When approaching their search engine optimization (SEO), many dentists simply don’t know where to begin. Many assume that they need to hire an outside agency, but to the uninformed, this can be more expansive and stressful than it needs to be.
Then there are others who decide to tackle SEO on their own, which can work wonderfully, provided the dentist plans their strategies well. With so many clashing mindsets as to how SEO should be approached out there, it can be challenging to know what is an effective practice and what is not.
Still not sure where to start? Keep reading to discover three suggestions for dental clinic SEO that you can’t afford to ignore, and each of which can take your search engine optimization tactics to a completely new level.
1. Your Website Needs to Provide Useful Content
One of the most common mistakes we see dentists make when attempting their own SEO is “keyword stuffing” – which means writing content focused on a specific keyword or phrase, instead of the needs of potential patients and readability.
Keywords are certainly important, but they should not be the primary focus of your content – or be used in a way that impacts the readability of an article. Try to aim at writing content that is high quality and is useful to potential patients, as opposed to seeking opportunities to cram as many keywords as possible into your content. Over time, this habit will pay off.
2. Use Long-Tail Keywords
As we discussed in #1, your keywords should not direct the content you publish, but the ones you do choose need to be very specific to be effective. This is where long-tail keywords come in.
Dentists often make the assumption that searches queries are typically short and abbreviated—“Tooth Cleaning Houston” for example. Usually, however, ranking for SEO means using long-tail keywords that are more detailed and specific in nature. For example, the idea of choosing the phrase, “Where can I get my teeth cleaned in Houston?” is much more likely to lead someone to the results they’re searching for—just make sure the quality of the article supports whatever keyword or phrase you’ve chooses to concentrate on.
3. Build a Knowledge Base
Another successful method to establish the online presence of your dental practice is to become a thought leader in your field by accumulating a substantial knowledge base. This knowledge base will allow your existing and prospective patients to learn about the topics that interest them the most, and establishes credibility and authority in your practice.
Developing a knowledge base takes a large amount of time, but doing so will enable you to work from targeted keywords to create geographically relevant content that brands your dental clinic for success. The most helpful dental office knowledge base is one that addresses a tremendous volume of questions that patients might ask about your dental clinic, and each question is an opportunity to create a specialized piece of content.
Don’t concentrate on the length of the post or consistency of posting too much—quality is the most important factor to consider when developing a knowledge-base of blogs and articles.
So don’t just assume that dental office SEO is reliant on identifying the correct keywords and stuffing them into random web pages. Produce quality, targeted content, and the rest will fall into place on its own.
