Posted on

Dental SEO Service Checklist

Looking for a dental SEO service? This must-read checklist will help you find a dental SEO service that will help your dental practice get on page one of Google and not get ripped off. Also, in this article, you will learn how to avoid Google SEO penalties and SEO scammers.

Find A Dental SEO Service With Experience Helping Dentists

There are seemingly millions of SEO experts who want to work with dentists. Just check your email inbox, on a daily basis you should see tantalizing offers from all kinds of alleged search engine optimization experts. Unfortunately, most SEO companies are generalists and are happy to work with landscapers, plumbers, e-commerce companies or whoever is willing to write them a check. The SEO experts might know SEO but they don’t know dental SEO.

These generalist SEOs could possibly help grow your dental practice. However, it is probably not a good idea to waste time and money with them. Don’t let them figure out Dental SEO on your dime and your time. Instead, look for dental SEO services that have a track record of actually helping dentists.

True dentist professional SEO services will understand and actually care about dental websites, dental SEO keywords, dental practices, and even dental patients. Find a service that can already “speak dentist.” If an SEO expert talks about finding your dental practice “customers”, run the other way – you want an SEO service that knows they need to find you “patients”.

Find A Dental SEO Service That Can Help Create Dental Marketing Content

Google is always hungry for new content. However, most dentists don’t focus on creating new dental related content because the process can be time-consuming and painful.

If you truly want to set your dental practice apart from other dental practices and climb to the top of Google you must have a content creation strategy. Your dental SEO service should lead the charge for you to make sure your website is constantly churning out new dental related content. It doesn’t have to be the best SEO content in the world. There just needs to be a lot of content and of course, it needs to be content that represents your practice well and content you actually want your patients to read.

The dental SEO service you choose doesn’t need to necessarily create the content but they should at least be mapping out a plan for dental blog posts, in-depth dental procedure pages, etc.

If you are a dentist in Birmingham, Alabama and you want to be found for dental implants, you better make sure your dentist website publishes lots of new content related to dental implants. If you simply have a single dental implants page like every other dentist in town, why would you expect Google to rank your dental website higher than the other sites?

PRO TIP: Want an easy way to create dental marketing content? Simply interview the dentist. Ask common dental patient questions and simply add the questions and answers as a new blog post. This is potentially a 10 minute job and can potentially pay off with years of new dental patients.

Avoid Dental SEO Services That Focus On Link Building

FREE DENTAL MARKETING PLAYBOOK!

Many dental SEO services will try to convince you that they will be able to magically propel your dental website to page one of Google by simply purchasing some links from other popular websites. Link building is an age-old, SEO trick to show Google how trusted a website is by other websites however dentists need to use link-building strategies with caution.

Link building still works but Google is smart enough to know most local dentist websites won’t actually ever get big powerful links from CNN.com or some other website with very high page authority. Purchased, powerful links are not necessary to get found in Google. You probably found this dental marketing website through a Google search and we promise you we have never paid for a single link.

Google is investing a ton of money in machine learning in order to improve their algorithms. If you think, your SEO guy is going to keep outsmarting Google much longer, you should think again.

If you were Google and you saw a local dentist office was getting lots of powerful links wouldn’t you think that is a little suspicious? Usually, there is just no reason for a dentist practice to get lots of links unless the dentist gets arrested or goes viral for some other reason. 99.99% of typical dental practice websites just shouldn’t have lots of powerful links. (list of dental website companies)

Your Dental SEO Service Should Concentrate On Natural Local Links

Instead of getting some random link from a “powerful website” your dental practice should concentrate on local links. You don’t need to have the top dental website in the country. You just want to have the top dental website in your town or city.

Links from other organizations in your area will prove to Google that your dental practice is a vital part of the community. You should take every opportunity to give to your community (participating in parades, school events etc) and soon you will be paid back with powerful local links. Also, find lists of businesses in your community and make sure you are included on those lists.

Your Dental SEO Service Must Know Google Maps!

More and more, prospective dental patients are skipping dental websites and finding their new dentist in the Google Map Pack. (below)

Your dental SEO expert better be an expert at not just optimizing your dental website but also optimizing your Google Map Pack listing. Adding location-based content to your dental website will go a long way towards improving your Google Map Pack listing, Make sure your dental SEO service is experienced at helping dentist appear in the local listings map packs.

Avoid SEO Fly-By-Night Services

It is easy to promise big SEO results in 9 months if you plan to be long gone in 6 months. The SEO world is unfortunately filled with scammers and amateurs. Watch out for folks with generic email addresses like Hotmail and Yahoo. Those email addresses are often used by hard-sell, alleged SEO experts who are here today and gone tomorrow.

Also, watch out for folks with no websites. They are doing SEO but they don’t have a fully developed website?? That should be a major red flag!!

Check out other Dental Marketing articles from ConversionSmiles

11Top Google AdWords For Tips For Dentists

Dental Marketing Agency – Full Service Vs. Niche

Dental Marketing Books To Grow Your Dental Practice!

LocalMed – Dentist Appointment Online Scheduling

2019 Dental Marketing Playbook!

ConversionSmiles is a Dental Marketing Company

Posted on

Our Best SEO & PPC Tip For Dentists

Dentist Focus On Dentistry

Dentist are experts in dentistry.  (duh!) Some dentists are also experts in running and growing their dental practice.  (that’s pretty great) Almost, none of the good ones, are experts in AdWords or SEO, nor should they be.

ConversionSmiles Focuses On AdWords & SEO For Dentists

We are experts in everything related to dental AdWords and dental SEO.  If you are a dentist, we could bore you for weeks about everything we know about SEO and AdWords. Today, we won’t do that.  If you want to be bored by dental seo and  AdWords stuff, just read our blog.

Today, we will focus on a simple tip that can help any dentist looking to improve their performance with either AdWords or (SEO) Search Engine Optimization.

Keywords For Dental Practices

In order for your dental practice to have success with SEO or AdWords, you need to focus on what dental keywords are actually being searched for in Google by prospective dental patients.  For a general list of dental keywords for AdWords or SEO, check out this post 2018 Dental Keywords List.

There are thousands of dental keyword variations you should use in order to rank your dental website to get found by the maximum number dental patients.  However, there is one Big Kahuna when it comes to dental keyword phrases people are really using.

#1 Dental Keyword Phrase You Should Focus On For PPC & SEO

It turns out the most popular dental keyword phrase (apart from the simple  keyword “dentist”) is the phrase “dentist near me”.  More and more Google searchers are expecting Google to understand where they are physically and expecting Google to deliver the best results for them.   The Google AdWords Keyword planner indicates there are typically a whopping 673,000 searches for the term “Dentist Near Me” every month!

Our Best SEO & PPC Tip For Dentists – ‘Optimize For Dentist Neat Me’!

How can you know if your dental practice is optimized for the keyword “dentist near me”?  It is actually pretty simple.  Do some searches on your phone and computer at a location near your office.  Just make sure your browser is using “incognito mode” so that your browser is a blank slate and is not showing results based on your previous searches.  If your dental website shows up at the top of the page for both PPC and SEO, you are in good shape.  In not, you have work to do.

Optimize For “Dentist Near Me” In AdWords

In order to show up for “Dentist Near Me” in AdWords, the first thing you need to do is make sure you are actually bidding on that exact phrase in AdWords. Tell Google that the phrase “dentist near me” is important to you by bidding enough to beat your competitors.  Don’t rely on broad match – bid on the exact phrase.

Next, make sure you are actually targeting dental patients in your local area.  You can learn more about targeting specific areas directly from Google here… Target ads to geographic locations

Increase Your AdWords Quality Score By Increasing Your Click Through Rate 

For many keywords, it makes sense to place the exact phrase in the Google dentist ad.  For instance, a dental patient searching for the term “root canal” should see “root canal” in the Google ad if you expect them to click on the ad. This makes the ad more relevant and more clickable for the prospective dental patient.

However, rather than using the term “dentist near me” in your Google ad, you might be better off saying “dentist near you” or “dentist near Toledo“.  Although, you won’t use the exact keyword phrase, the ad should be highly relevant to the Google searcher looking for a dentist near them and therefore the ad will be highly relevant and clickable.   Increased click-through-rate leads to increased AdWords quality score. Increased quality score allows for better ad placement at lower costs!

Optimize For “Dentist Near Me” In SEO

Your Website Should Tell Google Where Your Dental Office Is Located

The most important thing you can do for your dental website to show up in Google for “dentist near me” at locations that are actually near your dental office is to make sure Google understands your exact location.  This means you should include your dental office location on most pages and include a Contact Us page that provides Google with more evidence that your dental office is located in a specific area.  Even better, you should embed a Google map with your exact office location on multiple pages of your website.

Make Sure Local Citations Are Accurate 

According to Moz.com, “Local business owners and marketers can create citations on a variety of important local business data platforms which exist to publish this type of data. Core platforms include Google My Business, Acxiom, Localeze/Neustar, and Infogroup. Key local business listings can also be built on popular social and review-oriented sites like Facebook and Yelp.”

These local citations help Google and other search engines learn where a dental office is actually located.  Of course Google wants to give their users the best possible search results, so if they don’t trust your local citations because of inaccuracies or missing data, they will be likely to show another dental website in your area when the search “dentist near me” is conducted.

The most important local citation is of course your “Google My Business” listing as Google is more likely to trust the “Google My Business” process for acquiring listing information.

Link To Local Businesses

When it makes sense to link to other local businesses while blogging, you definitely should.  A link to the local school, local newspaper or town hall tells Google you are an active member of a particular community.    The more evidence Google has that you are associated with a particular area will help them have confidence in showing your website for people in that area when those people search for “dentist near me”.

Looking for dental blog post ideas?  Check out this post… 50 Dental Blog Post Ideas

ConversionSmiles is a dental marketing company.

Posted on

Why Your Dentist Website Should Have Video…

Dental PPC Focus

ConversionSmiles is mostly focused on helping dental practices with dentist PPC management.  However,  we believe smart dentist AdWords management and dentist search engine optimization should work hand in hand.

Good PPC Management = Better Dentist SEO 

Here’s how good PPC management helps SEO efforts.   More organic clicks and a higher organic click-through rate tells Google that your website is worthy of better placement in Google search results.  Paying more money for paid clicks will never directly impact organic search but it will help indirectly.  As more dental patients find your website with paid search, they will inevitably come back for more visits with natural search.  Example: Sheila searches for dental implants in Google.  She finds AcmeDentistCo.com one time.  Her browser now remembers that is a website she visited and favors that website in future searches.   One week later she searches for “dental implants” again.  She sees AcmeDentistCo.com and clicks.  Later, she does another search for Acme and clicks.  Google sees these clicks as a sign of popularity and rewards AcmeDentistCo.com with magical SEO points.  You can learn more how we think AdWords impacts SEO here…  Why Your Dentist AdWords Manager Should Know SEO  

More Time On Website = Better Dentist Seo  

Google has a magical formula that helps them decide if a webpage should get better or worse placement in their search results.  One of the things the magic formula (algorithms) considers is how long visitors stay on a website.  For instance, if Roger clicks on a search result and immediately clicks back to the search results page 3 seconds after viewing the webpage, Google gets a pretty good clue that the results did not satisfy Roger.   This would give the page a high Bounce Rate because roger bounced almost immediately. Google hates high Bounce Rates and punishes websites with high Bounce Rates.

Dentist Video = Better Bounce Rate 

One of the best ways to keep visitors on your website longer and reduce bounce rates is to have at least one video.   A two-minute video will likely hold most visitors attention for most of that time.  That means you can dramatically increase the length of ‘on page’ time by simply adding video.  Presto! More on page time, better bounce rate, better SEO.

How To Get A Dentist Video… 

Video production costs have gone way down in the last few years.   You can get a good quality dentist video for less than $1,000.  If you only have a few hundred dollars, you can probably still get a decent video made locally.  There are also websites like Fiverr where you can have videos made super cheap.  If you are really, really cheap, you can make a decent video for free with your iPhone and MacBook if you have the time and interest.  You might also want to consider shooting dental patient testimonials and stringing them together in one video.

In Conclusion… 

To sum up, if it makes sense to invest in dentist AdWords management, you should make sure you get the most value out of your Google AdWords spend by also improving your dentist search engine optimization at the same time.

 

 

Posted on

Your dental practice website is too slow! (probably)

Most dental practices trying to grow their businesses are investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google AdWords, Facebook and beautiful websites.  The problem with a beautiful dentist website is it can also be very slow.  Unfortunately, speed matters more than ever before for dentist websites and getting found in Google.

More and more website clicks are coming from mobile phones with slow connections.  In fact, more than 60% of Google searches are done with mobile phones. But, instead of dental websites getting smaller and faster, more and more often dentist websites are elaborate of bloated.

Why Dental Practice Website Are Slow

There are a few reasons why dentist websites have gotten so chunky.  As web design has gotten cheap and simple, web design companies (trying to show more value) have made sites fancier, more complicated and slower. Dentist websites have larger image files as stock photos are easy to access and cheap.  Also, more dental practices are using real photos taken from iPhones and DSLR cameras that produce large image files.

The first step is to figure out if you have a slow dentist website is to test the speed.  There are a number of free page speed tools available online that will almost instantly tell you how fast or slow your dentist website is.  We recommend https://tools.pingdom.com and www.webpagetest.org.

How fast should your dentist website be? Well, that’s a hard question to answer.  It should definitely not be slow and it should be faster than the competing dentists in town.  Not only do you want your users to have a good experience, you can count on the fact that Google is keeping track of how fast your dentist website is and punishing you with fewer clicks if it is too slow.  Not only does Google take speed into account for SEO, you should also expect it is part of the AdWords quality score for Google AdWords Dentist ads.   Want a real number? OK, your goal should be that your web page loads into 2-4 seconds.

Speed Up Your Dentist Website

So, how can you speed up your dentist website?  First, keep it simple.  Are there any extras on your website that provide no value to a prospective dental patient?  Forget about looking cool to your family and to competing dentists – if there are any extras on your website that do not improve the user experience for the prospective dental patients get rid of those extras.

The next thing you should do to speed up your dentist website is to reduce the number and size of images displayed.  Are there any extra images that don’t provide value?  Get rid of them.  Sometimes web designers like to show text as images – if you can switch those images to real text you can both help the speed up your website and help those words get found by Google.  (words embedded in images are not seen by Google crawlers!)

Once, you find some images you have a couple of options.  First,  you can reduce how much space the images take up on the screen.   Some images might be bigger on the screen than they need to be because nobody bothered to reduce the size.  There are plenty of tools online to help you resize images. You also can likely dramatically compress the image size without it being noticeable to someone viewing your website.   Here’s a tool the can help with both resizing and compressing images.  http://compressimage.toolur.com/

How Speed Impacts Google Adwords

If your dental practice is using Google AdWords, make sure you have speedy landing pages where your Google ads are pointed.  You are spending lots of money on Google AdWords and two bad things can happen if your landing page is slow.  First, Google might not show your ad as often and might charge you more money per click if they think your landing page is too slow. Second,  you might pay for a click and your new prospective dental patient might disappear forever before the landing page ever loads! Don’t let this happen to your dental practice.  Make sure your dentist Google ads point to a speedy page that helps prospective patients.

Need dental AdWords management?  Get pricing and contact us now.