Search engine optimization is something that most owners of dental practices have heard of and likely considered as part of their marketing strategy. However, many owners and their employees may not fully understand how it works or if it is even important to the success of their practice.
A dentist or a dental practice needs to have an effective online presence to gain new patients and replace those lost to attrition. Typically, this is done by applying best-practices to the website content, which includes making it easier for search engines (like Google) to understand.
One of the primary ways to do this is to use targeted keywords that are relevant to the services the practice offers and the location it serves. This is known as on-page SEO. Another way to improve the effectiveness of a website is to use off-page SEO techniques. This is accomplished by getting reputable websites to link back to the dental site. Lastly, paid ads are also often used by dentists to increase the visibility of their website in searches conducted on major search engines like Google and Bing.
While on-page and off-page Dental SEO Expert are a crucial aspect of dental SEO, it is essential to remember that search engines return millions of results when someone performs a search. This is why it is imperative to be found amongst those top results. The top three or five results receive the majority of clicks and most of the traffic.
In addition to optimizing the website for search engines, a dental practice should also focus on its reputation and brand. This is why creating high quality, unique content on the website is so important. This not only increases organic rankings, but it also helps establish the dental practice as an authority in the industry and build patient trust.
The content that is created on a website should include both short and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords are usually three words or less and drive more traffic to a site. But, long-tail keywords, which are four words or more and focus on specific topics, are becoming increasingly important. Especially when people search using voice on devices such as smart speakers and digital personal assistants.
It is important to remember that SEO work does not happen overnight and it takes time to see a return on investment. It can take up to 6 months to see a significant impact on organic search engine rankings. It is also important to monitor and make improvements to a dental site as competitors catch on to the SEO work that is being done.
As with most things, dental SEO is a constant work in progress. As new services and technologies become available, it is necessary to update the dental site to take advantage of them. A dental practice that does not monitor its competition and make adjustments as needed will quickly lose ground to its peers. This is why it is important to contract with an experienced Dental SEO Expert.