SEO is an excellent marketing channel for Dentists because it’s cost-effective and can continue to bring in leads over the long run.
Everyone needs a dentist, maybe the customer is not happy with their current dentist and is looking for a new one, or they’ve moved house and need somewhere more conveniently located, or perhaps they just haven’t been to one in a very long time!
Whatever the case, there will be plenty of potential customers in your area searching online for a dentist.
Why Use SEO To Promote A Dental Practice?
Of course, there are other marketing channels you can use, like paid ads, to attract new customers, however, those customers may not be looking for a dentist right now.
Whereas with SEO, you can attract customers who are ready or very nearly ready to become new customers. SEO is a high-intent channel meaning that potential customers are more serious about either researching or purchasing. As a result, you are more likely to convert that person into a paying customer.
Let’s look at it another way; if we compare paid ads to SEO, the paid ads are interrupting the consumer. We are distracting them from what they are doing; this can still work as a lead generation tool, but it may not be as effective.
Whereas with SEO, the customer is coming to you, they are already a warm lead, and they already know they need a dentist, so once they are on your website, we need to convert them. A great well-optimised website will help with this and this should be included in your SEO strategy.
How Do I Do SEO for My Dental Website?
There are five key steps to consider, they are keyword research, content strategy, off-page SEO, technical SEO and Google Business Profile optimisation.
1. Look For The Best Keywords For Dentists
First, consider what keywords your potential customers would be searching for, then research to find out if people are using those keywords.
For example, Dentist Cronulla.
You may also want to consider variations such as ‘Dental Practice’ or dental services such as ‘braces’, ‘teeth cleaning’, ‘tooth extraction’ and so on.
How do you know if people are searching for a keyword?
You can find out by putting keywords into a free or paid keyword tool, for example, google ‘Ahrefs free keyword volume tool’.
Alternatively, if you are using Google Ads, you can use the keyword tool in google ads to give you an idea of how many searches there are for that keyword each month.
Also, look at the keyword difficulty, the higher the number (out of 100), the more challenging or effort you will likely need to put in to get your web page ranking.
If you are a well-established business with substantial authority, it’s easier to go after keywords with a higher difficulty rating. However, new companies may be better off targeting lower-difficulty keywords.
2. Come Up With A Content Strategy or Content Plan
So you now know which dental-related keywords you want to try to rank for.
The first thing to ask is, do you already rank in Google for those keywords?
You can check this by looking at your Google Search Console performance section. Next, search for the keyword and if it comes up, check which position and which page(s) rank for that keyword.
If you can’t find the keyword, then you can create a new page to target that topic.
When you find the keyword, look at its position and then assess the page ranking for that keyword. Can you make enhancements to the page so that it can rank? Or would it make more sense to create a new page?
Ensure that the keyword appears in the page title and at least one of the headings on the page and ideally in the first few paragraphs.
3. Promoting The Page Via Off-Page SEO
Getting links to your new content from other websites can give your content a boost in the rankings. Where possible, try to get off-page SEO into your content strategy.
How do you get links to your content? There are several ways, including guest posting, broken link building, responding to PR requests, doing outreach to website owners or getting featured in your local news site. Being part of the local community and getting involved in events or sponsoring local initiatives are other ways to get links.
Getting links to sales pages can be challenging, so getting links to the home page or a blog post may be best. In this case, you can link from your page that has external links pointing to it to funnel some of the benefits to your new page.
4. Look At The Technical SEO
If you have a very slow-running site, it will be harder to compete with other players, so test your website through a speed testing tool. Look at quick wins to speed up your website such as reducing image size or swapping out high-quality photos or more simple graphics.
Put your website through a website audit tool to check for other technical issues. Alternatively, look at the reports in Google Search Console and check for errors.
You can always reach out to your web developer or SEO expert if the issues are too complex to fix yourself.
5. Check That Google Business Profile Is Optimised For Your Dental Keywords
Firstly, ensure you have a GBP or Google Business Profile and that the information is up to date. Ensure that the correct categories are listed and that all your primary services are
listed.
Ask your customers to leave you a review so that potential customers can see what people are saying about your service. Reading reviews is a vital part of the customer decision process; if you don’t have reviews, you are seriously missing out!
Keep your profile updated during holidays or if your opening hours or service change. You also need to make sure that your contact details and business information is consistent across the web, so if you have other profiles, such as business directory listings, check the information is the same. The descriptions can be different, but data such as contact number, business name, address and website should match.
Let customers know you are open for business by adding images to your GBP and posting when you have updates, offers or new services to share.
I Need Help With My Dental Practice SEO
It’s likely you don’t have the time to invest in SEO for your dental practice. You are busy with dental procedures and managing the day to day running of your practice.
Let us help you with your SEO and get you ranking for the keywords that will bring in new leads time and time again.
To learn about our monthly SEO plans, please send us a message via our contact form or book a discovery call to find out how we can work together.
