Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2017 - 65

Presentation Summary

Getting Found and
Looking Your Best Online
Dr. Dawn Pruzansky
PCSO Bulletin Contributing Editor

Dr. Greg Jorgensen
Rio Rancho, NM

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Example of a Google SERP

Summer 2017  PCSO Bulletin

Presented by Dr. Greg Jorgensen at the PCSO Spring
Training, March 3, 2017.
Dr. Jorgensen began his career in 1992, when
most new patients found an orthodontist
through a referral from a general dentist or a
listing in the Yellow Pages. Since 2000, however,
we've seen a "perfect storm" of conditions: twice
as many residency graduates, four times as many
pediatric residency graduates, general dentists
now providing Invisalign, and a declining
birthrate. This combination of factors has
resulted in fewer referrals to orthodontists. Fortunately, as the number of orthodontic referrals
was declining, a new source of patients appeared
on the scene: the Internet. Around 2000, the first
orthodontic websites began appearing; these
were primarily brochures that displayed information provided solely by practice owners. The mid2000s saw the rise of social media interaction;
patients were now able to post comments and
reviews of their doctors.
In his first lecture on social media in 2011 at the
Moyer's Symposium, Dr. Jorgensen predicted that
Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and
other social media platforms would grow to
become a major source of patients. Companies
appeared on the scene promising to drive new
patients to orthodontic offices via a practice's
online presence. Orthodontists were told that
without social media, their practices would not
be able to compete.
Insights from Google Analytics
In the six years since that lecture, Dr. Jorgensen
has used Google analytics to monitor the sources
of traffic to his website. The service can provide
information on the number of visitors to your
site, where they came from, which pages they
looked at, and how long they stayed. What Dr.
Jorgensen found is that 90% of the visitors to his
site came to read his blog to find information
about orthodontics. Unfortunately, most of these
visitors were not local and never became new

patients. The increased traffic to his site may
have helped boost his position in search engine
results (SEO), however, so the blog was still a
worthwhile endeavor.
The next largest group of visitors to his website
came via direct searches for his name or practice
specifically, and not just for generic keywords like
"braces" or "orthodontist." This means that visitors to the site were getting his name from their
families, friends, dentists, or social media. This
revelation emphasizes the need to continue
other marketing and promotion techniques so
that new patients know your name.
The next most common source of traffic to Dr.
Jorgensen's site turned out to be Google advertising (called AdWords). Surprisingly, the social
media sites he predicted to be so important in
2011 accounted for less than half a dozen referrals
to his website each month. So while social media
may have some importance for name recognition, its value as a direct source of new patients
seems to be less critical than predicted.
Analyzing Search Engine Results
When a patient searches for your practice using a
search engine, the results of the search are presented on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
There are three main parts of a Google SERP:
1. Paid ads at the top and bottom of the screen
(up to three per section).
2. Local business listings (or "local pack") listing
the three most pertinent search results.
3. "Organic" search results based upon practice
name, location, website content, etc.
The top and bottom of a SERP is comprised of up
to three paid advertisements, known as AdWords.
AdWords are purchased by businesses using a
clever auction system. The position of ads on
each SERP is determined by the relevance (quality
score) of each ad to the searcher's keywords and
the price each business is willing to pay (the bid).
The cost of an ad is the amount necessary to

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2017