Does having a website help your practice? That’s an open-ended question that could be answered in a variety of ways – (i.e., “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all-answer”)
Let’s look at this from both sides of the discussion:
1. Dentists who have invested heavily in a website for their practice and have NOT realized a profit nor recaptured their investment
I’d have to say that the MAJORITY of Dentists don’t invest a lot of money (relative what businesses in other industries can/do spend) on a high-performance, high-converting website for their practice and yet, they expect unrealistic returns. I’m not blaming them for their beliefs because I know for a fact that a lot of companies that build/sell dentist websites make unrealistic promises and often under-deliver.
Any Dentist who pays a company little to no setup (build) fee and $50-$100/month for a website is going to get exactly what they pay for… not much. A high-performance website is AN INVESTMENT and will require more than the aforementioned.
Common sense should tell you that Google only has ONE – Page 1 for any/all keyword combinations and there’s only ONE URL that can be at the top (in the organic section – not the paid adwords).
There are MULTIPLE components involved (needed) to RANK at the TOP of page 1 in Google’s PageRank (for any/all keywords) and a CANNED Website that you share with 20 other dentists around the country isn’t going to put you there (unless you live in a town of 500 people and you’re the only dentist around).
I won’t go into all that’ s involved in getting your practice website to rank at the top of page 1 in Google, but suffice it say cookie-cutter websites that are $50/month (give or take $50/month) aren’t going to get you there.
Getting to the top of Google in and of itself is also not the “be all to end all” when it comes to Dental web marketing. Let’s assume that you get your website to the top of Page one in Google (for the sake of our example let’s say “cosmetic dentistry”) – which is everyone’s goal. The top spot (#1) on Google gets an average of 50% of ALL traffic searching for that keyword (visitors to their site)
So you’ve got 50% of the people now clicking on your website (assuming you’re #1 in Google) – now what? If you’re website isn’t using “Conversion Design” and is built like 99% of every other dental website you’re not going to convert many of those visitors into paying new patients – period.
So simply getting your website to the top of page 1 in Google is only part of the battle… getting visitors to STAY on your site long enough to be captivated by message/solutions and then impressed enough to follow though with a scheduled appointment (and then show up, pay, and accept your treatment plan) is even more important.
A website at the top of Page 1 in Google that generates tons of visitors each month (but isn’t able to convert them into paying new patients) is WORTHLESS … maybe worse. Research is very clear that visitors to land on a page of a website and are BORED by what they find DO NOT COME BACK… which means that your’e chance to get each of them as a new patient has been greatly reduced.
2. Dentists who UNDERSTAND that they wear Two Hats: (Physician/Clinician and Entrepreneur/Marketer of Their Dental Practice) who are having great success with their website and making a great ROI
This group of Dentists is in a small minority. They won’t have a cookie-cutter, mass-produced website that contains the same copy as 20 other dental websites in their county, and their sites are built using CONVERSION DESIGN principles.
They contain Outcome-Based VIDEO testimonials of patients, written reviews (with pictures), they use FULL Names of their patients (with written permission – and are HIPPA Compliant), compelling copy (the opposite of what MOST dentists use – (i.e., Most dental websites are digital copies of boring brochures or contain information patients don’t care about).
These Dentists realize that their practice website is only ONE piece of the Dental Web Marketing Success formula, and that there are numerous other IMPORTANT strategies that must dovetail with their website in order for them to have success marketing their practice online.
To be fair, generating new patients is only one (while probably the most important) reason for having a high-performing practice website.
Improving your professional reputation, distributing your professional writings and/or contributions and many other valid reasons exist for having a dominant website for your practice.
How is your practice website performing and is it meeting/exceeding your expectations?
Here’s a recent article I posted on Dentaltown (more like it coming here – en mass – soon) that you can use to improve your current practice website (includes a cool infographic)
http://www.dentaltown.com/Dentaltown/Blogs.aspx?action=VIEWPOST&b=215&bp=1434
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