Whether you are in the process of opening a brand new dental practice or redesigning your brand image, one important aspect is your domain name. Choosing the right domain name is key.
In this article, we’re going to explain how to get a good domain name and the key factors you need to look out for. So let’s get started…
Best practices
Dental practices and domain names should be one in the same
In an ideal world, your dental practice and domain name would be one and the same. This is in effect the gold standard or the epitome of the perfect domain name, if you like. If you consider most major brands, they by and large have the same company and domain names – Nike and Coca Cola being the perfect examples.
What we tend to find, particularly with domain names, is that they are not just different but radically different. Here’s an example…
Let’s say your dental practice is known as Gentle Dentistry Inc, but your current domain name is under your principle dentist DrJohnSmith.com. If a person is looking for a new dentist and a close friend suggests that they take a look at the great things that the team at Gentle Dentistry are doing, then they are going to want to find your dental website online.
With this in mind, it’s highly likely that they will type in ‘Gentle Dentistry Sydney’ into Google. But if all that returns is DrJohnSmith.com they will probably think that they’re on the wrong dental website and give up looking.
The bottom line is that if your referrals can’t find you easily because of ill-fitting dental domain names, then you’re probably losing out on patients to your immediate competitors.
What if you have a long practice name?
In the ideal scenario, shorter and punchier domain names work best.
But given that the best situation is for your domain name to match your dental practice name, what happens if you have a name like ‘River Creek Family Dental Group’ for instance.
It isn’t ideal to have the same domain name because that’s a lot of text to remember.
In this situation, you may want to look at areas within your URL where abbreviations are acceptable. For instance rivercreekdental.com or even RCdental.com. Domain names that are shorter and punchier are better remembered, so if you are looking for the perfect domain name, keep it short and sweet where possible – certainly no more than 3 words at most.
Talking of abbreviations, this brings us to the next tip…
Avoid misspellings or unnecessary abbreviations for the sake of being clever.
While some abbreviations are fine (Ortho instead of Orthodontists) let’s say, for example, your dental practice is called ‘Happy Smiles Melbourne.’ Unfortunately for you, someone already has that exact match domain URL.
With this in mind, it isn’t a good idea to get creative or clever with the domain name ‘happysmilezmelbourne.com. for example… ‘Z’ is only likely to confuse people.
Also, avoid domain names that use crass abbreviations such as ‘U’ instead of ‘you’ as it isn’t translatable when your domain name is being talked about.
In essence, if you have to explain your domain URL in any way, shape, or form, then you might want to have a rethink.
How to get a good domain name – Use your location where possible
Prize-winning ingredients for the perfect domain name tend to include both location and description. Take RiverCreekDentist.com for example. Not only does it tell people what you do, it tells them where you are based. So while you might think that ‘dentist.com’ is a rock star domain, it doesn’t mean that Google ranks it well for the average person seeking geo-targeted dentists within a specific area. Instead, the perfect combo for dental domain names are:
- City +
- Dentist
- Dental or
- Dentistry
If you can nail this, then you are indeed onto the perfect domain name for you!
One thing to bear in mind about domain names…
Google has been crystal clear in recent years about keywords in domain names and how their relevancy in ranking is becoming less and less. Therefore if you know of any good dental domain names that are doing well, it’s probably because of the content and SEO efforts behind the scenes rather than merely their keyword domain.
Avoid hyphenated names, numbers, or oddly placed full stops
Domain names that contain hyphens, numbers, or oddly placed full stops can be very confusing. For example, Sydney-dental.com or Sydney.dental.com are not easy to remember. In fact, you’ll probably run the risk of someone typing in sydneydentist.com which will lead them right to your competition.
After all, you don’t want to constantly have to say…
“you can find us at Sydney…hyphen…dental dot com, or Sydney…full stop…dental dot com” and ….. “No, the hyphen or full stop isn’t spelled out in its entirety” as the whole explanation thing is likely to become tiresome real fast.
Moreover, hyphenated domain names are often associated with spam.
Modern search engines are pretty good at weeding out spam, so you don’t want an important patient email, ending up in their spam box. So avoid hyphens, full stops, and numbers where possible.
Finally…
Use the right extension
The final piece of the puzzle in understanding how to get a good domain name for your dental website involves getting the right extension.
Extensions like…
- .Org
- .Com
- .Info
…are nothing new and have been around for years. Nowadays you can even purchase trade or niche-specific extensions such as .dentist.
Despite this, there is much evidence to suggest that good old dot com wins the day and is guaranteed to stay relevant into the future. So where possible, try to purchase a dot com domain.
On the subject of domain names, we’re often asked by dentists whether they should purchase a .dentist extension. We would advise them to go ahead if they want to, but only to use it as a secondary domain URL, pointing back to their dot com primary.
So there you have it, everything you need to know about how to get a good domain name for your dental website.
If you need any further advice on obtaining the perfect domain name for your dental practice, or indeed need assistance with getting more dental patients through your doors, then contact the team at Mediboost today. Call us today on 1300 163 058 for an obligation-free consultation and let us help you grow your practice.
