Look Before you Leap...

How often do you think about where you are looking? It isn’t common for a person to analyze the exact spot they are looking at, instead our brains are meant to decipher the information we receive instantaneously into practical thoughts. Very few people think about why they are looking at a particular object. Why did your eye focus on that big red text? Why did that image direct your attention to the text below it or to the right of it? Visual queues are used throughout print media, online media, television media, and in the living world around us. We generally take these queues for granted and just take it all in.

While that’s all nice and good, how does this relate to Search Engine Optimization? It has everything to do with it. Where exactly does a user look when they do a search on Google? We all know it’s important to rank high, or on the first page, but how should our ranking be positioned? Where does the average person focus their attention when searching the web, in particular Google?

A new study conducted by Enquiro, Did-it, and Eyetools has concluded the majority of eye tracking activity occurs within a triangle located at the top left of Google’s search. They dubbed this phenomenon as the “golden triangle”. Their findings conclude it is important where the eye falls on the page since most user clicks happen pretty quickly after the search is done. The study returned interesting percentages for the number of views a ranking will receive. Rankings 1 thru 3 all see 100% of users looked at the ranking. Subsequently rank 4 showed an 85% user looks. As listings went below “the fold” (the line in which you have to scroll to see more content) the rankings dropped off in percentage of views. Rank 5 showed 60% where as ranks 6 and 7 showed 50%. Ranks 8-9 showed 30% and ranking 10 had 20% of overall views. The research concluded that the amount of eye movement declined rapidly as it passed the 4th and 5th rankings. While more research is being done and analyzed, these findings are concurrent with what the researchers expected.

As a dentist and an internet user, take a moment and step back when viewing a page, and look for those visual queues that drive your eyes around your practice’s website. Think for a second, why am I looking at this? Just as a position on a search engine is important, it is also important to guide the users coming from the search engine around your practice’s web page. If a user doesn’t find the information they are looking for, they will go directly back to the search engine to look for a website that does.

Start Building Rapport with Your Visitors

Your dental website often is your first opportunity to develop credibility with prospective dental patients. And since they will likely spend more time viewing your website than any other marketing message you create, it is also your greatest opportunity to establish a rapport with them, as they voyeuristically examine you and your practice from a distance. Unfortunately, most websites, particularly their copy, are presented in a somewhat generic manner, with little very little of your “personality”. The solution: add a blog to your website.

Blogs, or web logs, are journal entries that you can make yourself on a regular basis, without the hassle and cost of going through a webmaster to update it. You can enter your personal insights, helpful consumer information, new discoveries, suggestions, your new procedures and awards, testimonials or other positive comments your clients have shared with you, etc.

It is an effective way for you to distinguish yourself from other cookie-cutter dental surgery websites, and for you to display your knowledge and ability to clearly articulate, demonstrate how you think, show your commitment to a client/case, and let potential patient get to know you on a more personal basis.

Keep in mind, you are in a professional service industry where patients choose dentists (not necessarily institutions or practices) that they like and trust. Start building rapport by letting them know “who” you are.

Bill Fukui
Page 1 Solutions

Advantages of Stats-Tracking Software

The importance of having solid statistical information can never be underestimated when facing tough decisions. Do you have solid statistical information to support decision-making for your dental web marketing strategy?

If the answer to this question is no, then maybe you should consider adding stats-tracking software to your web-marketing arsenal.

There are an abundance of stats-tracking software packages available on the Internet today, targeting virtually every niche and industry out there. However, only a handful offers comprehensive data that answer the questions: Who is coming to your website? Where are they coming from? How do they find your site?

Page 1 Solutions offers a stats-tracking package for its clients called Urchin that answers these questions and more.

There are numerous advantages to being able to track, record and monitor your website’s statistics. One of them is being able to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular marketing or advertising campaign by funneling traffic from a particular campaign through a unique domain name which can be tracked and monitored independently of others pointing to your website.

Another important advantage that a good stats-tracking software package offers is the ability to more effectively predict what changes are necessary for maintaining and even accelerating the growth of your web-marketing campaign and overall Internet presence.

It is important to remember that the addition of stats-tracking software is only one part of an effective overall web-marketing campaign. Your practice’s website and web-marketing campaign must be complemented with other strategies such as optimization, having effective calls to action, and adding fresh content to the site on a regular basis to be able to realize its full potential.

If your website and web-marketing campaign are in need of a boost, call Page 1 Solutions today. We can help your firm realize its full web-marketing potential.