1. Frequency

You don’t have to be a blogging fanatic if you’re just getting started. Whether it’s once a day or once a week, it’s important that you post new information on a consistent basis if you want readers to come back.

2. Topic

Always try to tie your blog posts back to one or two specific themes. Specializing is so important in today’s world of “free information”.  If you are a dentist, focus on dental internet marketing and grow your readership there.

3. Links

For most, this is a no-brainer. But if you’re new to blogging, you need to remember that a blog post without a link to another post on your website is pointless. Deep linking (inner linking on your website) is a great benefit, both to readers and also to search engines. One of my favorite wordpress plugins is the Related Posts. It creates automatic “deep links” based on the content of your blog posts. We don’t want to overdo the anchor links on our blog posts, but it’s important to make keyword links to other related pages. It’s also very beneficial for your reputation to include links to other articles you’ve read that relate (a bit of “link love”).

4. Reviews

If you are selling products on your website, it’s a good idea to do reviews from time to time – tell visitors why your products are better than the competition (use testimonials and feedback from clients). Side by side comparisons can work wonders for a blog that’s promoting products. Interviews can also work wonders.

5. Comments

Quality comments on a well known blog can greatly build your credibility as a new member in the industry.

6. Networking

Social media is obvious. Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon are great places to start.

A few ways to “network” with bloggers in your industry:

Offer to do a “Guest Post” on their blog

Write an article that’s informative and share it with them to publish on their site or in their forum

Offer them a “Revenue Sharing Opportunity” if they will help you sell your products to their clients

Have them send a dedicated email to their database promoting what you do

To many, these concepts may seem second nature, nothing we haven’t heard before. But sometimes even the most “basic concepts” often get overlooked.

Blogging about interesting topics related to your field is one thing; blogging for high rankings is another. Sure, it is important to write compelling posts. Do it consistently and your readership will grow. But, in addition to this, you need to optimize what you write.

How do you do that? Well, there are a number of ways, and we’ve talked about dental internet marketing before here on Dentistry Leads. Today we are concerned with pages versus posts, and using popular posts from the past to bring higher rankings to new posts.

The first thing is posts. If you are writing a longer article, one that is loaded with information on a broad topic, and if you are confident you will be referencing it in the future, make the post a page. Publishing articles as pages protects your keyword density and allows you to refer to any changes or updates you make to it in a post.

The second thing is linking to popular posts. If you have an extremely popular post, where people have commented and search engines give you a high ranking, link to it often. This in turn will increase the rankings of the new post, while keeping the eyes on the old post fresh.

Dentists: If you are not yet using social media to grow your online presence, if you are overwhelmed by the number of sites and communities to which you must contribute, then take stock in the fact that just because social media is a relatively new outlet, it still operates on four basic marketing principles.

•    Listen to what your targeted demographic is saying. Insights are all over the place on social media. Use popular terms and implement them as keywords on your site and blog.
•    Organize your efforts. It’s true that there are many social media sites. Do some research and see which ones work best for you. Or, more importantly, figure out which sites the groups you are targeting use.
•    Engage the community. Share content, advice, compliments, questions and concerns. Get the dialogue started.
•    Measure the results. If you’re putting in work and not getting any additional traffic to your site and blog, chances are you’re barking up the wrong tree. Take a step back, reassess, research and then go at it somewhere else.

In the end, social media is an effective tool in your dental Internet marketing campaign. Use it wisely and traffic will grow.

Understanding the terms being searched in dentist Internet marketing is not a guessing game. Google’s Keyword Search Tool allows businesses to track the most popular words, search phrases and trends. It also allows you to organize, project and build strategy. And it’s free. Here are more reasons to take advantage of Google’s Keyword Tool.

1) Dentists can filter your criteria for better results. If a term is not pertinent to your goals, you can simply remove it.

2) Organize your keywords into groups. This is an asset when working with Google Adwords, as it helps you to decide which landing pages to use, with which terms, for your PPC campaigns.

3) Change your search theme. If your current keywords are performing poorly, expand the search to include broader terms. This can help turn around a sluggish keyword trend.

4) Relevant statistics. Use the “Show or Hide Columns” to track such things as performance statistics and keyword results over 12-month periods. This option shows which words advertisers are bidding on and the previous month’s search for that particular word or phrase.

5) Once you decide which keywords to focus on, use the “Web site Content” option. This allows you to scan your Web site or other landing pages for the keywords you want to target. The option also provides suggestions on other keywords that will help boost traffic.

Finding the right approach to optimize your Web site takes time and dedication. But if you want a successful SEO business, there is no better way to understand what people in your industry and your clients are searching for.

Using social media can be a powerful SEO tool. But it takes a decent amount of dedication and finesse in order to make your efforts successful. Below you will find 10 ways to use social media to improve your dental Internet marketing.

1) Be an active participant.

2) Only use social media if you are ready to commit to it.

3) Understand your targeted channel/audience.

4) Complete your profile.

5) Use your personality, and your business personality.

6) Don’t constantly market your business.

7) Share information, knowledge, and tips.

8) Show gratitude for referrals and links.

9) Be transparent.

10) Make it easy for other users to bookmark or subscribe to your content.

Blogs may be ubiquitous, but not all of them are built for SEO success. Below you will find five easy to follow steps that will give your blog the extra search engine optimization it needs.

1) Tags. Tags are an effective and easy way for your blog to be found for various topics. Use them often and wisely. Most Word press themes are geared to optimizing your title tags.

2) Meta tags. Although these are not as important as they once were, it is still a good habit to use them regularly. Like tags, meta tags are tools that give your blog a better shot at being found on Google.

3) Submit your blog’s content. You can wait for Google to crawl and discover your blog, or you can manually submit your content. This will help your blog get noticed quicker. You can submit your URL manually here.

4) Feeds. Take advantage of RSS and News Feeds. These keep your readers updated, making sure they are engaged with all of the new content you put on your blog.

5) Content Creation. All of the work you do on your blog is for naught if you don’t update consistently. Be sure to write compelling content regularly.

Follow these steps and your dentistry blog will achieve more traffic.

For dentists to run a successful SEO campaign, a number of tools need to be in place. If only we knew our clients as well as Google knows us, business would be running at a breakneck speed.

Google undoubtedly improves our experience on the Web. But by doing so, and by being involved in so many aspects of our lives, they glean a tremendous amount of information. The e-justice blog recently posted 25 things that Google knows about you.

Here’s the most glaring from the list.

* The web pages you visit: Google AdSense is used by many web pages for online advertising, and Google’s cookies record your visits to web pages with their ad program on them.

* The blogs you read: If you use Google Reader, Google knows the blogs you subscribe to. Even if you’re not on Google Reader, Google knows all of the Blogger pages you visit.

* Who and what you’re emailing: GMail users, and those who send mail to GMail users share a variety of personal and business information with Google.

* What’s on your PC: If you’re using Google Desktop, Google knows everything that you keep on your computer.

* Your schedule: Google Calendar opens your personal and business schedule up to the prying eyes of Google.

* Your social network and interests: Google indexes sites like Orkut, Facebook, and Digg, and as such, has access to information about what you’re interested in online.

* Where you and your friends are: Using Google Latitude, cell phone users can share their location with others. Even if you’re not using Latitude, Google Maps for mobile can approximate your location.

* Your medical issues: Do you use Google Health? If so, you’re sharing your entire medical history with Google.

* Mobile number: On SMS, Google Mobile, and Gmail, you can reveal your mobile number to Google.

* What you, your friends and family look like and do: With the photo editor Picasa, you’re revealing your photographs, friends, and moments to Google.

Dentists should pay special attention to SEO. If a site is SEO friendly and has quality content, it will stand out from the rest.

Here are 10 tips to optimizing your site.

1.    Make sure your template is SEO friendly. When you use a good template, your pages can be updated easily and all look the same. This is an easy way to keep your site ranking well with consistently updated content.

2.    Meta Tags and Title Tags. Utilize them and search engines will rank your pages higher.

3.    CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets controls the layout of multiple pages simultaneously. Be sure to take control of CSS.

4.    Content is King. Make it informative and digestible. Clean up any unnecessary clutter and load your pages with unique content.

5.    Ensure your users find your content with clear navigation.

6.    Avoid too many images. While everybody loves a nice picture, too many will slow your site’s loading process.

7.    Use a sitemap. It helps search engines find your pages.

8.    HTML. Make sure it is clear, simple and correct.

9.    Content Organization helps increase traffic. Write one page and focus on one key phrase. The title of the page should reflect the key phrase. These pages should be broken into themes.

10.    Keep the text easy to read. Don’t stuff the page with too much, and use a darker colored text on a light background.

There is no doubt that SEO evolves quickly. Often, by the time a business perfects its link-building, keywords, and community practices, an element is changed by Google and searching for certain terms and ranking for it is a different challenge.

Currently Google is changing their algorithm so every person who searches a term receives different information based on location and search history.

This has big implications for SEO. Instead of link-building and focusing on keyword research, businesses will have to put more energy into drafting compelling copy that is relevant for people in various markets.

The end goal for Google is to give searches a human element. This is good for the user and ultimately, good for businesses. It will, for the time being, help to flush out some of the black hat marketing tactics that are affecting searches and flooding the Web with spam. It is the latest wave in the ever evolving field of dental internet marketing.

Dentists interested in bolstering their online presence need to use a blog. It’s as simple as that. A blog is powerful because it provides customers with important information about your services. A blog also improves your business’ own visibility in search engine pages.  By consistently adding new content and focusing on the keywords that are popular in your niche market, a blog brings your business to the next level, attracting customers, readers and public exposure.

Four important blog features:

1) Content development keeps people up on what is happening with your business. Content demonstrates your expertise, achievements and current events.

2) Engage your customers. A blog has features that allows readers to comment on posts. You can also have guest bloggers, ask your customers questions, elicit product or service reviews, and discover the keywords your customers use.

3) Search engine visibility. It doesn’t matter if you write the best blog post, if your blog is not search engine optimized, nobody will read it. Use Wordpress and its SEO plugins to maximize your blog.

4) Use the newest technology. By keeping up with the latest technology and trends in your field, you show yourself as a leader. When you use these products and services, discuss their merit and shortcomings. Again, you are providing insight for your customers. Which, in the end, improves your bottom line. And makes succesful your dental internet marketing campaign.