What Dentists Should Know About Local Listing Management

You already know that as a dentist, local SEO is critical to your success. There are a number of steps you can take to optimize your local SEO strategy and one of them is local listing management, also referred to as online business directories. Here’s what that means and how our local search experts at Dentalfone can help.

Your dental practice’s information is all over the internet. The most important pieces of data from a local search perspective are the name of your practice, its address, and its phone number, which we often short-hand as NAP. Your NAP is in local directories, on your website, in press releases, your city’s chamber of commerce website, and elsewhere. The more places your NAP appears, the stronger your overall visibility and performance in local search. Your NAP is the “glue” that connects your practice to the Internet.

Local listing data goes beyond NAP, though. For a dental practice, other important information in local listings includes your dental specialty, your office hours and days of operation, the specific services you offer, and the names of your primary employees. The name, address, and phone number are primary pieces of data for your local listing, while these other pieces of data are considered secondary.

We want local listings for your dental practice to appear all over the web, but here’s the caveat: the more places your listing is located, the more work you have to do to manage these listings. That’s because it’s not enough to simply show up everywhere—as Google and other business directories are binary, the information displayed about your office must also be accurate and consistent.

When there is incongruence between different directories and websites, it has the potential to hurt your business because business directories, mapping apps, and review websites don’t know which information source is trustworthy; to avoid sharing inaccurate information about your practice, Google may opt to recommend your competitor over you because it’s more certain as to the accuracy of their primary and secondary data.

This might not seem fair, but think about times when you’ve followed Google Maps’ directions to a business only to find that it moved or that the hours listed on Google were inaccurate. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Search engines don’t want to create these kinds of situations for their users, which is why they place such an emphasis on data that is consistent across a number of different local directories and websites, because consistency is an indicator of accuracy.

According to BrightLocal (an integrated SEO and local citation platform that provides SEO experts with some of tools necessary to help increase the visibility of your business and attract more patients using local search.), 80% of consumers lose trust in a local business if it has incorrect or inconsistent contact details and 40% would give up looking for a local business they couldn’t find because the address was wrong online.

Managing your local listings yourself is time-consuming for you and your staff. Wouldn’t you rather focus on what you do best? Leave local listing management to us and we’ll do the work to ensure that all of the information available online about your business is accurate and consistent.

Our work doesn’t end there, though. We provide daily monitoring for new local listings and, should you change your office hours or location, we’ll make updates to your local listings across the web. We leverage our relationships with the leading online directories and data sources to get results fast.

To discuss how we can help your dental practice with local listing management, schedule a meeting with Dentalfone SEO. 

Many customers and companies worldwide have recently received notices through contact forms or email accounts accusing them of photography copyright violations.

These fake notices will usually include a link to an attachment that the sender wants you to click. It is critical that you DO NOT click the link as these links are often used to spread ransomware and are likely to infect your computer.

You can see an example of one of these notices in the below screenshot.

One of the CURRENT SCAMS facing dental practices is a letter regarding the SOLICITATION TO RENEW YOUR DOMAIN NAME from an unauthorized source, which may appear to be a legitimate renewal notice.

There are 2 types of notices we regularly see come in the mail or e-mail:

#1: You receive a notice to renew your domain and the notice has a domain name that isn’t your actual domain name. It is very close to your name but not your domain name.

These notices are intended to get you to think that your domain name is up for renewal and they are hoping that you won’t notice the slight difference in the domain name. They are hoping you will go ahead and pay for the renewal at an inflated price.

#2: You receive a notice with your EXACT domain name, but it’s not from the company that manages the domain or a company that is authorized to renew your domain.

This letter tries to get you to think that they are the company you used and/or they are authorized to renew your domain. They will use your EXACT domain name in the e-mail (or letter).

CAUTION: If you are not sure who your domain name is officially registered with, you should contact your website provider BEFORE you pay for the renewal.

In most cases, your website provider takes care of the renewal for you and bills you for that service with your monthly hosting and maintenance fees.

TIP: Research the information before acting. Don’t pay any invoice for domain renewals if you are not 100% certain of their validity. If you receive a domain name renewal notice and are not sure if it’s real, feel free to scan and e-mail a copy of the notice to us, so we can let you know if it’s legitimate.

We hope you find this information helpful.

Your friends at Dentalfone!

The challenge of search engine optimization is staying on top of ever-changing algorithms and trends. What worked yesterday might not work today, and what works today has a very good chance of being obsolete a year from now. Good SEO is built upon a foundation of high-quality content, something that will serve your dental practice well through any changes in technology and algorithms. We’re seeing this play out as voice search rapidly changes the SEO game.

Here are four tips for how to optimize your web presence for voice search.

Build up your local bona fides by focusing on your Google My Business, Bing, and Yelp profiles. One of the most common ways people use voice search is to locate businesses near them—and your local profiles are one of the primary ways for search engines to know that your business is trustworthy, legitimate, and worth recommending to users. According to BrightLocal, search engines take the following into consideration in SERPs for voice search:

• The proximity of the business to the searcher’s location
• How the business interacts with customer reviews
• How many backlinks the business’s website has
• Social media presence and activity
• Visibility in industry and local directories

In other words, investing in local search pays dividends when it comes to getting your dental practice noticed.

If someone is using Google Assistant or Alexa to ask what to do when a crown falls out, do they want to read the answer? Or would a voice response be more helpful? Consider investing in conversational voice app technology to answer frequently asked questions and explain common dental procedures. While this might not be a must for SEO right now, it will give you an advantage in a competitive market and in a few years, this type of technology may be a prerequisite for ranking well in a Google Page 1 search result. (Contact us and speak with our Director of SEO, Robert Messinger, if you’re more interested in learning about our voice app technology solutions.)

People use voice search differently than text search, but when it comes to voice search SEO, it’s more important than ever to understand the why’s and how’s of search. How are people finding your site? Why are they using the keywords they’re using?

“What do I do if my dental crown falls out?” has a different search intent than “emergency dentist near me who repairs crowns.” The latter wants to find a dentist to call; the former may or may not be ready to schedule an appointment and they’re primarily looking for information.

Don’t attempt a bait-and-switch and try to attract users with one keyword in order to direct them to something completely different — this is a surefire way to sink your rankings with voice search. If you don’t offer traditional dentures, don’t optimize for that keyword and try to sell people on dental implants instead; don’t try to rank as a local orthodontist for voice search if you only offer Invisalign. Gaming the system only hurts your dental practice in the end.

Content is king. Search engines want useful information that demonstrates expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (also known as E-A-T). As a dentist, you have all three of these in spades, so it pays to capitalize on that and create content that will drive people to your website.

Because people often use natural language questions with voice search, providing them with natural language answers is important. Add frequently asked questions to your website and you might just find yourself in the coveted position zero spot on Google Page 1—the featured snippet, which is where many voice assistants pull answers from.

Your prospective website designer should be interested in learning all about you and your business. They should want to know about your dental practice, your business objectives, your website goals, and your audience.

A website designer must deeply understand these elements of your dental practice to design a website that reflects your business. Without such an understanding, you risk ending up with a generic website that doesn't accurately depict what your audience wants to see and learn about your practice.

If keeping up with the latest developments in search has you pulling out your hair, Dentalfone can help. Our SEO team are tenured authorities on local search and we can provide unique insight into the ways in which local search and voice search interact. Dentalfone’s dental SEO services include:

• Well-researched content for your website
• Social media management
• Google My Business profile maintenance
• Submission to local directory sites
• Press releases

Each of these can improve your rankings and help you meet the ever changing landscape brought upon by the advent of voice search.

To discuss how we can help optimize your dental practice’s web presence for voice search, schedule a meeting with Dentalfone SEO. 

In this age of digital marketing, press releases may sound like a bit of a throwback. Why issue a press release when you could boost a post on Facebook or add more budget to your Google Ads campaign? We issue press releases for the value that they add to Organic SEO.

Press releases might not be a promotional tool on the radar of most dentists and practice managers, but 72 percent of journalists say that press releases are one of the most useful types of content sent by PR firms. Local news outlets often use press releases to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings in the community, but the more modern benefit of press releases is that they build brand reputation, grow an online presence, and improve SEO.

According to Robert Messinger, Director of SEO at Dentalfone, “The reason that we publish press releases is to promote a significant event.  A new website, new technology, a new associate are all newsworthy items. It is an off-page Local SEO strategy that helps popularize your events, products, and services on the web to improve the SEO of your site.”

The key to writing an effective press release is to choose a compelling, newsworthy topic. Some potential ideas for dental practices include:

• Launching a new dental practice or opening a new location
• Releasing a new website
• Offering a new dental service
• Adding a new dentist to the practice
• Rebranding
• Celebrating a milestone or anniversary
• Launching a charitable campaign or making a donation to a non-profit
• Participating in community outreach programs
• Receiving an award or certification
• Announcing the publication of an article or book
• Sharing dental tips or education
• Promoting an upcoming event
• Announcing a retirement

You might be surprised to find that your press release is picked up by a local news outlet and leads to a bigger story and a steady stream of new patients — but even if it isn’t, you’ll still benefit from the off-page SEO that sends a signal to Google that your site is legitimate and trustworthy. 

As Messinger explains, “Press releases are an efficient way to build citations -- mentions of your dental practice’s Name, Address, and Phone number. By including your practice’s contact information in the address, when that press release is distributed to dozens of online news websites, you build citations -- and those citations can help improve your practice’s local Google rankings.” 

No one likes to toot their own horn, so let us do the work for you. We offer a press release service to make the process simple and affordable. Instead of hiring an expensive public relations firm to write and distribute your press releases, our in-house writing and SEO team can get the job done for you as an add-on to our standard SEO services.  

Our SEO team will help you select topics that are relevant to your practice and will pique the interest of potential patients and reporters. Once the press release is written, you’ll have a chance to review it before it’s distributed. Our competitive pricing fits into the budget of dental practices of all sizes. 

If you’d like to learn more about how issuing press releases can help your SEO and spread the word about big changes at your dental practice, schedule a meeting with Dentalfone SEO. We’re always available to help you make the most out of your partnership with us.

Here at Dentalfone, we’ve been hard at work these past few months developing new ways to help our clients promote their practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the steps we’re recommending is to load safety protocol pages onto client websites. 

What we know about the novel coronavirus now is very different from what we knew about it in January. As our knowledge evolves, so do safety protocols, ADA, and CDC guidelines. It’s important to have current documentation on your website that reflects the infection control procedures in your practice. 

During this time, all of us are adjusting to a new normal. It can be unnerving for patients to arrive at their doctor’s or dentist’s office and find an empty waiting room, be asked to have their temperature taken, wear a mask, etc. Having a protocol page helps prepare your patients for what to expect from dental visits in the time of COVID-19. With a small minority of Americans refusing to wear masks and social distance, it’s also helpful to make all of your patients aware of these protocols before they arrive at your office to prevent possible conflicts.

We also foresee that having a safety protocol is going to become a marketing tool for dental practices. Implementing advanced sterilization techniques, air purification systems, etc., is going to give you a leg up on other local practices. You can expect that patients are going to be checking these protocols before they schedule appointments and may even choose a provider based on the measures they take to keep patients safe. 

Being adaptable is the name of the game right now. In March, dentistry was deemed a nonessential service in some states, leaving dentists only able to serve patients experiencing dental emergencies. Now, as restrictions begin to be loosened, dentists must adapt their safety protocols.

Dentistry involves both close contact and high-aerosol procedures; dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants are among the most vulnerable professions when it comes to infection in the workplace. Until there is sufficient PPE and rapid testing available, we can expect that there will be no “back to normal.” Even with these two factors in place, the dental experience for patients will be quite different than what it was before COVID-19, with screenings and social distancing in waiting areas. Once a vaccination is widely available and no community transition is detected, dentists will be able to return to business as usual, but undoubtedly, patients will continue to have higher standards for safety and cleanliness.

Related to that last point, now is the time to clean house—replace worn-out dental chairs or carpet, set up a cleaning service to dust and vacuum, and make sure your office looks clean. Patients will flock to modern practices with bright, sterile surroundings and the latest dental equipment and technologies. Even having a website with a clean, uncluttered design can send a message about your practice. 

Teledentistry is another service worth investigating. While it may not work for every dental practice, many can utilize teledentistry to assist patients in emergencies, offer guidance on homecare, and provide consultations on future procedures.

Let us know if you have questions on how to best market your dental practice during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Contact us today to schedule a meeting.

Dentalfone specializes in designing cutting edge websites and forward-thinking marketing services for dentists. Well-known for their Hybrid Responsive website technology, Dentalfone also provides its clients with cloud-apps, Search Engine Optimization, logo design, custom videography, photography, online patient forms, and Social Media, all with the overarching goal of making it easier for dentists to connect with their patients.

First, we want to reiterate that our team is working hard (from home) to support you during the COVID-19 crisis. Read more about how we’re responding to the situation on our blog COVID-19 and Your Dental Website.

Google My Business is one of the most important tools dentists have for local SEO search visibility. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has now impacted GMB, as Google has decided to temporarily disable and limit a number of popular features, including the ability to obtain and respond to client reviews. Here’s what you need to know:

These are the features that you and your patients will no longer be able to use:

• New Reviews – During this time, no new reviews will be published. Users can post reviews and see them, but they will not be viewable by the public. 

• Review Replies – You will be unable to respond to reviews on your profile or edit replies you’ve written previously.

• Q&A – Questions and answers have been removed from profiles altogether. Your patients will not be able to read your Q&A content or post new questions.

These are the features that Google has decided to limit for the time being:

• Adding, Claiming, and Verifying Listings – Google is prioritizing health-related businesses, while all other businesses are being delayed. We do not believe dental practices will see an impact here.

• Editing Business Information – Again, Google is giving priority to health-related businesses here. Others will see delays in the posting of listing edits.

Read Google’s post about GMB changes here.

Like many businesses, Google is trying to quickly transition its team members to telecommuting, which means critical services need to be prioritized. With limited resources and availability, Google is diverting efforts from GMB and instead focusing on ensuring that information on Google Search and Maps is reliable.

COVID-19 has already taken such a dramatic toll on small businesses and these changes to GMB are another added stressor, especially as dental practices need to provide up-to-date information to their patients. 

Will these changes have long-term implications for your practice and its local SEO? We don’t think so. Our guidance is to focus on building and improving the content on your website and engaging with patients on social media until you’re able to work on your GMB presence again. We also suggest that you use the “Add Update” feature in Google My Business “Posting” to communicate with your patients and provide the latest updates using your Google Profile.

How can we help support your dental practice right now? Don’t hesitate to schedule a meeting with Dentalfone SEO. We’re always here for you.

As our world experiences sudden changes with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are hearing from many dental offices that are looking for additional treatment options for their patients. Telemedicine is a solution that can help practices quickly, efficiently, and safely consult with patients, and foster open communication with patients during this crisis.

When considering offering video conferencing solutions for dental, orthodontic, periodontic, oral surgery, and other dental specialties, it’s crucial to ensure that you are operating within the HIPAA (Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines to maintain the integrity of your patients PHI (Protected Health Information). When seeking out a provider for video conferencing for dentistry, it’s vital to make sure that they offer the proper security and a BAA (Business Associates Agreement). 

Some video conferencing providers have opted not to offer a HIPAA compliant solution, and these services should be avoided for teledentistry. Skype®, Facetime®, Standard Email, and SMS should not be used for teledentistry. Be sure to carefully review the documentation and speak with each company you are considering before selecting the right video conferencing service to use in your dental practice.

Providers that list HIPAA compliance information include GoToMeeting® and Zoom®. The links to their HIPAA specific pages can be found below. We recommend that you reach out to any provider you are considering to speak with them about pricing and the particular needs of your practice. Be sure to review and complete all the necessary HIPAA requirements when signing on with a provider of telemedicine solutions.

https://www.goto.com/healthcare

https://zoom.us/healthcare

Once you have selected a dental telemedicine provider, you can work with your dental website company to update your website and inform your patients about the teledentistry options you offer in your practice. It’s up to each office to make sure you are correctly adhering to all government regulations and guidelines. If you need specific legal guidance, we recommend reaching out to your attorney or one specializing in HIPAA compliance for dentistry. Also, if adding Telehealth, please make sure to include language addressing the HIPAA compliance of your teledentistry provider.

Keeping patients and staff safe during the coronavirus outbreak is important for everyone in the dental community. Telemedicine is a critical part of this process, a technology that we expect more practices will adopt not only during this pandemic but in the future as well.

Dentalfone is closely monitoring information related to COVID-19 and we understand the impact on the dental and medical communities and their patients.

Many of our clients are contacting Dentalfone to post notices on their websites. Feel free to reach out to us if you haven’t already done so for more information on getting your site up to date with the latest news for your patients. Due to the sensitive nature of this subject, specific office policies, and the medical advice given in these notices, we require that each office provide us with the exact text they would like displayed on their website.

We also recommend keeping your patients up to date on social media, primarily Facebook and also inside your Google My Business profile which now includes the “post” feature for updates and time-sensitive notifications. Please contact our SEO team if you are not familiar with this recent addition to your Google My Business profile.

Please understand that with some offices having down-time to focus on other projects, such as updating their marketing and advertising initiatives, we may experience longer wait times for requests. Please know that we will process all requests as quickly as possible and are prioritizing requests for posting updates regarding COVID-19 and office related policies during this time.

We are fortunate as a company to be set up to have all staff members available to work remotely or otherwise isolated from other team members, allowing us to continue to provide our ongoing high-level service to our customers.

We wish everyone continued health and safety today and every day.