Marketing is a huge part of your dental practice. Although you want to ensure you provide your customers with great service, it’s the marketing efforts that bring them through the door. One of the most important parts of marketing is SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization. When you go on Google or another search engine site and type something in, the SEO of a website will determine how high it is ranked. The higher your ranking, the more calls you will receive. When was the last time you scrolled through Google until the 20th page? Probably not recently, and that is why dental SEO is so important. Keep reading as we explain to you why dental SEO is important for your dental practice.
SEO incorporates the search terms your target audience is typing into Google in order to find you. The bad news about SEO is that is works slowly. You can be doing everything right, but your placement may not move for months. With that said, if you continue to do the correct things and stay consistent, your ranking will slowly increase.
Google ranking its mind on a regular basis on what it is looking for. That is one of the reasons why it is important to stay up to date on the latest trends. If Google ranges its mind and you don’t know, you are stuck marketing a website in an incorrect way. This is another reason why if SEO is not your strong suit, it may be a great idea to hire a professional that keeps up on the latest trends.
If you start to raise your search ranking, you will see a number of positive changes happen to your practice. Some of these include:
- Improve your overall online presence.
- If someone in the area is looking for a dentist, they will be able to find you easier.
- Targeting your specific target audience instead of random people on the web.
- Increased traffic to your website.
- More calls and therefore more customers booking appointments.
Now that you know a little bit more about why SEO is so important for your dental practice, now let’s talk about simple ways to increase your ranking.
The first way is to add blogs. Are you blogging on a regular basis? Google likes when great quality content is log added on a regular basis. If your blog is being updated on a regular basis, then you are adding great content to your website without having to switch around your website at all. The other perk is that blogs bring new readers to your website. For example, you write a blog on finding a great dentist in the New York area, this will draw New York readers looking for dentists to read for the blog which in return will lead to you to more customers.
If you are blogging, remember to add images to eat blog. You want to add at least one image and include a title to the image as well as a description of the blog using the keyword or the title of the blog. It’s also important to remember to add tags as well as a meta tag to your blog.
The next way to increase your SEO is to use Google analytics. If you are not looking at what is working and what is not working, then you will be shooting into the dark. This means you may be spending your money on something that is not working when you should be spending more money in a specific area. Google analytics is a great platform to find out what works on your website. It will also share with you the keywords and keyword phrases you should be using in order to bring your target audience.
The best part about Google analytics is that it is completely free. You simply need to create an account and put your information in. Quickly, it will determine information for you and feedback as you slowly start to increase the ranking of your website.
Next, you want to use these keyword phrases. Although Google does not want you overusing them. This will make you look like you are trying too hard and trying to play their game. Try and include at least one keyword or keyword phrase that people type in order to find your website.
The next tip we have is to provide quality content. Google does not want to see spelling mistakes or bad grammar. Try and run all the copy on your website through a site like Grammarly to ensure there are no spelling errors. Not only will a well-written site make you look more professional to the reader, but it will increase your SEO because Google will like it.
If you have any recommendations on products such as what toothpaste to use or ways to whiten your teeth, make sure to use these throughout the content and blogs too. Having links to trusted sources will make your website look more trusted and will in return, increase your SEO.
As you can see, SEO is such a big part of your dental practice. If you are getting a call from a random person looking to book an appointment, they most likely found you online. If you are able to have a higher ranking than your competitor, you will likely receive more calls and potential leads than them.
We love working with dental companies and helping them increase the overall ranking of their website. For more information on dental marketing and increasing the ranking of your website, contact us today.