Dental SEO: All You Need To Know

We all know that search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for any business to be successful. Dental SEO is no exception! If people are looking for a reputable, dental practice, they will be searching online to find the best dental office near them.

Therefore, you want your dental business to stand out over your competitors. Dental SEO will give your business an advantage over other dental offices. If you work with an SEO company, they will ensure that your website reaches as many people as possible.

Dental SEO will increase your site’s visibility on search engines when potential customers look up phrases like “best dentist near me” or “dentist office for toothache”. In general, dental SEO will make your site more user friendly and easier to find while searching for a dental office.

In this article, you will learn what Dental SEO marketing is, and the difference between organic SEO and local SEO.

Dental SEO

Dental SEO Marketing

According to a 2019 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 80% of Americans, about 93 million people, search for health-related topics online. That statistic is a 62% increase from 2001.

And that is why dental SEO marketing is so important in the dental industry. Your business must be easily accessible to people in order to run a successful dental service. Basically, you need to increase your web presence to increase profit.

Why Should I Care About Dental SEO?

You might be asking yourself, “I’m a dentist, why do I care about what people are searching up on the internet?” Well, the answer is simple: if people can’t find your website, they won’t know that your business is out there. Therefore, your dental practice will not receive that many new customers compared to dentists who choose to optimize their business websites.

Dental website SEO will increase your visibility on search engines to potential patients. This is why SEO for dentists is perhaps the most important digital marketing strategy you can engage in.

Especially in this day and age, almost everyone has access to a device that they can use as a reference or guide to find something, whether they are looking for a new dental office or a new recipe to cook up for dinner. In addition, you need to constantly change your marketing strategies in order to compete with other dental services near you.

It is a great idea to use SEO for your dental website. Even if your competitors aren’t using SEO services to improve their businesses, it’s your opportunity to show everyone why your dental practice is the superior business.

You want your practice to be the leading dental service in your area. In order to get to the top, and stay at the top, you need to maintain your website. You might be a highly skilled and talented dentist, but that does you no good if you have no dental patients.

Dental Marketing Strategies

Four Simple Tips for Dental SEO

  • Relevant Keywords

Potential customers don’t just simply use page titles like “dentist” or “dental office” when looking for a new dentist. They also use more detailed terms like “teeth whitening” or “cavities”. Make sure to include more detailed keywords while optimizing your website. As a result, more people will be able to find your dental practice, which is, of course, the goal of Dental SEO.

  • Local Searches

If your SEO plan doesn’t include a specific location or area, add it right away! Including the name of your location or nearby locations will increase your web traffic. People are willing to travel to the next town over if it means having a better dental experience, so don’t just limit the location to your hometown. Also, if you register your dental business with Google Maps and local directories, that will help improve your website’s visibility.

Starting a blog on your dental website will not only help increase your online search visibility, but also your credibility. Your blogs can be as simple as “how to treat a toothache” or “tips to help your young child brush their teeth”. Any of those kinds of topics will be sure to attract more customers. A person might not even be looking for a new dentist, but if they stumble upon your informative blog posts, that might just persuade them to check out your dental office.

  • Links

The quality and amount of links embedded in your website will impact your site’s search ranking in comparison to other businesses. You can manage your links by creating high-quality content, such as blogs, or reaching out to others to share your website.

When another business shares or endorses your services, it advertises your dental practice to a broader range of people. For example, you could work with a local orthodontist or oral surgeon to increase the amount of customers you help. In that kind of relationship, both businesses benefit because they are referring customers to a service similar to their own business, but not in direct competition. With the example of the orthodontist, they will not be “stealing” your customers, since an orthodontist and dentist provide different services.

Local Dentist SEO

Four Effective Dental SEO Marketing Strategies

Essentially, content marketing makes customers know who you are as a business and it is well worth your marketing efforts. As stated earlier, blogs can be useful on your website to show potential customers that you know what you are doing. You want customers to completely trust you. Some people are scared of dentists. If your customer completely trusts you and your dental capabilities, they will be more relaxed while in the dentist chair.

Even after visiting your well-designed, optimized website, some people may still be on the fence about fully committing to becoming your newest patient. A great way to make them more comfortable with your services is by encouraging them to subscribe to your office’s email list.

If they are connected to your business through email, they will gradually learn more about your business practice. Emails are also helpful for current patients. For example, you can send them email reminders for upcoming appointments, or even birthday wishes to show your patients that you care for them.

Your website design will be your future customers’ first impressions: make it count! You want your dental practice’s website to reflect your reputable practice. If your website looks sketchy or unprofessional, users will doubt your dental abilities.

People will think, “If this dental office can’t even have a good website, how can we expect them to have talented, respected dentists and hygienists?” Overall, make sure your website is user-friendly and well-designed to make people want to visit your office. Design is an underappreciated aspect of dental website SEO.

Actively posting on social media platforms will make patients feel more connected to your dental business. You might even gain some new patients. Some useful platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Social media can be a great dental marketing platform to reach potential clients. Your posts can be whatever you want them to be! It’s your dental company, so you get to decide the social media content you want people to see.

You might choose to show tips and tricks to having healthy teeth and gums, what goes on behind the scenes, show off your new equipment, or patient testimonies and results to show people that your office is a friendly and safe environment. Show patients that there is nothing to be scared of at the dental office.

Even though you might not immediately think of promoting a dental practice on social media, give it a try. So many people use social media every day, so social media is really the way to go to stay connected with patients.

Dental SEO Tips

Local Dentist SEO

Local SEO focuses on optimizing your website to attract customers who are searching for your business near them. For example, if someone searches up, “Good dentist for children near me,” you will want your site to pop up on his or her browser.

Local SEO will make the process of finding a dental office easy for customers. Instead of having to look through various dental office websites to find the perfect one, with local SEO, people can easily find a reputable dental practice in their area. 97% of users search online to find a local business. That is the vast majority of people. Think of how many new customers you could attract if you locally optimize your website.

Why Is Local Dentist SEO Important? 

Local SEO is crucial to your business success because local patients depend on their internet searches to determine whether they will become one of your newest patients. Just using SEO to grow your business will not be enough to compete with other dental practices out there. You need to combine SEO with local SEO to get the most out of your virtual presence.

You need local SEO to be one of the first dental businesses to show up on an internet search. If you have a local SEO strategy that works well for your dental practice, potential customers will look at your site first.

As stated earlier, people don’t want to look through copious amounts of websites to find a dentist. When they need to go to the dentist, they are not going to travel hours away, they will want a dental practice that is local or relatively close to them, making visits to the dentist easy and convenient.

Dental SEO Marketing

Local SEO vs Organic SEO

You might be asking yourself, “Well, what’s the difference between local SEO and organic SEO? They both have SEO in their names, so they must mean the same things.” That guess is close but missing some information. The main difference between local SEO and organic SEO is the location aspect for local SEO.

As explained earlier, local SEO involves specific locations when searching for a service. If someone looks up “dentist near me,” that would be an example of a local search. Organic SEO optimizes your website, making it easy for a website to show up when using specific keywords.

Organic SEO

It is especially helpful for businesses that don’t have an actual location. For example, a fully online clothing store would benefit from organic SEO rather than local SEO. A fully online business does not need their customers to be physically located near them.

Essentially, local SEO and organic SEO both help a business’s website traffic increase, resulting in more customers.

If you do choose to use dental SEO marketing and local SEO strategies in your business plan, you will definitely see the benefits. You will gain more website traffic and more customers. Today, people don’t just rely on word of mouth recommendations, they turn to the internet to find new businesses and services. In addition to optimizing your website, there are many other marketing strategies to gain new patients.

Contact SEO Design Chicago today

If you still have questions or concerns about dental SEO marketing or local SEO, reach out to SEO Design Chicago for a FREE local SEO analysis today!

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