The global market for dental services will be worth over $550 billion by 2028. The dental industry is very competitive, so dentists need to market their practices carefully to reach new patients and retain existing ones. One of the most cost-effective ways to get new patients is with SEO.
There are many SEO practices that you can use to rank higher with Google. These practices are applicable whether your dental practice has a new website or has been online for years.
A few of the best ways to optimize your dental practice website for SEO are listed below. You can always use SEO services for dentists if you don’t want to develop an SEO strategy on your own.
Start by finding the right domain name.
One of the most important aspects of SEO is choosing a good domain name. If you don’t have a domain name for your dental website yet, you will need to register one.
In the past, the best approach was to find a domain with the most important keywords. For example, a dental practice that was trying to rank for the keyword “best dentists in San Antonio” might choose the domain name bestdentistsanantonio.com.
Google has since updated its algorithm, so keyword stuffing in domain names doesn’t work as well anymore. More importantly, even if you can improve your search engine rankings by using keywords in your domain name, you might not get the traffic you were expecting. People might see a weird-looking domain name in Google and fail to recognize its association with your dental practice. They might think that it looks too spammy and untrustworthy and not click it at all.
It is better to choose a domain around the name of your dental practice. Patients will be more likely to recognize it and click if they find your site on Google. It will also be more likely to rank well long-term because Google will continue clamping down on sites stuffed with keywords in their domains.
Choose the right keywords.
Keywords are the terms that people use when searching for something on Google or other search engines. Therefore, you need to make sure that your SEO strategy is built around keywords that people are searching for.
Some dentists make the mistake of trying to rank for very broad keywords that don’t include a location modifier. Keywords such as “dental clinic” or “best dental practice” would be tough and expensive to rank for. It also wouldn’t provide much value because the practice would get traffic from all over the world. It would be cheaper and more effective to rank for keywords like “best dentist in Sarasota.” This would ensure that they were reaching relevant customers in their area.
It is also important to rank for keywords that are relevant to specific services that you are promoting. For example, your dental practice should try to rank for keywords like “tooth cleaning Easton”, “root canal Orlando” or “gum restoration Boston.”
Create the right website structure
You need to ensure that your website is set up correctly, so search engine spiders can easily crawl and index your pages. The first step to ensuring this is choosing the right content management system, such as WordPress or Joomla.
You are also going to need to plan the navigation of your site carefully. For example, you need to make sure that menus are put in the right places, categories are created for different types of content, and the URL structure is selected appropriately.
Focus on both internal and inbound link building
Links are still a very important aspect of SEO. You need to have a strategy for earning backlinks from other websites. This can involve guest blogging, being a source for local newspapers, or getting your site listed in local business directories like the Chamber of Commerce websites.
It is also essential to make internal link-building a priority as well. Too many local businesses neglect to develop an internal linking strategy. While internal links might not provide as much value as ones from other sites, they are a lot easier to get, and you’ll help improve your rankings quite a bit by using them.
Create a blog
A blog can do wonders for your SEO efforts. You will create fresh content regularly, which is a critical ranking factor. Your blog will also make it easier to create more links to your internal pages, which will further boost your website rankings.
There are so many things that you can write about in your blog. For example, you can talk about warning signs of different dental problems, share advice on brushing your teeth, and have articles telling people what to expect when they come to the dentist.
