Dental Tribune U.S. Edition

Ad Dental Tribune U.S. Edition | February 2014 a17Industry News Healthgrades: where prospective patients go to find a dentist in 2014 By Sesame Communications Staff When consumers fire up their web browsers, the vast majority of them start at a search engine. According to research from Pew Internet, 93 percent of online activities begin with a search. Health is a popular topic: 72 percent of Internet us- ers looked online for health information within the past year. Today, the No. 1 source for new patients searching and scheduling appointments with health care providers in the U.S. is Healthgrades. Each year, more than 225 million visi- tors use the www.healthgrades.com web- site to search, evaluate and connect with health care providers that best meet their treatment needs. Healthgrades visitors represent the ideal demographic for dentistry: They are overwhelmingly female (72 percent), highly educated (84 percent have some post-secondary edu- cation) and affluent (52 percent have an- nual household incomes greater than $75,000). Healthgrades offers dental practices a large, highly focused audience of prospec- tive patients. Dur- ing the past 12 months, Healthgrades tracked more than 20 million searches for dental care providers. Most im- portantly, Healthgrades users don’t just search — they sched- ule appointments. More than half (54 percent) of Health- grades visitors will schedule an appointment. Any way you slice it, Healthgrades visitors are an ideal target audience for growth-minded dental care providers. So what should your practice do to harness this traf- fic and fill your schedule? Healthgrades has established a partnership with Sesame Communications, and dentists Every year, more than 225 million visitors go to www.healthgrades.com to find health care providers. Photo/ Provided by Sesame Communications” See HEALTHGRADES, page A18 Chicago BOOTH NO. 4433