Orthodontist SEO - Best Strategy (Orthodontic Search Engine Optimization)
When it comes to getting your website seen by potential patients, nothing is more important than being at the top of the search engine results pages. Fortunately, with a little effort and some clever tactics, even the smallest orthodontist office can outrank their competitors.
In this blog post, we'll discuss some easy ways to improve your orthodontist SEO and get you more patients!
1. What is SEO for an orthodontic website and why do you need it?
Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting your website to show up high in search results. The higher you rank, the more people will see your website, and hopefully, contact you! Orthodontists can specialize their SEO campaigns to target services offered in specific geographical areas, or aim for all areas nationwide. Patients are searching for orthodontists all the time, so you need to be at the top of the list if people are searching!
2. How do you get started with SEO?
Your website design and content is the beginning of your SEO strategy. Does it tell visitors what they need to know; or, does it tell visitors what you want to tell them about your practice? Is it clear and concise? Does it use too many orthodontic technical terms? Does it demonstrate the benefits of your services within seconds? Does it have the right page titles? The best orthodontic websites do all of these things and more.
If it "easy on the eyes?" Is there good use of white space? Is the design inviting? Do the key points jump out at visitors? Do you tell visitors what to do next? Again, the best orthodontic websites do all of these things.
It's easy - just pick a good domain name and start blogging about your services!
Picking a good domain name is important because it will contain a couple of keywords that potential patients use when searching for an orthodontist. If you're not sure what keywords to target, just do some research on the web and see what other similar websites are using.
One SEO strategy is blogging. Once you've decided on a domain name, start writing blog posts. Orthodontic practices can blog about anything that relates to orthodontics. For example, a common tactic is writing a post on what to do if you chip your teeth, and including links back to your website at the bottom of the page.
However, traditional SEO strategy is not just about blogging. There are a variety of strategies to get top rankings in Google maps or Google search results. You'll have to have "citations."
Citations for a local search are generally directories that contain your practice information. Consistency is critical for your "NAP": name, address, and phone number. It needs to be the same everywhere.
Another common factor in Local SEO strategy is social media. Basically, the Google algorithm wants to see engagement with the local community. This engagement with customers signals Google's algorithm that you have a legitimate presence in that local community.
Then of course there are backlinks... other sites that link to your site. It used to be easy to get backlinks, but website owners or agencies used "black hat" techniques to generate thousands of backlinks. Today, it is much more important to have fewer backlinks but from "high authority" websites.
Lastly, but far from unimportant, is reviews. You can have the best SEO strategy in the world but if you have a bunch of 1-star reviews in Google, your practice is in trouble. There are ways of fixing the problem, but it starts within the practice. Provide a great patient experience. 3. How will I know if my SEO efforts are working?
Good question!
You can pay attention to is your website's Google analytics. Google Analytics will tell you how many new visitors come to your site each day and which search queries they used to find you!
However, the real proof is in growth. If there is an uptick in new patient inquiries, you are doing something right. At BrilliantDoc, we have had clients contact us to put any new marketing efforts on-hold… they are out of capacity. After a few months, we started up again.
4. How to choose the right orthodontist SEO company?
Start with a company that doesn't try and bulldoze you with technical terms. If you can't really understand what they're attempting to do, or if you aren't sure if their plan will really help, keep looking. They should have a track record of success with orthodontic websites.
Another factor to consider is your practice's history with SEO. Are the basics already in place; or, have you never done any SEO work for your orthodontic website? This plays into time-horizon - are you planning on SEO as a long-term strategy, or are you looking for quick results? Most SEO agencies say it will take 6 months to a year to see the results from your SEO efforts, which can be quite expensive.
5. The benefits of orthodontist SEO for your practice.
Success means different things in different situations, but for orthodontic websites, it means getting found by prospective patients and creating enough curiosity to contact the orthodontist. All orthodontic patients eventually leave the practice - so you need a constant, steady stream of new patients.
They could be children, teens, adults, or retirees. Ideally, a mix of all of these. They could want traditional braces, 3-D printed braces, colored brackets, invisible braces, or clear aligners. They could be attempting to fix an overbite, an underbite, fill in a gap in their teeth, straighten their teeth, or a host of other conditions. So the successful practice needs a strategy that is flexible enough to pivot to the strategic needs of the orthodontic practice.
A series of hyper-local landing pages, focused on different keywords representing different services, is perfect for that solution. As your practice evolves, your orthodontic website evolves to keep you at the top of Google search results.
6. How much does orthodontist SEO cost?
"It depends." We hate to say that, but it's true. If you have a strong SEO base from past work or if you are a new practice and have no SEO strategy... it makes a difference.
HOWEVER... it's safe to say that we can get your orthodontic website to the top of Google search results for less than $1,000 a month - and that it can replace just about any other marketing activities you are currently implementing. In other words, it's often a shift in existing marketing dollars, not a greater investment.
7. Conclusion: why you should be investing in orthodontist SEO?
Copywriters and web developers are everywhere. Anyone with rudimentary design skills can build you a website, or have one built for them. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they'll do it right from the start.
In fact, most of them will leave out key ingredients that are necessary to attract your target market.
Technical skill plus word-of-mouth advertising will not be enough to make a highly successful practice. In this age of information, you need to engage with customers directly.
Specializing in healthcare websites and local SEO
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