Even though SEO is only three letters, many business owners consider it to be a 4-letter word. And it’s no wonder! SEO can be uber complicated but is completely necessary to your practice’s success. If you want to bring in traffic to your dental website, you have to make your site easier to find in search engines with SEO.
How do you do that?
Keywords
Keywords are an essential part of your SEO. A search engine will return results based on the words people are searching for, so you need to select keywords that make sense for your dental practice and area.
Bring in more qualified leads to your dental practice by using keywords that include your location and anything you specialize in.
Ask yourself: Is the keyword relevant to the content on your website? Will the keyword lead people to find what they’re looking for on your site? Use research tools like Google Webmaster, Google Analytics, and Bing Webmaster to analyze the competition and determine the most relevant keywords for your area and specialty. Here’s a nifty guide to help you learn how to do keyword research.
Once you’ve found the right keywords, use them in these places where relevant and natural:
- In your site title tags
- H1 tags of your individual site pages
- Two or three times throughout your individual page content
- Once in the alt attribute of an image
- Once in the meta description tag
Remember to use your keywords naturally so your site is readable to your users and still valuable to site visitors.
Title Tags
The title tag is a brief description of your page’s content, and not only does it help users, it helps with search engine optimization.
The title tag appears at the top of internet browsing software. It’s also the description that often shows up when someone shares your content on social media. Make sure your title tag is accurate and descriptive so readers get what they expect when they click through to your website.
Since search engines will only display the first 65 to 75 words, make the most of the beginning of your title tag by adding your keywords and a clear description. End your title tag with your brand name.
Meta Description
The meta description is what appears under your listing on a search result. If it’s compelling or informative, you have a better chance of click-through — which (you guessed it) will help your SEO.
It’s your chance to grab the attention of your readers, so give it some thought. It doesn’t have to be long — 160 characters is the typical cutoff.
Create Content Regularly
If you want to remain relevant to search engines, you can’t just “set it and forget it.” Search engines rank websites that consistently produce fresh content higher than those that don’t. This means you really need a blog.
Enhance the SEO of your blog by including keywords in the blog post’s URL, including your keywords in the first 100 words of your post, and including social sharing buttons so your content can be shared more easily.
And most importantly, create content that people will actually want to read! Don’t get so caught up in the keyword and strategy that you forget to write something informative, interesting, and useful.
Market Your Content
A search engine won’t recognize your content as valuable unless other people do — basically, the more people comment on, read, and link to your content, the more valuable a search engine will consider your page. Promote your content on social media and through emailed newsletters.
Be Strategic in Your Direct Mail Campaign
Use your direct mail postcards to direct your potential customers to your website, blog, or social media accounts. Target the same audience through direct mail that you target online so your potential customers will receive your message in a variety of ways — and will be more likely to take note.
Authenticity
With countless tips and strategies, don’t forget the most important part of your SEO: authenticity. Yes, SEO is about making your dental practice website visible to search engines, but it’s also about creating a site that’s relevant and useful for actual people too.
Content matters. Authenticity matters. Contact DentalMarketing.net to learn more about finding customers for your practice!