You know what your practice needs: new patients! A topic I hear requested a lot from the dentists I work with is “how to attract new patients”. Today we’re going to tackle this topic from the angle of SEO (search engine optimization) and see how effective SEO for your practice can give any dentist a competitive advantage in drawing in those new patients.
What are the benefits of an effective SEO strategy?
SEO looks into the strategies needed to get your practice to show up on the first page of search results. Even for local dentists who have a loyal patient base and get a lot of referrals, the reality today is that many people are searching for local dentists online, and by using SEO you can successfully attract more of these new patients. One of the many benefits of SEO is that you can even use it to target your ideal patients (such as for orthodontic or cosmetic work).
Why do you need to be on page 1?
Take a minute and think about it. When was the last time you clicked over to page 2 or 3 of search results? Unless you’re looking for something very specific, it’s unlikely that you will go beyond the first page of search results! Your prospective patients are no different, and the facts are that the top 3 results on Google get 70% of the clicks. So if you’re not on page 1, the simple reality is that you are probably going to be missing out on a lot of potential patients.
How do you get onto page 1?
First of all, you need to be in it for the long haul. For most dentists, it will take a few months to climb their way up to the top of search results and beat the competition. Next, you should know that the most important aspect of SEO for a dentist is location. To make sure your location shows up on search results, you need to have your location in text form on your website so search engines can pick it up. In addition, you will need to have your official business name, address, and phone number (NAP) consistently listed in text form ideally on every page of your website and elsewhere on the internet.
For any dentist to get a competitive edge with SEO and get to that top ranking, it is also essential to understand what patients are searching for and provide content that gives them that information using the correct keywords in an authentic way on your website. Listen to my full conversation with Mike Pedersen for free here now and learn more tips.
