Let’s understand SEO for dentists in detail.
Imagine you have an ice cream stall and you want to sell as much ice cream as possible. You are aware of the fact that you need people to sell the ice cream to. Putting up signs and boards to tell others about your stall is SEO.
Now switch your ice cream stall with a dental clinic and signs and boards with SEO. SEO is used to make people aware of your clinic online and tell them that you are there for them when they need help.
SEO helps people find out about your dental clinic and so, SEO for Dentists is important. For them, good SEO means more patients coming to the clinic when in need. SEO just makes it easy for people to find you.
There are 2.2M people searching “dentists near me” per month as shown below.
Search Engine Algorithm
People find search engine algorithms as a complex thing but don’t worry, we’re here to make it easy for you.
Think of your favorite recipe or let’s, just think of mine i.e., pizza! In a recipe, you get to know the ingredients you’ll be using and how you’ll be using them. Just like a recipe, a search engine algorithm teaches the search engine, “how to find the best website to put at the top”.
Super-Important Ingredients Of The Algorithm
Keywords
When you’re asked about the pizza toppings, you do think for a little while and choose carefully. Keywords play the role of the toppings for websites and the algorithm becomes you.
So, whenever a user puts a keyword in the search bar, the search engine shows the websites which have the same keywords.
Relevance
But imagine if the toppings are okay but the pizza itself isn’t tasty, you’ll dislike it instantly for sure, right? This means that only keywords aren’t enough. Your content should be related to what your audience wants.
Suppose someone out there is searching for a pizza to order but finds the recipe instead just because it has the word “pizza”. Is it relevant? No. Make sure your audience is getting what they want.
Quality
Wait wait wait! That’s not the end. Does anyone like bad grammar and punctuation mistakes? Okay, let’s talk about originality, do you like random content that isn’t true? I don’t and so does the search engine. Let me get to it straight, the quality matters. Make sure the quality of content is #1 and it is useful.
Freshly Cooked
What is cooking up in the algorithm? Content! Your content should be up to date. It should follow the latest trends, latest news, and latest techniques. This is a fast world, everything is changing, and you too should make a change with your website and content.
How Does It Work
Crawling
Just like a child searching for chocolates in the house, search engines send spider-like programs, which are called crawlers, to the large library of knowledge and websites. Crawlers find the websites using keywords.
Indexing
Once the crawlers find the websites that match your search, they note it down and add it to another library. Just like a lot of recipes that restaurants add to the menu.
It helps the search engine find out the websites that are available to show to the user.
Ranking
Once the listing is done, it’s time to rank. The website that matches your search the best, it’s at the top. And then lower, then lower. Best means to be at the top.
Remember the algorithm as a recipe and these all points as the ingredients and the steps used to execute it.
Keywords And Optimization Techniques
Well, without tricks and knowledge, no one can be at the top. What’s this about? Nothing else but keywords and optimization -huh!
Keywords
Earlier, in this blog, you read about the role of the keywords and how they okay the role of the toppings.
Keywords are the main thing that helps the search engine find the right content for you as well as websites to rank at the top. Let’s look at it more closely-
- Search engines look for words that the audience is searching for.
- Search engines want more keywords! Keywords should be similar, and interrelated. Don’t forget to add the word cheese if your content is about pizza! ;
- What’s the use of something if it doesn’t make sense, huh? I am not going to click on websites that are offering sad movies when I want to see rom-com. Make sure your content is related to your audience’s intent of searching.
Optimization Techniques
Life will be a bit boring if there’s no one to take advice from or at least, to follow.
Here are some techniques you can follow to blow up your content! –
- Keywords
Use a lot of keywords, but don’t stuff them. Use them naturally all over the content you’re going to put up on your website.
- Title Tags and Description
What if I don’t put a tag on the jars of sugar and salt, I’m going to mess things up for sure.
But you, make sure to put title tags and meta descriptions in your content. Use your keywords in the title and meta description to make the search engine aware of your content and its relevance.
- Image alt text
Imagine I put up a board but I didn’t write anything about it, most people won’t understand what it is about.
Yes, the search engine too wouldn’t know about the image on your website if you’re not writing about it. Make sure to write alt text.
- Linking Up
Linking with each other is a great way to build personal connections as well as grow an audience. Link with other reputable websites and gain more audience.
Benefits Of SEO For Dental Businesses
While, SEO in itself is a great term, using SEO for Dental business would be fantastic.
Imagine your dental businesses reaching on top and gaining the largest number of patients. Let’s move to the part where you’ll know, “Why to use SEO for my Dental Business”.
- Visibility
Let’s suppose, people know your business locally but how much and how many times are they gonna need you? Not forever for sure. Then let SEO solve the problem for you.
When you rank at the top of the web, people do click on your website on the first attempt. It helps your website become visible. An increase in visibility means, an increase in the audience that is going to hear you.
- More Patients
Just look at the image showing increased traffic all this is from just the UK. Obviously, they will be having a great number of patients using SEO.
While the audience is rolling in, they’re surely going to read about the service you’re providing.
More users and more audience means more potential patients.
They are using a dental email marketing strategy too to attract more customers.
- Building Trust
When your website or business ranks on the web consistently, people start trusting you. And when you seem trustworthy, they come directly to you without even giving someone else a glance.
Trust is important, when you build it then keep it. Don’t break it.
- Competitive Edge
Now, when you have an audience you’re sure of how much you’re trusted and directly reached.
This helps you in getting ahead of the competition. Your competitors aren’t your competitors anymore, you’re ahead of all of them.
- Cost-effective Marketing
While dental businesses are heavy-cost businesses, SEO makes Dental Business Marketing easier and more effective. Effective in cost as well as value.
You don’t need to run paid ads, just use this skill and get ahead and grow!
- Long Term Growth
Paid ads promise growth for a limited period or limited users but SEO, it’s a long-lasting thing.
Dental SEO is going to take you to heights even if you’ve applied it 20 years ago in your content. Choose the path properly.
There is not much to say about it but keep these facts in mind whenever choosing the method of increasing your reach and visibility.
Dental SEO: Strategies, Success and Check-up
Let’s see through the strategies you can use to be great at SEO, measuring the success of SEO, and conducting the SEO Audit!
SEO Strategies
- Keywords
You might have gotten bored of listening to “keyword” but what can I do? I don’t ever get tired of listening to chocolates, aah! It’s the only thing that takes up 90 percent of my mind.
Just like the chocolate ruling over my mind, keywords rule the Search Engine. Use Keywords in your content. The more they are, the more your website is gonna rank.
Use keywords naturally throughout the content and use related keywords.
- Content
As I said earlier, Content is King! Create the content as if it’s going to rule the algorithm! Create every piece of content as it’s the first and last piece you’d ever create.
Create content in the form of blogs, videos, and FAQs about dental businesses.
- Local SEO
Local SEO helps people find your location and access your services.
Local Dental SEO will make your business pop up on Google Maps and can even take your patients’ reviews after they access your service.
- Social Media Platforms
Social media isn’t the main source of reaching a great audience, but it can help you connect with your patients consistently and more personally. It can help your audience gain trust in you.
- Technical Smoothness
I don’t like websites where I need to wait for it to load, I go back instantly. Make your website speedy and free of any other technical issues.
Measuring SEO Success
You did the creation part. Now let’s check up on it. Just like you go to dentists for a regular checkup, your website needs a regular checkup too!
- Visitor Count
More visitors means more people taking an interest in your services. Check the number of visitors regularly to know if you’re making any progress or if you need a change.
- Keyword Ranking
Check on the keywords that you’re using. Are they helping or do you need to use more or maybe different keywords? If your website is ranking higher for some keywords, it means more people are getting to see it.
- Appointments
When you gain an audience, you’ll surely gain more patients. And the simplest way of checking your growth is by checking the number of appointments booked.
The more people book appointments online, the more your business is going to flourish!
Conducting An SEO Audit
Creation, done! Look-up, done! Check-up? Let’s do it!
- Website Check-up
You’ve made sure your website is smooth, from your side. But is it that smooth for the users?
Use online tools to check the speed of your website, the mobile-friendliness of your website, and all the broken links that you need to fix.
- Content Review
Someone who’s running a website should check up on content regularly.
Check if your content is outdated, if it is, then update it, please. Check the quality, relevance, and the trends.
Wipe out the useless and unrelated content. Post updated and fresher content.
- Keywords Analysis
I promise this is the last time, fluff!
Check the keywords if they’re bringing more visitors or not. If they are, keep it going. If they aren’t, twist them a bit or maybe use new ones that are trendy now.
Conclusion
In the end, I would say, SEO is just like a superpower for Dentists to take their businesses to new heights. Read and steal all the things I told you in this blog. Apply all these strategies, check-ups, and look-up rules and make your dental businesses be at the top!