If you want to expand your dental practice and attract more clients, consider boosting your online presence. Having a fully optimized dental website is like putting it on autopilot. Once correctly set up, you can fully concentrate on providing your patients top dental care. It won’t be long before more patients flock to your clinic.
Your dental site represents your business online. It’s the web-based portion of your clinic, where you can book patient appointments, provide updated dental information, and feature your expertise. With an optimized dental site, you’re set for a higher rank on search engine results pages, which significantly boosts traffic.
What is SEO for Dentists?
As reported by Digital Authority Partners, dentists need SEO to establish their online and local presence. SEO means search engine optimization, or a collection of online strategies that help websites reach the top page of search engine results pages. SEO techniques can boost a website’s popularity and rank it higher on SERPs.
There are many dental SEO strategies available for dental marketers. These strategies are divided into four parts, or “pillars of SEO.”
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is about optimizing websites and servers to help search engines index your business site more efficiently and effectively.
This is about technical strategies such as using XML sitemaps, AMPs, SSL, structured data markups, and more. Technical SEO experts use different tools like webmaster tools and the Google Search Console to optimize websites.
Content SEO
Your website content is what your patients came for. They need quality, updated, and helpful information in the form of texts, videos, podcasts, images, PDFs, infographics, tables, and more. Content SEO is also about using industry keywords to improve indexing for better exposure.
On-Site SEO
On-site SEO considers sections of your website that should be optimized using SEO. This is made possible by using meta titles and descriptions, heading tags, alt text, and internal links. Marketers also use structured data, which are bits of code that provide search engines crucial information about the site content that they can display precisely and quickly.
Off-Site SEO
Aside from optimizing your website, you should also consider off-site strategies that build your online reputation. These tactics can include using links, improving local search profiles, and enhancing your social media presence.
Understanding these four pillars of SEO can help you create better and more effective dental marketing campaigns. These pillars translate to different SEO techniques and trends.
Top 2022 Local SEO for Dentists
The following are some of the most popular local dental SEO strategies in 2022. Find the strategy that best fits your local dental business.
Using Social Media SEO Strategies
Social media is crucial to our everyday lives. We constantly depend on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to find updated information, and we use social media to connect with each other.
Investing in social media SEO allows dentists to take advantage of its many benefits. With your dental practice on social media, you can reach out to more clients, spread dental health information, and build your brand. Use social media as your tool to connect with more people and establish your practice locally.
- Connect your social media platform with your business website and blog site.
- Showcase your dental services and products.
- Upload quality photos and videos about your practice.
- Update your social media profile as necessary. Use maps to lead your customers to your local clinic.
- Use chatbots to provide quality customer service 24/7.
- Respond to questions, comments, and reviews.
Improving Website Content
Google prioritizes website content when ranking sites on search engine results. Only websites with valuable and reliable content can rank higher on SERPs, which is why it’s essential to create better, high-quality, and original content. Your web content is not just text. Dentists can use other media like the following:
Podcasts
Podcasts have grown in popularity because of their portability and on-demand format. Dentists should maximize the potential of podcasts to reach out to a larger audience.
You can create a podcast for different topics related to your market and invite relevant guests. Don’t forget to make a good title and description for your podcasts that contain keywords.
Videos
Video content is also more in demand as people prefer to watch short videos rather than read long blocks of text. Videos can help dentists disseminate all kinds of information.
You can create videos to promote a new service or product that’s available in your clinic. You can also use videos to promote oral health and dental care.
Infographics
Marketers use infographics to spread information quickly and effectively. They are visual tools created with simple words, phrases, and basic images.
You can take advantage of infographics to teach oral health and dental care. Use your keywords in creating infographics and in describing the format of your website.
Enhancing Your Local Presence with Google My Business
Google My Business or GMB is a powerful tool that helps your customers get to know more about your business. GMB is your business’ unique profile on Google that your customers see the first time they search for your business. Your GMB profile is connected to Maps so optimizing your listing is a must.
- Claim your GMB listing so you can edit and manage your profile.
- Update your NAP (name, address, and phone number) as necessary.
- Create separate GMB listings for different clinic sites.
- Create a convincing and engaging description under 750 characters.
- Manage your business reviews.
- Upload high-quality photos and videos of your business site.
- Include special hours of operation.
Final Words
Your dental practice can benefit so much from local SEO. SEO is a practical, effective, and long-term strategy that helps your rank higher on search engine results. With the right SEO strategy, you’ll be able to grow your business, expand your dental brand, and drive more customer traffic to your website.
