Google is one of the first places people go when they’re looking for a new dentist. However, when they do a simple search for “dentist” they’ll receive over 488 million results. With this in mind, you’ll want to learn how to improve your dental SEO (search engine optimization) so it’s easier for Google’s algorithm to rank your website higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Doing so will help refine your patients’ results so they’re more relevant to them. It also benefits your practice because it’ll direct more traffic to your website. As such, here are a few things you can do to use it to your advantage.
Start by Conducting Keyword Research
Considering that 75% of people only read Google’s first page, it’s important to be as close to the top as possible. This requires a wise choice of keywords that you’ll incorporate throughout your entire website. Since your business is hyper-local, this shouldn’t be too hard. Start by narrowing down the area where you practice then combining it with keyword phrases like “dental practice” so you’ll have less competition. While this may result in long-tail keywords, they’ll also result in a better opportunity for your practice to stand out amongst its competition.
Use Google My Business to Manage Your Local Dental SEO
Google is like the modern Yellow Pages that people use to find local businesses. To improve your visibility here, you must create a free Google My Business account with your practice’s name, address, phone number, description, website link, and photos so Google can index it. You should also connect this to Google Maps so patients will immediately be able to locate and call your practice. It’s also a good idea to encourage your patients to leave a review.
Create a Robust Content Strategy
“Content is king” when it comes to dental SEO. By routinely publishing new content (e.g. blog posts, videos) you’re encouraging Google to frequently re-index you which helps improve your ranking in the SERPs. To create this content, make sure you rely on your keywords to guide you to a better understanding of what your patients are searching for.
Develop a Strong Social Media Presence
Your social media presence is like your content strategy in that they help build your credibility. Both also help build your presence so people realize you exist. In specific, make sure you spend time on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Reduce Your Website’s lag Time
People won’t stick around if your website doesn’t load fast enough. Google will penalize you if this happens which will give your competition more traffic as you’re likely to be listed beneath them. This is why you should visit Google Analytics to see what your site’s average load speed is. If it’s higher than it should be, spend some time compressing your images without compromising their quality. You may also want to make sure that you’re hosted on a fast, reliable server.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Responsive
Many people look at websites on mobile devices today. Each of these screens will have a different dimension. For this reason, your website must be able to adapt to the device’s size. This is why your designer should create your website with mobile responsiveness in mind, meaning there are fewer elements on the page and the font can easily be scaled to fit the page.
With all that you’re already doing for your business, it’s no wonder that having to do all this dental SEO seems like such a big job. Fortunately, it isn’t something you have to undertake on your own. The Affordable SEO Company has successfully done this work for many other websites. Contact them today so they can do it for you too.