Are the before and after photos on your dental website actually attracting more patients? Is this really what patients look for when deciding on a dentist? Well we’ve run some A/B testing experiments and determined that these photos may be doing more to scare away your potential patients rather than attracting them.

A lot of dental websites feature before & after pictures showcasing the amazing work that dentist has done for their past patients. It makes logical sense doesn’t it? If you want to get more dental implant cases for example then you need to showcase what a great job you’ve done for your past patients. How else are you going to stand apart from every other dentist in the area that also offers dental implants?

Well, we put this theory to the test. We created two versions of our dental implants landing page, one that had before & after photos and one that didn’t. We then set up a test using Google Optimize so whenever someone visited the page, 50% of them would be shown the original version without before & after photos, and 50% would be shown the page with before & photos.

We let the experiment run for a month and here are the results. Google determined that there is a 100% probability that the original version of the landing page, the one that didn’t have before & after photos, was the better page.

In a sample size of nearly 300 unique visitors to our dental implants page Google Optimize determined: The original has a 100% probability to be best

• The original page that didn’t have before & after photos had an average time-on-page of 4 minutes and 3 seconds.
• The page with before & after photos had an average time-on-page of 48 seconds.

But now here’s the most important stat to look at. The conversion rate. How many new patient leads did each page generate?

• The original page that didn’t have before & after photos had 10.06% conversion rate and secured 17 new patient leads.
• The page with before and after photos only had a 6.45% conversion rate and only received 8 new patient leads.

That’s a HUGE difference. The other thing to keep in mind is that to drive 300 unique visitors to your website who are looking for dental implants is actually very expensive. According to Google, there are somewhere around 165,000 people every month in North America who look for dental implants online. 

This is a very competitive niche in dentistry and there are tens of thousands of dentists who want to show up anytime someone in their area is looking for dental implants. If you were to run a Google Ads campaign for example to attract people to your website who are looking for dental implants you could expect to pay, according to Google, anywhere from $3.83 per click on the low end, all the way up to $16.60 per click on the high end, mainly depending on the town or city you are in and how competitive it is. 

While a sample size of 300 people may seem small, keep in mind that to drive 300 unique visitors to your website who are looking for dental implants could cost you anywhere from $1,100 all the way up to $5,000 or more depending on where your practice is located. You have to remember that a new dental implants patient is worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in treatment so there is a lot of competition to get in front of these prospects.

Now you may be saying to yourself “well… it’s only a sample size of 300 users… maybe it’s just a fluke right?”

Normally I would agree with you here but it turns out there is such a big difference between the performance of both pages that Google simply didn’t need a large sample size of thousands of users to make the call on which page is better. In just a few weeks and with only 300 users Google Optimize was 100% confident that the original page without before & after photos was the better page.

You may be thinking to yourself “if I needed dental implants, I would want to see the type of work this dentist has done and see proof that they’re really an expert at what they do!”

Here’s the real problem. Most dental websites are not built from the ground up to with information, content, videos, or pictures that actually impress patients. Instead they’re built from the ground up to with content and pictures that the dentist thinks patients want to see.

“Most dental websites are built to impress the dentist NOT the patient”

While some websites suffer from a lack of useful information, there are also a lot of websites with way too much information, too complex, too medical, showing things that are not what patients actually want to see.

For most web developers and marketing companies their primary goal is to make sure the dentist likes the website. The dentist is signing the cheque so the marketing company wants to make sure the dentist is happy. But when you think about it, it doesn’t actually matter whether the dentist likes the websites, what matters is if your potential patients like the website. There is often a very big disconnect between what gets patients to act and what dentists (or web developers) think gets patients to act.

Now for the record, I do think  before & after photos can be useful and can help drive more patients, but not the type of photos that 99% of dentists out there take. Let’s look at an example. Here’s what we typically see on most dental websites out there when it comes to before & after photos. 

The photos seem like they were taken primarily for medical documentation purposes rather than to inspire new patients about how this procedure could transform their lives. The quality and the lighting is usually pretty bad and in the vast majority of photos you don’t see the the eyes or the rest of the patient’s face which makes it feel like you’re looking at crime scene photos of a murder. Usually these photos feature some of the worst cases the dentist has dealt with.

These photos convey a very different feeling to patients than they do to dentists. To the average patient these types of photos look gruesome and actually make them second guess themselves as to whether or not they really need treatment.

Now let’s compare this to the types of photos that Smile Direct Club uses.

As you can see the photos look warm and friendly. You can see the patient’s entire face. They’re smiling, they’re happy, they’re enjoying life. What this communicates to potential patient is “this could be you”.

Also notice that the before photo doesn’t look bad either. In the after photo the patient does look better but they’re still happy and smiling in the before photo as well. It’s very subtle but it’s very smart. What it’s saying is “you’re already beautiful, but we can make you just that much better”

Now Smile Direct Club is a major competitor to most dentists out there, and say what you will about the quality of their service, but you cannot argue that they are experts at marketing and they really understand what patients want. As of this video they’ve signed up nearly, if not more than, a million customers. There’s a lot you can learn here.

So what’s the take away here? If you have before & after photos on your website should you get rid of them? Well… if they’re not the type of photos you see on Smile Direct Club then… yeah I would probably get rid of them, or at least test it out.

The most important take away though is to realize that there is often a HUGE disconnect between what patients actually want and what dentists THINK patients want, and this is largely why a lot of dental practices out there struggle and why large companies like Smile Direct Club and Open Care are able to enter the marketplace so easily and disrupt the whole industry. 

What may have worked in dentistry 5 or 10,years ago is not what’s going to help you build a successful dental practice today.

With the whole industry becoming so competitive, it’s never been more important to start taking a data driven approach to  your marketing.

There are a lot of great dentists out there that remain a “best kept secret” in their area because potential patients have a hard time finding them online when searching for a new dentist. In this video we look at different factors Google looks at when deciding which dental practices to show at the top of the page and what you can do to increase the online visibility of your practice.

One of the biggest challenges we see at RevUp Dental is that there are a lot of really great dental practices out there with great dentists, with amazing staff, and they deliver amazing dental care, but because their marketing isn’t up to par, they remain kind of like a “best kept secret” in their area. They’re the best dental practice, with the best dentist, and the best dental team that unfortunately most people in that area have never heard about, and probably never will. It doesn’t matter how good you are if nobody knows you exist.

One of the best ways to get your practice noticed is by spending a few minutes updating your Google My Business listing, and I’m going to show you how to do that. Your Google My Business listing tells Google important information about your dental practice such as where you’re located, your hours of operation, and what kind of dental services you offer. 

So first off,  what exactly is Google My Business? This is essentially a business listing that tells Google important information about your dental practice such as where you’re located, your hours of operation, and what kind of dental services you offer. When a potential patient goes on Google and types in something like “Dentist in Dundas Ontario” you’ll often notice the search results feature a map where Google recommends 3 dentists in the area for them to check out. This is called the local map pack.

If you’re one of the three recommended dentists on the map pack, you’re going to see a noticeable increase in new patient inquiries as most people will simply call one of those three dentists. There may be dozens, or even hundreds of dentists in your city, so how do you get to be one of the three dentists listed on the map pack? Who gets listed on the map pack is based on many different factors but in today’s video I’m going to show you a few key ways to optimize your Google My Business listing to significantly increase the chance that you show up in one of those 3 positions. 

The first thing you need to do is login to your Google My Business profile. You can do this by going to google.com/business and logging in with your Google account. If you never setup your Google My Business listing then it’s very likely this was probably done for you already by your current or previous web developer or marketing company so get in touch with them to find out. 

If they didn’t setup this profile either it’s also possible that Google automatically created the profile using information it found from other business directories. If this is the case then when you Google your business name on the listing you should see a button that says Claim this business

If you click that button and follow the verification instructions you can take control of your business profile. This usually involves them giving you an automated call to your business number with a PIN that you have to enter in or if that’s not possible they may send a post card to your business address with a PIN instead. Once you enter that PIN you can verify that you own the business.

Once you’re inside Google My Business the first thing you want to do is update the information under Info. In order to rank better on Google local search it’s important that you have something called NAP consistency. NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. You want to make sure that you have the exact same name, address, and phone number on every online listing that mentions your practice, from Facebook, to RateMDs, Yellowpages, etc.

Often what we see when we start working with a new dentist is that on Google My Business their practice name is called ABC Dental, but on Yellowpages that same practice is listed as ABC Dentistry, and on Facebook it says Dr. John Smith, and then on their website it says something completely different again. This can confuse Google’s algorithm and makes them uncertain whether this is the same business or completely different businesses. This is especially problematic since many dental offices have very similar names to other offices in their area.

Whatever Name, Address, and Phone Number you set on Google My Business should be the EXACT SAME name, address, and phone number you use on your website, your Facebook page, and any other listing for your business on the internet.

Next, you want to optimize the Services section. Something like 95% of dentists that we work with, when we check this section, it’s completely empty. This sections helps Google better understand what services you actually offer. You can list things like Children’s Dentistry, Dental Emergencies, Root Canals, Invisalign, etc. 

You don’t need to list every single little thing that you do, but you do want to at least mention the primary services you offer whether it’s crowns, dental implants, veneers, etc. Somewhere between 10-15 different services is a good place to start. 

In the description for each service you want to talk a little bit about how you do the service, if you have any special equipment, maybe the experience of the dentist, or any reason why a potential patient should pick your dental practice over the many others in the area. 

When a potential patient in your area searches for something like “Invisalign near me” or “best Invisalign dentist in <your city>” if you have mentioned Invisalign in the services then it increases the chance Google may recommend you and show your practice on the map pack.

Next, you want to make sure you have photos on your listing. You want a nice array of images like pictures of your practice, inside, outside, pictures of you and your team, any company events, so for example if you took your team out to lunch a few months ago to celebrate someone’s birthday or if you attended any training events or seminars. These are all great images to put up.

If you have a video of your dental practice or any patient testimonial videos, you can upload them to the photos section as well. This shows Google that your business is active and engaged. If your Google My Business profile hasn’t been updated in years, you have no photos, no description, no services, then Google isn’t really sure whether you’re even still in business and they are not going to want to recommend you to anyone. 

The next thing to look at is the Reviews section. One of your primary aims as a dental practice needs to be getting more Google reviews than every other dental practice in your area. Google reviews are the gold standard of reviews on the internet and they help increase your rankings.

Always make sure to ask your patients to leave reviews. At RevUp Dental we use a review management system that makes it easy for office staff to request reviews from patients and makes it easy for patients to leave reviews with a single click. There are a lot of solutions out there that can do that like BirdEye, Trustpilot, Demand Force, etc, and we highly recommend using one of them to make it easy both for your staff and your patients.

As far as Google My Business is concerned, you want to make sure you respond to the reviews, and not just the bad ones, but also the good ones too. Again, Google likes to see that you are active and engaged and communicating with your patients. They are a lot more likely to recommend your practice in the map pack if they see that you are actively responding to reviews.

The last thing we’re going to look at is Posts. This section is great for putting out updates on your practice. If your practice has any closures or special holiday hours, if you’ve had any special events recently, if you’re doing a new promotion or event, these are all great things to put up in the Posts section. 

Again this shows Google that your business is active and engaged, which are the types of businesses Google wants to recommend to people. You don’t have to post something here everyday or even every week, just an occasional update to show Google that your business still has a pulse.

So I hope you found this useful. These changes and improvements can be done in less than an hour and could significantly increase how often you show up on the local map pack. Having a strong visibility on local search could drive a lot more new patients to your practice. 

It’s important to remember that Google has no way to objectively determine whether one dentist is better than another… clinically. You could operate a fantastic dental practice with an amazing team of people who deliver the ultimate level of dental care… but none of that really matters if nobody knows about it.