Dental SEO: How to Reach More Patients With SEO for Dentists?

If you’re a dentist who’s avoiding SEO, keep in mind that dentistry is a competitive industry, and patients in most cities have a lot of options when it comes to choosing a dentist.

It is critical that your dental office be found online. The solution is Search Engine Optimization. An efficient SEO plan can help your dental practice attract more clients by increasing organic traffic and boosting your website’s ranking.

We know that many dentists and dental office owners are perplexed by the concept of dental search engine optimization. It can be a particularly vexing topic for dentists who wish to concentrate on providing excellent patient care rather than becoming marketing experts. Fret not as in this guide, you will find all there is to know about dental SEO.

Image Source: Status Labs

Search Engine Optimization or SEO works by helping your site rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP) such as Google, Mozilla Firefox, or Yahoo!. What’s the point of ranking on the first page of the SERP.

Well, when your site ranks higher, you have a better chance of getting more organic audiences and potential clients resulting in more sales and business.

Image source: RankMeUP

Dental SEO, or dental search engine optimization, focuses on optimizing a dental practice’s website for search engines and increasing the website traffic to gain more potential new clients.

For instance, when people search for “dentist near me,” “remove cavities,” or any other combination of dental search terms in Google (or Bing, Yahoo, or another search engine), your business will appear at the top of the SERP with the right dental SEO strategy.

Potential patients who are looking for dental practices online will rarely look past the first page of results. According to surveys, the first page of the major search engines received about 94 percent of all web traffic. 70% of users will click on one of the top 5 suggestions in a dental search engine results page when looking for a new dentist online. Over 90% of individuals will never read more than the first page.

If you do not want your dental practice to be left behind, here are 5 reasons why SEO is crucial:

You must improve your visibility if you want potential patients to find you online. To do that, you must appear higher in the search engine rankings and SEO can help you do that.

Image source: Velocity Consultancy

When your dental practice ranks on the first page of search engine results pages, you’ll get more impressions and clicks, which will result in more traffic. Do your due diligence (keyword research) and you will reap the rewards.

Google Analytics may provide information about your website’s traffic and how your pages are indexed. More information on the point-by-point SEO specifics can be found in the Google Search Console.

Image source: Diamond Group

For instance, this is the results of a dentist in Raleigh, North Carolina who applied dental SEO and within 12 months, you can see the dramatic results of 91% growth in website visitors in 6 months and 702% growth in website visitors in 12 months. They found that 91% of the website traffic originates from Google search.

Besides, creating keyword-related title tags and meta descriptions matters a lot in SEO as it will help to appear in search engine results pages. Optimise your tags and descriptions and you will see that your click-through rate will increase, growing your website traffic rises as well.

Image source: Relevance

When compared to other forms of advertising and marketing, SEO has the potential to reward dental practices at a higher rate. Because SEO is an inbound marketing technique, it allows you to market to potential patients when they are looking for items or services that are relevant to them.

Moreover, SEO is a more sustainable choice of investment for your dental practice as it will reap rewards in the long term compared to pay-per-click ads or Search Engine Marketing. This is because 95% of people go to search engines with the mindset of buying something, though it is not about the number of leads generated but the QUALITY of the leads.

Your website rating is a vote of confidence in the eyes of potential patients. They believe that if Google believes your dental practice is relevant, they should be able to trust you as well. Your patients may not realize it, but a high search engine ranking for your dental practice makes your brand more respectable in their eyes.

It’s a win-win situation: the higher you rank in search results, the more patients will trust you and visit your website. The more people who click, the more Google will regard you as a reliable and trustworthy source, and you will be pushed to the top.

SEO is value for money and allows you to reach out to people who are already looking for your product or service. Instead of spending in marketing techniques such as pay-per-click, or Google ads, a good SEO strategy can help you save money.

Consider paid search: if you spend $X, you will receive Y which is the amount of traffic. The moment when advertising is stopped, traffic comes to a halt. This is true for any paid channel, but particularly for sponsored search.

Every year, paid search expenses rise, yet persistent marketers can boost their ROI by fine-tuning an ad or campaign. Long-term, however, increasing ROI becomes more difficult because they can no longer optimize. At that point, the only options are to pay more money to get more or to keep running paid advertising.

On the other hand, if you focuses on good dental SEO tactics it may take a few months to start producing organic traffic, but it will continue to do so over the next six, nine, or twelve months and beyond.

Though dental SEO might be new to you, but we can assure you that it is not new to other practices in your location or city.

The internet is a congested, competitive environment. You can keep up with your competition, or even better, soar to the top and stand out as the greatest option for patients if you develop your own dental SEO marketing plan.

Let’s imagine a person searching for “Beverly Hills tooth replacement” on Google finds a lot of reviews, dentist directories, and rival websites. Improving your SEO will not only help you appear in these results, but it will also help you stand out and win her as a patient.

Any marketing strategy includes knowing where and how to reach your target audience. SEO is no different. You get prospective patients’ attention when you address their demands. This attention boosts your rankings, which in turn attracts even more attention, and so on.

Here are some things your clinic may do to start creating an effective dental SEO strategy.

The only way to figure out what people are typing into a Google search is to conduct keyword research. This is also to avoid producing content about topics that no one is searching for.

• For each dental SEO keyword, there are a few factors that must be understood:
• Search volume of the keyword (how many times the keyword has been searched for in a month)
• Keyword difficulty (how difficult it is to get the keyword to page one)
• Search intent of keyword (expectation of users when they use the keyword)
• Target audience

Take the keyword “teeth whitening” for an example:

Image source: Diamond Group

This keyword is fantastic in terms of search volume! However, we have a problem here because “teeth whitening” is an extremely challenging keyword to rank for, with an 86 percent keyword difficulty. Most dentists will never be able to rank for this term due to a lack of domain authority. A little bit of investigation may have saved us a year of stuff that would have gone nowhere.

Besides researching the right keywords, some “money keywords” that you can target are long-tail keywords. Assume you’re in Houston, Texas, and you’re working on improving your dental website. “Dentist Houston, TX” might be one of your targeted keywords, along with “Houston teeth whitening,” “best dental treatment in Houston,” and “root canal treatment in Houston, TX”

Image source: Single Grain

You might be thinking why should you focus on long-tail keywords when not a lot of people are searching for them. Well, that’s because they have lower competition, have better conversion rates, and can help you save money as the cost-per-click is fairly cheaper.

Now that you’ve compiled your keyword list, it’s time to see how you stack up against your competition dental websites in the search engines. There are over 200 criteria that influence a page’s ranking, but you don’t have to compare all of them. Here are nine of the most crucial SEO aspects to look into:

• Does the website use a schema markup?
• Does the website have backlinks?
• What is the quality of the web pages? (good, excellent, bad)
• What is the site speed? (fast or slow)
• Is the website mobile-optimized?
• How secure is the website (Search for a lock symbol on the search bar)
• How long are the web pages? (short or long)
• Are the images SEO-optimized?
• Is content from the website being shared on social media?

To make things easier, you can answer these questions by creating a spreadsheet. This way, you can easily compare how well your website is performing to other competitors and where you should improve.

After performing technical analysis on your site, you’ve probably realized that there are a few things you need to improve. Most SEO marketing managers would choose to avoid technical SEO, but you do so at your own risk. If you have technical SEO concerns, your site will almost probably never rank well in Google.

Image source: Search Engine Land

Technical SEO is crucial since it guarantees that your website is simple to use and free of any technical flaws (broken links, missing meta description, etc.) that prohibit search engines from understanding and ranking it. To generate organic traffic and convert that traffic into clients, you need to improve technical SEO. Here are some technical aspects which you should work on:

Secure Sockets Layers is a security protocol that creates encrypted connections between a browser and a web server. Simply said, it protects users when they visit your website by adding a layer of security.

If you spot the “HTTPS” before a website’s URL in your browser,it means that SSL is in action. Websites that do not implement SSL generally will be marked as “Not Secure,” which is not a pleasant user experience.

With their “Not Secure” movement, Google Chrome and other browsers have emphasised the necessity of SSL, highlighting that any website without a security certificate will be recognised as “Not Secure,” which might affect a website’s rankings.

More often than not, slow site speed can be quite unpleasant. In fact, 40% of users will abandon your website if it takes too long to load. That said, website owners must ensure that their pages load quickly in order to avoid discouraging a potential patient.

The time it takes for a dental website to load is an essential factor in technical SEO because:

• If your website does not load in under three seconds, users are likely to quit it.
• Google uses site speed as one of its ranking variables.
• When users leave your site, their bounce rate rises, which is a ranking factor for Google.

Image source: Councilsoft.com

According to reports, mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc.) account for more than half of all search traffic, thus optimising your website for mobile is critical. This is a significant Google ranking element as well. Based on our experience, approximately 75% of searches for dentist took place using a mobile device.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly so that visitors can access it from any device. As a result, you’ll be able to attract more patients and make it easier for them to find the services and information they need.

Image source: ahrefs

Schema markup is a sort of HTML that allows you to communicate directly to Google bots and tell them exactly what your website is about. Schema increases the likelihood of higher rankings and reduces Google penalties.

From the picture above, you can see that the rich snippets, which are often more clickable than ‘regular’ search results, are made possible via schema markup. That means more people will visit your website.

The markup’s principal purpose, however, is to aid search engines in better understanding your content.

The majority of dental marketers want this to be the first step. However, this time around you were wiser and conducted keyword research as well as correcting technical issues. Now, you can focus on optimising your website.

To optimize every page on your website, use these strategies:

Image source: Exposure Ninja

Take a look at the web page’s content. Is it able to answer the queries that someone might have if they were to open the page?

Make sure that the page titles and web content are relevant. When writing the meta description, include the focus keywords and a call to action.

Also, make the most of your heading tags (H1, H2, H3). Heading tags assist search engines in determining the importance of your page. Instead of using header tags to make content bolder, use bold text instead. On a page, there should only be one H1 header. This is the most significant text, as it informs Google about the topic of your page. H2, H3, and H4 tags can all be used multiple times.

Don’t stuff your website content with keywords. Keyword stuffing is when you use your keyword repeatedly in an attempt to convince Google that it is significant to the article. This is the incorrect approach to SEO. You’ll want to include keywords into your text in a “natural” way.

As discussed in Step 3(d).

The “people also ask” part of Google is a good place to add new content for your website. Are you able to address these questions with your content? Great! It’s possible that you’ll be included in a Google snippet.

Google’s featured snippets offer a chance to rise to the top of the SERPs and rank higher, resulting in increased brand awareness and traffic. Not only that, featured snippets have the super power of stealing traffic from the #1 spot.

Image source: Oberlo

According to Ahrefs research, the top-ranking search result receives 26 percent of clicks when no featured snippet is present, but just 19.6 percent when one is.

One of the most important factors for your dental practice is local SEO. For many businesses, appearing in the top three results of Google’s local listing search results generates a massive quantity of online website traffic. It’s great real estate that any local company would fight tooth and nail for.

To end up on the top three, here are some things that you should do:

• Claim your Google My Business listing and Google Maps for your dental office
• Include as much information as possible about your practice (make sure that your NAP are accurate and consistent on all sites)
• Make sure to use or include a local phone number (the phone number on your website should be identical with the one listed on GMB)
• Connect and link all your social media profiles
• Add photos of your dental office

Any reference of your practice on the internet is referred to as a local citation. Although these citations do not have to link to your website, they must include your name, address, and phone number. The following are three of the most popular local citation sources for dentists:

• Yelp
• ZocDoc
• Healthgrades

Notice that the dental practices from the search results page above are arranged in a decreasing manner of Google reviews. The more reviews you have, it will show Google that you are a trusted dentist. Regarding negative reviews, do keep in mind that you have to handle them with care as this will also reflect on your professionalism.

Also, do make sure you have a plan in place for requesting reviews from patients and following up on such requests. Plus, make sure to highlight a lot of these positive reviews on your website!

You’ve completed the first five steps and have accomplished a great deal, but there’s still more work to be done!
Examine your website to ensure that every specific service you offer has its own page. To get some inspiration of what to include in the dental services, check up on your competitor. Is there anything you think is missing? Include it.

• Build your website authority (FAQs, About Us, Blogs, News, etc.)
• Include more visuals (videos are one of the easiest ways to inform your audiences)

Basically, the more questions and concerns that you can answer on your website, it will help a potential patient to understand your practice better.

A good piece of relevant and engaging SEO-friendly content can do so much for your website. You don’t have to publish blogs everyday, but you must at least upload some high-quality content on your website.

You will begin to attract interested readers and potential patients by developing a blog with dental care suggestions. Your search rankings will improve as your traffic increases. The best part is that you will establish yourself as an authoritative source and first choice for those looking for a dentist in your area.
So the question is, what is a great SEO-optimized content for Google:

• Long-form content, preferably over 2,000 words
• Original content with unique writing style
• Content that provides readers with value & information
• Content with graphics/ images
• Easy-to-read content
• Keyword-optimized content
• Content which other websites link to
• Content which are shared on social media platforms

Image source: LaptrinhX

Backlinks aren’t easy to come by, and they don’t happen by themselves. It requires time and effort. It involves outreach. It will take some time. Slowly but steadily, you’ll establish your backlinks one by one.

Here are some great ways to get backlinks using White Hat methods:

• Get interviewed by established or authoritative sources
• Guest blogging
• Collaborate with other bloggers from your niche (dental/ medical/ health)
• Create compelling infographics
• Claim all local listings in online directories such as Google, Yelp, Yahoo!, etc.
• Share your content on social media
• Use a pillar content marketing strategy to connect your contents together

Google considers links to your content to be a positive indication and a user vote in your favor. When you have more links to your site, your domain will be more authoritative and credible to Google and indirectly boosts your site ranking.

You’ve done a good job getting here. This has undoubtedly taken a significant amount of time and effort on your behalf. Regrettably, you’re not finished yet. You’ve only just started. Now comes the hard part: obtaining data, assessing the outcomes, and making adjustments.

The United States has a total of 200,419 dentists. However, it does not take a genius to know that most dentists don’t have time to learn about or launch their own marketing campaigns, so hiring dental SEO experts to do it for you is a good idea.

Whether you’re a new clinic trying to expand your patient base or an established practice looking to expand your dental services or create new sites, partnering with a dental marketing agency can help you achieve your objectives.

Smile Savvy prides itself on its innovative marketing strategy as the world’s largest digital dental SEO company in the paediatric dental field. Smile Savvy has grown from a one-woman operation to a major player serving over half of the country’s paediatric dentists since 2000.

Website design, local and organic search engine optimization, review building, social media, and reputation management are among the dental SEO services offered by the SEO agency.

My Dentistry Agency has been providing the dental sector with highly tailored, boldly-driven dental SEO marketing to attract new patients and thrill existing ones for almost ten years. The SEO company expertly blends logic and creativity, as well as strategy and innovation.

Web development, PPC marketing, social networking, reputation management, email marketing, and direct mail marketing are some of the dental SEO services offered. Their greatest source of pride is a high client retention rate, and who can argue with their self-proclaimed combined 90+ years of “being awesome”?

This dental SEO agency in Los Angeles takes pride in focusing on ROI, being entirely open, and providing exceptional customer service. They believe in a bold, growth-oriented strategy and have increased traffic by 342 percent using cutting-edge SEO technology. Wow!

Every client is guaranteed five things by the SEO Dentist: satisfaction, communication, results, communication (again), and cost. They recognise that not every digital marketing firm has the client’s best interests at heart, and they want you to know right away that you won’t have to worry about that with them.

New Patients Inc.’s skilled marketers realize that marketing isn’t just about acquiring new patients; it’s about attracting the proper kind of new dental patients. They’ve used fine-tuned strategies based on research and statistical analytics to recruit patients from the high-value “top half” of all patients since 1989. Their strategies guarantee a twelve-fold return on long-term investments.

This SEO agency is an expert in both online and offline marketing, and their technological solutions, such as online scheduling and patient communication tools, go above and above.

The Dental Marketing Guy describes himself as a “Dental SEO Enthusiast” and is a one-man show. He realises that the world of digital marketing is continuously evolving, and he modifies his plan to keep on top of the developing trends that affect your dental website’s rank and popularity. He is an expert in SEO and web design.

The Dental Marketing Guy developed the first dental SEO course to teach dental practice owners the fundamentals of using search engines like Google to attract new patients.

Prices for dental SEO services vary depending on a number of criteria, but the average monthly cost ranges from $750 to $2000. If you want to work with a consultant or a dental SEO expert, expect to pay between $80 and $200 per hour.

To be frank, we definitely covered a lot of information about dental SEO in this article. Do dental practice owners need SEO? Yes, if they want to expand and attract new patients, they are advised to do so.

If your competitors haven’t yet invested in dental SEO & other internet marketing tactics, this is a wonderful chance to get ahead of them and attract more patients to your practise before they do. You already know that your practice is the greatest in town. With a great-looking website and excellent SEO, you can prove it.

We know you’re probably too overwhelmed with the information and it’s okay because no one becomes an SEO marketing expert overnight. With that being said, we’re here to assist you if you need a helping hand or a marketing agency to guide you through the process.

We serve:

• General dentists
• Endodontists – root canal specialist
• Oral and maxillofacial surgeons, TMJ specialists
• Orthodontists – alignment specialist
• Pediatric dentists
• Periodontists – gum specialists
• Prosthodontist – replacement specialists

Through a variety of SEO services, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses, including dental practices, improve their search engine rankings. Our team of seasoned marketing team knows how to increase the number of visitors to your website and assist you in attracting new patients to your clinic.
Claim your free technical SEO audit now to figure out how you can improve your website’s ranking and get more new patients! Limited slots available!