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Download print version of “Truth #6: How People Search on the Internet for a Dentist (Advanced) – Dental Office Marketing: Directory or Website – Where’s the Money?
Truth #6: How People Search on the Internet for a Dentist (Advanced)
Dental Office Marketing: Directory or Website – Where’s the Money?
9 Truths of Dental Marketing – #6
For the complete online video series at no-charge go to: www.InternetDentalAlliance.com/9Truths.htm
Welcome! This is Jim Du Molin, Editor of The Wealthy Dentist Newsletter. Today in the segment # 6 of our Nine Truths Program we are going to be looking at the two methods that dental consumers use to find a dentist on the Internet.
Watch carefully as we differentiate between potential patients searching geographically, like Cosmetic Dentist San Francisco vs. by topics only, like Cosmetic Dentist or Dental Implants. Not understanding this distinction could cost you 50% of the potential patients you could get from your Internet
Dental Marketing.
Alternatively, properly understood, this segment could help you tap into a stream of up to 25,000 requests for a dentist each month. Let’s start our discussion with how people search on the Internet for a dentist. There are two ways. The first way they search is by geography. They go to the Internet and search for Cosmetic Dentist in the community they are in or adjacent to them. So its Cosmetic Dentist Tiburon or Sedation Dentist Mill Valley or Implant Dentist Tiburon or Implant Dentist San Rafael. People will go in and search locally because they want to stay, generally, within a 6 -12 mile radius of where they live when they select a doctor. That’s the first way people search when they look for a dentist.
The second way is that they search for information about their concern or their area of interest on the Internet. So they will look for specific information about Dentures if that’s what they’re looking for. They look for information about Dental Implants and they’ll research Dental Implants. Then they’ll pick a doctor after they’ve researched the information.
One of the things we did in our studies is we analyzed the 1000 top phrases that people use to search for a dentist on the Internet. They were very interesting. We sliced them and diced them. We knew how many times they searched per month. We did an in-depth study and we broke them into the 15 categories and you see them right here, these 15 topic areas. Interestingly enough, the number one term they search for on the Internet having to do with dentistry is Dental Insurance. We feel that most people are looking for where they can use their dental insurance or they’re looking to buy dental insurance. Those are the two things that we’ve seen historically. But its a tremendous number. Its over 65,000 searches a month for dental insurance information. So its something you need to be aware of.
So how do you deal with this? Well, first of all, you deal with the geographic searchers, the people who are looking for specifics. They’ve made their decision. They want a cosmetic dentist and they want one in Tiburon or they want a sedation dentist in San Rafael. You use your dental practice websites for this targeting of each one of these markets with separate websites. We talk about this extensively in our first training program on the Internet and if you haven’t seen that yet, you might want to go back and check it out. It is Internet Marketing #1, Practice Websites. Its very straightforward and it will walk you through how to structure your practice website marketing on the Internet. The rest of this program is going to be primarily focused on people who use the Internet to search for information by topic. For this we use a program called 1stDDS.com. It targets patients for you by setting up information sites on these different topics. Its like a magnet that draws people into the information site and then they can request a dentist from the site. Let me show you what I mean.
What we’ve built are 15 different Information Portals on those 15 topic areas. These are full-blown information centers about Cosmetic Dentistry, Dental Implants, even Dental Insurance because that’s what people are looking for. Everything you want from Orthodontics to TMJ. We have multiple articles, forums, all the things the consumer wants to learn about the type of dentistry they’re researching. From these they can then select a dentist.
Let me show you how this works. First of all: 1stDDS.com search terms. This one is for 1stDentalImplants.com. We determined that these were the key words that the consumer was searching for in Dental Implants. Then we built the site around these key words, so that when people punch in Dental Implants they show up at 1stDentalImplants.com. If you want to look for sedation patients for your practice, you would want to be on 1stSedationDentist.com. Searching for Sedation, they would use these key words: "Sedation Dentistry," "Conscious Sedation," "Sedation Dentist."
I hope you enjoyed your introduction to how consumers search by topic and how it can literally double your Internet marketing results by taking advantage of both sides of the search equation.
In segment # 7, our next of the 9 Truths series, we are going to show you how to close the Internet directory circle by building an online doctor profile that will convert the maximum number of consumers to actual new patient appointments.
Each month 1stDDS.com’s 15 dental information website centers share up to 25,000 requests for a doctor among its members. And, it is just one of several dental directory systems on the Internet. Watch this next segment carefully so that you can get your share.
For the complete online series at no-charge go to: www.InternetDentalAlliance.com/9Truths.htm
