Even though it may be frustrating, search engine optimization (SEO) is still very important for dental practices, and dentists should strive to learn good SEO practices, or hire someone who can do it for them.
I know search engine optimization (SEO) is a sore subject for many dentists because they’ve had some bad experiences with over-promising and under-delivering companies. For that, I am sincerely sorry.
But don’t give up on SEO!
Over 50% of people use the Internet when searching for a local business, including a dentist. You cannot and should not ignore that. You want to be there when someone types their dental needs into a Google search.
People have gotten smarter with Google
We’ve done exhaustive research to nail down how people search for a dentist, and what the best approach is to get a qualified phone call for your practice. We’ve determined that people use very specific phrases when they’re looking for a desired goal with a dentist. We call these “buyer intent” dental phrases. These are phrases such as “cost of Invisalign Portland.”
So instead of “Invisalign Portland” in the search bar, people will add more words in order to get a better search result so they don’t waste their time going back and forth. In our studies, we determined over 500 initial “buyer intent” phrases, and in total over 5,000 phrases. These include big clusters of phrases with words such as Invisalign, orthodontics, sleep apnea, TMJ, cosmetic, oral, teeth whitening, and wisdom teeth.
This leads to huge opportunities for dentists, who can get the kind of SEO done for their practice that gets them at the top of Google organic for as many phrases as possible.
Content (on-page) optimization
Part of the equation is to continually add content that addresses these “buyer intent” dental phrases. Get together with your team and brainstorm possible phrases people would type in when looking for one of your procedures. Then create content using these phrases on your website. I understand this is a huge undertaking, and therefore the reason many dentists hire professionals for this. It’s a wise investment in your business long-term.
I don’t want to overload you, but I hope this has opened your eyes to a new way to approach your website and SEO. If you have an SEO company, push them to do this for you. Then monitor your rankings for these phrases.
