Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for dentists is crucial for a dental practice’s website in today’s digital world. The days of traditional marketing, such as print, TV, and radio advertising, are long gone. This can prove to be a bit frustrating for some who have no idea where to begin. Be an expert dentist and a specialist in dental SEO? No, thank you! Thankfully, SEO for dentists is increasingly accessible to even those who aren’t digital marketing specialists.
We’ve broken down the most important components of dental website SEO for those of you who want to tackle it on your own – plus, what you need to know if you want to outsource your dental SEO strategy to an expert individual or agency.
What is Dental SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
Dental SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the means by which a dental website or dental practice uses a certain strategy in order to increase its online visibility in search engine results on Google or other search engines.
Put more simply, dental SEO is what makes your dental website appear on the first page of Google or other search engines. It is the process of getting your website to the number one spot in search engine results pages (SERPs) without paying for advertising.
The Importance of Dental SEO in the Modern Dental Practice
Dental SEO is no longer a facet of dental marketing that can be ignored in today’s day and age. In a highly digital world, it’s crucial for dental practices to make their online presence known in order to outbid their competitors and maintain their reputation and visibility
There are countless reasons why dental SEO is an imperative part of any modern dental practice’s marketing efforts. A dental practice with a viable and effective SEO strategy can:
Increase Their Organic Traffic
An increase in organic traffic simply means that there are more internet users who are reaching your website by search results as opposed to social media platforms or directly inputting your URL into their browser.
More organic traffic means an increase in leads and an increase in prospective patients, which is probably your ultimate goal. This means more revenue!
Establish Credibility & Trust with Patients
Increased online presence means increased brand recognition, which in turn means increased trust and credibility. If Google thinks your site is good enough to be on page 1, internet users will likely trust you by proxy and assume you to be a credible source of information.
Outrank the Competition
All other things equal, a solid SEO strategy will put your website in a higher position than your competitors. If your dental website is showing up before that of your competitors, it’s more likely that users will click yours first, resulting in a competitive edge.
You will have the chance to win them over on your website before your competitor does. This may result in you getting a phone call or online appointment.
Manage Their Reputation
Appearing in organic search results will increase your brand recognition. You will (hopefully) have a section on your website with reviews or testimonials, which will help you in managing your reputation.
Having reviews online will allow you to reply individually to each one, and avoid any fallout from a potentially negative review. Unlike word-of-mouth recommendations (or warnings), online reviews allow you the opportunity to do damage control if necessary.
Acquire New Patients
When you are looking for a new healthcare provider, where do you turn? Possibly to friends via word-of-mouth or a phone call, but more likely than not, you make a Facebook post or do an internet search on Google.
By achieving high rankings on the Google search results page, potential patients are more likely to see and click your website, possibly resulting in the scheduling of an appointment or a new long-term client.
Increase Patient Reviews & Engagement
Patient reviews and increased engagement can only have a positive effect on your dental practice’s website. The more reviews you have, the more prospective patients can see with their own eyes how many people and families trust you with their dental care.
It’s up to you to make sure you are providing the quality of care that results in positive rather than negative reviews.
In the event that you do receive a negative review online, be sure you respond to it. Be polite, humble, and apologetic in your response. Never be defensive, aggressive, or rude. Explain the situation as best as possible and express your sorrow that the patient did not have an ideal experience.
Important Acronyms in Dental Search Engine Optimization
Before we start delving too deep into the world of dentist SEO, let’s take a closer look at some popular acronyms you will hear in this industry. Don’t worry, this isn’t dental school and you don’t need to make flashcards to study these – but being a bit familiar with them will help you to understand what you need to do in your dental SEO campaign.
YMYL
YMYL stands for ‘Your Money, Your Life. YMYL is a designation that Google has given websites that directly affect a person’s livelihood – their happiness, health, finances, safety, or other important aspects.
Google does not leave any room for error in YMYL websites, considering the huge impact they may have on an individual who visits the site.
If you have a medical website, your content must be written by people who have experience in the medical industry as a doctor, nurse practitioners, or researchers. The same holds true for dental websites.
A paralegal, for example, would not be a good contributor to a dental website. Google will see this and subsequently rank the site lower in favor of sites with expert content writers.
EAT
EAT is another common acronym in the SEO industry. It stands for Expertise – Authoritativeness – Trustworthiness. A good dental website will demonstrate sufficient EAT in order to rank high in the search engine results pages.
expertise
You must demonstrate that you are an expert in your field. Google wants to give its users the best possible information and the best possible results. It’s obvious that someone who is not an expert in dentistry could not possibly provide the best information on the subject.
authoritativeness
Authoritativeness refers to how much authority you have in a given subject area. To be an authority in dental medicine, you are considered a reliable and credible source of extensive information on the subject.
Trustworthiness
Referring to trustworthiness in terms of EAT means you are someone who can be trusted to provide accurate, reliable, and high-quality information on a subject. When your patients and online users trust you and your website, it increases the practice’s status and reputation in the industry.
DA / DR
DA stands for Domain Authority; DR stands for Domain Rating. These are metrics developed by Moz and Ahrefs, respectively, that give a numerical rating as to how likely a site is to rank on Google search engine results pages.
Although neither DA nor DR is a direct ranking factor in the complexity that is Google’s algorithms, they are used instead as indicators of ranking likelihood.
For example, when all else is equal, you can bet that the website with a DR of 55 will outrank a website with a DR of 7.
Both of these metrics, domain authority and domain rating, are based mostly on a website’s backlink profile and off-site SEO, in addition to a website’s age. Website age doesn’t play directly into DA or DR; however, it should go without saying that an older website will have likely acquired more credible backlinks than a brand new site, which is why the two are sometimes linked.
What Factors Affect Search Engine Results?
The list of factors that directly or indirectly affect search engine results may as well be endless! We’ve rounded up some of the most important contributing factors that should serve as a baseline when tackling your dental website’s SEO.
Technical SEO Factors
Site Speed
Site speed is one of the first and foremost technical SEO aspects to consider. If you’ve ever used the internet before, which I’m willing to say is a safe bet, it can be assumed you’ve struggled with clicking on a slow website and leaving out of frustration or impatience. It happens to all of us!
Usually, according to the data, a user will leave a slow website if it hasn’t loaded in 3 seconds. Dental patients who may be suffering from an excruciating toothache may waste even less time!
Using tools such as Google Page Speed Insights, GTMetrix, Pingdom, or other site speed testing tools, you can assess how fast your site is and make any technical adjustments to speed it up.
These tools will test both the desktop and mobile speed of your dental website. It’s important to note that special attention must be paid to your mobile speed. After all, this is 2022 and most internet users access the websites they visit via a smartphone or other mobile device.
Mobile-Friendliness
In addition to a speedy mobile version of your site, you’ll also have to ensure that it is mobile-friendly. In regards to a website, mobile-friendliness refers to the site’s ability to provide a great user experience regardless of the device on which it is accessed.
If you have to pinch or zoom in when accessing a site via a mobile device, it is not mobile-friendly. The site layout should be responsive enough for the user to not make any adjustments when it is accessed on a mobile.
crawlability
Crawlability is a funny term used to refer to the ability of a search engine to crawl a website. If a search engine goes to one page of a website and cannot access the others, the website is said to be ‘uncrawlable’. This is done primarily through mapping and internal linking, both of which increase a site’s navigability and crawlability.
Your website will undoubtedly have a lot of dental medicine content. Whenever you have the opportunity to do so, you should be including internal links in your posts and pages to other posts and pages on your site that are related to the topic.
In addition to providing a good user experience to prospective patients, this also increases the crawlability of your site and ensures Google discovers all of your posts and pages.
On-Page SEO Factors
title tags
As a general rule of thumb, you want your title to contain your targeted keyword. This makes it as easy as possible for Google to understand what your post or page is about. There are a few additional ‘best practices’ you should follow with regard to your title.
For one, you don’t want your title to be too long. If your title exceeds Google’s character limit, it will be truncated and the searcher may not see all of your titles, thus losing part of its meaning. On different browsers, different character limits exist. As a general rule of thumb, we aim for 55 characters or less.
Next, ideally, your targeted keyword will be at the front of your title. This isn’t always possible, but it’s something to aim for.
heading tags
Heading tags are another important component of on-page SEO for dentists. Heading tags help search engines understand the hierarchy of your content and make it easier for readers to skim through your articles.
The most important heading tag is the H1. This tag should be used for the title of your article or blog post. There should only ever be one H1 per post.
The second most important heading tag is the H2, which should be used for subtitles. The rest of the heading tags (H3-H6) are less important, but still, play a role in SEO.
When it comes to SEO, it’s important to use heading tags wisely. Don’t stuff your keywords into heading tags just for the sake of it. This will not only look spammy to search engines, but it will also make your content difficult to read for human readers.
Instead, focus on using heading tags to structure your content in a way that is both easy to read and ranks well in search engines. This will help you achieve the best of both worlds: a high search engine ranking and happy readers.
meta descriptions
One of the most important aspects of SEO is making sure your site is full of quality content. This includes both the text on your website as well as the meta descriptions for each page. Meta descriptions are the short snippets of text that appear under your page title in search results. While they may seem insignificant, meta descriptions play a big role in helping potential customers find your website.
Here are a few tips for writing effective meta descriptions:
- Keep it under 160 characters so it doesn’t get cut off in search results. Similar to title tags, Google often truncates meta descriptions that are too long, which could result in some meaning or message being lost.
- Include keywords that accurately describe the page content. This will improve your SEO as well as best describe what your page is about.
- Make it clear and concise so potential customers know what they’ll find on your site. Try to include a brand name and a call-to-action (CTA).
By following these tips, you can ensure that your meta descriptions are helping, not hurting, your SEO efforts. So don’t forget to give them some love the next time you’re working on your site’s SEO!
alt-text
Images are an important part of any website. They can help break up the text, add visual interest, and support the overall message of the site. But did you know that images can also help improve your site’s SEO?
That’s right – by adding alt-text to your images, you can give your site an extra boost in search engine rankings. Alt-text is the text that appears in place of an image if the image cannot be displayed for some reason, or if your user is visually impaired. It’s also what people see when they hover over an image with their mouse, as well as what search engines see when they crawl your website.
Adding alt-text to your images is a simple way to improve your site’s SEO. All you need to do is add a brief description of the image in the alt-text field. This will help search engines understand what the image is and how it relates to your site’s content.
In addition to showing how the image relates to your content, you are also providing a better user experience for visually impaired or blind users.
content strategy
When it comes to website content and SEO, quality is key. A well-thought-out content strategy can make all the difference in terms of how your website ranks on search engines and how much traffic you’re able to generate.
So, what makes a good content strategy? Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Make sure your content is well-researched and relevant to your target audience.
- Write in a clear, concise, and easy-to-read style.
- Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions to help improve your website’s search engine ranking.
- Target keywords that you will be able to rank for, that you can be considered an expert on.
- Regularly update your content to keep it fresh and engaging.
By following these tips, you can help ensure that your website’s content is helping, not hindering, your SEO efforts. So don’t underestimate the power of a good content strategy – it could make all the difference for your website.
To make sure your content is effective, it needs to be well-written, informative, and engaging. No one wants to read a boring article, so make sure your content is interesting and easy to read. Finally, regular updates are important to keep your content fresh and relevant.
A good content strategy will help you create the kind of content that search engines love and that people will actually want to read. So if you’re looking to improve your SEO, start with a great content strategy.
keyword research
Keyword research is important in SEO because it can help you determine which keywords to target in your optimization efforts.
There are different types of keywords, including short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords, and local keywords.
- Short-tail keywords are general terms that are popular among searchers. An example of a short-tail keyword would be ‘dentist’.
- Long-tail keywords are more specific and less common. An example of a long-tail keyword would be ‘best prosthetic dentist’.
- Local keywords are specific to a particular location. An example of a local keyword would be ‘best prosthetic dentist Boston’.
- Branded keywords are keywords that mention a brand name, or, in your case, your dental practice’s name.
Targeting the right mix of keyword types can help you attract more qualified traffic to your website. In addition to targeting the right keywords, you also need to focus on creating quality content that contains those keywords. This will help you improve your search engine ranking and drive more traffic to your site.
If you’re not sure where to start with your keyword research, there are a number of tools that can help you. Google’s Keyword Planner is a good place to start. This tool allows you to enter a word or phrase and get ideas for related keywords. You can also use this tool to see how much traffic certain keywords get and how difficult they are to rank for.
Another great tool is semrush.com. This site provides detailed information on search engine rankings, including the top 100 keywords for your website. Armed with this information, you can start optimizing your site for better search engine visibility.
When choosing keywords to target, it’s important to consider the relevance, the search volume, and the keyword difficulty. Relevance is important because you want to make sure the keywords you target are actually related to your business and website. Search volume is important because you want to target keywords that people are actually searching for. And finally, the difficulty is important because there is no point in targeting a keyword that you won’t be able to rank for.
To determine these aspects of a keyword, you can use a tool like Google Keyword Planner. This tool allows you to enter a keyword and see how many people are searching for that term each month, as well as other related keywords, and how competitive they are.
Once you’ve identified some relevant, high-volume, and achievable keywords, you can start incorporating them into your website content, including your meta tags, title tags, header tags, and body copy. In addition to helping improve your SEO, using keywords throughout your website content will also help improve your website’s usability, making it easier for people to find the information they’re looking for.
Be careful not to overdo it, however. Keyword stuffing is an outdated SEO tactic that involves overly inserting the keyword into copy in order to outrank the competition. Remember, you want to write for people, not computers. Google’s bots are smart and will understand what your dental practice website is about without keyword stuffing.
Off-Page SEO Factors
BACKLINK PROFILE
There is no doubt that backlinks are important to SEO. Google has even said so themselves. In fact, backlinks are a key ranking factor in their algorithm. But what exactly are backlinks and why are they so important?
Backlinks are simply links from other websites to your website. Google views these links as votes of confidence. The more votes (or backlinks) you have, the higher you will rank in their search results.
Not all backlinks are created equal though. A link from a high-quality website is worth more than a link from a low-quality website. That’s because Google puts more trust in links from high-quality websites.
So how can dentists get quality backlinks to their websites? There are a few different ways.
One way is to create great content that other people will want to link to. This could be a blog post, an infographic, or even a video. If you create something truly awesome, people will naturally want to link to it.
Another way is to reach out to other websites and ask them for a link. This can be done by finding contact information on the website or by cold contact, which, let’s face it, no one likes to do. Once you’ve found the right person to contact, simply send them an email asking for a link.
HARO is another great option for medical professionals, including dentists. Help A Reporter Out is an email list that you subscribe to. Journalists from varying publications are constantly seeking doctors and dentists to provide expert information to their stories and articles. This usually results in a backlink, sometimes from a very high-profile site such as Forbes, New York Times, or Washington Post.
There are also some ways you should never get backlinks. One of these is through what’s called “link buying.” This is when you pay someone for a link to your website. Google does not like this and it can actually result in a penalty.
There are plenty of other black hat link-building tactics that go beyond the scope of this post. We’ll simply say that getting links from Fiverr or link farms, purchasing links in bulk, or hiring a sketchy SEO agency should all be red flags and avoided at all costs.
competition
Competition is a key factor in SEO success and needs to factor into your dental SEO strategy. By understanding your competitors and their strategies, you can create a plan to beat them at their own game.
Competitive analysis is the process of identifying your competition and evaluating its strengths and weaknesses. This information can be used to develop an effective SEO strategy that will help you outrank other dental websites on one page of the search engine results page.
There are a few different ways to go about conducting a competitive analysis. First, you can use tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer or SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to research the keywords that your competitors are targeting.
Once you have a list of keywords, take a look at your competitor’s website and see how they are ranking for those keywords. If they are ranking higher than you, take a look at their backlink profile and see what kind of links they are building.
Another way to use your competitors to your advantage is to check to see what keywords they are ranking for that you aren’t – chances are, if they are ranking for that keyword and have a similar DA/DR, you should be able to as well!
You can also use social media to your advantage in competitive analysis. Take a look at your competitor’s social media accounts and see what kind of engagement they are getting. If they have more likes, comments, and shares than you, it’s a good indication that their content is resonating with their audience.
Competitive analysis is an important part of any SEO strategy. By taking the time to understand your competition, you can develop a plan to outrank them in the SERPs and get more traffic to your website.
Local SEO
Local SEO is a type of search engine optimization that helps businesses promote their products or services to local customers. It is different than general SEO in that it focuses on optimizing for local search results, rather than global search results.
Be sure to include location-specific keywords on your website and in your content. This will help Google understand what your website is about and how it relates to searches for products or services in a specific location.
Google’s Local Pack
There are a few key things that you can do to optimize your website for local SEO. Google’s Local Pack is first and foremost.
Google’s Local Pack is a feature that allows users to see results from businesses in their local area. This is especially useful for those who are searching for products or services near them. Local pack results can be found in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and include the business name, address, phone number, directions on Google Maps, and rating.
Local SEO experts believe that having your business listed in the local pack can help increase your visibility and click-through rate (CTR).
To get your business listed in the local pack, you’ll need to make sure your Google My Business (GMB) listing is up-to-date and complete. This will help ensure that your business appears in local search results.
Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing. Positive reviews can help improve your ranking in local search results.
You should also consider adding structured data markup to your website to help Google understand your business better.
local sites and directories
There are a number of reasons why dentist offices should list their website on local sites and directories for SEO purposes. One reason is that it can help to improve local search engine rankings. When people search for dental services in a particular location, the results that are returned often include listings from local directories. By including your website in these directories, you can increase the chances that your site will be included in the search results.
Another reason to list your website on local directories is that it can help to build a form of backlinks known as citations. Although citations don’t carry the same weight as backlinks, they certainly still help in the realm of SEO, and local SEO in particular. Local directories can provide an easy way to build citations since many of them allow you to include a link back to your website, as well as an easy way for potential patients to find you.
Including your website in local business, directories can also help to increase traffic to your site. When people search for dental services in a particular location, they may be more likely to click on a listing from a local directory than one from a general directory. This can help to increase the number of visitors to your site and, ultimately, lead to more business.
How Much Does Dental SEO Cost?
There is no definitive answer to this question as the cost of dental SEO can vary greatly depending on a number of factors. However, we can give you some general guidelines to help you budget for your dental SEO needs.
The first thing you need to consider is the size of your practice. If you have a large practice with multiple locations, then you will likely need to invest more in dental SEO than a smaller practice. Additionally, the competition in your area will also play a role in how much you need to spend on dental SEO. If there are many other dentists competing for the same keywords, then you will need to invest more in order to stay ahead of them.
Finally, the amount you spend on dental SEO should be relative to the size of your marketing budget. If you have a large marketing budget, then you can afford to spend more on dental SEO. However, if your marketing budget is limited, then you will need to be more conservative with your dental SEO spending.
In general, you should expect to spend anywhere from $500 to $5000 per month on dental SEO, depending on the factors mentioned above. If you are just starting out, we recommend investing at the lower end of this range. As your practice grows and you begin to see results from your dental SEO efforts, you can then increase your investment accordingly.
Eliminate the Need for Traditional Advertising
SEO can help you reach your target audience without having to spend money on traditional marketing methods like advertising. Instead, SEO allows you to organically attract potential customers to your website through techniques like keyword optimization and content marketing. This means that you can save money while still reaching your target market effectively.
SEO is a long-term investment that can help you build visibility and organic traffic over time. With traditional marketing, you typically have to pay for each individual ad or campaign, and there’s no guarantee that your target audience will even see it. SEO, on the other hand, helps you earn placement in search engine results pages (SERPs), which gives you an opportunity to reach your target audience organically.
Since people are already searching for the products or services you offer, they’re more likely to convert when they find your website. In other words, SEO for dentists can help you get in front of your target audience and generate leads without having to pay for advertising placements.
Of course, search engine optimization isn’t a replacement for all marketing activities. For example, you may still want to run Google ads to reach people who are ready to buy or to promote a specific sale or event. But if you’re looking for a more cost-effective way to generate leads and build your brand over time, SEO can be a great option.
Additionally, SEO provides you with long-term results, whereas traditional marketing methods are often only effective for a short period of time. For these reasons, SEO is an increasingly popular choice for businesses looking to eliminate the need for traditional marketing by ranking high in Google’s search results.
ROI on SEO for Dentists
There are a lot of factors that go into SEO and how much ROI you can expect. Things like the competition in your area, the size of your practice, etc. all play a role. That being said, there are some general things we can look at to give you an idea of what to expect from investing in SEO.
One thing to keep in mind is that organic traffic continues to grow year over year. In fact, it’s expected to grow by more than five percent every year through 2020. This means that if you’re not investing in SEO, you’re likely missing out on a lot of potential new patients.
Another thing to consider is the average lifetime value of a patient. This varies depending on your location and type of practice, but the average is between $1500 and $2000. So if you can bring in just one new patient through SEO, it’s likely that they will more than pay for the entire campaign – or at least a big chunk of it!
Of course, these are just averages and you may find that your ROI is much higher or lower depending on a number of factors. But if you’re not investing in SEO, you’re likely missing out on a lot of potential new patients and the lifetime value they bring to your practice.
Is Dental SEO Worth It?
If you’re on the fence about whether or not dental SEO is worth it, let us reiterate some of the benefits.
First and foremost, dental SEO can help you attract more patients to your practice. By optimizing your website for relevant keywords and phrases, you can make it easier for potential patients to find you when they’re searching for a dentist in your area.
Additionally, dental SEO can help improve the visibility of your website in search engine results pages (SERPs), which can ultimately lead to more traffic and conversions.
Finally, implementing an effective dental SEO strategy can also help build trust and credibility with potential patients by demonstrating that you’re an authority in your field.
Ultimately, all of these factors can lead to more new patients for your practice – and that’s why SEO for dentists is worth it.
Should You Outsource Your Dental SEO Services?
There’s a lot to consider when it comes to dental practice SEO. Dental practices are unique in that they require both local and national SEO strategies, as well as a deep understanding of the healthcare industry. That’s why many dental practices choose to outsource their SEO to an agency or freelancer who specializes in this type of work in order to appeal to search engines.
Outsourcing your dental practice’s SEO can be a great way to ensure that you’re getting the most effective and up-to-date strategies for your website.
Benefits of Hiring a Dental SEO Company
Improve Rankings in Search Engines
There are many benefits to outsourcing your SEO, but one of the most important is that it can help improve your search engine rankings. This, in turn, leads to an increase in leads, conversions, appointments, and patients – it all depends on where your SEO goals are directed.
Additionally, by outsourcing your search engine optimization to dental marketing companies you can be assured that your website is in good hands and will be optimized for search engines. When done correctly, outsourcing your SEO can have a positive impact on your business and help improve your bottom line.
Time to focus on other aspects of the practice
When you outsource your SEO, you are able to focus on other aspects of your business while leaving the SEO to experts. This allows you to free up time and resources that can be better used elsewhere.
If you’re spending all of your time trying to keep up with the latest SEO trends, you’re not going to have much time left to focus on other aspects of your business. Outsourcing your SEO for dentists means that you can free up some time to work on other parts of your business.
Plus, we imagine it’d be pretty challenging to be an expert in both dental medicine and search engine optimization!
Experience & Expertise
A specialized dental SEO agency can help by keeping up with the latest changes and ensuring that your website is optimized for search engines. Experienced SEO companies in the dental or healthcare niche will also have a deep understanding of how dental websites work and what factors influence ranking. With this knowledge, they can help you make informed decisions about your website’s design, content, and dental SEO marketing strategy.
Ultimately, working with a specialized dental search engine optimization agency can help you get more traffic to your website, generate more leads, and grow your business. So if you’re looking to take your dental practice to the next level, consider working with a specialized dental SEO company.
Continuous Monitoring of Results & ROI
At a specialized SEO agency, a few different methods are used to monitor results and ROI for your dental SEO marketing efforts. The first is by tracking your website’s traffic using Google Analytics. This lets the agency see how many people are visiting your site, where they’re coming from, and what pages they’re looking at. They can also see how long website visitors are staying on each page, which helps to identify areas that need improvement.
Another way SEO companies can track results is by monitoring your keyword rankings in Google and other search engines. This tells how well your site is doing in terms of attracting organic traffic from people searching for keywords related to your dental practice. Agencies track both national and local keyword rankings, as well as mobile and desktop rankings.
All of this data allows SEO specialists to accurately measure the results of their SEO work and ensure that they’re providing a good return on investment for their clients.
Stay Ahead of the Competition
Outsourced agencies can also keep an eye on your competition. They track their traffic, keyword rankings, and other metrics to see how they’re doing in comparison to you. This helps to identify areas where you may be able to improve your own SEO efforts.
What to Look for in a Dental SEO Agency
transparency
As a dental practice owner, you want to be able to trust your SEO agency implicitly. You need to know that they have your best interests at heart and are not simply trying to make a quick buck off of you. This is why transparency is so important in an SEO agency.
A transparent agency will keep you in the loop on all aspects of their work. They will let you know what strategies they are using and why, as well as what results they are seeing. This way, you can make sure that the work being done is actually benefiting your business.
An opaque agency, on the other hand, will be much more secretive about its methods. They may even try to upsell you on services that you don’t need. This is why it’s so important to do your research and find an agency that you can trust.
experience and expertise
In order to ensure the agency you hire has the experience and expertise required to successfully manage a dental SEO campaign, you’ll need to do your due diligence.
Make sure the agency has been around for at least a few years. This shows they have some stability and know what they’re doing. If you hire a brand new agency, make sure the people working there have sufficient experience prior to working at the new agency.
Check out their client list. Do they have clients in your industry? If so, that’s a good sign they understand your market. An online marketing strategy for a dental practice is not the same as for a restaurant, or a real estate agency. There are legalities and guidelines that must be abided by in the world of SEO for dentists.
Take a look at their blog and see if they write about topics related to healthcare or dental SEO. This shows they stay up-to-date on the latest trends and understand the specific nuances involved in SEO for this industry.
proven track record
SEO is a complex and ever-evolving process, and it is important to ensure that the agency you hire has proven success in this area. Here are some tips on how to ensure that the SEO agency you hire for your dental practice has a proven track record:
Ask for case studies. A good dental SEO company will be able to provide you with case studies detailing their work and the results they have achieved for their clients, along with how they achieved those results.
Ask for references and reviews. You should also ask the agency for references from past clients, as well as reviews of their work. See what reviews you can find online as well, as these are likely to have less bias.
Check their own SEO. Another good way to gauge an agency’s abilities is to check its own SEO rankings. If they are not ranking highly for relevant keywords, it is unlikely that they will be able to do so for your site.
By following these tips, you can be sure that you are hiring a reputable and experienced SEO agency that will be able to help your dental practice achieve the desired results.
Signs of a Bad Dental SEO Service
they don’t give an audit
One of the first things that a good dentist SEO company will do for you is an initial audit. This audit is a key point of SEO strategy that will help to identify any areas where your website needs improvement in order to rank higher in the SERPs and acquire more search engine traffic. Some common areas that are covered in an SEO audit include:
- On-page factors such as title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, etc.
- Off-page factors such as backlinks, social signals, etc.
- Technical factors such as website speed, mobile friendliness, etc.
An initial audit is important because it gives you a roadmap of what needs to be done in order to improve your website’s SEO. Without an audit, you may be working on the wrong areas and wasting time and money.
So if you’re looking for a good SEO agency, make sure that they offer an initial audit. This will help to ensure that your website is on the right track from the start.
they don’t answer your questions
A good SEO agency or dental marketing team will answer all of your questions because they want you to be informed about what they’re doing. They don’t want you to feel like you’re in the dark about anything and they want you to be able to make an informed decision about whether or not their services are right for your dental office.
A good SEO agency will also answer any questions you have about the process, the timeline, and what to expect. They should be able to give you a clear understanding of how long it will take for them to see results in search rankings and what those results will look like.
If an SEO agency can’t answer your questions, that’s a red flag. It could mean that they’re not confident in their abilities or that they’re trying to hide something from you. Either way, it’s not a good sign and you should move on to another agency.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions about your potential SEO agency. It’s better to get all of the information up front than to be left in the dark later on. A good agency will be happy to answer any and all of your questions, from local SEO to search rankings and everything in between that may be involved in your SEO campaign.
they guarantee results
A good SEO agency knows that there are many factors beyond their control that can affect a website’s ranking in search engines. These include the ever-changing algorithms of Google and other search engines, the competition, and even the website owner’s own marketing efforts. While a good SEO agency can help increase your chances of ranking well, it cannot guarantee results.
There are two main reasons why an agency won’t guarantee results. First, they can’t control all of the factors that go into ranking a website. And second, even if they could control all those factors, it would be unethical to make such a guarantee. In guaranteeing results, it’s a pretty safe indicator that this dental SEO agency is using black hat tactics, which could do more harm than good for your dental practice website.
When you’re looking for an SEO agency to work with, be sure to ask about their process and what they can do to help you rank. But don’t expect them to guarantee results. If they do, run the other way.
they focus on quantity instead of quality
A good SEO agency knows that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to links and content. That’s why they focus on creating high-quality, informative content that will actually help their clients rather than churning out low-quality, keyword-stuffed articles.
They also build links slowly and steadily, rather than trying to get as many as possible all at once. This ensures that their link profile looks natural and helps them avoid any penalties from Google.
Your dental marketing agency should also focus on quality over quantity in terms of keywords. Sure, they may be able to guarantee you’ll rank for super long-tail keywords with zero search volume (and thus zero competition), but those keywords aren’t going to help you.
So if you’re looking for an SEO agency that can help you improve your online visibility, make sure they’re focused on quality over quantity. You’ll be glad you did!
it sounds too good to be true
You might be thinking, why shouldn’t I hire a dental SEO agency that sounds too good to be true? They’re offering me a great deal and they seem like they know what they’re doing. But the truth is, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
A dental SEO agency that sounds too good to be true is likely not going to deliver on its promises. They may say they can get you to the top of Google search results in no time, but the reality is that it takes time and effort to achieve sustainable results.
Hiring an inexperienced or unqualified dental SEO agency can end up being a costly mistake. Not only will you not see the results you were hoping for, but you could also end up damaging your online reputation. This usually happens when these agencies utilize black hat search engine optimization tactics.
It’s important to do your research and choose a dental search engine optimization agency that has a proven track record of helping its clients achieve success with increased organic website visitors. Be sure to read reviews and testimonials from past clients to get an idea of what it’s like to work with them.
Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous dental marketing agency. Do your homework and only work with reputable companies that have a history of delivering results.
The moral of the story is simple: if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So when you’re looking for an agency to handle SEO for dentists, be sure to do your research and only work with reputable companies that have a proven track record of success.
Summing Up
Conclusion paragraph: Dental SEO is a process that can help your dental website rank higher on Google. By improving the content on your website, optimizing for keywords, and building links to your site, you can improve your website’s visibility to potential patients searching for a dentist in their area.
Although the benefits of SEO for dentists are clear, it’s important to partner with an experienced team like Vine Digital who can ensure that your campaign is executed flawlessly and delivers results. If you’re interested in learning more about our dental SEO services or want to get started today, contact us at Vine Digital today. We would be happy to help!
