SEO for Dentists in 2021: 10 Tips to Dominate the Local Search

How to do Search Engine Optimization to reach and get more patients for Dental Services

As a dentist, you sure know the importance of having a good website that forms the backbone of a strong online presence for a successful practice. But, only the best SEO for your Dental Website and optimizing your brand name across relevant social media platforms are ways to become visible to your potential patient groups. When people type words to look up for dental services that you offer in the locality in Google, an elaborate list appears displaying all relevant business names. There is a lot that goes on at the back when someone types words in a Google search. Knowing about them in simple terms will surely help you choose your SEO partner that will help you bring in more patients.

1. Conduct a free dental website audit

Most SEO for dental offices begins with a free website analysis by the full-service providing digital marketing companies. Once you hire any such company, the experts analyze every part both the frontend and the backend to look for the pros and cons. Sites with poor and cookie-cutter content are among the most offensive and are unable to do well on the search engines.

As the flaws are pointed out, strategies are put in place to improve your dental website rankings during all local searches. The first step towards it is to see how Google crawlers can track information from your website during all local searches. These include XML sitemap, title tags, and image alt tags, meta-descriptions, and site content. Suggestions to improve site visibility include both on-page and off-page optimization.

2. Optimize your website to target the local market patients

According to Hubspot, the latest Search Engine Optimization Statistics reveal that 65% of searches taking place on the internet are done on mobile devices in specific locations. The findings also reveal that internet searches that end in successful businesses are mostly based on finding relevant information. Make sure to formulate your website content according to the exact nature of your dental practice – orthodontics, cosmetic dentistry, pediatric dentistry, or those as a general dentist, dental implants or an emergency dentist matters most. As a dentist, your patients will comprise the local populace and those of the immediate neighborhood. It is important that your website appears right on top of the list to those that you cater to. Each optimization process should be done keeping in mind the search trends of the local target group with a careful keyword and other data analysis.

3. Make a correct keyword analysis

The SEO Company that you hire is sure to come up with a dental keywords list or SEO keywords for dentists. It is important that these are “buyer intent” keywords and phrases that the target groups are likely to search and use. This is against the common practice of targeting “ego” or the vanity keywords and phrases that mindlessly include locations with professions. Today, people are more specific about their search online and want the right answers to the questions that they ask. Despite location preferences, the keywords should narrow down to specific requirements in keeping with what people are looking for. Consider this example: The keyword “Dentist New York” is too vague and will result in several hundred of such results. Instead, a more specific keyword that specifies buyer intention like “female orthodontic New York” is surely more specific to your practice and helps list your website prominently. The Google Hummingbird targets each and every word in the keyword and displays a more specified search result.

4. Create original, authentic, relevant, and optimized content

The phrase “Content is King” is truer than ever. Google comes down heavily on websites that use blackhat methods to attain ranking but do not have any content of worth. The simple logic is, when a person lands on a poorly designed website and has no content to satisfy the queries of the visitor, she or he will immediately close the site or bounce off it. Google Panda is responsible for website ranking according to content quality looks for specific content details. The longer a visitor stays on a webpage and engages with more clicks, the higher the ranking it gets. Google interprets this length of time as the visitor having found quality content.

5. Start blogging seriously

Treat the content of your website seriously and that includes blogging regularly. Using the “buyer intent” keywords and phrases, writing high-quality and meaningful content among the most crucial part of dental website SEO. People with dental issues will have an interest in all areas that concern them and would love to read blog posts that talk about them explaining in detail. Interesting information, tips on dental health care, the latest developments in the treatment processes are sure to be hit with a lot of people. Google will interpret the time spent by the visitors on all of these pages and help rank your site higher during all local searches relating to your practice. [caption id="attachment_4821" align="alignnone" width="800"] Image Credits: Moz Blog[/caption]

6. Avoid keyword stuffing or over-optimizing site

Google ranks websites depending on satisfied user experience. If the keywords for a dental website are repeated several times in an article or a blog, the content is surely not to be considered to be worth reading. Google considers it as keyword stuffing and will penalize the site for it by removing it from the ranking. Removing all cookie-cutter content that only has jargons in it should be replaced with information about teeth hygiene and care. If you are into cosmetic dentistry, adding website content that explains the essentials of the process, it's pricing with seamless integration of the “buyer intent” keyword and phrases is the right approach to dental practice SEO.

7. Build internal links and improve site navigation

The more clicks that your website page receives, taking the visitor from the homepage to other pages and redirecting further, the higher the ranking it receives on the search engine. The internal links within the website are as important as external link building if not more. One link taking the visitor from one page to another indicates that she or he is finding the content of your dental practice website useful and so exploring more. This also means that the website is very user-friendly as the visitor is able to move from one part to the next relevant part in a smooth and effective way. Your dental SEO site should incorporate the necessary changes in design or backend coding to ensure that potential clients have a smooth browsing experience.

 8. Value-added external link building

Backlinks are a must for quality SEO. These are links that connect your webpage to another webpage for more information or clarifications. Your dental website must have more than one backlink for Google to rank it highly on its first page. But, it is important that these links come from authorities and well-known sites that speak or elaborate on specific subjects related to your dentistry or other health issues. For example, if you are backing up your data with the recent announcement by the American Dental Association by linking the content on your dentistry webpage with that of the site, Google will appreciate it highly. What happens is this: [caption id="attachment_4825" align="aligncenter" width="822"] Image Source: Google Support[/caption]

9. Facebook local awareness ad campaigns

Linking your dental practice website with your social media presence is a must. In fact, Google takes into account the shares made on social media while ranking pages. The more clicks and shares your website content gets on social media, the higher it goes up in the listing. You can further boost your website's presence in the local search with the unique Facebook local awareness ads that reach out to a local audience. Dental services by nature are local and it is essential that you make optimal use of this feature to reach people in your immediate locality. If you are practicing in Austin, it is a sheer waste if your ads were to appear to someone looking for a general dentist in Los Angeles!

10. Call-Only ads for mobile devices

Google search statistics reveal health-related searches on its search engine are to the tune of 1:20. Also, the majority of healthcare-related local searches are done on smartphones. With this in mind, it has introduced Call-only ads that are designed to encourage people to call your business and only appear on devices that can make phone calls. Clicks on these ads send potential customers to call you from their smartphones.

Conclusion

Doctors and medical practicing professionals can leverage the help of local search optimization. It can help you with higher visibility in local areas and more targeted leads for your small business. In fact local SEO becomes more important now because of Google moving towards giving more location-based results on desktop and mobile devices. Now that you know how to rank your dental website high on the search engine, you can also call us to know more about it all.