With any online marketing strategy or plan, the dentist should make the effort to understand some basics of website ownership and search engine strategies. If the dentist can answer a few basic questions about hacking, online directories, and tracking results of the marketing effort, he or she will be more secure and confi- dent of the practice’s online marketing presence.

HACKING

The website is a dynamic component of the office’s online marketing presence. To protect it from hacking, it’s important to complete a quick health check every 3 months. Among the questions to ask are whether a backup of the site was done recently, whether plug-ins and other add-ons are secure, whether fill-in forms on the site work and if the people who are supposed to receive messages or e-mails from the site actually do, if the site phone number works, and if the login information to the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), website administrative backend, and hosting platform is available.