Establishing a strong and profitable dental practice is about far more than providing good services and getting good word-of-mouth advertising. In an increasingly digital marketplace, consumers are relying heavily upon the information that they find online.
SEO for dentists is a strategic and ongoing process that provides the benefit of proactive reputation management, positions dentists as industry authorities, and fosters conversions. More importantly, it places dental practices in prominent positions on search engine results pages (SERPs). Following are five things that you need to know about SEO for dentists.
1. The Majority of Your Potential Clients Are Searching for Dentist Practices Online
Most consumers rely on search engines to find local businesses. Whether searching at home, work, or while on the go, these platforms play a major hand in determining which companies they’ll see first, and whether or not they’ll be able to see some companies at all.
If you aren’t making regular and concerted efforts to optimize your practice website for search engines, and to keep it optimized, you’re missing out.
2. Page Loading Speeds and Revenue Go Hand in Hand
SEO produces a number of amazing secondary benefits. As you work to make your site more value-rich and appealing to search engines, you’ll also be enhancing its appeal for human users.
A good website plays an important role in the development of a strong, recognizable, and ultimately trustworthy brand. Surprising factors that you might overlook if SEO wasn’t a priority will largely and quickly determine how prospective clients view your business.
For instance, rapid page loading speeds are seen as a sign of good quality, good organization, and good overall value. As such, consumers are quick to navigate away from slow-loading pages by bouncing right back to search engine results. Improving this factor as part of your SEO will invariably result in more positive connections, more conversions, and increased revenue.
3. Website Architecture and General Site Fitness Are Important
Some dentists think that optimization is largely about providing fresh, relevant, and keyword-rich content. While this is a top SEO strategy and one that’s continued to work effectively for many years, paying attention to general site fitness is just as important if not more so.
More often than not, when handling their own SEO campaigns, dental practice owners struggle with the technical side of this process. This makes it best to rely on professionals for organic link-building assistance, the clean-up of dead links, proper web design and development, and more.
It is cheaper to pay for knowledgeable assistance than it is to go back and address errors that were made at the very outset.
4. SEO for Dentists Is an Ongoing and Constantly Evolving Process
Successful dental practices don’t just optimize for search engines and then pull the plugs on their SEO campaigns. Competition is fierce for the highly-coveted top spots on SERPs.
Moreover, the requirements for reaching and holding these positions are prone to change. This necessitates a constant investment in online marketing as well as regular site updates, content additions, and new link-building among other things.
For companies to handle SEO completely in-house, most will likely need at least one full-time, dedicated professional on staff.
5. Your Content Should Be Working for You in a Variety of Ways
Content is king. Despite algorithm changes, changes in how people use the web, and the addition of all-new ranking factors, having fresh, relevant and high-quality content both offsite and on remains critical. Not only will quality content help you garner the attention of search engines, but it can also educate prospective clients, expedite conversions, build loyalty, and position you as an industry authority.
More importantly, content serves as a highly-effective form of proactive reputation management that will help you bolster and build your commercial image long before any reputation-related issues arise.
While SEO is a key part of attracting the consumers that you hope to connect with, it is increasingly becoming an effective tool for building a positive and appealing image for a growing dental practice. With a commitment to studying, revising, and enhancing your SEO plan, you can ensure consistently impressive returns.
Best of all, when people reach your website via search engines, they’ll have plenty of reason to stay on your pages.
Interesting related article: “What is Search Engine Optimization?“