Why Do Dentists Need SEO?
Because everyone needs SEO. It is the present and future of digital marketing. SEO is a marketing art form which, when done correctly, can keep those cavities coming into the waiting room.
If someone has a dental emergency, what do they do? They don’t pull out the yellow pages anymore. They do a Google search for “emergency dentists near me.” Wouldn’t you want to be the first name that pops up on Google when Johnny S. searches for “types of toothaches” and is seeking dental salvation? The answer is obvious (YES!).
With a cohesive, ethical and well researched SEO strategy, your website can drive new leads to you in droves. But SEO is a time commitment, and you’re going to need all of that time to focus on your practice and caring for your patients.
Sure, you could hire a full-time marketing person to work in your office. But then you’re paying salary, benefits, bonuses and taking up valuable office real estate, sacrificing your return on investment in the process. By taking on a team of SEO experts, like West 360 Marketing, you maximize your profits and transform your website into an efficient money-making machine.
How Do We Do It?
Through expertise and elbow grease, West 360 Marketing can fully optimize your website and maintain your SEO until you dominate the local dental industry. Our continuous services ensure that once you claim the top of the mountain, you stay there.
We do this through a simple eight-step process.
Step 1: Website Technical Analysis
Before we begin optimizing your site, we need to know it, backward and forward. Who is your audience? What areas are you targeting? Where does your site go wrong? Where does your site go right?
Once this foundation is established, West 360 Marketing develops a strategic plan to make Google do a dental double-take and realize that you are a force to be reckoned with.
Step 2: Competitive Analysis
Remember those other dentists from earlier who are sucking up all the local clientele? We need to know them as well as we know you. Competition drives innovation, so we need to see what your competitors are doing, what is working for them, who they’re targeting and why it’s working so well.
To understand the competition is to fully understand the local dental market. Are your rivals offering 24-hour emergency services? What insurance plans are they accepting? What’s the layout of their site? Once we know these things, it’s off to the root-canal races we go.
Step 3: Keyword Research
“What do I do if I break a crown?”
“24-hour dentist”
“Wisdom tooth removal”
“Dentists who take (insurance provider)”
These are some examples of phrases that your potential patients might be searching for. But how many people search for these terms in a given month? That’s what we need to figure out before on-page optimization begins.
Using the most advanced tools that Google has to offer, we dive into comprehensive keyword analysis. We isolate what your audience is searching for and we target these terms. It’s important to focus our efforts on terms that are relevant to the services you offer, prioritizing those which generate the highest volume of inquiries per month.
Step 4: Title Tag and Meta Description
Your title tag is what patients see at the very top of your website. A typical title tag might look like “Gregory Toothsome, D.D.S.” While that’s typical, it’s also wrong. The title tag is an opportunity to inform Google. It already knows who you are. Google needs to know what you do. We need to utilize this prime positioning to create an optimized statement regarding the services that you offer. This is not easy to do, as title tags need to be under 60 characters to be fully visible.
A meta description is a brief summary of your site. When you pop up on a Google search, the meta description will be what people see. It can make or break a patient’s decision to click on your site. A perfect meta description is under 320 characters, contains high volume keywords and draws in the attention of a potential customer. Not an easy feat for someone inexperienced in SEO tactics.
Step 5: Content Optimization
This is where the fun begins. Utilizing the keywords that we diligently researched earlier, it’s now time to spread them throughout your content. You want prolific writers to undertake this process for you. Patients are trusting you with their mouths, they want to know that you are experienced, knowledgeable and intelligent. But before they meet you, their first introduction to your persona is via the copy on your website.
Ham-fisted jamming of keywords down the throats of your audience will lead to potential patients clicking away. Your copy needs to inspire confidence while also impressing Google’s algorithm. This is a process that West 360 Marketing excels at.
Step 6: Content Creation
Dental blogs are hugely effective at not only garnering the attention of Google, but in drawing in new patients. Our team of writers will create informative and well-researched articles that are filled with relevant high-volume keywords. The trick to blog creation is to focus on topics that people want to read about.
“What happens during a root canal?”
“What are wisdom teeth?”
“What causes a cavity?”
These aren’t specific to your practice, but it’s something relevant that people want to know. Not only will this inspire confidence in your patients, but it helps tremendously with the final step toward SEO greatness.
Step 7: Link/Citation Building
You could have the most optimized content on the planet, but Google needs more than pretty words to believe that you’re an authority in the dental world.
Think of SEO as a job interview. Google is interviewing your website to see if it’s a good fit for page one. You’ve answered all of the questions correctly and even impressed the interviewer. Now it’s time to call your references.
When a credible and high-scoring industry relevant website links to you, they are giving Google their seal of approval. This is one of the single most important and difficult parts of SEO. Our team will work hard to circulate your content to industry movers and shakers in order to receive links. Link building takes patience, know-how and commitment. It is the stage where most self-performed SEO fails.
Step 8: Rinse/Repeat
So, we’ve done these things and we’ve done them well. You’re ranked on the first page for a number of high volume terms. Client calls are pouring in. We’re done, right?
WRONG.
SEO is a living thing. It’s a continuous battle. Once you take the crown (dental pun intended) you have to defend it. West 360 Marketing continues to repeat steps one through seven over and over again. If something is not working, we re-strategize and attack from a new angle. SEO requires dedication. At West 360 Marketing we are dedicated to the dental industry.
Contact Us Today
So, what are you waiting for? Stop patiently waiting for patients to just walk through the door. Take control of your website today by calling West 360 Marketing at 631-319-8880, or by visiting us on the web.
