I am in the process of building a new website from scratch and would greatly appreciate any advice. I already have a .pro domain name from EnCirca.
1. Should I build the site myself with a program such as Dreamweaver?
2. Should I have another company such as Televox or Sesame build it for me? If yes, which are the best companies to work with?
3. Which features should I incorporate to maximize the functionality of OD?
Many Thanks for your advice...Joe
Building a Website
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Rickliftig
- Posts: 764
- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:50 pm
- Location: West Hartford, CT
- Contact:
Re: Building a Website
Joe -
My advice - go onto Dentaltown and in the Marketing Message Board Section, you will find a ton of posts that answer this question. In particular, pay attention to Mike Barr's posts, as he has rolled his own website and done a great job attracting new clients and good search engine rankings (ie. he shows up on the first page pg of Google). Mike sells a self-published book about this, which I have not purchased, but most likely has some great meat in it.
Your website should have a few simple goals:
1) It should show up well in search engines. The gold standard is of course, Google. So when someone does a search for "dentist yourtown", you pop up in the first few listings. In the trade this is called SEO (search engine optimization)
2) When someone goes to your page, it should be compelling enough that they stay on it for a while (this can be tracked) and that they can easily convert into a new patient.
Think like a consumer and check put websites of docs in your town and other websites. Does the symphonic music attract you to the site? The dancing teeth? Not likely. Folks are looking for solid information that doesn't appear "canned", convenience and an idea of who you are.
I rolled my own website using my domain provider, one and one. It ranks #2 for "Dentist - West Hartford" and is heavy on written content. I contracted a friend (big mistake) to overhaul it (last summer) and she still hasn't gotten around to it - grrrr.
Bottom line, go on to Dentaltown and read up.
best,
Rick
My advice - go onto Dentaltown and in the Marketing Message Board Section, you will find a ton of posts that answer this question. In particular, pay attention to Mike Barr's posts, as he has rolled his own website and done a great job attracting new clients and good search engine rankings (ie. he shows up on the first page pg of Google). Mike sells a self-published book about this, which I have not purchased, but most likely has some great meat in it.
Your website should have a few simple goals:
1) It should show up well in search engines. The gold standard is of course, Google. So when someone does a search for "dentist yourtown", you pop up in the first few listings. In the trade this is called SEO (search engine optimization)
2) When someone goes to your page, it should be compelling enough that they stay on it for a while (this can be tracked) and that they can easily convert into a new patient.
Think like a consumer and check put websites of docs in your town and other websites. Does the symphonic music attract you to the site? The dancing teeth? Not likely. Folks are looking for solid information that doesn't appear "canned", convenience and an idea of who you are.
I rolled my own website using my domain provider, one and one. It ranks #2 for "Dentist - West Hartford" and is heavy on written content. I contracted a friend (big mistake) to overhaul it (last summer) and she still hasn't gotten around to it - grrrr.
Bottom line, go on to Dentaltown and read up.
best,
Rick
Another Happy Open Dental User!
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
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Rickliftig
- Posts: 764
- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:50 pm
- Location: West Hartford, CT
- Contact:
Re: Building a Website
One other thing to think about is purchasing multiple domains. The domain name is very influential in your search engine rankings. So in my case: west-hartford-dentist.com; drliftig.com;westhartforddentist.com;westhartforddentistry.com; hartforddental.com etc. etc are all names that I would look to purchase and control.
And you can pay for this by dropping your Yellow Pages Ad.
And you can pay for this by dropping your Yellow Pages Ad.
Another Happy Open Dental User!
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
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Joe Gordon
- Posts: 64
- Joined: Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:43 am
Re: Building a Website
Rick,
Many thanks for the valuable info. Spent a few hours on DentalTown- some good stuff on there.
We are continuing to streamline our practice to increase efficiency, and we still have a long way to go. OD is an integral part of this, as we have been customizing the pms to save us hours a day in pre-patient care tasks and procedures. For the website, our main focus is: (1) Further increase efficiency and convenience with the new pt forms, and (2) Provide valuable info about our practice- especially discussing our mission, vision, practice philosophies, schedule design, etc- so that we do not need to spend several minutes on the initial phone call discussing every aspect. Now we still have parents arrive at our office and say no one ever reviewed these things on the phone, and they say to their children, "I promise I won't let them hurt you." Then they become unglued. Although this happens only about 2x/year, this is way too much.
For years when the referral source was yellow pages, there was a high probability that the parents were unfavorable for our practice. It seemed that most of these parents would simply pick a name out of the phone book, and exceptional patient care was not a priority. Favorable parents like to hear our name with a positive vibe from several sources- friends, healthcare providers, etc. We don't have much tolerance for parents who are habitually late or no show. And I have zero tolerance for parents who exhibit the offshoot of Münchausen syndrome by proxy that are insistent on creating the victim/perpetrator/rescuer triangle in our practice. Part of our vision is to fill our practice with families who value our care and who value our schedule as much if not more than their own.
I realize times have changed. With website testimonials and access to practice info, a website would be very valuable for us, to continue attracting favorable families and discourage unfavorable families. I only hope that our site will be a very favorable source. Along the lines of OD, I want to have total control of the site and edit it at will if need be. And looking forward to adding much more functionality with pt communications with sms, emails, pt scheduling, etc. All the stuff all of you power users are hoping for.
Many Thanks again...Joe
Many thanks for the valuable info. Spent a few hours on DentalTown- some good stuff on there.
We are continuing to streamline our practice to increase efficiency, and we still have a long way to go. OD is an integral part of this, as we have been customizing the pms to save us hours a day in pre-patient care tasks and procedures. For the website, our main focus is: (1) Further increase efficiency and convenience with the new pt forms, and (2) Provide valuable info about our practice- especially discussing our mission, vision, practice philosophies, schedule design, etc- so that we do not need to spend several minutes on the initial phone call discussing every aspect. Now we still have parents arrive at our office and say no one ever reviewed these things on the phone, and they say to their children, "I promise I won't let them hurt you." Then they become unglued. Although this happens only about 2x/year, this is way too much.
For years when the referral source was yellow pages, there was a high probability that the parents were unfavorable for our practice. It seemed that most of these parents would simply pick a name out of the phone book, and exceptional patient care was not a priority. Favorable parents like to hear our name with a positive vibe from several sources- friends, healthcare providers, etc. We don't have much tolerance for parents who are habitually late or no show. And I have zero tolerance for parents who exhibit the offshoot of Münchausen syndrome by proxy that are insistent on creating the victim/perpetrator/rescuer triangle in our practice. Part of our vision is to fill our practice with families who value our care and who value our schedule as much if not more than their own.
I realize times have changed. With website testimonials and access to practice info, a website would be very valuable for us, to continue attracting favorable families and discourage unfavorable families. I only hope that our site will be a very favorable source. Along the lines of OD, I want to have total control of the site and edit it at will if need be. And looking forward to adding much more functionality with pt communications with sms, emails, pt scheduling, etc. All the stuff all of you power users are hoping for.
Many Thanks again...Joe