Local SEO is crucial for dentists looking to attract new patients. In this Dental SEO guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about local SEO for dentists. If you just want to skip the whole thing and call us so we can do it for you, headache, free, call us at 866.863.8452 or email us HERE. Otherwise read on:
First, SEO 101! What IS SEO?
What is SEO? It is “search engine optimization.” It literally means to “optimize your website for search engines.” So, what is a search engine? It is a literal “engine for search.” Think Google, think Bing, think DuckDuckGo. Those are “engines for searching.” Search engines, on other words. So SEO optimizes your website and things around the Internet for higher rankings in search engines. Currently, upwards of 95% of all traffic to your website comes from Google. So most SEO companies will focus on Google as a primary target.
What is Local SEO for Dentists and why Does it Matter for Your Dental Practice?
With over 80% of people using Google to find their local Dentists, you just have to be there. It’s just like the phone book in the 90s. You could buy a big full-page color ad for $45,000 a year or you could name your practice “AAA Joe’s Dental Office” and show up at the top of the free phonebook listings. Today SEO IS your phone book. If you don’t do SEO, you don’t show up.
What is the difference between SEO and local SEO?
Local SEO focuses on local geographic regions, such as around your office. General SEO can take something anywhere the world such as Amazon etc. When you’re running a dental practice you want people from the local region around your office. Local SEO focuses on giving you ranked in Google and what they call the organic listings and then Google My Business (GMB). We’ll explain more below.
What are Google’s “Organic Listings?”
Organic listings are the listings that show up right below the advertisements at the top of a Google page, and usually below the Maps listings, which they call Google My Business (GMB), more on that later. Organic listings are also called natural listings. They are called organic and natural listings because they are thought to “occur naturally or organically ” even though the technology of SEO is addressing factors to make your site more visible to others.
What is Google My Business and why does it matter?
Google My Business (GMB),Google maps, it’s been called many things over the last decade, but it’s all the same thing. It those little maps that show up on your iPhone on your Google searches on your computer, etc. No, these little Maps are very important and should not be neglected. They are typically part of the delivery service of local SEO for Dentists. These little Maps listings can account for upwards of 30 to 40% of all of your new patient inquiries from Google if you rank off those top three positions. That is not a small number. It should not be neglected.
Where do New Patients find you in Google?
When most people want to go find a local service of any kind, they typically go straight to Google. Then when they’ve Googled the service the first thing that they do is skip all the Ads at the top. We find that only 1 out of 10 people click those ads. Ask yourself, do you ever click the ads?
The next thing they do, is they go to the organic/natural results or Google Maps (GMB). They will look at maybe the top 3 to 5 listings there. The top three are guaranteed to get a look, top 5, potentially. No one goes to page 2 or beyond, most people don’t go beyond the fifth result at all. Now, these days there are so many, what we call “directory sites” such as expertise.com, Health Grades, etc. that a lot of people just skip right over those A lot of people tend to skip those.
So how do your new patients find you? Well, unless you are in the top three of Google maps rankings, or the top 3-5 of Google’s natual results? They don’t. You do not get the new patient inquiry. They find your competitors.
Are all Dental Local SEO Companies doing the same thing?
Absolutely not. Unfortunately companies who deliver SEO are similar to construction. There is a joke about the construction industry that out of every 25 contractors, you find only one of them that’s any good. The SEO space is probably worse.
There’s guys doing SEO tactics that are 10 years old and don’t work anymore, or doing unethical strategies that will hurt you for a long time or so badly that you have to buy new domain names and rebrand yourself. You have to be really careful. Your best bet is to partner an SEO Company with who is a specialist in your field and has many long-term relationships.
If you have done SEO over and over with many different SEO companies and still aren’t getting new patients it’s either one of two things:
- They’re strategies are not good, or…
- Their tactics are not good.
- Or Both.
So when you’re tired of hopping from one company to the next, you just need us. We call ourselves Surgeons for a reason. Thank you for reading our guide to local seo for dentists, we hope we’ve simplified this a great deal for you. If you need help this or any other SEO such as SEO for chiropractors, please contact us.
If you have questions, or would just simply like a consultation as to how we can help you contact us at:
866.863.8452 sales@seosurgeons.com
Sincerely,
Dan York,
Founder SEO Surgeons