Local SEO for Dentists: What’s it all about?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is complex. Google has over 200 ranking factors in their algorithm – 200! There are no exact formulas which will lead to ranking success, and each website may require a unique strategy.
However, with over 17 years experience in marketing dental practices online, and the results we see from implementing hundreds of different marketing strategies, we have got pretty good at understanding what to do.
Optimised Content
Great content lies at the heart of all marketing strategies, without it your traffic won’t convert and all other SEO activities would be providing limited success.
Google likes content – the more detailed the content, the better the results. Detailed content on a website signals to Google that the website will most likely provide informative answers to its searchers’ queries.
However, great content is just the foundation for the rest of the SEO strategy.
Looking for help in writing great, SEO friendly content? – click here
On-page SEO
So, you have the content in place on each webpage, but how do you help Google understand the relevance your webpage has for your chosen keywords? Well most of this is hidden in the webpage’s code.
Have you ever heard of the term “website’s tags”? These consist of elements such as the title tag, meta description, h1 tags, alt tags etc. The most important tags are the title tag, meta description and h1 tag – although the meta description doesn’t directly help your rankings.
Once you have these setup, its time to move onto the next step: off-page SEO.
However, you may find that you tweak these tags over time to help your webpage maximise its SEO.
Off-page SEO
You have helped Google understand what pages are relevant for particular keywords, but how do you help build up the authority these pages have?
Unless your dental practice is situated in an area with low competition you will need to build authority back to your website to compete against other practices. Citation building and link building are both activities that help increase the authority your dental practice has in search engines.
You may have been informed in the past by other online marketing agencies that the more links you have the better your rankings. Whilst this statement does have some truth, quality with always beat quantity in Google’s eyes.
We have clients come to us for help with their online marketing because the agency they used before were using out-dated, spammy SEO techniques that caused harm to their rankings. Some of the links we see are dreadful, and cleaning up their link profile and building new high quality links takes a lot of time and effort.
Struggling to rank? Have a look at our SEO and maintenance packages to find the one that fits your needs and budget.
Google My Business
Your local SEO strategy isn’t complete without claiming and optimising your Google My Business listing.
Wouldn’t it be great if you can appear twice on page 1 for the same keyword? In many circumstances, you can! The work we have done for many dental practices have enabled them to appear on page 1 in the Google Map listing and in the organic listings for the most competitive search term: dentist [location]. But, how do you increase your chances of appearing in the very limited – 3 spaces – map listing?
First, we claim you listing so we are able to access it and update the details.
Once we have access to your listing we will need to ensure that your practice name, address and phone number is correct, and that the same is reflected on your website, as this is what will be used in your citation building.
Next, the listing needs to be 100% optimised. This includes adding images to the listing, opening times and ensuring that the correct categories are selected.
Once everything is optimised in the profile, we build quality citations for your business.
Whilst we do most of the work for you in our middle and top SEO packages, we always advise our clients to continually garner Google reviews as this improves the chances of your listing ranking well.
Enjoyed the content? Did you know that we do more than just SEO? Have a look at the rest of our website for other services you might be interested in.
Are you already a client of ours looking for additional ways to promote your practice and treatments? Feel free to contact you account manager who will be more than happy to discuss additional marketing activities that are suitable for your needs and budget – that’s what we are here for!
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