You’ve likely heard it, “you need SEO in digital marketing.” We’ll be the first ones to tell you that it’s true. If you want to gain more new patients, you’ll need to have a working website that patients can find, even if they’ve never heard of you before. This is the main goal of search engine optimization (SEO).
To reach SEO’s goal of enabling patients to find you online, you need a unified team that works together to support each other in all aspects of your digital marketing.
Dental SEO expert Bob Weber, Director of Search Marketing at Pro Impressions Marketing, says,
“SEO should be a holistic effort supported by all of a dental office’s marketing. Every aspect of digital marketing can impact dental SEO, from the design process to site architecture, ad campaigns, and patient experience. The more tightly efforts are integrated, the better your SEO performs.”
SEO Overview
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s the act of improving the quality and quantity of visitors to your website from organic (not an ad) search. As Weber pointed out, effective SEO entails all aspects of your digital marketing, from design, site architecture, website content, ad campaigns, and your overall website experience. If all these things are working together to support your website’s visibility online, you’ll gain more new patients.
If that’s not enough to convince you that you need SEO, here are 6 reasons why dentists need SEO and a dental SEO company to manage it.
6 Reasons SEO is Important for Dentists (and why to Hire a Dental SEO Company)
Organic Search Makes up Most Web Traffic
Organic search is a fancy way of saying a search that someone performs when they don’t click on an ad. For example, let’s say that you are looking for a restaurant in a new city. You type “Italian restaurants near me,” and a list of websites shows up. At the top, you’ll see some ads. Below the ads, you’ll see a list of websites that have not paid to be there. They show up organically. These are the websites that get clicked on the most, and these are the spots you’re trying to secure when you participate in dental SEO marketing.
Hiring a dental SEO company can help you get closer to securing these spots. Don’t get us wrong; this is not an immediate thing. Dental SEO takes time and dedication, but if you have the patience and the best dental SEO company, you can achieve more online visibility and gain more new patients.
SEO Helps Build Trust and Credibility
Remember how we said that your website content is part of dental SEO marketing? That’s because your content helps to build trust and credibility online. As Google continues to become a more complex beast, it gets better and better at learning which sites are legit, which are a scam, and which are helpful to users. You need to have thorough, factual, and helpful content on your website so Google can know that you are trustworthy and credible, so it puts you higher on the list of organic searches. Your patients will view you as more trustworthy and credible when you achieve these top spots.
Your online reputation is part of SEO too. Good SEO practices involve responding to your reviews, getting cited online, and citing only other credible sources on your website. Managing these aspects of SEO help your patients trust you and believe what you have to say.
Does it seem like a lot already? Many dentists choose to hire a dental SEO company to help them manage their online presence.
Aids PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Campaigns
Good dental SEO aids your pay-per-click campaigns. If your ad shows up at the top of the page and you also appear high on the organic search results, you’ll be shown twice, making it more likely that patients will choose you.
Additionally, Google uses PPC and SEO to learn about your business. If Google sees you actively participating instead of just throwing money to be in the top spot, you’ll get a boost in credibility in Google’s eyes.
Gives You a Competitive Advantage
Most patients won’t go past the first page on Google to find a dentist. So if other dentists in your area and market are practicing SEO, you need to do it better. The higher you can show up, the better your chances of getting the kind of patients you want to treat.
If your competitors are not practicing SEO, doing so will likely put you at the top of the list.
Improves Your Website’s User Experience
Have you ever gone to a website that was slow, clunky, and had elements that didn’t work? It’s frustrating to work with a website like that. Practicing SEO helps your website experience shine when others show dull.
For your website to be optimized for search engines, it’ll need to load quickly, have working elements, and have an excellent design. These are also the qualities of a great user experience. Google will learn about the experience you offer and boost your search engine rankings.
This is one of the biggest reasons why dentists often hire a dental SEO company. Your dental SEO company can ensure that all these aspects can work together toward a common goal.
It Helps You Appear in Local Searches
Dental search engine optimization helps you appear in local searches. This is so important because you are, in fact, a local (to somewhere) dentist that local people use! Using the elements of SEO, you can optimize your website to show up when people who are near you search for a dentist.
The best dental SEO companies know that local search is crucial for a dentist. By hiring one, they’ll optimize your website to show up for the patients who need you the most.
Does Your Dental Office Need SEO Help?
Do you want to gain more new patients? Choose the best dental SEO company, Pro Impressions Marketing, to help you gain more online visibility through dental SEO. Call (970) 672-1212 or schedule a free strategy call online.
