As a way to both maintain contact with patients and attract new ones, many dentists have begun redesigning their websites and adopting content marketing strategies on social media as a means to grow their practice. But while these efforts are aimed in the right direction, they’ll be ineffective and go unnoticed if they aren’t optimized for search engines.
This is why dental search engine optimization (or dental SEO) is the most important part of your new digital marketing strategy.
Decades ago, people used to flip through the Yellow Pages to find a local dentist. Today, everyone searches online. And since the average browser never ventures past the first page of results, if your site doesn’t rank high on Google, you’ll likely be ignored. So whether you’re a new dentist or already run a longstanding practice, SEO for dentists is necessary to find and keep new patients.
Keep reading to learn all the benefits of dental SEO services and why you need it in order to grow your practice.
What’s SEO?
Simply put, SEO (or search engine optimization) is the strategic process of manipulating keywords to get your website to rank higher on Google. The higher your website ranks, the better your chances are of generating clicks and attracting new visitors.
Because even if your content’s quality is perfect, you’re up against tough competition in the race to boost search engine rankings.
Some SEO methods are simple, like revising copy or brainstorming keywords. Others are more complicated, and may require assistance from SEO experts for maximum effectiveness.
Why SEO for Dentists is Important
Without some kind of SEO strategy, no one will ever find your practice online.
Dental SEO, or SEO for dentists, is the deliberate optimization of content on a dental practice’s website in order to increase visibility online. When dentists utilize SEO strategies, like ensuring a site is user friendly and keyword-focused, their practice is more likely to rank higher on Google’s search results page and attract new patients.
Recent studies found that 68% of all clicks go to the top five search results. A dental practice that manages to rank this high is going to receive higher website traffic, greater authority, and, ultimately, more patients to grow the practice.
But you’re not the only dentist out there hoping to rank high on Google; it’s likely your local competitors are already investing in a dental SEO company as well. The internet is a competitive place. Many patients turn to the internet to search for the best dentists in their area. Which is why it’s crucial to ensure your practice’s website is polished with SEO.
4 Dental SEO Tips to Get You Started
All marketing strategies rely on attention. Once you tailor your dental practice’s website to meet the needs of patients and earn their attention, your practice will take off. Here are 4 helpful SEO tips to get you started:
- Add Relevant Keywords
Go above and beyond the general keywords you’d associate with dentistry. Try to think from a prospective patient’s viewpoint, and the specific services they might be trying to find. Specific services, like teeth whitening or annual child exams, make good long-tail keywords since the traffic that comes from such queries is usually highly targeted and easy to convert into regular patients.
- Optimize for Local Searches
People almost always want their healthcare service providers to be local. So unless your SEO strategy utilizes local SEO tactics to target specific geographic regions, your dental practice will go unnoticed by local internet browsers. An easy way to localize your SEO plan is to add the name of your town and nearby towns somewhere in the content of your website, whether it be in page titles, URLs, or blog posts.
- Blog
For the seasoned dentist, SEO marketing should focus as much on building credibility as on generating revenue. A great way to build online credibility is through blogging. Writing blog posts with dental care tips t is an easy opportunity to build credibility online, thereby increasing your website’s authority and attracting more traffic.
- Earn Links
Earning quality links from other reputable websites is the best way to maintain a high search engine ranking. Produce quality content and try reaching out to bloggers and industry leaders yourself. This will both bolster your SEO efforts and position your practice as a leader in the dental field.
Finding ways to improve your Google ranking can be a difficult task, which is why many dental practices turn to business partners like KitelyTech for help. At KitelyTech, we stay up-to-date on the latest trends and changes in the Google search algorithm so that we can help companies maximize their search engine rankings. Call us at (800) 274 2908 to get help reaching the top of your search engine results.
