Evolution of this Book

This book originally started out as guided tour through the website planning, design and development process. As the years progressed and as I added more addenda and more content, it became clear that a guide about “just websites” wouldn’t be enough. Twelve years ago, we thought about websites and SEO; today, we think about Internet Marketing.

Working with your practice’s Internet presence can be an intimidating experience – you have to think about technology, marketing and expense. Whether you have an existing Internet presence that you want to enhance, or you are just getting started with a website for your office and you want to learn more, you have come to the right place. Using non-technical language, I will walk you step-by-step through the process of planning and overseeing the building of your website. Along the way I will give you examples, show you pictures, and point out common pitfalls and tell you how to avoid them. We will then take our journey many steps further, as we will answer the question you will ask once your website is built. Namely, “What do I do now?”

Understand that this book is not a guide on how to start programming your own website, how to start researching your own search engine keywords, or how to manage your own Facebook advertising campaigns. If you are interested in these topics and want to learn more, I encourage you to do so and I can recommend excellent resources. My goal in writing this book is to give you a bird’s eye view of the Internet Marketing process. I will be guiding you with what I call the “Small Business Internet Marketing Workflow” as this approach will give you the knowledge and understanding you need to make informed administrative and creative decisions about your office’s Internet presence.

This book is for any dentist (or attorney, physician, consultant, etc - the concepts are similar) who wants to know what to look for when they build or have someone build a website for their practice. You can be an owner, a partner, or any team member who wants to create or enhance the practice's presence on the Internet. The book is organized into sections so that you can read the entire book straight through, or only the sections that are relevant to you.

Though some of the technology concepts introduced throughout this book may seem intimidating and confusing at first, rest assured that they are much less complex than any of the principles you apply every day in the course of practicing dentistry or running the front desk.

As I understand that people have different comfort levels with technology and different levels of understanding, this book has been written to accommodate the novice as well as the experienced reader. This is not a technical book, and you will not be programming a single line of computer code – not one! Really understanding the technology behind what I will teach you is a rewarding endeavor in itself, but this deep level technical understanding is by no means required for you to have a successful website and subsequent Internet Marketing program that will help you acquire customers.

How is this Book Different from Every Other Website and Marketing Book out there?

This book is written specifically for dentists, dental practices, and the dental team members who will manage and help make decisions about the office's website and Internet footprint. This book is unique in that it is part book, and part interactive guide (see below). As with any subject, there is some foundation material that you will have to read and digest. However, I don’t want you to sit and plow through this book and then forget everything you’ve learned; I want to you have the ability to experience this book by applying what you’ve learned to your own website as you are learning it.

Note: As I am also a practicing dentist, many of the examples I use in the book are related to dentistry. However, rest assured that the core concepts of the book are applicable to any small business.