Are you a dentist trying to grow your practice? When it comes to promoting your website, you'll have to compete with a lot of other dental practices online. When you're just starting out with your dental practice, you'll find competing online can be a real struggle. The trick to succeeding has everything to do with a strong dental SEO strategy.
Did you know that there are more than 1.1 billion other websites floating around on the internet right now? If you don't learn about SEO marketing and how to optimize your website, you can't expect your dental practice to compete online. That's because SEO is the foundation of every good website.
But what if you don't know anything about SEO marketing or how it works?
Fortunately, you're in the right place to learn all the dental SEO tips you need to know. Keep reading and learn more about the basics of an SEO strategy for digital marketing below.
What Is SEO Exactly?
SEO stands for "search engine optimization," and it has everything to do with how search engines discover and rank websites on the internet. Search engines use algorithms to filter through all the millions of websites online to list the ones that are the most relevant and useful to users.
When Google finds a website that should be promoted and seen by more people, the search engine will raise that website's rank up to a higher position.
The higher your website ranks on a search engine, the more people can find your site. This is called search ranking, and it’s very important to remember that the higher a site ranks on a SERP, the more people will see it.
Dental SEO Ranking
If you search "dentist" in your browser you will immediately get millions of search results on Google. However, Google will only show the very best results at the top of the first page. In particular, the website with the best rank will be the very first result on the first page.
This is the best place to be for any website because more people will click on it. Of course, the more traffic that a dental practice website gets, the more business you will get as a result. The other websites on the first search results are good, but not quite as good as the top 3 ranking sites, and those on the second and third pages are likely to receive less traffic.
That's because very few people bother to click on the second, third, or fourth SERPs. After all, the first search results page already has all the information that most people need.
So, how can you make sure that your dental practice website appears on the first search results page?
Keywords for Better Dental SEO Ranking
When it comes to dental SEO and marketing tips in general, you will want to have a complete understanding of keywords in order for your website to rank. Keywords are a word or phrase that someone might type into a search engine to find more information about a topic–like dentistry.
For example, "dentist" is considered a keyword. In the dental realm, both "best dentist" and "dentists near me" are important keywords. They are also very popular keywords.
When a person searches for these words on Google, they will get thousands and even millions of search results. But as mentioned before, most people will only be interested in looking at the top results on the first page. If the website for your dental practice is on the 23rd page, people obviously aren't going to be able to find your site easily.
Fortunately, you can fix this problem by using better dental SEO keywords. There are very competitive keywords and then less competitive keywords. Just because a keyword is less competitive doesn't necessarily mean that it's less effective at driving traffic to your website.
In fact, sometimes using competitive keywords isn't the best strategy, especially if your website is still quite new.
Using Long-tail Keywords
If you use very popular keywords, your small website won't have a chance to compete against larger and more established websites using the same keywords. Instead of soaring up the search engine ranks with those popular keywords, your website listing would stay beneath the competition.
On the other hand, if you use more specific or less popular keywords as part of your dental SEO strategy, your website might have a better chance of being seen. This is because your website will have far less competition. Long-tail keywords are perfect for newer websites because they are not quite as popular as normal keywords and are more niche.
Long-tail keywords are nothing more than keywords that have three or more words in them. "Best pediatric dentist in Northwest Ohio" is a perfect example of a long-tail keyword. It is much more specific, and you will be able to reach a more focused group of people by targeting such a specific keyword.
If you're trying to promote certain services on your website, you should find good keywords for those services. For the best results, you will want to use keywords that target the location of your dental practice. That way, it will be much easier for potential customers to find your business and what kind of services you have to offer.
Use Better Headings and Titles
Many people don't realize that headings and titles have a lot of SEO potential. Take the title of a website or blog, for example. When you see that blog on a search results page, it is the title you are going to click on.
If the title is long and uninteresting, are people going to click on it? On the other hand, if the title is short and catchy, a person will be far more likely to click on it because they are curious about what the rest of the content has to offer. In a way, the title of your content is much like the first impression of your content.
If your first impression is bad and doesn't interest anyone, they would have no reason to click on your website and learn more about what it has to offer. How can you create better titles?
There are many ways to create better titles, but you should always make sure that they are relatively short. Long titles usually get cut off in SERPs, so your potential customers won't be able to see the whole title.
Using words that invoke certain emotions in titles is also a good idea because it makes people more interested.
There are many online resources and SEO professionals that can give you some pointers on what makes a good dental SEO title. Once you master title creation, you will soon find that the traffic to your website will steadily start to grow.
Headers work in a similar way but have a few differences.
Header Optimization
When it comes to using headers, you will mainly use them to break up the content on your website. For example, if your blog has a long-form article about "teeth whitening," it's important to optimize the content with headings, subheadings, and visuals such as images or infographics. This will make the information easier for the reader to understand and keep them engaged.
Headers aren't just for easy reading either. They also make for great ways to incorporate more keywords into your content so search engines understand what your content is about.
You will want to avoid keyword stuffing, which means repeating your keyword our keyword phrases repeatedly in an unnatural way. You won't want to use your main keywords over and over again in your headers. Your readers will become frustrated and the content will become ineffective.
If you use your keywords in your headers only when necessary for the information to flow, you shouldn't have any problems. Plus, using keywords in this way will help your search engine rank.
Content for Your Dental Practice Website
When it comes to dental SEO, one of the most important things you can do is to create high-quality content for your website. This will not only help your website rank higher in search engine results pages, but it will also give potential patients a reason to visit your site.
One of the best ways to improve your dental practice website is to add a blog section. This is a great way to provide fresh, relevant content that will help your website rank higher in search engines and attract more visitors.
Here are some tips for creating a successful dental blog:
1. Write about topics that are relevant to your dental practice. This could include articles on oral health, new dental procedures, or tips for choosing the right dentist.
2. Make sure your articles are well-written and informative. This will help to engage readers and encourage them to come back for more information about dental health.
3. Use keywords throughout your articles to help improve your dental SEO rank. Focus on using long-tail keywords that are relevant to your dental practice.
4. Promote your blog articles through social media and other online channels. This will help to drive traffic back to your dental practice website to improve SEO.
5. Regularly update your blog section with new articles. This will keep visitors coming back to your website and help you attract new patients.
Boost Your Dental Practice with Professional SEO
SEO can be tricky to figure out at first, but once you start to understand the basics, you'll realize the benefits of a dental SEO strategy to help new patients find your dental practice. Of course, doing the SEO all by yourself can be difficult, which is why affordable SEO services can help you promote your dental practice website.
Find out how we can help get you started with SEO for your dental practice website. Book a call with us today!