Back to Basics: Why organic SEO will still get you more patients than anything else
Many of us are guilty of trying to look for the next big thing in every walk of life. Your iPhone is 3 years old so now you need the latest one. That TV in your lounge is only 60”, whereas everyone else you know has upgraded to a 72”. Even in dentistry we’ve seen people move from one ‘fad’ treatment to another in quick succession. It’s only natural to seek the newest, shiniest thing. However, if we become guilty of this in dental marketing we risk overlooking the one thing that has stood the test of time.
I must have said the phrase ‘organic SEO will always give you your best return on investment’ hundreds of times over the years. The simple reason for this is that it’s a statement that has always been true.
Why is this? SEO is a simple measure of how well your website will rank compared to everyone else for a specific search term in a specific area. Ranking well is simply a function of understanding how the algorithm works. As such, if you have a website that’s been well optimised, is fast and is relevant then all of a sudden you’re getting a lot of visibility that you’ve not had to break the budget to achieve.
In fact, when you look at it as a direct comparison, the average Social media ads campaign for a single treatment usually costs around £700 a month to run. For about the same price you can have your website optimised for multiple treatments across a wide area and, unlike a Facebook or Instagram ad, the impact is effectively permanent, as there’s no budget that runs out.
And when compared to general social media advertising it’s chalk and cheese. The sheer difference in volume of patients that come from organic SEO compared to your social media channels is pretty staggering. That makes sense of course as people primarily use Google to buy, not their social media channels, as market research has continually shown.
At a time when the social media ads market is becoming increasingly more competitive, and budgets are needing to increase to keep up with the practice next door, it’s often not the best move to plough more money into a social media ad campaign. A simple return to the fundamentals of digital marketing, and a refocus on organic SEO, can yield a far better return on investment. Whilst the ‘Digital Marketing Personalities’ will usually always espouse the ‘Next Big Thing’ as the panacea to all of your marketing ills, take it from me that concentrating on what’s always worked well is no bad thing.
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