Huddle or muddle: the choice is yours. In this episode, you will learn a method to apply your strategy every day in your practice. Gary Takacs highlights how all world-class practices have a morning huddle, and you too can transform your practice by doing the same. Listen to this episode and find out how to effectively do this in your practice! Register for the Masterclass: https://bit.ly/3nsLWQ7  Dental Marketing: https://bit.ly/3BPYQOE 

Less Insurance Dependence Podcast

Episode 146: Huddle or Muddle

Newsflash! Dental insurance companies do not care about the dentist nor patients. In this eye-opening episode, Gary Takacs shares three nightmare stories that'll punctuate it. Listen and find out how not to make any of these stories your story! Register for the Masterclass: https://bit.ly/3nsLWQ7  Practice coaching with Gary Takacs: https://bit.ly/3bfp6Xd

Episode 145: 3 Insurance Nightmare Stories

Today, Gary Takacs discusses very practical & simple tips; you don't have to complicate them. They are more than enough to increase the case acceptance rate of every one of your adult patients. You will be blown away by how these photo tips will change your case mix! Patients will express interest in treatments that you had no idea that they had any interest in. Listen to accelerate your case acceptance! Register for the MBA workshop: https://bit.ly/36z0Dtg  Practice coaching with Gary Takacs: https://bit.ly/3bfp6Xd  Camera recommended by Gary Takacs: https://www.photomed.net/sx740.htm

Episode 144: Photography Tips

The history of practice overhead is that it continues to rise, ever eating into the practice's profitability. If your current overhead is 74% or higher, you're literally working too hard for little! This week we discuss the solution to this long-standing problem.

Episode 143: Solutions for Overhead Control

 When it comes to attracting new patients, we think the "Mouthguard Project" is a grand slam for every practice that has done it. This week we talk about how you can implement this winning strategy in your local community and reap the awesome benefits!

Episode 142: The Time is Now For the Mouthguard Project

 If the #1 way of getting new patients to your practice is through PPO plans, you're creating a disproportionate source of new patients for your practice. Unfortunately, this common strategy sucks dentist after dentist into the vicious cycle of becoming more & more dependent on PPO plans. This week, we discuss how to break out of this cycle by creating a NEW source of patients!   

Episode 141: The Importance of Patient Referrals when Dropping PPO Plans

 Are PPO plans going to be lowering your contracted fees? The answer is YES. So if you think your fees are low now, just wait until you get the next round of reductions. This week, we talk about this pattern that has been going on for the past 9 years! Episode show notes - https://bit.ly/3gC9D5u

Episode 140: Are PPO Plans going to be lowering your contracted fees?

 You do not have the power to control the changes around you. But, you have the power to choose your response to such changes! In this episode, Gary Takacs discusses a viral letter shared by Dr. Paul Goodman & the dentists' power to choose their response to make a positive change in the world of dentistry!   Episode resources Episode show notes MBA workshop  iLoveDentistry community RID Academy 

Episode 139: The Power to Choose Your Response

Doing more of single tooth dentistry? Blame it on the typical $1000 annual dental insurance limit that has changed patient mindsets! This week we talk about what you can do to shift patient attitudes towards ideal treatment plans and reduce the impact of insurance limitations in your practice.

Episode 138: 1000 Dollar Annual Dental Insurance Limit... Really!

2016 was a tipping point for dentistry and dentists now have to face new challenges. What does this mean and how do we face & overcome these challenges? Listen as Gary Takacs explores this topic and the way forward for dentists.

Episode 137: Tipping Point?

Here's the reality: you will face at least one negative review in your career as a dental professional, but there's good news! You can make negative reviews work in your favor if you respond correctly. Listen to this week's episode to learn how!

Episode 136: How to Deal with 1 or 2-Star Reviews

 This topic is a valid and frequently asked question from dentists. Transforming your practice from an insurance-dependent practice to a PPO-free practice should be a calculated decision. Having this question is a good sign because you can now FOCUS on the possibility of successfully dropping PPO plans in your practice. In this episode, Gary Takacs will help you figure out whether you are really ready and explain how to make the correct decision based on the current situation of your practice. 00:00:58 > Intro to today’s topic 00:01:09 > Quick announcement 00:03:07 > Ultimate answer 00:16:46 > Six steps of dropping PPO plans 00:19:22 > Regain control of your practice! Resources 6 STEPS TO SUCCESSFULLY RESIGN FROM PPO PLANS! PRACTICE COACHING WITH GARY TAKACS SCHEDULE YOUR FREE MARKETING STRATEGY MEETING 

Episode 135: How do I know if I am ready?

Every new patient call is an opportunity for your practice. It is vital to maintain an internal system to convert new patient calls to “kept appointments.” Gary Takacs will discuss the method to track the conversion rate in your practice, and then he will share the one question that’ll increase the conversion rate of your practice. Listen to this episode and transform your dental practice's new patient conversion rate!

Episode 134: The One Question You Must Ask Every New Patient Caller

 Typically dentists are victors! This is because the process of becoming a dentist is challenging, and you truly have to be a victor to become a dentist. After becoming a dentist, have you ever wondered about whether or not you are still a victor? You may be surrounded by dentists who tell you that you cannot survive as a PPO-free practice because they have a victim mindset. As a listener of this podcast, it is evident that YOU are still a victor among the naysayers! Listen to this episode as Gary Takacs helps you embrace the victor mindset to take action.  00:00:59 > Intro to today’s topic 00:01:08 > Quick announcement 00:03:40 > Who needs who? 00:05:10 > You can be a victor! 00:12:02 > Visit the show notes to get inspired 00:15:12 > Freedom of choice 00:18:06 > Get RID of PPOs' Resources REGISTER TO THE FIRST MASTERCLASS HOW LINCOLN PARKER DMD STARTED A PRACTICE FROM SCRATCH HOW DR. BRIAN BALIWAS ATTRACTED 1000+ NEW PATIENTS INSANE SUCCESS WITH DR. PEYMAN RAISSI LEARN MORE ABOUT COACHING GET RID OF PPO PLANS! Transcript Naren: Hello everyone welcome, to another amazing episode of the less insurance dependence podcast show. This is Naren your co-host. The topic today is victim or victor, the choice is yours, victim or victor the choice is yours. Before we jump in, I have a quick announcement. The last master class that Gary did was sold out it was amazing. We got so many people saying wonderful things great reviews. The next one is on the 12th of May of Wednesday from 7 to 10 pm, 3 hours of CE and the topic is, grow your practice 10 percent or more every year grow your practice 10 or more every year. We're going to include a link it's thrivingdentist.com forward slash masterclass if there are seats left, we are we are positive because the last two have sold out this is also going to sell out if there are seats left quickly sign up and reserve your spot. Now let me start talking about this topic today victim of victor the choice is yours. You know one of the reasons I think both Gary and I were attracted to dentistry was you know these people who end up becoming dentists are typically at the top of their class. They're in the top you know five percent of their class. I think you know both Gary and me kind of like to you know do whatever we do really well and you know succeed at it, so I guess this kind of made a lot of sense now we were thinking you know even though that's how they start their career you know as victors PPO and many other things perhaps make at least some of the victims, you know they just give up and they just accept that 44 write off so we wanted to have a conversation around it carry over to you  Gary: Yeah, Naren I think this topic is one that's very pertinent for our audience here in the less insurance dependence podcast. Let's tie it into the topic of our podcast victim or victor. You know on the victim side it's you know sadly when you adopt the mindset of a victim and you feel like you're a victim, the number one reason for that is that you feel like you don't have any control, that you have lost control and as a result, you experience the negative consequences of being victimized and the context here is that many dentists feel like they have absolutely no choice other than to sign up for PPO plans and that's because of what, what, what, I think you know the terrible mindset that the insurance companies try to set among dentists, that the only way they're going to be successful is they sign up for these plans and you know I’ve said before, who needs who if there are two entities here there are the insurance companies and the dentists who needs who. Does the insurance company need the dentist or does the dentist need the insurance company? Well, if you can step back and look at this objectively, at a very core level, the insurance companies need your doctor because if no dentists sign up as participating providers, they have nothing to sell. They literally have no plan to sell if they don't have any providers and that's at a very core level. However, they've done a masterful marketing job, Naren you know marketing better than anyone I know on the planet the insurance companies have done a masterful marketing job of flipping the switch turning it upside down and convincing dentists that the dentist needs the PPO plan, when in fact the opposite is the truth. It's like you know when it's light outside we know it's the day, it's daytime, you know when the sunlight's out it is daytime when it's dark we know it's not it's like they flipped it they said no, no, at night-time this is the day, it's the day, and they flipped it and they've tricked dentists. This has been going on you know since the 1970s. So, this is not a new trick on their part but it's been a trick they've been pulling for many, many, many, years and I wanted this episode to ring loud and clear about, if you currently feel like you're in a victim status regarding whether you need to accept insurance or not, I want to share with you that you absolutely do not need to be a victim, you can be a victor and here's the first point that I want to make Naren, this happened somewhere around 2016 2017. So, this isn't new I don't have the exact date this will make sense in just a minute, I don't have the exact date but it was somewhere between 2016 and 2017 and the inflection point that I’m going to share with you is something that you need to embrace and that is whenever that inflection point was sometime between 2016 2017, there were more adults in the united states that didn't have dental insurance than adults that did have dental insurance. That was a switch that happened. Naren: so you're saying now the majority of the people in the united states do not subscribe to a dental insurance plan Gary: the majority of adults in the united states do not have dental insurance now prior to that inflection point the opposite was true slightly more had it but it's been going down ever since and it's dropping precipitously, I’m talking about what's dropping is the percentage of adults that have dental insurance is dropping precipitously and that number is radically shifting in favor of those that don't have dental insurance. So, there's one piece of information that if you embrace this as it is you say wait a minute, I know I don't need to there are more people that don't have it. Let me go find them; they are better when I say better, I’m not talking about a better human being. I’d like to think that they're all good human beings but if you're going to build your practice on patients that would choose you as for other than you have their insurance Naren: then you take their example insurance Gary: make sense Naren? Naren: more than half the jobs in the United States are created by small businesses. I bet small businesses many of those small businesses don't have identical insurance, you know all the freelancers the ETSY owners the Airbnb owners you know the what are you called eBay sellers the uber drivers, I mean the idea of being an entrepreneur working for yourself is has like taken off you know in the last you know 20 years or 30 years. It just exploded. So of course, what that means is not too many corporations that have ten thousand employees or a thousand employees and a dental insurance plan. Gary: exactly and let me list another group that's growing you know based on lifespan and healthspan and that's retirees. You know, it used to be if we go back a generation when people retired their benefits stayed with them the rest of their life. That's no longer true because those retirement benefits became a massive liability for big corporations and so they changed it and they said, hey once you retire, we'll provide a short period of benefits but once you hit the end of that you're on your own and so a massive group of people retirees doesn't have dental insurance and just another group you know in that. So, I want to share some great information, you know going back to-our listeners know that I enjoy everything about running and track and field and Roger Bannister that's a name that if you follow track and field everyone recognizes, he was the first person to ever break the four-minute mile barrier. He did that in 1954 he was an English runner, a runner from England, and before then there were scientists that actually publish scientific papers that said it could not be done because there wasn't enough oxygen content the oxygen couldn't flow enough to the legs and to the other you know parts of the body to allow someone to run less than four minutes and Roger Bannister did it in 1954 it was 359.89 three minutes 59 seconds 0.89 hundredths. He beat it by 11 100ths. And all of a sudden that completely upended the scientific community because they were proven wrong and interestingly enough Naren, remember this had never been done within three months three other people broke the four-minute barrier. Now in science, you can't tell me the cellular development in those three months is what made the difference. So, in other words, the human race you know when you look at three months’ time, it's a grain of sand on the beach you know in terms of the scientific measurement of time. So, you can't say that the body adapted in those three months to make humans that much faster. What happened what was the one thing that happened, someone did it and they figured hey if roger did it, I can do it right? Naren: yeah absolutely and I love that experiment the elevator experiment if you google elevator experiment on you'll find it it's like there's an elevator and there are three people facing the back of the elevator and these are hired you know actors and then everyone who entered the elevator from that moment on they all turned around and faced the back you know human beings really take a lot of cue as to what's possible what can be done from other human beings. Unfortunately, right now 95 percent of the practices are insurance dependent I think you said it might be even 98 percent right  Gary Yeah Naren: because only two percent are service so what do you see around you it's everything that's you know unfortunately but I think what you are doing Gary and I commend you for this I mean your coaching work your coaching clients not only have you and your expertise but they have peers who are doing it with them and they all meet every week or every month and they share ideas with each other and they learn from each other and then, of course, the RITA project I know you're going to talk about it more but the reducing insurance dependence academy I think a huge coup for the insurance companies because they had billions of dollars and you know to throw at it they did an amazing job making you believe that facing the back of the elevator because that's what 95 percent Gary: Well, let me be blunt. They did an amazing job of playing a dirty trick on dentists Naren: they did yeah Gary: they did an amazing job of pulling the wool over your eyes, convincing you that when it's dark you now think it's daytime ‘ Naren: Yeah Gary: And that's what they did now here's what we're going to do because you need Roger Bannisters in your life as a listener to less insurance dependence you need Roger Bannisters in your life three links in the show notes you can get the show notes from lessinsurancedependence.com just scroll down. These three links are three dentists who successfully started a fee-for-service practice from scratch. I’m going to name these dentists and these were interviews that we did on the thriving dentist show. The other podcast, my, flagship podcast Lincoln Parker dentist who opened a scratch fee first in orange county California. Brian Baliwas opened ace and successfully I want to make the statement that all three of these did it successfully Brian Baliwas opened a scratch fee for service practice in downtown San Francisco and then Paymen Raisy opened a scratch fee for service practice in 2018 in Nashville Tennessee and I want you to hear their stories and I want you to hear what they did but one thing you need to understand Naren as these doctors as Lincoln and Brian and Paymen talk to their colleagues you know, hey Doctor so I’m, I’m, thinking of opening up a fee for service practice in orange county is something Lincoln Parker would have said guess what everyone told him what do you think everyone told him Naren: it's not possible  Gary: you can't do this. His banker told them you can't do this. His accountant told him he couldn't do this the attorney told him he couldn't do this. The same thing happened, with Brian Baliwas was the same thing happened, with Paymen Raising well they were the scientists the naysayers were the scientists that told the world that nobody could run less than a four-minute mile  Naren: right  Gary: and it took it only took one person to prove that you know and that one person proved it proved the scientists wrong well in the analogy of our, of our profession these three dentists are simply three of many who they were you know they actually reacted differently. So, think about it Naren let's go back to the title victim or victor so what could have they assumed? It would have been logical to assume the position of a victim oh well I guess it was a bad idea you know I mean I really want to do it but everyone's telling me I can't do it I guess that's just a bad idea I guess I got no choice other than to be a fee for you know to be a PPO dentist but they didn't do that they actually said two words all three of them said two words watch me and what's that is that victim or victor perspective  Naren: victor  Gary: that's a victor Naren: it's the same kid who said watch me and got into dental school right so I guess that  Gary: you're all victor because statistically, you didn't have a chance of getting in you had a snowball's chance in hell getting into the dental school you know you're Vic you're victors you're, victors and you just have to flip that switch because you do have a choice. You know one of the coolest things about you know being in the united states is we have freedom of choice you can choose your path. There are no rules or laws, there are no regulations that say you cannot reduce insurance dependence in your practice. You can absolutely do that. So think about it doctor do you want to be a victim or do you want to be a victor. You know intuitively what the answer is to that I know intuitively you've got it in you to be a victor because you've already been that you've already been there done that you've done it throughout your career. You got into dental school, you survived dental school, you passed the boards you got to a position where you own your practice that's even getting into the elite of the elite Naren,  Naren: yes  Gary: you know just being a dentist you're in that top four or five percent intellectually but now only a practice it elevates you even further you are innately victors and I want to share that message I strongly encourage you go to the link the links that we're sharing the interviews with Lincoln Parker Brian Baliwas and Paymen Raisy and just drink in their stories and have those stories you know kind of filed away in the back your mind you know coming back to when roger bannister broke the four minute mile here we are today Naren less than 60 years from the time he broke it broke the four-minute barrier by the way the record the world record in the mile today is 3 43, 3 minutes and 43 seconds and world class high school athletes routinely break the four-minute barrier so and again human evolution in that 60-year period of time is a grain of sand on the beach there's nothing about human evolution, that's made our lung capacity or our ability to transport oxygen to the to our limbs it's none of that it's the fact that there were pioneers paving the way that proved it could be done and here's three Lincoln Parker Brian Ballywas and Paymen Raisy. Naren fun conversation I hope it's inspiring and motivating for our listeners because sometimes we need that you know we need that guidance we need that vision of what's possible and I really want you to ask yourself, doctors, this question am I a victim or am I a victor and ask yourself that question and I think the only answer to that is you are a victor now start behaving like one and take the steps to take those steps. Hey Naren as we come to the finish line for this particular episode, I want to provide another resource for our listeners. You and I have partnered together to recently create a wonderful resource, the reducing insurance dependence academy this is the very first digital all digital association in dentistry and its association of people and resources to help you successfully reduce insurance dependence. We have just launched this; we're excited about this project and again it's dentists team members and resources that are members of the RIDA reducing insurance dependence academy and it's all about providing you all the tools and resources you need to successfully drop PPO plans. We playfully like the acronym R-I-D-A but we also like the way it rolls off your tongue I want to get rid of PPOs if you want to get rid of PPOs and we're doing something very cool at least for now there is no membership fee at least for the first year we reserve the right to change our mind down the road but as of right now there are no membership fees you can join for free and if you'd like to do that come join us at www dot rid dot academy and again that's www dot rid dot academy. Come join us the water's warm and you'll be surrounded by victors like yourself thanks for joining us on this less insurance dependence podcast. Thanks so much for listening we appreciate each and every one of you.  

Episode 133: Victim or Victor: The Choice is Yours

 To become a PPO-free practice, it's essential to maximize your marketing so that you can proactively replace any patients you may lose. The goal is to keep as many existing in-network patients as we can. Most dentists have no idea about how their marketing partner doesn't utilize marketing to increase loyal patients. And this leads to the biggest mistake on your dental website. As marketing becomes very important before and when you go out-of-network, Gary discusses the biggest mistake that could happen on your dental website. And then, he will explain how to AVOID it in this episode! 00:01:06 > Intro to today’s topic 00:05:08 > The biggest mistake! 00:05:52 > You don’t show up 00:09:46 > How to correct it 00:14:38 > Routine-checks of website uniqueness Resources SCHEDULE YOUR FREE MARKETING STRATEGY MEETING FIND OUT YOUR INSURANCE ADJUSTMENTS LEARN MORE ABOUT COACHING Transcript Gary: Welcome to another episode of the less insurance dependence podcast. I'm Gary Takacs, your podcast co-host, along with my great friend Naren. Hey Naren, how are you? Naren: I'm fine. Thank you, Gary. Today's topic is going to be a fun topic.  Gary: Yeah, we've got a great topic. You might have noticed a title, but if you haven't let me give it to you right now, it's the biggest mistake on your website. Now, how's that for a provocative title? But it's something that's very, very important. It's something I've noticed now with some of our new clients. As we look at what they're doing in terms of marketing, we kind of scrub their marketing to determine what's working, what isn't working, and how we can refine it, and the reason why that is so important and in the context of this podcast why it's so important is that when you go out of network which is why you're listening to this podcast when you successfully go out of network, it's very important to maximize your marketing so that you can replace any patients you might lose when you go out of network and let's be candid you are going to lose some patience when you go out of network. Naren, that's a blunt statement, but it's the truth agreed?  Naren: hundred percent agreed absolutely Gary: we've never seen it. We've never seen a situation where a practice didn't lose some patients, and sadly, it's the ones that the only reason they're in practice is that you take their insurance. So, you're going to shake those out. Now the goal is to minimize the loss of patients and lose as few as we can. We want to put it put another way put the positive way, we want to keep as many of your existing in-network patients as we possibly can, and the goal, let's put it right out there the goal is to keep 85 to 90 percent of your existing in-network patients when you go out of network, but you're going to lose some, and so marketing becomes even more important than it ever was because we want to replace those proactively before you go out of network and one more thing is that when you go out of network for many practices, they will lose what their biggest source of patients in the past the PPO plan was  Naren: Right Gary: that was your it was your biggest source of patience, but also you were paying dearly for it. You were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year because, remember that key point, I want you to think of your discount the write-offs that you're required to take by the PPO plan. I want you to think of those write-offs as a marketing expense, you know, and the write-offs are the difference between your usual fee and your contracted fee and that difference today is typically 42 to 44 percent. So, you're paying 42 to 44 percent of your revenue for marketing, and I want you to think of it that way because you're basically paying the insurance company to provide you patients, and I think when you look at it that way, all of a sudden the light bulb will go off and it's like oh my goodness, I could spend a small fraction of that and get the added benefit of attracting people who choose me for reasons other than I'm on their insurance. So, the second reason why it's so important to be proactive about this is as soon as you resign from delta MetLife traveler's blue cross blue shield as soon as you resign is this it's as if a giant hand reaches out to the picket on your hose and turns the hose off. Naren: yes Gary: and what I mean by that is they turn the previous flow of new patients, so there let's get very specific about it let's say MetLife has been providing a practice of five new patients a month historically.  Naren: yeah Gary: and we've got to replace not only the ones that we're going to lose but the five new patients a month that will now no longer be coming to us because we're no longer listed as a provider on those plans, so marketing if the marketing was important in the past it becomes even more important in the future for the reasons we just outlined, and we've noticed as we evaluate all the marketing that they've done in the past and we scrub it, the biggest mistake that the dentists make in terms of their website is that it does not have unique content, it doesn't have unique content. Google penalizes. It's like you go in the penalty box. You know we're in hockey season right now, Naren, kind of hockey season, and you're keen on hockey being up there in Canada, and what happens when you get to put what happens when a player gets put in the penalty box? Naren: I don't think they're happy, you know Gary: it's not good Naren: it's not good exactly, yeah Gary: and so, Google puts your website in the penalty box when you have duplicate content Naren: yeah, it's like one of the no-nos. It's like there are certain things they encourage you to do, and the certain things if you do it, you go on into what I call the virtual jail, the google jail.  Gary: Yeah Naren: so once you're in the google jail doesn't matter how else you how hard you try, how hard you work, you're not going to be shown you know being seen Gary: you're not going to show up in a search when someone's searching for a dentist in your community if you're in google jail  Naren: just to put things in perspective Gary: the sad part Naren most dentists have no idea that their website has duplicate content, and now if you think what, what do you mean most dentists have no idea because they didn't write their website a marketing company wrote their website, and maybe they said and doctor we will give you an exclusive in your area your zip code, we won't sign up any other dentist in your zip code or your area maybe you know however they do it. So now you think I'm good, but in fact, that website that you have is all over the internet in hundreds of other dental offices websites, and now you're all getting penalized because you have duplicate content.  Naren: yeah, a couple of other points I want to make is you said this Gary I think your friend Howard used to say you know-in those days you know put up your dental office you know in a mall or where there's a lot of foot traffic right a lot of traffic  Gary: And you know downtown founder was very strongly convicted that when you're looking for where to put your dental office, you want to put it on a busy street that has tens of thousands of cars driving by every day so they could see your sign. That was something, and Howard even said make sure that you've signed that you have in your dental office for your dental office make sure it's lit at night, so when people are driving by, you're not open or anything, but when they drive by, they can see your sign now that was I by the way I never fully subscribed to that approach you know that concept, but that was something that Howard taught for many years go ahead and take it from there Naren. Naren: yeah, so today it's different, right? For example, we were looking at your latest report from February. You were seen around 97 000 times, and it was for around 490 different keywords. So think of it like this, 97 000 people who are looking for a dentist and they're not looking for dentist phoenix, but they're looking for veneers you know zipcode vineyard street name best you know sedation dentist in town you know all kinds of keywords and in your case a total of 3 000 and out of that 485 you're doing extremely well in meaning you're showing up on the first ten results of google for 485 of those search terms. Now it's like 485 search terms are like 485 roads that are driving people to you and total traffic.  Gary: Traffic analogy, traffic now traffic is still important  Naren: yeah  Gary: but it's not traffic in vehicles driving by your office looking at your sign. It's internet traffic  Naren: Right Gary: visiting your website, so the traffic analogy is as important as ever, but it's not in the way we've always thought of traffic as you know cars driving by your office; however, it's people virtually driving by your website and stopping and so traffic's very, very, important but you know you're not going to get that traffic if you have duplicate content because you're not going to be ranked people aren't going to see you. It's literally like being listed in a, you know, build it's like in the old days building your office on a backwater road that nobody knows where it is  Naren: right  Gary: nobody's ever going to see it, so let's talk about how to how to correct it. The best way to correct it is to do what I did, which is to turn it over to the pros and by that I mean we use EKWA and one of them we use your agency Naren, in my life smiles dental practice and one of the very first things you did for us, and it's ongoing you've done it ever since is you create a unique custom website with completely custom content and that took initially- it was your initial project with us when we started four and a half years ago and every month that website gets enhanced gets added to adds new pages adds new elements adds new keywords key phrases new coding that goes along with it. So I would recommend that you jump on my shoulders and do what I did and turn it over to the pros. The other alternative is literally- for you to write your own website. Now the flaw with that is you might end up writing a decent website that's customized, but in fact, it'll probably lack unless you have coding experience computer coding experience, it will lack all the coding and the behind the curtain elements of your website that are as important to Google as anything else. Naren: yeah, so even when it comes to content- right, google will give you guidelines on how that page should be written. It's not just about, you know, original content but it's how many words and how things should be structured you know, for example, we don't want to get into too many details because we don't want to, you know, kind of confuse people but even like inserting your bio a certain way like Gary said the coding part if it's not done correctly you know it's useless I mean google won't give you all the credit you deserve because google doesn't see it the way it should see it so absolutely Gary it was a lot of science today maybe five-ten years ago it was more of an art, but, now it's very specific and very you know driven by google pretty much.  Gary: and let's look at the cost-efficiency of that Naren if you don't mind me sharing your fees, okay if I do that  Naren: absolutely, Gary. Gary: I love your fee structure it's a all-inclusive flat monthly fee no surprises it's twelve hundred dollars a month and that includes many, many, many, things but one of those things is to create a custom website that's continually enhanced so doctors even if you could do this I'd question whether it's a good use of your time wouldn't it be better to be chairside providing treatment uh generating much more than twelve hundred dollars a month than spending all that time you know working on your website you can certainly work with EKWA as we did Paul and Tim and I contributed parts of our of our content of our website but that was very manageable very easy and it was we had fun doing it because it wasn't something that was burdensome you know for us to do it but that's what I would recommend you do and Naren if you'd be kind enough to offer the marketing strategy meeting we could put a link in this show where any of our listeners you normally charge for that marketing strategy meeting 900 fee but let's waive that fee and they can meet with Lila stone your director of marketing and during that meeting Lila will spend about six hours in prep time looking at every aspect of your website what's working what isn't working pull some behind the scenes statistics on your website show that all with you some google analytics that you likely aren't aware of show you those things show you what you're doing well what you can do to improve and where the opportunity is to radically improve your digital marketing. That will be in in in less insurance dependence dot com. If you scroll down in the show notes, there'll be a link. Click that link and schedule that meeting with light. It'll be time very well spent.  Naren: absolutely, thank you so much, Gary yeah, and  Gary mentioned what we do in addition to building the custom site and adding content we also take care of NAP, Google lighthouse, Google EAT a lot of things to do with Doctor Robert Cialdini his influence principles how to apply it so not only do people find you know through the google highway so to speak, but also we can influence them, so they decide to call you and then, of course, track everything leads phone calls, so you know what's happening are things are getting better they're not getting better why and that ongoing process of making things you know better tomorrow than they were yesterday or last week or last month. Gary: now let's talk about a little dark topic that we need to talk about because it's reality sadly there's a lot of mischiefs that goes on the internet, and it's entirely possible that someone could discover your website and start cut and pasting and putting into their website  Naren: 100 Percent Gary: that that happens. I mean, I'd love to tell you that Naren:  all the time Gary: that never happens  Naren: all the time  Gary: All the time. So, I know one of the things you do for us is on a regular basis, you review the website to make sure it's not being duplicated somewhere else. Can you talk a little bit about that? Naren: absolutely, so we have a process, so we have a process on when our people write the content as well as when we maintain the website. So, for example, when we write new content, everything is put through a tool called Copyscape that checks if any part of that article that's getting published is copied from any other website. So even a sentence being copied will flag it. So we make sure that nothing we ever post has any copy. Of course, we make sure that it meets all of Google's guidelines. The second thing like Gary said is what we have noticed over the years is when a website is ranking as well like carries are you know, which usually happens after a while, if you do things properly the way google wants it, people will start copying it they're like oh he keeps showing up all the time let me just copy-paste the information and I'll show up to I mean you know people sometimes don't think that Google has pretty smart people working for it so they think they can fool google but of course google catches it when it catches it sometimes the problem is google does google kind of punishes both parties you know they don't just punish the one who sometimes copied the good guy gets punished too I mean they don't do it on purpose, but it happens so to avoid it what we do is we constantly keep looking at your content that we published-originally which we know was original content again like every few months or so to make sure that nobody else is copied. When they copy, we don't argue with them. It's just not worth our time. We will just go and rewrite that section or rewrite that page. So, it's a constant process. Gary is absolutely right. It's not just about because I know we had had conversations with clients they're like no, no, no, I wrote it how come somebody else has the same information because you did such a good job somebody just stole it from you know it's unfortunately you know.  Gary: you're also proactive, Naren, in that the website is completely dynamic  Naren: Yes Gary: you're adding pages-new pages of information on a regular basis. I could be mistaken on this narrative, so I'm going to ask you for accuracy on this, but I believe that we now have over a hundred website pages on my website is that absolutely so the website is a breathing living that's the way we look at it organism it just keeps getting better and better and the reason we do that is we want to target more and more search terms so instead of only 10 000 people seeing Gary's practice now it's 97 000. So the more content we add the more keywords we can target and therefore more traffic we can attract yeah that dynamic nature is one of the elements that's part of the google ranking algorithm you know if you have a static website meaning it doesn't change that will drop literally like a rock in in ranking on google because they have a high value they place a high value on dynamic websites those that are changing and adding new information and more relevant google sees it as more relevant because you're staying up with things one again let's tie this back to the context of this podcast marketing becomes more important when you when you go out of network because you're literally when you resign you're going to turn the spigot off of any new patients coming from metlife or delta or blue cross blue shield travels or whatever the PPO is so you've got to replace that flow and then you have to replace the patients that you're going to lose when you go out of network and if you do those ahead of time you're operating from a total position of strength you're prepared you're ready you've already replaced those and you just keep ploughing forward and it's why this is so important which is why we wanted to do this podcast episode on that to draw your attention to it and to put this very important topic on your radar screen because I don't think many dentists have naturally thought about whether their content is unique or not and now it is critical that you start to identify that and you take action so that your website provides unique content so that you can perform well when it relates to google it's all about google you know as I say when I'm when I'm speaking you know what's the number one search engine in the world google what's number two who cares and it literally is who cares because of the dominance of google and it's very important that your website perform well in in the eyes of google. Naren, thank you for contributing your expertise to this, and thanks for all your team does to keep my website unique and custom and reflecting our practice, and always improving in the eyes of Google, which is a very important criterion for us. Hey guys, thank you for joining us on the less insurance dependence podcast. We sure appreciate each and every one of you. If you haven't done so already, I have a request for you to go on iTunes, and if you haven't done this, already go on iTunes and write us a review. A review will help more dentists find the less insurance dependence podcast; for now, thank you for the privilege of your time, and we look forward to bringing you the next less insurance dependence podcast. 

Episode 132: The Biggest Mistake On Your Website

There is an underlying precept in our country’s healthcare system that medical professionals can only survive through increased participation in insurance programs. The Less Insurance Dependence podcast series exposes that misperception, shedding light on how Dentists can thrive by breaking out of the insurance-controlled business model.

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Less Insurance Dependence Podcast

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