your team, as well as videos and links. A blog is an interactive newsletter, which is attractive to young, wealthy, intelligent patients who delight in the digital age.
2. It’s cheap. If you request a blog when you purchase a new website at TNT Dental, there is no extra fee for the initial set up. If you add a blog and would like it to look like a page of your site, expect to pay a reasonable art charge. Maintaining the blog is free. On another note, if you opt for a blog as your digital newsletter, you won’t have to manage an e-newsletter mailing list, and you won’t have to pay for printing and postage. Time spent on creating your old print newsletter can be redirected to blog writing.
3. You don’t have to do it. Anyone on your team can learn how to blog! If you have a TNT Dental website, one of their experts will schedule a time to train you or your chosen employee how to post blogs and add photos and videos. To learn on your own, purchase a “For Dummies” book or access how-to instructions online. If you like the idea of a blog, but you don’t think that you or anyone on your team has time to maintain it, consider GostPosts, a TNT Dental service in which trained dental copywriters post optimized blogs (with pictures) as you as often as you choose.
4. A blog generates an archive of patient education articles. Every blog post you create will be categorized and archived, so you’ll soon accumulate a patient education library on your website.
5. Blogs are GREAT for SEO! This is the top reason to blog if your website’s primary purpose is to attract new patients. Blogs are indexed fast by search engines, so a well-optimized blog could make the top of a search engine results page within a day or two of its posting.

• Fluoride does not have to be delivered in the water supply
• Fluoride does not have to be ingested to protect teeth
• Caries has declined at the same rate in countries with/without fluoridated water
• The public receives fluoride from sources other than public water supply
• Studies show that fluoride can cause a list of adverse side effects

What You Should Know
Fluorine, the ionic form of fluoride, is used in over half of the US public water supply because it is thought to reduce the potential for tooth decay. All public water supplies contain trace amounts of fluoride, and the mineral naturally occurs in soils, plants, and animals. Mammals have the highest concentration of fluoride in bones and teeth. Fluoride can build up in the body over time. Too much fluoride can cause bones and teeth to become brittle, and high levels of fluoride are considered poisonous.

Studies and Politics

• In the early 1900s, studies showed that teeth with fluorosis did not decay
• First US public water supply with fluoride was in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1945
• Some studies show fluorinated reduces cavities by 20-40% overall, but the validity of these studies is being questioned by anti-fluoride advocates
• The positive effect of the study may be based on topical, not ingested, fluoride, as water passes over teeth before being swallowed
• Public water was fluoridated because it is considered the most cost effective method for widespread, public distribution of fluoride
• In 1950, Wisconsin protested fluoride and was defeated
• In the US, water fluoridation was considered a political plot as part of the “Red Scare” in the 40s and 50s
• The US EPA expressed concerns over fluoridated public water supply in 1985
• In 2005, 11 EPA employee unions worked toward eliminating fluoridation in public water
• In 1990, the National Cancer Institute conducted studies and found no evidence of cancer linked to fluoridated water
• The EPA in California has called for a review of fluoridated water as a cancer risk

Nations that Have Fluoridated Public Water

• Public water fluoridation is currently used in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia
• Sweden & Germany stopped in 1971
• Japan stopped in 1972
• Netherlands stopped in 1976
• Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic, and Soviet Union stopped in 1990
• Finland stopped in 1993

Other Resources

• Proposition 65 in California to Review Cancer Risks Associated with Fluoride
• PubMed’s “Overview of the history and current status of fluoride supplementation schedules”  Garrett County
• Water Fluoridation Factsheet (pro)
• Petition Against Fluoride (anti)
• Fluoride Information Network (pro)

Wise Guy Comment from the Editor
Is the fluoride scare legitimate, or is it a ploy for bottled water companies to keep their heads above, well, water, during an economic slowdown? Sounds silly, but consider that the US is the third greatest consumer of bottled water in the world. By 2011, market forecasts show that the bottled water market in the US will be $174,286.6 million. The big soda pop companies have bottled water products for one reason – money. Bottled water does not contain fluoride, so. Badabing.

Question is, does the vast medical and dental information on the Internet educate and inform patients well? Does it make your job as a dentist easier or harder?

That really depends on where patients are getting their information and whether it’s accurate and relevant. Wikipedia, for instance, is a great resource, but you don’t have to be an expert to post information. (Wiki means “what I know is.”) Blogs, too, give the average Joe access to opinions and not-necessarily-factual information.

Levine’s article is a great starting place for you to make a decision as to how you feel about “web-informed” dental patients. However, if you want to make sure your patients are getting the solid, accurate information they need so that they can make informed decisions about dentistry, consider expanding the education center on your dental website.

Share Your Expertise and Get More Web Traffic
TNT Dental, www.tntdental.com, a leader in custom dental website design, hosting, and search engine optimization, offers a library of stock articles that provide solid, easy-to-digest information about many dental procedures and health concerns. The company also offers blogging services and GhostPosts. For dentists who want to publish good educational information for patients AND get more hits on their websites, GhostPosts provide a simple solution. A trained dental writer will compose articles on topics of your choice, then optimize the text for search engines, add a high-quality image, and post the blogs for you. If you’d like to add your opinion and expertise, post your own blogs alongside the GhostPosts as often as you’d like. TNT clients who sign up for a blog receive free, one-on-one telephone training on how to use the blog.

Another great way to get good information to your patients and potential patients is by putting your own recommendations, links to websites you trust and agree with, on your site. A “patient resources” or “favorite links” page can list the sites of your choice, with links and descriptions.

If you’d like to take information sharing a step further, consider joining Facebook. Simple applications will allow you to quickly post any online article to your Facebook page.

Getting Started

• First, read the full article at DentalProductsReport.
• Next, contact TNT Dental to discuss how your website can become more informative and successful.
• Visit http://tips.tntdental.com to learn more about making your voice heard online.
• Sign up for a free Facebook account at www.Facebook.com.

Social Networking = Networking online, socially or professionally.
Social Media = News sources online.

Not a social networker? You can still take advantage of online news stories  by hooking up with social media sources. In addition to DentalBlogs, Dental Products Report, Dental Lab Products, Dental Economics, DentalCompare, and many national and local dental organizations post updates on Twitter and Facebook. As a “friend” of DentalBlogs, you can log in as often as you like to our Facebook account, and there, you’ll find the latest news from these and other important sources in the dental industry.

Here are 5 great Reasons for Becoming a DentalBlogs Friend on Facebook:

1. You’re busy! Log in to www.facebook.com/dentalblogs any time for the latest dental news in one online location.
2. Hook up! Ease in to social networking, if you want. You may see some of your old college pals, business associates, or networking acquaintances on our Facebook account. It’s easy to reconnect…but it’s not mandatory.
3. More bang for your click! DentalBlogs posts one story per day on our main page, but at Facebook, we post links to hundreds of stories every month.
4. Just what you want! On our Facebook account, you won’t have to funnel through personal posts to find the news. Instead, our page is set up so that you see only the news and related comments from our other friends.
5. Speak your mind! Simply add a comment to tell our Facebook friends what you think about a news story.

Facebook is free. All you have to do is sign up for your own page. Once there, you can be as active or inactive as you like. When you have time, you may want to add a photo, find friends, and share an update about yourself.

www.facebook.com

Twitter is free. Like with Facebook, all you have to do is sign up.

www.twitter.com

If you do NOT want emails about posts on your social media networks, be sure to disable email alerts in your profile.

Learn more here:

Dentists on Facebook

Will Facebook Work for You?

Writing for Internet Readers
For patients and potential patients, marketing copy is necessary. Not hard-sell copywriting, but a massaged style of marketing copy that represents the voice and nature of your practice. Writing for search engines has to do with composing content that will make your site rank well on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. Because search engine spiders’ appetites change constantly, you really should employ an SEO copywriter who’s up to speed with current SEO practices. Don’t try to wing it. You’ll be disappointed. As for writing copy that appeals to referring dentists, you can do this quite well, to be sure. Here’s a tip… Speaking doctor-to-doctor (in first person) is a warm and practical approach that appeals to professionals.

More about Copywriting for Internet Readers
A post at www.copyblogger.com reviews tips on “How to Avoid Losing Your Readers Along the Long Copy Path.” While we at TNT Dental recommend you let professional dental & SEO copywriters compose content for your website, this article will shed insight into why Internet copywriters do what they do. Take a peek here.

Point of View (POV)
You may think that your website should be written in third person from the writer’s point of view, like a newspaper or article about your practice. In theory, this sounds logical. However, third person from the writer’s perspective is not as warm and inviting as if the words were coming from you. In addition, the site will feature your name so many times, your head will spin. Check it out:

Dr. Holt offers family and cosmetic dentistry in Cleveland. When you visit Dr. Holt and his team, you can expect excellent clinical care and personalized service. For any procedure, Dr. Holt will explain what you can expect before he begins treatment. With images from an intraoral camera and digital X-ray, he can show you the problems with your oral health. Dr. Holt believes, the more you know, the more comfortable you’ll be with your dental care.

Then you should write in first person? Nope. Imagine all of the “I” and “me” verbiage that’s required for first person composition. Your website would look self indulgent and pompous. See what you think:

I offer family and cosmetic dentistry in Cleveland. When you visit me and my team, you can expect excellent clinical care and personalized service. For any procedure, I will explain what you can expect before I begin treatment. With images from an intraoral camera and digital X-ray, I will show you the problems with your oral health. I believe, the more you know, the more comfortable you’ll be with your dental care.

So what is the solution? We’ve found that third person from the POV of a member of your dental team works best. Search engines like it, as do web visitors. Like this:

Dr. Holt and our team offer family and cosmetic dentistry. When you visit us, expect excellent clinical care and personalized service. For any procedure, Dr. Holt will explain what you can expect before he begins treatment. With images from an intraoral camera and a digital X-ray, he can show you the problems with your oral health. Dr. Holt believes, the more you know, the more comfortable you’ll be with you dental care.

Getting Started with Good Website Copy
If you’d like professional copywriters who understand SEO and dentistry to compose content for your website and/or blog, call TNT Dental today, or visit them online at www.TNTDental.com.

Be sure to visit DentalBlogs on Facebook today!

SEO spiders refers to the technology behind indexing websites. If the spiders like your site, it will rank well in Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. If the spiders don’t like your site, in competitive markets, it will get buried. To spiders, words are like big, fat flies. SEO spiders’ mouths water at the thought of a website with a ton of content on it.

But you like the visual elements. That’s okay. You don’t have to give up the visual elements of your website in order to please the spiders – but you may have to compromise.

TNT Dental has been creating custom websites for dentists and dental professionals for years now. The company has an entire department dedicated to SEO, and another dedicated to copywriting. In fact, the artists and copywriters work closely with the tech guys to ensure that every client gets the best of all worlds – a visually appealing website that appeals to search engines without having too many words on each page.

“I’ve heard that Flash is bad for SEO.”
First, let’s just bust this myth wide open. This statement is only half of the story, though it is true. Spiders don’t read Flash. If your website has an opening page that is only one large, moving image, and a small button in the corner says “enter,” SEO spiders will move on to tastier websites. We call this type of opening page a “splash” page. Don’t do it.

However, if you want to incorporate movement, or Flash, into your site, spiders don’t really care. As long as the Flash elements are in a location that doesn’t interfere with the way the spiders read the site, you’re golden.

“I have a website. I need more content. What do I do?”
First, decide which services you want to promote. I’m not suggesting you hard sell CEREC crowns, but if you want to do more CEREC crowns, your SEO team needs to know. A good SEO team will research the popularity of terms associated with CEREC crowns and determine what your keywords should be. Then, a copywriter who understands SEO will create custom copy (it must be custom or spiders will reject it) with necessary keywords and headings. This page will be added to your website in a logical location, linked to from related pages, and backend optimization (the stuff you don’t see on the site) will be completed.

In short, for every service you want to promote, original, optimized copy should be written and integrated into the website. The best part of this whole thing is that you don’t have to know Internet technology, SEO, or copywriting to make this happen. Simply call TNT at 877-868-4932 and discuss your ideas. The experts there will be happy to talk with you about your Internet marketing goals. TNT is a company focused on dentists and dentistry. They know your job, they know how to advertise your company on line. Give TNT a call today.

Read SEO and Internet marketing tips for dental websites at http://tips.tntdental.com.