You may be able to identify your current referring dentists and physicians, but do you know how many other health care professionals in your community could be good referral sources for you? And can you quickly and easily reach them all?

USP, an acronym for “Unique Selling Proposition,” is a concept often used in marketing. Your USP is what sets you apart from all other practitioners in your dental specialty.

Referrals are the mother’s milk of many dental specialty practices, especially endodontists and oral surgeons. New patient referrals don’t happen by accident. They require some planning and work.

Select a name that is short but makes sense. Short names tend to be more search-engine friendly.

Almost a year ago, we published an article titled “When Was the Last Time You Called Your Dental Office?” However, judging from our recent experiences, we suspect that many of you have no idea how your office may sound to patients and referring health care providers.

If you don’t know what HealthGrades has to say about your practice, you had better go to a computer right now and find out. In our experience (and we google practices all day), if you don’t have a Web site and a prospective patient googles your name, the first thing that a prospective patient will find is your HealthGrades page.

If you are an endodontist doing a lot of single-session root canals, patient recall may not be a prime issue for your practice. However, for most periodontists, prosthodontists, orthodontists and pediatric dentists, increasing patient recall is critical to the financial well being of their practices.

Google recently announced that it is taking speed into account in determining page rank. According to Google, faster sites make for happier users, and its studies have shown that the slower a Web site is to load, the less time a user will spend on the site.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Tim Andrus, chief executive officer of Esthetica Dental Exchange. Esthetica is devoted to helping dentists promote their practices.

You have worked hard to create a Web site for your dental practice. But do you find that while you get hundreds of hits each week, converting prospects into dental patients falls short? The answer to boosting your conversion rate may be found by focusing on your landing page.