Search engine optimization is something most people have heard of and all businesses should be doing it. This includes dental practices. There are a number of ways SEO can help a dentist get more patients. If you want to find out what a few of those ways are, then continue to read on.
Traffic From Google’s Search Results Pages
The main way SEO can help dentists get more patients is by getting the dentist’s website ranked high in the search engines results pages, or the SERPs for short. Using SEO to rank for general keywords related to the dental field can have a profound impact on a dental practice. For example, if you land on the first page of Google for a popular keyword such as “cheap teeth cleanings,” then you could receive an abundance of traffic to your site each and every single day.
If you can generate hundreds of clicks to your website daily, the chances are you’ll get new patients on a regular basis. Even if you only get a handful of traffic, you will likely get new patients. Traffic is the lifeblood of a website and if you can consistently get it, then you’ll consistently get new patients.
On that note, it’s best to focus on ranking in Google’s search results. They get the most searches on a daily basis. Plus, if you end up ranking high in Google’s results, the chances are you’ll rank in a good position on Yahoo, Bing and in other search engines results pages.
Local SEO
Ranking in Google’s results pages is good, but dentists want to try to rank high in the local search results. This means using SEO methods to be found by prospective patients searching for dentists in their area. Traffic from local searches is extremely valuable because it means they are highly likely going to schedule an appointment as soon as they located a dentist in the area they are searching in.
When a dentist is found via a local search, they can expect to gain more patients on a frequent basis. For example, if someone searches for “dentist in CITY NAME,” and your dental practice appears as one of the first results, then they’ll (the searcher) will probably contact you right away. Imagine getting calls of interest regularly, all because of local SEO?
Rank For Specific Services
Another way SEO can help a dentist get new patients is by optimizing content with keywords about specific services. For example, you can create a blog for your dental practice and create content about teeth cleanings or root canals. If you optimize articles that are about those two topics on a regular basis, eventually people who are searching for teeth cleaning or root canal procedures will find your website. They may very well schedule an appointment so they can speak to you more about the procedures.
If you already have a website and service/procedure pages, then look over them. If there’s not enough content on the pages or the pages aren’t optimize well, then your service pages probably aren’t ranking very high in the SERPs, If that’s the case, then come up with a strategy that includes working on your current service pages and creating a blog.
Social Media
These days everyone is on social media and this includes prospective patients. As a dental practice, you want to get found via social media. You can do this with a bit of SEO. Social media marketing is a form of SEO because Google and other search engines look at social media-related signals to consider how a site will rank.
What you want to do is become active on social media and publish posts related to your dental practice, services offered and things of that nature. Eventually, the search engines will take notice. Not only that, but you’ll likely get many more patients via inquiries made through social media.
YouTube
SEO can be used to rank YouTube videos, but a lot of dentists don’t use YouTube because they underestimate its usefulness. What you can do is create videos on a weekly basis, but make sure they relate to your dental practice or the industry in general and focus on optimizing the descriptions of the videos, the titles and include a link back to your social media accounts and your main website. You might be surprised at how many people use YouTube to see how dental procedures are performed.
Imagine if many YouTube users find your videos before your competition? Even if they don’t need a dentist, they may know someone who does. Either way, using SEO to rank videos is a smart idea, regardless of the nature of your business.
Generate Leads
SEO can help you generate a ton of leads. Here’s a tip, collect leads via a signup form and then you’ll have a huge email list you can send messages to from time to time. Sure, a lot of people on your list might not become patients right this moment, but in the future, they may. If you’re unsure of how to create a landing page with the purpose of generating leads, then hire a professional.
Brand Awareness
SEO helps improve brand awareness, but in this case, it improves your overall brand’s reputation and visibility. Think about it, when you search for anything in Google, do you automatically look at the first page results as being trustworthy? Of course, you do and when prospective patients find your dental practice’s website on the first page, they will automatically think of you as being reputable and trustworthy. In turn, you’ll get a lot of people who will spread the word about you.
Also, SEO will likely lead to any reviews written about you being found. In turn, your site’s ranking might improve. This is another win-win situation.
SEO can be used in many ways, which can lead to gaining more patients for a dentist. If you’re a dentist who wants to attract new patients, then it’s time to start doing SEO. If you’re not currently doing search engine optimization, then you are missing out.