Help patients find you online! 3 expert SEO tips for dentists in 2017
There's no magic to having good SEO for your dental website, just some common sense steps you can take to make your great online content visible to a larger audience. SEO is there to help!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for dentists can be complex and difficult. As an SEO specialist for over nine years in various industries, I can attest to the difficulties dentists face when it comes to optimizing for keywords in their field. With search engine algorithms evolving and getting smarter, SEO in 2017 will be all about high quality content that offers value to users. The days of writing content for search engines, stuffing keywords, hiring people to write fake reviews, and creating backlinks via software are long gone.
If you need a refresher about basic on-page search engine optimization, I recommend reading Search Engine Optimization Guide for Dentists. In this article I will review three advanced SEO tips for dentists in 2017.
RELATED READING:Is there magic in good SEO? Sort of. It’s called good involvement from your dental practice
1. High-quality content
There is a lot of competition for dentists on the internet, but the good thing is that a big portion of what is out there is not the best in terms of quality. Simple things such as spelling, grammar, and good structure go a long way. Not to mention, a touch of creativity boosts the value of your content.
When you have high-quality, well-written content, readers will be able to easily understand the purpose of the text. This is very important. It shouldn’t be a guessing game about whether the text is meant to be informative, persuasive, or simply entertaining. Good quality text will also garner more trust and a feeling of legitimacy from readers.
All of your SEO efforts are useless without great content. The whole point of optimizing a website is to increase the website’s traffic. If you’re able to increase the traffic but have horrible content, then people will leave. (This is called the “bounce rate.”) So, great content helps lower the bounce rate. When people find great content, they will be more likely to read through it and stay on your site, which increases the possibility of your content being shared by users.
Another important component of high-quality content is the proper use of keywords. I’m sure you’ve heard that Google and other search engines no longer use keyword metatags in any significant way. But it is still important to use focused keywords in your content. The best way to go about it is to use one keyword, as well as its variations, per blogpost or other kind of content. Using multiple keywords will lead to scattered and unfocused thoughts, and that’s not very appealing to readers or search engines.
AtlantaDentalSpa.com has over 8,000 visitors per month. Why? Because they have great content and rank on the first page of Google for hundreds of keywords. Example: The keywords “teeth veneers” receive 2,900 searches per month. The AtlantaDentalSpa page is ranked number five. It is also ranked number eight for the keywords “porcelain veneers,” which garners 9,900 searches per month.
Why does it rank so highly? Take a look at the content. It’s over 3,000 words, it’s well researched, and it contains videos, images, external links, and internal links. It’s a one stop shop for information on porcelain veneers. It is high quality, well-structured content with minimal spelling and grammar mistakes and focused keywords, plus it answers many questions users ask.
RELATED READING:Lawlessness in the Wild West frontier of SEO
2. Something shareable—Be a linkable asset
Now you know that spending time, energy, and creativity on your content is a must, but what comes next? One of Google’s own search quality senior strategists has taught us that if content is king, backlinks are queen of Google’s algorithm. This means that if you have amazing content, but no other sites are linking back to it, then the chances are it’s not going to rank well. I’ve seen this time again. People create great content, but not many people know about their website, therefore, their rankings stay low. They try to promote it on their social media channels, but their reach is limited.
How do you get people to share your content? How do you get them to reference your link on their websites? More importantly, how do you get an authority website in your industry to link back to your content?
Let’s take a look at what does not work. Creating content for your ideal client, a dental patient, does not work for backlink building. Your target audience members, future patients, do not have a high authority website in the dental industry or tons of followers on social media channels. Therefore, that awesome 3,000-word article and infographic you wrote about how to keep your kids’ teeth clean does not get much traction.
Instead, write well-researched, well-written pieces that are attractive to others in the industry or related industries. These are who will appreciate a well-researched piece and will want to share your content. These are trusted professionals whose opinions are valued, so if they were to link back to your content, there’s a much higher chance that people will follow the link back to your website.
It may sound like a stretch, but one good blogpost can really skyrocket your entire site. For example, a dental hygienist in Dallas wrote a blog about something alarming found in Crest toothpaste. This one post has over 1,700 backlinks, including backlinks from high authority news and magazine sites such as The Washington Post and Cosmopolitan. This one article is ranked for over 1,000 keywords and gets over 1,000 visitors per month.
3. Reach out to influencers in the dental industry
High domain authority websites such as magazines and news sites have a lot to keep them busy, so chances of an editor stumbling across your website are fairly slim. The best way to get their attention is to reach out to them yourself. When you have some great content, contact influencers in your industry and community and ask their opinion.
Don’t stop there. Scour the internet for websites and bloggers that talk about the topic you just wrote about and let them know about your great content. There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to people and asking them to read your post. What’s the worst that can happen? They won’t reply to you, or they won’t read your piece. In my experience, if the content is nothing short of sensational, people will share it. But your chances of getting some valuable backlinks are a lot greater if you put yourself out there and let people know about you. If you would like some more information on how to find influencers, you will find some great tips here.
Yes, SEO for dentists can be a bit tricky and definitely requires work, but these three tips can help make 2017 the year that you finally up your ranking, increase website traffic, and gain clients. Just remember, in 2017, content is king, backlinks are queen, and to marry the two you’re going to have to contact influencers yourself rather than wait for them to find you.
