Importance of Custom Photos For Your Practice's Website



By: Will Koziey-Kronas 

Stock photos on healthcare websites are, at best, just there. We only notice stock photos when they're particularly generic or hackneyed - otherwise, our eyes pass over them to the real points of interest. This isn't a bad thing. Stock photos are made to fill space. They become a bad thing, however, when they're used to fill all space, as certain areas of your practice's website are better decorated with custom images.

Custom images give both prospective and existing patients faces, locations, and personalities to attach to your practice. Custom photos reinforce the human connection and differentiates yourself from competitors.

But with those benefits comes challenges:
  • Where are custom photos most effective?
  • Where are custom photos inefficient?
  • What are the standards for photo quality?
  • If you need a photographer, what should you look for regarding their services?
  • And what kind of photos should you take?
  • How many photos do you need?
Don't worry - this article will address all of those questions, starting from the top.

Related Article:What Makes a Good Dental Website?

Where are custom photos most efficient?

First and most importantly is the "hero" image - the large, usually animated banner photo below the header on your homepage. The hero image is the first place to catch the eye of prospective patients, so don't waste your first impression with a stock photo. Use this space to show off your doctors, office spaces, staff, and even happy patients. Take a look at Maple Dental Health's hero image on their homepage, cycling between a picture of the dentist, a picture of the staff with happy patients, and then a photo of patients after their services. These images reflect both, the quality of the practice, and the people behind it - and loyalty is always stronger if patients can associate the practice with faces and names.

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Three Ways Online Reviews Could Improve Your SEO



By Noha Abou-Hashima

Did you know that online reviews can help boost your SEO? Search engines understand that consumers rely on other consumers' experiences to help them make purchasing decisions. 90% of consumers base their purchasing decisions on positive online reviews, while 86% said their decisions were influenced by negative online reviews. If you want your patients to choose your practice over your competitors’ you should be utilizing the tools your patients use - one of which is online reviews.

Andrey Lipattsev, the Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google, Ireland, revealed two of the top three signals that Google uses to rank search results: content, and links. But search engines rely on hundreds of factors for ranking search results, and online reviews rank pretty high on that list. In fact, review signals rank as high as fifth on local search engine ranking factors. That's right - fifth! You might be thinking: "but reviews are just people's opinions about a business, why do they matter so much to search engines?" Three words: User-Generated Content.


More than just a bunch of people praising (or cursing) your practice, online reviewers are a valuable asset to search engines when it comes to evaluating websites. Search engines look at reviews as original, organic content created by users. This content lends legitimacy to your website, as search engines look for honest testimonials about your practice.


Okay, so you know how valuable online reviews are to search engines. How exactly do they impact SEO? Simply put, reviews and ratings can help distinguish your practice from the competition in search engine results. Other than reviews being organic, user-generated content, search engines also look at the quantity, diversity, and velocity of reviews. In fact, factors related to reviews were among the top 50 factors that influence search results rankings. Some of these include: product/service keywords in reviews, positive sentiment in reviews, and authority of third-party sites on which reviews are present.


Related Article: Online Reputation Management for Practices


Now that you understand how important online reviews are to search engines, let’s talk about how you can use them to boost your SEO.

  1. User-generated Content



    2. An active site makes for a happy search engine. Sites stay active by generating content. However, this can be a tedious and expensive job. So how can a website keep generating content without expending effort and money? The answer: rely on user-generated content.
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ODA Spring Meeting 2017 #ASM150 Highlights


It was great being able to see so many of our clients and practice staff, as well as connecting with all the attendees who dropped by our booth at the ODA Spring meeting in Toronto last week.
Since everyone really enjoyed getting their caricatures done last year at the ODA ASM16 and the AACD in Toronto, we really wanted to bring back the fun again this year!

Thank you to all the good sports who came by and generated fun new personal content for your online marketing! #uponlinesmiles

 

Those who dropped in their contact information with us are automatically eligible for a 4 month FREE trial of patient newsletters or social media posts. Please contact us if you spoke to us but were not able to leave a card or fill out a ballot!

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5 Examples of Great Dental Newsletter Practices



By: Will Koziey-Kronas

A great newsletter checks a lot of important boxes – on a regular basis, it ensures your patients keep your practice top-of-mind, are aware and engaged with any interesting content, and have opportunities for outreach.

To check those boxes, however, you need to be aware of what constitutes great dental newsletter content– so here are five excellent practices (with examples) to incorporate into your own newsletter.

Related Article: 5 tips on how to create a great email newsletter

  1. Hillcrest Dental: - Do's instead of Don't's

    2. Full example available here.
    Patients expect to hear "don'ts" from their clinic: lists of things to avoid eating, drinking, and doing for the benefit of their dental health. So why not shake things up – as Hillcrest Dental did – and highlight a list of "do's"? A list recommending teeth-friendly food carries a more positive vibe than a list forbidding patients from certain foods, and is more likely to grab their interest.

    Related Article: 5 eNewsletter Mistakes and How to Fix Them

  2. Port Hope Dental - Ask and Incentivize Reviews

    3. Full example available here.
    Your patients aren't likely to leave feedback if you don't prompt them, but your newsletter should do more than asking them to fill out a survey. Do as Port Hope Dental did: provide incentives (a gift card in their case), express your gratitude, and let them know how long the process will take and whether the survey is confidential.

    Related Article: 5 Ways to Ask For Referrals and Reviews

  3. Upper Avenue Dentistry – Take Advantage of the Season and Holidays

    4. Full example available here.
    Your newsletter should take into account the season and holidays of the month it mails. Follow the example of Upper Avenue Dentistry and tie any service promotions you are offering to specific holidays or seasonal themes, helping the service appear more relevant.

  4. Kingsbury Dental - Discuss Big Health Concerns, And How to Address Them

    5. Full example available here.
    Discussing cavity prevention is one thing, but it's the larger health concerns (such as Kingsbury Dental's oral cancer discussion) that are more prone to generating interest. Of course, make sure to address techniques, remedies, and fixes as well. No one wants to read about infant tooth decay, for example, without knowing how they can also avoid it.

  5. Danforth Neighbourhood Dental Centre – Promote Your Staff

    6. Full example available here.
    Your newsletter is a great place to show off some of the hard-working talent behind your practice. Giving patients faces to and names to associate with your clinic helps establish connection, but if you want to go further, like the Danforth Neighbourhood Dental Centre, promote your staff's achievements as well.

Hopefully these examples have been both educational and inspiring. We can at least guarantee that they'll be effective - elevating your newsletter into a compelling content experience that promotes your practice in all the right ways. Contact us to learn more about the importance of newsletters and how we may be of any help to you!
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