Do you need some help figuring out new ways to market your dental practice? Dental marketing is becoming more and more important as dental practices compete for patients.

One of the best ways to market your dental practice is online, because lots of people will browse the websites of local doctors and dentists before they call to make an appointment.

Here are five tips for dental marketing online.

1. Have a great website -- One of the things that draw patients to your practice is your website. Your website should be easy to navigate and it should load quickly. Don't load your website with lots of fancy graphics because some users might be on slow Internet connections and a lot of graphics will make the load really slowly. Keep the site design simple and functional.

2. Live help -- Have a customer service rep dedicated to answering questions online. Use a free chat application to have a customer service rep available to answer questions from users. This can be an immensely helpful feature that your potential customers will love.

They can ask questions about price, appointment times and other concerns that they have without having to take the time to phone the office. You can get a lot of new patients for the cost of a customer service rep's salary.

3. List your prices on your website -- Most people that don't have dental insurance will be most concerned about the price of procedures. Clearly list the base price for common procedures and also list payment options, the types of insurance that you accept, and payment plans if you allow payment plans.

4. Give readers information about your practice -- Potential patients will want to know a bit about the dentists at the practice and their credentials before they make an appointment. Have photos of the staff and bios listing their credentials on the website to give people a little background on the doctors and staff before they come in.

5. Search engine optimize your website -- Adding informational articles about common dental practices and dental issues that are search engine optimized will serve two purposes. It will help your website get a higher search engine ranking and it will give the people reading the website helpful information that will keep them coming back to your website.

It's important to have a high search engine ranking so that when people who are looking for a dental practice in your area do an Internet search for a dentist your website will come up on the first page of search engine results. The articles will help get people to the website through the search engines.