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By Farid Parvini Ph.D. | Solution21 | CEO |
When it comes to competitive industries, the dental industry takes the cake. Essentially every dental office is providing the same procedures, so trying to break into the field as a new dental provider can be difficult. You must go above and beyond to break into the industry and let the general public know what your practice has to offer them that is better or more impressive than what their current practice provides. One way of doing this is with dental search engine optimization, or “dental SEO.” This is a technique used to help develop websites that are found at the top of the page on the most popular search engines.
Why should you know about SEO for dental practices?
It’s common knowledge that the average individual searching for a service on a search engine such as Google is only going to look at the first page, maybe the second page, of results. This is an indication of how competitive this field can be, and how dentists need to pull out all the stops to get their business on the first or second pages of results. If not, your website will be ignored completely. SEO is incredibly valuable in bringing traffic to your website and hopefully straight to your brick-and-mortar practice. By utilizing SEO techniques and strategies, you can experience a boom in traffic up to five times what you previously experienced before implementing dental SEO. The more traffic to your site, the more clients in your office and the more profitability of your practice.
How exactly does search engine optimization work?
Search engine optimization is a special process during which pages of a website are modified so that specific phrases and keywords are used throughout to allow the search engine algorithms to boost page rankings. The phrases and keywords used on a dental website should be geared towards the industry. The algorithms of the search engines will look for these specific phrases and keywords to develop the search results to provide users with the most relevant websites available. Knowing the algorithms and the continual changes they go through over time can make it difficult for a dental professional to stay on top of changing trends, which is why many dental companies decide to hire out their SEO work to a dedicated professional who has years of experience and can continually focus on the changing trends in algorithms.
What should you consider when hiring an SEO professional for your dental website?
The process of modifying website pages to comply with the latest SEO developments can be rather complicated and may not be performed effectively by an average individual. It requires advanced knowledge of web design and SEO techniques. When considering an SEO company to hire for your dental website, keep in mind companies that have been around for a long time and have years of experience providing companies with these services. Read reviews available online and also consider a company that specifically works with professionals in the dental industry. These companies will be more familiar with the phrases and keywords that can assist a dental practice in seeing fast results. Solution21 has a special list of clients in the dental industry and continues to provide the services these practices require to maintain a steady stream of new patients into their state-of-the-art facilities.
Is SEO worth it?
Many dental professionals are worried as to whether or not an investment in search engine optimization is a smart choice when it comes to marketing and advertising their practice. In order for your practice to attract new patients, it must be near the top of search engine result pages. This allows your practice to stand out from the competition. However, it is hard to attain this position without professional assistance. Many dental practices have already been using SEO for years. Without investing in the assistance of a quality SEO company, dental practices will fall behind dramatically. Hiring an SEO firm to handle your optimization strategies is money well spent.
Once you start with an SEO company, how long will it be before you see the results?
While search engine optimization is a smart strategy, it doesn’t work overnight. This is a process that requires time and attention to see the desired results. It is important that you remain patient and have faith in the company you hired to give you improved, significant performance over the course of time. SEO works differently for every website, and it also depends greatly on how large of a metropolitan area your practice is in. Practices in suburbs and smaller towns may find it easier to break into the first few pages of search results than a practice in the heart of a huge city such as Chicago or New York City. However, this is an investment that will greatly improve your online presence and in turn, provide you with a steady stream of new patients once it has been implemented to your liking.
