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dental seo

Complete Guide to Dental SEO

by | Jul 25, 2022

Complete Guide to Dental SEO

Do you want more dental patients? Investing in search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing can make a world of difference and help you get them! Like compound interest, gains can be exponential.

The keys to successful SEO for dentists are consistency, creativity, and patience. If you stick to a plan and pay attention to keyword blogging, Google My Business, web design, backlinking, and online reviews, you are guaranteed to improve your pool of prospective patients.

If you’re unsure about any of the jargon associated with SEO, don’t worry. We’ve explained all the key concepts that dentists need to know in order to create a successful digital marketing campaign that will attract patients. Good SEO companies will use these strategies. Keep reading this complete guide to dental seo to learn more.

dental seo strategy


Before We Start, Let’s Establish Some Definitions

On-Site and Off-Site SEO

There are two main types of online marketing techniques: on-site and off-site SEO. On-site SEO refers to things that can be done on your website, while off-site SEO involves the actions of other websites.

On-site SEO includes optimizing your website for search engines through techniques like internal linking, metadata maintenance, and blogging. Off-site SEO involves promoting your website through activities like guest posting, article syndication, and backlinking.

SERPs

SERPs are the lists of results that search engines return when someone types in a query. The goal of all SEO efforts is to get as close to the top of the SERPs as possible.

Keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines. They help to establish what the person is looking for, or the intent of their search. Popular keywords for dentists include:

  • Dentist in [insert area]
  • Benefits of dental care
  • Can a dentist help with pain?
  • Teeth whitening
  • Dental practices near me


SEO for Dentists: Building an SEO-Friendly Website

A website is essential for any online marketing campaign. It provides a place to promote and link to your products or services. However, it’s important to consider what your website says, how many pages it has, and how it balances user experience with search engine rankings.

Must Be Responsive

An SEO-friendly website must be responsive, meaning it must look good on any size screen, from a small phone to a large wall tv screen.

Home and Landing Pages

At a minimum, dentists should have five core pages on their websites.

  1. Homepage
  2. About page
  3. Services page
  4. Blog homepage
  5. Contact page

It’s crucial to have a separate landing page for each service, with at least 500 words (though 1,000 or 2,000 is even better). For example, if you offer dental cleaning, teeth-whitening, cosmetic, and dental implant services, make sure you have a landing page for each one.

In our experience, dental websites with over 20 pages and weekly blog posts perform the best.

Custom Design and WordPress Development

Custom WordPress websites are ideal since the platform is well-supported and easy to use. By using WordPress, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. And, after a bit of instruction, most people can publish blog posts without help.

Building a website on WordPress has increased security advantages. WordPress is a popular platform that is constantly updated to keep users safe from cyber attacks. There are also several trusted security plugins available.

Click here to learn more about our website services for dentists.


SEO for Dentists: Claiming Your Territory

Every dentist should claim their business on search engines, industry websites, and map directories when launching an online marketing campaign.

Claim Your Search Engine Business Accounts

Google My Business is the first account you should set up for your business. Google is the most-used search engine in the United States, processing an estimated 5.6 billion searches a day. By claiming your territory on the platform, you can ensure that your business is visible to potential customers.

There are many benefits to optimizing your website for local search, including appearing higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.

Remember, though, that while Google may be the biggest game in town, it’s not the only one. So claim your business accounts on other platforms like Bing and Yahoo!

Get Yourself on Directories

There are thousands of online directories, but not all of them are legitimate or helpful. Sign up for the ones that are relevant to your industry and will actually be beneficial for you.

You can use Yext and Synup to find good medical and dental directories, but both programs cost money to access fully. Harris & Ward is a professional online marketing team that maintains memberships with such services.

SEO for Dentists: Content Wins

Content creation is essential for any SEO campaign. The more articles, landing pages, and digital media you produce and publish, the more online visibility you will gain. This in turn will attract more links and traffic.

Service and Landing Pages

Your website should have a main landing page (homepage), a contact page, blog, and specific landing pages for each service offered. Each service page should be at least 500 words, but more is better, and well written.

Develop a Blogging Strategy

Blogging can help improve your website’s SEO. Fresh, weekly content is pleasing to search engine bots, and the more content you have, the more questions and issues you can address. In most cases, websites with more content tend to do better in search engine results, providing more opportunities to build your online presence.

Developing a blogging strategy can help you write relevant posts and publish them regularly. Most businesses with effective blogs use content calendars. Using one can help you save time. 

As long as your writing relates to dental care or your practice, you should be fine. It can also be helpful to pick topics that conform to potential clients’ search intent. However, be sure to optimize your writing for conversions, or you’ll miss out on an opportunity.

When blogging, you should never:

  • Blog about religion or politics topics
  • Blog too often about terms unrelated to dental care
  • Write about your patients without gaining their permission
  • Badmouth other dentists or treatment methods

If you want to write your own dental blog posts, make sure you know how to use keywords and other SEO techniques like metadata, title tags, h1-h2 tags, and alt image text.

Article Syndication

Article syndication can help you get backlinks and name recognition, but be careful – if it’s not done correctly, it can harm your SERP ranking.

This is a process of publishing articles written by someone else under your name. Getting your name and practice out there online is great, but be careful of which websites you publish on. Algorithms may penalize you for duplicate content if not done correctly, which could negatively impact your ranking.

Guest Posts

Posting articles on your blog and guest posting on other blogs has three core benefits:

  • Expands your digital marketing footprint
  • Gives you brand name exposure
  • Provides quality backlinks to your businesses website

Working with a professional online marketing team that has already established a network of publications is the easiest way to secure guest posts. If you’re doing it alone, a good place to start is with affiliated professional organizations. For example, ask if your dentist’s association or local Chamber of Commerce has a publication that accepts articles from members. Also, dentists who aren’t competing for the same patients will sometimes collaborate on guest posting projects.


SEO for Dentists: Links Matter

To secure top spots on SERPs for desired keywords, you need to build a link portfolio. Without one, it is nearly impossible to land those coveted spots. So the question becomes: what types of links do you need to cultivate?

Foundational Backlinks

The value of a website’s backlinks depends on the website’s reputation. The more respected and established a website is, the more valuable its backlinks are.

Websites with .edu and .gov top-level domain suffixes offer the most valuable links. Links If you can get backlinks from established websites like Wikipedia and .org sites, do it! The same goes for .com backlinks from top industry sites.

Internal Links

Strategic internal links are a great way to link to other pages on your website. For example, this is an internal link to our blog post about the advantages of using WordPress. They are easy to implement and help both users and algorithm bots.

Backlinks and Mentions

Foundational backlinks come from websites with low authority, but they can provide a lot of “link juice” if you have enough of them. Guest post backlinks from high-authority websites are much more effective and can help improve your rankings quickly if done correctly. Mentioning your website on a local newspaper’s website is another good way to boost your local SEO.

Learn more about Link Building for Dentists Who Want to Grow Their SEO.


SEO for Dentists: Social Media

Social media is essential for businesses today. Many people in their 20s and 30s rarely use search engines, instead relying on social media to find products and services. Therefore, it is important to have active accounts on multiple platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

In terms of social media content, every week you should:

  • Post links to any new blog entries and guest blog spots
  • Post links to evergreen landing pages
  • Highlight industry news
  • Comment on accounts that potential patients may also follow

Avoid controversial topics on social media, as you would when blogging. You want to attract clients, not drive them away.


Dentist SEO: Tools You Can Use

If you want to super-charge your SEO efforts like the pros, you’ll need a couple of tools.

  • Yoast: The Apple of WordPress SEO plugins, the free version of Yoast is fine for beginners, but if you want to unlock the plugin’s potential, you should upgrade to the premium version.
  • SEMrush and Ahrefs: The two leading standalone SEO platforms are SEMrush and Ahrefs. They both have dynamic keyword and backlink features that give account holders an edge.


SEO for Dentists: Good Reviews

Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews can be very effective. For the best results, it is most important to establish a consistent flow of Google reviews. Positive Yelp posts can also be very helpful, and adding Facebook mentions often does the trick.

Paying for reviews can be considered unfair and deceptive marketing, which is punishable by the Federal Trade Commission. It may be better to hire a professional marketer to get testimonials and reviews.


Tip: Avoid Cookie-Cutter Dental Marketing Agencies

Do not use a cookie-cutter dental digital marketing company. Your investment will be cannibalized if you do because the content and designs will be the same as your competitors.

To stand out, you need to cover similar topics and themes as other dentists, but in a way that is fresh and new. Algorithms and people are both drawn to what is new and different, so if you can find a way to stand out, you will be more successful.

Connect with a Digital Marketer

Harris & Ward is a digital marketing team that can help you attract more clients. We have a track record for helping dentists rank highly on search engines, so you can be sure we know what we’re doing. If you’re ready to get more clients, contact us and we’ll get started.

We tailor our online marketing and promotional services to each individual client, ensuring that they stand out from the competition. We don’t use generic templates – every client is unique to us. Follow us on social media and check out our blog for more tips on seo for dentists.

Want to learn more? How to Generate Inbound Traffic to Your Dental Website

Harris & Ward

Harris & Ward

Harris & Ward specializes in Small Business and Healthcare Marketing for Dentists, Chiropractors, Veterinarians, and More. Follow our blog for tips and information about modern marketing.