Did you know that 75% of searchers never click past the first page of results?
Today, businesses are doing all they can to improve their overall online presence and boost visibility.
Many dentists are turning to search engine optimization (SEO) to help them get better rankings on search results online. With a strong SEO strategy, you can capture more organic traffic and generate more business.
Don’t fall behind your competitors. Discover more about SEO for dentists and how it can help your practice.
What Is SEO for Dentists?
SEO for dentists is the process of increasing your site’s visibility by making your dental practice appear higher in search engine results.
For example, when someone searches “dentist near me” or any combination of dental search terms, an SEO strategy is what puts your practice at the top of the results (or as close as possible).
Importance of SEO for Dentists
The ultimate goal of dentist SEO is to get your website onto the first page of Google. Google ranks above Yahoo and Bing because it is the most widely used search engine with millions of searches per day.
Understanding and executing an effective SEO strategy for dentists can improve the reach of your dental practice and can provide a boost in new patient leads.
It also lets you increase your practice’s visibility in your local area and allows you to rise above your competitors.
Benefits of SEO for Dentists
The focus on local SEO increased when the pandemic hit. As a result, local SEO has become an essential marketing tool for dentists.
Here are three benefits of using SEO for dentists.
1. Build Trust and Credibility With Patients
Potential patients need to trust your dental service before making an appointment. How do you do that? You can build trust by building online reviews.
The more positive reviews you earn, the more online traffic and dental practice leads you’re going to get. Remember, Google uses review as a trust factor for SEO.
2. Drives More Traffic to Your Website
Good SEO optimizes your practice’s visibility online. The more people who see your site, the more your online traffic increases and the better you have at securing new patients.
A well-thought-out SEO strategy can help you drive more traffic to your website.
3. Provides a Better Website User Experience
SEO focuses on user experience to meet the needs of potential searchers. It improves usability and boosts traffic. You can do this by creating a website that looks professional and trustworthy.
Creating a better web page experience will have more conversions, page views, and higher earnings.
How to Optimize a Dental Website for SEO
An effective SEO strategy begins with your website. If you’re not sure how to implement SEO on your website, here are some helpful tips for a solid SEO strategy.
1. Know Your Keywords
Keywords are words and phrases people enter to find the information they’re looking for. Your job is to find out what those keywords are.
Take a moment to step into the shoes of a prospective patient. Ask yourself what you would search if you wanted to find a dentist in your area or find a solution to a dental problem.
You may rank on the first page for a specific keyword, but you won’t get traffic to your site if no one searches for it.
2. Write High-Quality Content
Creating engaging, high-quality content is valuable to your target market and your ranking. Valuable content includes blogs that answer the questions your prospective patients might have. For example, “how can I improve my smile?”
The more insight you provide, the more credibility you build. Remember to use keywords naturally, and don’t try to stuff your pages in an attempt to inflate your site’s ranking.
3. Design Your Website for Optimum User Experience
Good user experience is becoming more and more critical in solid SEO rankings. Work with web designers to create an easy and intuitive website to navigate.
Don’t forget to provide engaging content. And steer clear from clutter, walls of text, and videos that play automatically.
How to Optimize Your Practice for Off-Site Ranking Factors
Off-site SEO refers to the actions you take outside of your website to improve your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs). Off-site is just as important and will work to complement your on-site efforts.
Here are some helpful tips for a solid off-site SEO strategy.
1. Create Valuable Backlinks
Building backlinks is essential for ranking on the first page of any site. Google is more likely to rank your site higher with more backlinks. There are two types of links that can be created: natural links and links created through self-promotion.
Natural links are generated organically and without any action taken. They can be a great sign of trust and endorsement.
Links generated through self-promotion can be gained by people sharing your content–for example, a social media influencer.
2. List Your Practice on Local Directories
Local SEO is an effective off-site SEO technique. When you list your practice on the web, you can increase your reputation and rankings, particularly in localized search results.
These citations don’t have to include a link to your website, but they must include your name, address, and phone number. Remember, you must provide identical information to reap the benefits across each listing.
3. Build Patient Reviews
Online reviews impact your SEO. Prospective patients look to online reviews to learn more about you and your practice. Positive reviews influence a person’s decision to make an appointment or not.
To build your reviews, ask patients to offer a review and remember to follow up when they don’t. You can use these reviews on your website too.
Get More Patients With SEO for Dentists
The reality is that dentists cannot afford to ignore SEO. SEO for dentists can help drive new patients to your practice and rank you higher than your competitors.
Whether you’re starting a dental practice or looking to improve your current SEO strategy, we can help you.
Bipper Media has been helping clients grow their business through solid SEO strategies for over ten years. Don’t put your practice behind the eight-ball.
Book your free SEO strategy call today!
