When your tooth hurts, and you need to see a dentist right away, how would you look for one? Gone are the days when people only turn to the Yellow Pages when looking for a reputable dentist in the area. Today, people needing dental services now merely “googles” for a local dentist. With that said, how is your dental practice faring in this world primarily run by digital marketing?
As a dentist, ranking high on search engines may not be the top priority. The primary purpose of your practice is to provide dental services like tooth extraction, teeth cleaning and whitening as well cosmetic dentistry to your patients. But it’s also likely that you’re not the only dentist in the area and patients would always choose one that appears dependable and professional to them, especially when they search online. This is where dental SEO becomes essential.
The Importance of Dental SEO
SEO or search engine optimization refers to the set of techniques of bringing you up in search engine results. When people put dentist plus city on Google, Bing or Yahoo’s search bar, the results bring up different practicing dentists in the area. If you don’t even make it to the first page, it’s likely that people won’t be coming into your clinic inquiring for your services. Without proper implementation of SEO, it will be difficult for patients to find you, and consequently, for you to earn from your patients.
So, do you need a dental SEO expert in your practice? The short answer is yes. And there are two important reasons why.
A Dental SEO Expert Steps Up Your Game
Have you tried asking new patients how they found you? The answers could vary: through the local directory, a recommendation from someone or through the Internet. The most striking of all, is, of course, the Internet. Everyone uses the internet, and any person can find a dentist just by searching on Google.
Without SEO and the services of a dental SEO expert, you’d be lagging behind the competition against local dentists who are already optimizing their contents to attract more patients. If this is the case, getting an expert SEO practitioner levels the playing field by making you easily searchable on the internet.
A Dental SEO Expert Can Bring in More Patients
If the number of your patients has remained static or worse, falling over the last several years or months, it’s about time you inspect how your practice is doing in the digital world. One main reason could be your practice’s poor performance in search engines.
If you make an effort in improving your ranking in search engines, you’ll also increase traffic to your website or social media pages. With the use of effective keywords integrated into compelling and useful contents, you’ll be able to establish yourself as a reputable professional in the dental industry. Developing an authority persona in the digital world allows you to be perceived by patients as trustworthy and professional –someone who they’ll come to for their dental concerns.
It may be easy to believe that an effective SEO strategy is just all about injecting the right keywords in the right places, but indeed, it’s more than that. As a dentist, you’d want to focus on your core competencies and provide the highest form of care and service to your patients and let the dental SEO expert handle search engine ranking needs.