SEO (search engine optimization) involves the entire process of making web pages more visible to search engines and by extension more visitors or potential consumers for the products or services offered by the website. In this new age, every form of business including dental practice, medical practice, cosmetics, and so on, is now leveraging the broad coverage and visibility that the internet affords through SEO.
The higher a website ranks on the search engines, the more visitors the website is likely to attract. And the more visitors the website has, the more the number of potential clients and customers the business will have.
Dental SEO
Dental SEO involves the entire process of increasing a dental clinic’s website’s visibility on search engine result pages, making it more accessible to more people who need to access dental services. It widens your company’s website exposure and may help your dental business grow higher in patronage and conversions.
SimilarWeb finds that 85% of the traffic to ClevelandClinic.org, 83% of the traffic to HopkinsMedicine.org, and 87% of the traffic to MayoClinic.org comes from organic search.
Do you have a facility offering dental services and want to leverage the internet’s infinite potential in reaching potential clients? Dental SEO helps you stay ahead of the competition and acquire new patients through search engines.
Why Dental SEO is Important In Dentistry
Dentistry is one of the many industries where SEO is underutilized. Most dentists are either unaware of the huge importance of dental SEO or do not know exactly how to go about it in reaching both new and existing patients.
Google (and search engines in general) contributes a large percentage to the traffic of healthcare websites but many healthcare providers have been unable to leverage this opportunity.
For doctor appointment bookings, 57% of patients begin with online search. Patients now mean business with every keyword they type into the search engine and it is time dental practitioners mean business with them too.
Studies have also shown that 70% of people will click on one of the first five suggestions on a search engine results page.[1]Advanced Metrics, 2014 Organic (non-paid) search accounts for 53% of all website traffic.[2]Bright Edge, 2014
It, therefore, means that ranking your website on the first page of Google results will potentially increase your dental facility patronage several times over.
Dental SEO is one sure way to get ahead of your rivals in 2022, and it is vital to remember that your rivals may already be investing in SEO services as well. So, why not now?
Components of Dental SEO for Dentists
If you feel interested in dental SEO already, let’s see the essential components you should adopt for your company’s website. Always know that you can easily hire a dental SEO company if you feel the entire process is too difficult for you alone.
1. Local SEO
Local SEO is a type of SEO that helps your website appear higher in search engines for location-specific search queries.
For example, a Denver-based dental practice ranking for searches like “dentists in Denver”.
It has become usual for patients to search for key phrases like “dentist near me”. In this case, search engines have developed the ability to use the searchers’ IP address or geolocation to show them relevant business close to their current location without them having to type in the exact location.
Local dental SEO is a powerful tool that can substantially increase your online visibility even if your website does not normally appear among the first page results. Imagine having your company’s website displayed on the first page results when a patient searches for “dentist near me”, you get a boost in website traffic which can lead to an increase in customer conversion and patronage.
2. On-page SEO
On-page SEO is a term used for all SEO activities done directly on your own website. Google and most other search engines consider a lot of factors when ranking websites on search results. On-page SEO is one of them; the other factors related to other signals outside your website may be referred to as off-page SEO.
On-page SEO is your most controllable SEO approach and it focuses on optimizing a practitioner’s website’s user experience, mobile optimization, Security (SSL), load speed, content structure, organization and quality, etc, so as to increase the website exposure in the popular search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc).
In general, on-page dental SEO enhances the patient’s experience and confidence in the brand when navigating the website. On-page dental SEO makes it easy for patients to find what they are looking for on the website after they might have visited it.
On-page dental SEO makes the website more usable, valuable and organised.
3. Social Media SEO
Social media marketing is the term used for all social media activities that can enhance your business’s visibility on social media. Social media, much like search engines, can potentially boost your website visits and revenue.
Employing social media marketing for your brand, by offering helpful visual content for your social media audience can help drive more users to your website.
Social media marketing also directly impacts on your credibility for search engines and can create signals that help your website rank higher in search.
Why You Need a Dental SEO Company
SEO marketing refers to all activities that can enhance your search engine visibility. it involves all the components of SEO – on-page SEO, off-page SEO, social media marketing, etc – bundled into one process by a marketing strategy.
A dental SEO strategy is an inbound marketing strategy that initiates a data-driven approach to increasing a dental clinic’s online reach leading to more excellent conversion rates and quality leads.
Over the years, search engines have evolved through several algorithm changes. Current algorithms are in favour of quality user experiences, but aside from that, there are specific technical factors to handle for your dental SEO and SEO marketing.
All of the activities of dental SEO marketing can, therefore, be overwhelming for you as a dentist and you might require the services of a dental SEO company.
Revisiting The Perks of Dental SEO
Below are summarized benefits of dental SEO for your company and why you need to invest in it now.
- Improve your website’s local Google search ranking.
- An optimized website will improve the user experience and engagement.
- Create more discoverability in a competitive market.
- Improve the reputation of the oral/dental healthcare facility in a community.
- More patients discover the website and patronize your dental facility.
- Higher conversion rates of website visits to scheduled appointments.
- Improved brand recognition.
- Enhances all components of marketing strategies, including social media for dentists.
Conclusion
In a highly competitive industry like dentistry, it is critical to step up your game with dental SEO. Dental SEO will help you stay ahead of the competition while prioritizing marketing efforts to increase patient visits.
With local SEO, you can make your website renowned in your local community, and by ensuring that all components of your on-page SEO are checked, you are sure to have a formidable online channel that will greatly increase your returns in your dental practice.
The entire process of dental SEO can be overwhelming but investing in a dental SEO company that focuses on such services can help simplify the task for you.
References
↑1 | Advanced Metrics, 2014 |
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↑2 | Bright Edge, 2014 |