Dentistry is a sought-after service, and SEO for dentists is a competitive business. Whether you’re managing a squat practice or multiple sites, there is demand for your services. According to the NHS, UK dentists delivered 5.8 million courses of treatment in the second quarter of 2021-22.
To ensure that you are seen by those looking for dentists, you need to be at the top of a search engine results page. Collectively, the first three Google results bring in a 55% click-through rate (CTR). So, a crucial marketing technique for dentists is effective Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Here, we lay out the fundamentals of SEO for dental clinics.
Your money or your life
SEO for dentists is a delicate process. By their nature, pages promoting dentistry are closely scrutinised. This is because Google understands dentistry to affect “the future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety of users”. Page quality for dental practices is judged against strict criteria. This principle is known as ‘Your Money or Your Life’.
To meet these standards, dentists’ websites should show their expertise, authority and trust.
- Expertise is based on your qualifications. Dentists should have profiles on their site, displaying their professional achievements and qualifications
- Authority refers to the ‘trust signals’ on your website, including the professional bodies you belong to. For example, the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, or Association of Dental Implantology
- Trust refers to the signifiers that other professionals know and trust you. They show this by linking to your site from theirs, which boosts your domain authority.
Local SEO
In general, customers want a conveniently located dentist. Therefore, your location needs to be accessible to search engines. Optimising this is called local SEO.
Good copy is the first port of call. This means ensuring that your location (the town or city your practice is in) is displayed in both your page titles and your URLs.
If you have multiple practices in your portfolio, the physical addresses of all of these should be displayed on separate pages. Good SEO for dental clinics emphasises their distinct bricks-and-mortar locations. The search engine will read strong references to your locality and rank you accordingly.
Likewise, by creating a Google My Business Profile, which registers you on Google Maps, you can verify the physical location of your practice. You will need to register a name, address and phone number (NAP). This assists you when people search for ‘dentist near me’. “Near me” searches have increased over 250% in recent years.
Despite the decline of print, local directories remain influential within local SEO. Ensuring consistent NAP across directories (such as Yell.com) further acknowledges your locality.
The importance of reviews
As a local business, satisfied customer reviews will be crucial to your successful SEO for dentists. 92% of searchers report reading reviews before purchasing. Again, Google My Business is important here. It both emphasises your locality and allows you to directly interact with patients. It also adds to Google’s ‘knowledge graph’. This allows your star ratings to be displayed on results pages alongside your name and address.
Displaying reviews on your website can also be beneficial for SEO. Make it easy for customers to leave a review on your website. This is helpful if they are unfamiliar with Google reviews, for example.
Drilling down
Successful SEO for dental clinics shouldn’t be like pulling teeth. However, there are a lot of potential pitfalls. A lot of local keyword research is required to understand what patients are really searching for. ‘Bee’ a practice with a strong online presence and contact us today to get your specialised SEO journey started.
