A Dental SEO Company That Delivers

Now, more than ever before, people turn to the Internet to find a local dentist. In fact, 77 percent of people look for their healthcare providers online, and 43 percent looking for dental services select their dentist based on online reviews. Another 18 percent choose their dentist based on how high their website ranks in Google search results.

Across all industries, 75 percent of users will end up doing business with one of the top three search results when they search Google for a product or service. On top of that, three in four don’t go to the second page of search results. The point is: if you want to grow your dental practice, you have to rank high in search results.

Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, devising and executing an effective dental digital marketing strategy is not easy, but it is possible if you partner with an expert marketing team, like Sure Oak. The trick to climbing to the top of search engine results is search engine optimization (SEO).

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO is the most effective way to increase the number of users who visit your website from search engines, like Google. Those clicks make up your organic search traffic — people who choose to visit your website over other websites listed in search engine results pages (SERPs). Investing in SEO means making improvements to your website and other digital assets so search engines will reward you with higher rankings and — ideally in the top three.

Improving your SEO all comes down to abiding by specific criteria, or ranking factors, created by search engines. Ranking factors are essentially guidelines for how to perform well in search engines. So if you follow those guidelines, you’ll rank well in SERPs, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that straightforward.

For starters, Google uses more than 200 ranking factors to determine search rankings. Not only that, but the impact each specific factor has on rankings has never been confirmed by Google. Oh, and the list of ranking factors periodically changes, sometimes without warning. The only way to learn what works and what doesn’t is through experience.

One of the things we’ve learned about Google’s ranking factors is that search rankings are based not only on your website’s performance — including the front-end and the back-end — but also your presence on other websites, like social media channels and business directories. And, depending on the existing footprint of your web presence, SEO for dentistry can be relatively simple or downright complex, which is why you need the help of an expert dental SEO consultant.

A dentist’s online presence, including their website, Google My Business (GMB) listing, business directory listings and social media profiles, is the single most important part of their online marketing strategy. Ignoring them is just as bad — if not worse — than not having them and all. Here’s why you need to invest in SEO:

We’ve already explained how important it is to be one of the top results on SERPs, but it’s worth mentioning again. Your position on SERPs directly impacts your practice. Lag behind your competitors in search results, and you’re significantly less likely to gain new patients seeking dental services in your area.

SEO also impacts customer retention. Existing patients may visit your website before their next visit to see if your rates have changed or to see if you’re offering any new services. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to find the information they’re looking for, whether it’s pricing or an address. Providing that information is part of your responsibility, and it will help underscore to your patients that they can always count on you.

Neglecting your SEO isn’t just a wasted opportunity; it can actually hurt your business. Prospective patients won’t even know your practice exists if they can’t find it in SERPs. And, even worse, you run the risk of your existing patients being snatched away by competitors who have invested in their website and are ranking at the top of the SERPs — especially if they have a fast, high-quality website loaded with tons of great content. The competition in the dental industry is steep; there are only so many patients within a given service area. Focusing on your SEO is a great way to edge out your local competition – especially if they’ve neglected it, themselves. SEO for dentists doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all solution; that’s why we offer flexible SEO solutions.

As an experienced dental SEO agency, we understand the unique marketing challenges dentists face. We understand them because we’ve encountered them before. And that’s why we have the knowledge and experience to address those challenges head-on and overcome them.

For example, we know SEO for dentists has to be heavily focused on mobile and voice search. Why? Because 58 percent of people search for local businesses on their smartphones every day. And the same percentage of people have done a voice search to find a local business, like a dentist.

Insights like that are why we get results. We don’t do follow suit with what other agencies are doing. We also don’t apply the same SEO strategy to every dental practice we work with. Instead, we solutions that are unique to your practice, and we start one of three ways: