Infinity Insights Infinity Dental Web
  • Infinity Dental Web
  • About Us
  • Portfolio & Case Studies
  • Websites
  • Ask for a Quote
  • Blog

Reputation Management

How Many Dental Patients Check Reviews First?

Date: December 5, 2016
Category:
  • Reputation Management
Author: David Hall

I’ve seen various figures quoted recently by dental Internet marketing agencies on the number of dental patients who check reviews. These articles don’t mention their sources, and I suspect some of the numbers may come from generic surveys asking people if they use online reviews. Being a stickler for good, hard, reliable data, I thought we should publish the latest figures from our ongoing research here at Infinity Dental Web. We conduct ongoing surveys of new patients making dental appointments. This is not generic research, but is a survey of actual patients who are making appointments who found their dentists on the Internet. We ask them if they checked online reviews before making their appointments. Here is the chart we published a little over a year ago showing numbers from 2014 and 2015:

Importance of online reviews to dentists

And here is the latest data, from a recent survey of 127 patients:

how many dental patients are checking reviews before making an appointment

This is clearly a trend that keeps on growing.

But let’s add to that, how many dental patients are checking the practice Facebook page before making an appointmentafter which I think we can draw a general conclusion about the direction of changes of online dental marketing. Along with asking patients if they checked reviews before making an appointment, we have also been asking if they have checked the practice’s Facebook page. We haven’t previously published this data because we were only getting about 8-9% of patients who said they were doing that, so the information didn’t seem very significant. But recently this number has taken a surge and our latest data, from these same 127 patients, shows that this percentage has more than doubled this year to 19%.

The general trend we are seeing here is that prospective patients are becoming more discriminating and careful in their research. This dovetails with other research we have conducted showing that the former trend of simply going to the dentist that showed up #1 or #2 in Google has matured into a trend of checking out several websites and choosing the one that appeals to them the most. This data shows that most prospective patients are even going beyond that and checking the reviews, and a growing percentage are also checking out the business Facebook page.

The bottom line for dental practices is that they need a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy. Merely getting exposure through Google rankings is not enough. The practice needs to create a quality impression with a variety of tools. If there are credible negative reviews, it can neutralize a majority of other efforts. Having a professional image on Facebook will also enhance the conversion rate of the website.

(Visited 671 times, 1 visits today)
David Hall is the founder and president of Infinity Dental Web. He was a practicing dentist for many years and is an accredited member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.

Tags: dentist search trends, digital marketing trends, Facebook, marketing research, online reviews, research, website conversions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Review Bug Causes Google Reviews to Disappear
  • The Value of Social Media for a Dental Practice
  • ADA Compliance Standards – How to Avoid a Lawsuit
  • What More Can I Do? Social Media and Your Marketing Plan
  • CallRail vs. Kall8
  • Search Trends in 2020
  • Virtual Consult App
  • Search Engine Journal – Don’t You Know This?

Search

Categories

  • Client News (98)
  • Company News (104)
  • Designs (14)
  • Feature Client (4)
  • Local Search (34)
  • Marketing (59)
  • Meet the Team (14)
  • Mobile Websites (13)
  • Regulations (2)
  • Reputation Management (19)
  • SEO (85)
  • Social Media for Dentists (83)
  • Tech Trends (45)
  • Uncategorized (6)
  • Video (8)
  • Website Design (2)

Archives

  • November 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • April 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • November 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (2)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (6)
  • April 2020 (5)
  • March 2020 (3)
  • December 2019 (2)
  • October 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • April 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • October 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (3)
  • August 2018 (3)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • May 2018 (1)
  • April 2018 (2)
  • March 2018 (3)
  • February 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • May 2017 (2)
  • April 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (3)
  • November 2016 (1)
  • October 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • July 2016 (4)
  • June 2016 (2)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (1)
  • March 2016 (4)
  • February 2016 (5)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • December 2015 (7)
  • November 2015 (7)
  • October 2015 (6)
  • September 2015 (5)
  • August 2015 (4)
  • July 2015 (4)
  • June 2015 (10)
  • May 2015 (2)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (1)
  • February 2015 (4)
  • January 2015 (1)
  • December 2014 (5)
  • November 2014 (2)
  • October 2014 (6)
  • September 2014 (7)
  • August 2014 (2)
  • July 2014 (8)
  • June 2014 (5)
  • May 2014 (7)
  • April 2014 (4)
  • March 2014 (3)
  • February 2014 (3)
  • January 2014 (7)
  • December 2013 (6)
  • November 2013 (6)
  • October 2013 (6)
  • September 2013 (4)
  • August 2013 (5)
  • July 2013 (5)
  • June 2013 (7)
  • May 2013 (6)
  • April 2013 (4)
  • March 2013 (6)
  • February 2013 (9)
  • January 2013 (7)
  • December 2012 (11)
  • November 2012 (8)
  • October 2012 (5)
  • September 2012 (5)
  • August 2012 (7)
  • July 2012 (4)
  • June 2012 (6)
  • May 2012 (3)
  • April 2012 (5)
  • March 2012 (4)
  • February 2012 (5)
  • January 2012 (5)
  • December 2011 (5)
  • November 2011 (4)
  • October 2011 (4)
  • September 2011 (1)
  • August 2011 (6)
  • July 2011 (5)
  • June 2011 (6)
  • May 2011 (8)
  • April 2011 (9)
  • March 2011 (7)
  • February 2011 (8)
  • January 2011 (8)
  • December 2010 (9)
  • November 2010 (9)
  • October 2010 (9)
  • September 2010 (7)
  • August 2010 (10)
  • July 2010 (8)
  • June 2010 (5)
  • May 2010 (1)
  • April 2010 (4)
  • March 2010 (2)
  • February 2010 (1)
  • November 2009 (2)
  • October 2009 (7)

Tags

advertising American Dental Association Content Management System Websites content marketing cosmetic dentist COVID-19 dental marketing Dental SEO dental social media Dental Website Design Dental Websites Dentist dentists Facebook Facebook marketing general dentist general dentistry Google+ Google Business Listings Google places Google Reviews Google Universal Search Great Dental Websites Infinity Dental Web Instagram Internet Internet Marketing LinkedIn local search marketing Mobile Websites online reviews Pinterest post SEO social Social Media Social Media for Dentists social network technology Twitter Web Yelp Yelp Reviews YouTube Channel
Infinity Dental Web Logo Icon

And now ...
let us grow your practice

BBB Accredited Business badge American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Corporate Member badge

© 2009-2023 Infinity Dental Web Inc. IDW logo All rights reserved | Privacy Policy

Email address