As marketers, we often get asked about the mysterious tactics of search engine optimization. While SEO is certainly more of a chess game than other marketing tactics, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems.
Use the following techniques to set your practice website up for success and provide a great launch point for future SEO strategies.
- Clean up your NAP: Your Name, Address and Phone (NAP) is almost like your business Social Security number. If you are displaying your address, you need to do so in the same fashion 100 percent of the time. For example:
Dr. Laura Maly
3904 Groton St. #201
San Diego, CA 92110
Is NOT the same as:
Dr. Laura Maly
3904 Groton Street Unit 201
San Diego, CA 92110
Both of these options may work for the post office, but not for Google! Choose an address and stick to it. Make sure to write/type it the same in everything you do online – including your website, your Google maps listing, your Yelp! listing, etc.
- Google yourself and claim/build your profiles: The best way to quickly and easily establish or clean up your NAP is to Google yourself and find any existing listings; you may find some on Healthgrades, RateMDs, Vitals.com, yp.com, etc. Make sure that if those listings exist, your business name, address, phone number and web URL are represented properly. If they aren’t, you can either claim your listing and update it yourself or submit a revision to the site. If you are a new dentist or practice, we recommend claiming as many listings as soon as you can.
- Find solid shortcuts: Using a service like moz.com is an easy way to claim listings quickly through a bulk action. The cost of this is not prohibitive and yet very helpful. If you want to evaluate your current listing situation, go to moz.com/local and click “check listing” to see what’s happening with your practice.
- Create unique content: Adding unique content to your website is still one of the best ways to create SEO value. Google looks for deep resources on topics people search for. For example, if you want to rank high on people’s dental implant searches, you should have a page dedicated to dental implants on your website. It is very important that any content added to your website is 100 percent unique content. If you are unsure, you can use this tool: Plagiarism Checker.
- Backlinking: Having other websites link to your practice website is also important. There are many strategies to build backlinks, but one of the most effective is to think of organizations and other local businesses you may already have a connection to and invite them to link to your practice website. Other great local backlink opportunities include Chambers of Commerce, alumni organizations, non-profits you support and referring doctors.
- Ask for reviews: As a local business, having a steady stream of positive reviews is another strong factor in search engine ranking. The first step to getting consistent reviews is coming up with a system to ask your patients to provide reviews. You don’t have to ask every patient, but if you have a solid connection, a simple ask may be all you need to garner a review. If you prefer not to ask patients directly, consider tapping into a review-generating product like podium.co or BestLocalReviews.com or use your patient management tool.
SEO can be tough to understand and detailed, thankless work. But, if you spend a few hours at a time working on it, you’ll begin to make strides. Questions on SEO? Please contact us or visit wonderistagency.com.
