Having a successful dental practice is more than just welcoming patients in a friendly manner and doing a routine checkup every six months. That’s part of what will make a dental practice successful, but how is the practice finding new patients? Not all new patients can be referrals. That is why a dental website and having a proper marketing strategy is so important. You can also skim through various marketing resources. It will allow your business to continue to grow. When you have a great looking website, it’s important to have search engine optimization (SEO) as well and an ongoing SEO strategy set up so that your business can be found online.
SEO is what your website is ranked on a search engine site such as Google. The higher your website, the more calls you will get. SEO is more than people just clicking on your website though. It’s also about converting those potential patients into patients booking appointments. If your website doesn’t have great content on it and has SEO in mind, you are missing out.
This may seem obvious, but it can take some time to get your website to the top. When someone moves to your city, the first thing they are probably going to do is Google a new dentist when it comes that time for a checkup. Also, when someone has an emergency they will also probably be calling one of the first options they see, right? Right, so that is why SEO for dentists is so important for your dental office.
You have enough on your plate, so do what most other dentists do which is hire an outside SEO company to handle their dental website SEO. Hiring professionals are not quite as easy as it sounds. Just like every dentist isn’t the absolute best, neither is every online marketing agency out there. That is why it is important for you to do some homework and learn who you can trust and who you can’t. Find out who is going to get the job done and rank your website as high as it possibly can be.
You may have read a blog here and there to find out what it requires to have a high ranking and high converting website. You may have thought, I understand but I just don’t have the time for that. Or you may have thought, I have no idea what they are talking about! It’s important though to hire a dental marketing firm that specializes in SEO each and every day.
Make sure that you ask them questions though. Not all online marketing companies are reputable. The last thing that you want is to hire a company to increase your online reputation and for them to hurt it. Ask for past websites they have worked on and how long they have been working with them. You can even reach out to those companies and find out how the company has been to work with. Google always changes what they are looking for. Ensure that the firm stays on top of the latest tricks and trends so that your website is always getting updates whenever changes need to be made.
Did you know that 75% of internet users only view the first page of their search results? From that list, 60% are only clicking on the first three that appear. Where is your website ranked? If it’s not at the front, then it’s missing so many potential patients. The higher your site is ranked, the more traffic you will see go to your website. This will mean a lot of new patients for you.
If your practice specializes in a specific service make sure that it is highly ranked for those keywords. For example, if you work with children, make sure that you are ranked high for “dentists for children in location”. Also, if you work with a specific insurance you know many other dentists in the area do not take that insurance, make sure that is a keyword that is ranked high for you too. Sometimes it is not always the most obvious things people are asking Google. You can find what people are searching for through analytics. Prior to hiring a dental marketing company, make sure you know how they do their research and what their strategy is. Most of their thoughts and actions should be data-driven.
It’s important to set realistic expectations for the online marketing agency. It will take up to 8 months to see your ranking to increase. Google does not want to move you overnight. It needs to see your website doing the right types of things for a period of time before it rewards you. If you hear a company promising to move you to the top of Google in the next month, run the other way!
Next, when you hire a dental marketing company to manage your SEO, they should be improving your traffic and conversion. This means that you can expect an increasing amount of traffic to your website and converting those calls into new patients. What is the benefit of more people going to your website but not having more people calling your office to schedule an appointment? The higher your ranking the more calls you will receive, however, the SEO company should be making your website look great and having great content so that those patients are following through and calling you to book an appointment.
The next benefit of hiring a dental SEO specialist is that it will save you time. Your time is probably better spent in the office doing what you love and are good at. Let the experts do what they do best, and you focus your time and the new patients you will be getting from the efforts of the SEO company. SEO optimization is not a quick task, in fact, in many cases, it is a full-time job.
Moving your ranking high and keeping it at a top position requires a specific strategy and consistent work. This is why it’s a great idea to partner with a dental SEO company so that you can always be competing for online searches in your local area.
We hope that you learned more about what an SEO company does and how it can benefit your dental practice. It’s important to do your research so that you hire a company that will get you the results you are looking for. When you find a great and reputable company, you will be so glad you made the investment. For more information on SEO marketing, contact us today!
