Comments on: Your website is not generating as many hits as you think it is

By: Ed Ridgway

Ed Ridgway — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:09:06 +0000

The answer depends on you. If you are happy with your position in the market, and don’t perceive any threats to that position, why spend money on SEO you don’t need? Your website provider and host, IDA, have done a satisfactory job of positioning you already. I just Googled the name of your town and the word”dentist”. Your listing is ranked highly, multiple times. That may be sufficient for a long time. But if you depend on and need the new patients that are generated by search engines, you need to stay aware of your competition, and step it up if someone challenges your position. Bottom line is this – you are well positioned now, but don’t go to sleep on this!

By: Jim Crummett

Jim Crummett — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:38:08 +0000

I practice in a fairly isolated market of ~150,000, located 70 miles from the next market of a slightly smaller size. I am not seriously expecting to be “searched out” on the net very often. In a market ten times my size, that makes sense. Instead we use our radio and other ads to refer people to our web site. Our intent is that they will find the information they desire without our exposing them to our competitors’ ads, ala the yellow pages. So, am I missing something here by not worrying about search engine activity?

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:53:12 +0000

There is a lot of mythology surrounding SEO – what it is and how it is achieved.

Like any other form of marketing, the more you put into it the more you get out. SEO can be elevated through a lot of different techniques, some are effective on some search engines than others. Some are incredibly simple and some are a bit more time intensive to put in place.

The optimization part of SEO is often exchanged for sheer volume. I could dramatically increase the traffic on any website within hours, but what good would it do if those new visitors had little or no relevance to your website content or objective? What if the new volume came from well outside your geographic area of business?

If you are hiring someone to develop a website for you, SEO theories and practice should be on your bullet list of questions. However, like any form a marketing, if you don’t identify your target market, SEO wont amount to a whole lot for you.

By: Ed Ridgway

Ed Ridgway — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:59:29 +0000

The reality is, regardless of what may be best for them, most dentists hire one web company to do everything. Additional SEO services, like those offered by the Visible Dentist, would benefit many of them.

By: The Visible Dentist

The Visible Dentist — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 06:27:01 +0000

This is a bit confusing; a Web host serves up a website’s files to the Internet; while the host usually has at least some elementary stats to monitor site visitors, it has no bearing on generating traffic to the site at all.

There are 3 stages of site development:

1) a Web dev builds the site
2) the site is upload to the host
3) an SEO is tasked with positioning the site

While there are a microscopic few who offer to do do all three, the dentist is best served by delegating each task to its respective specialist.

Moving the site to another hosting company would have zero effect on search engine positions. Alternately, after hiring an SEO expert to position the site, the dentist can then monitor the ranking changes to gauge progress.

John Barremore
Houston, TX

By: Ed Ridgway

Ed Ridgway — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:59:29 +0000

Most of my dentist clients are paying their web host a monthly fee that is supposed to include SEO of some kind. In the interest of efficiency, their current provider should be contacted and given the opportunity to make this right.

The client should first let the host know 1) that they are unhappy, 2) that they want to see improvement, 3) that they’d like to know what steps will be taken to make this happen, and 4) that the business relationship will only continue if measurable improvement is shown.

Very often the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and the customer who just quietly pays his website hosting bill each month gets ignored. Once challenged, I’ve seen some companies take steps to make the site more attractive to the search engines, and I’ve even seen some start a small PPC campaign or buy some other sponsored link at no extra charge to the client.

If the company is unwilling or unable to improve things, the client then must either bring in an outside specialist or move to a new website company.

By: BB Hainsworth

BB Hainsworth — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:09:34 +0000

SO tell me what would the conversation between the dentist and web provider sound like after this information you have shared?