Basic Dental SEO Guide
Now that the world is returning to the ‘new normal’ it is important that your practice not only maintains the previously held business but also takes this opportunity to grow! Using SEO services is a great way to organically attract more patients to you dental practice.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – essentially what this means is that the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) use certain criteria to rank websites. This ranking turns into your place on the main search page. To further simplify, the better the content on your dental website — the higher you are ranked through search engines.
Let’s break down exactly what this looks like from a Dental perspective.
How can SEO benefit my dental practice?
It is this simple – when a person is looking for a dentist online, you want them to end up on your page. By using dental SEO strategies you make sure that your site is relevant and therefore gaining traffic, and traffic means new potential patients. Essentially SEO will help get your dental practice new patients by ranking your site higher in search engines like Google.
How do I attract more patients?
This is the ultimate goal of SEO consultants and this is effectively done using a variety of different strategies. There are many different factors that come into play when designing your dental SEO strategy.
Dental SEO Basics
The following are the basic Dental SEO strategies you should follow when creating a dental marketing plan.
On-Page SEO & Dental Keywords
This refers to the strategies that are used on your website that impact your search engine ranking, and determines how your dentist practice appears in search engine results.
Some of the key elements to On-Page SEO are keywords, content and overall site architecture.
How do keywords improve traffic on my site?
Your keyword strategy is probably the best and simplest SEO strategy to implement. It is certainly an ever-evolving strategy but it has been tried and tested!
Your keyword strategy begins with a great deal of research, what the focus is on is understanding the mindset of a potential dental patient. Consider questions such as:
- What words would someone use when looking for a new dentist? ex: “Dentist is Toronto”
- What questions would someone ask when searching for a dentist in their area? ex: “Best Cosmetic Dentist in Collingwood”
- What phrases would someone use when looking for a specific dental procedure? ex: “What is the cost of dental veneers?”
By asking these questions you are able to develop a list of keywords that dentists’ patients are using when they are looking for a dental practice. You then work these keywords and phrases in to your headings and other site content.
Google likes to connect the searcher to the best potential website, by incorporating the keywords with relevant content that people use in their search on your website – your site will begin to attract more traffic!
You may be wondering how do we incorporate these keywords and phrases — well this becomes part of your dental brand and is included in your FAQ, dental services content, blog and other areas of your site. You dental website content should be designed to naturally integrate the phrases and keywords.
It is important to note that this strategy is one that is constantly changing as the market and trends change. Maintain a focus on understanding the changing and new trends within the dental market and make sure that the content reflects this.
In order to not over saturate your website with heavy content and unnecessary keywords, focus on 5 to 10 terms at a time. This way when people are searching for a specific topic you will show up as one of the top search options in your area. From there we look to maintain that position focusing on new keywords with associated relevant content.
Don’t forge to analyze the effectiveness of this strategy on a month to month basis. By doing this you can notice important trends, changes and can adapt going forward. Creating the best user content for your website will help search engines like Google know that your dental practise website is a go to source of new information in the field and thus will rank your site higher which will attract new dental patients.
Links (Backlinks)
When we talk about links, also known as backlinks, what we are really talking about is credibility. One thing that Google looks for is the credibility of your site, this is established through links. Essentially — how many websites refer to your website through a link? The more credible websites that connect your site, the more credibility you have!
So, how do you get links or backlinks? Create quality posts and content — the kind of content your industry peers will share. By reaching out to dental bloggers or affiliated health industries to share your content and guest post – this will earn you links, simply put this helps establish that other high ranking sites are pointing to yours due to the great information you have available.
Site Architecture.
One reason that everyone turns to Google is that people trust Google. People know that when they are looking for a good, credible dental website Google will deliver. One of the things that Google looks for in a website is quality design with relevant content.
Of course, this refers to the appearance of the website, but more importantly mobile optimization, speed and security must offer a good user experience. When constructing your site always keep the user in mind.
Content
The term content refers to the images and text on your website. A major focus is to make this content accessible, inclusive and reflective of your dental brand and practice. By ensuring that your content is meeting the needs of your patients, you also ensure a good user experience.
Yes, this is a medically focused site — but it is important that you make the dental content approachable. Some strategies to use when designing the content is using bullet points, minimal and simplified medical jargon, simple but high quality images. Educate your patients!
The content that is a must-have on your site is the following:
- Services: simplified and straight forward
- Articles & FAQs: focused on highlighting your dental achievements
- Blog posts: focus on the most recent trends and up to date information
- About you: Introduce yourself, let your patients know a bit about you!
- And of course easy to access Call To Actions (CTA) – Make it easy for them to call, email or book an appointment.
Final Thoughts
SEO strategies can truly change a business. This ‘new normal’ has people turning to their phones and computers even more than before — and your Dental SEO strategies will help you to take advantage of this new potential traffic. Remember – clear relevant content, turns in to more traffic, and more quality patients.
In/Bloom Digital Provides expert Dental SEO services and Dental Web Design. Contact us at hello@inbloomdigital.com to start your new Dental Marketing Strategy for 2020!
