SEO for Orthodontists: Increase Patients with Orthodontist SEO
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Learn how to get better outcomes from SEO for orthodontists in this mini-guide, which explores the basics of search engine optimization and the most effective techniques for practices like yours.
The days of utilizing a phone book to find an orthodontist are long gone. Today, finding an office near you is as easy as opening a search engine.
However, if you want to ensure that customers find your orthodontic practice online, you’ll first have to implement SEO, or search engine optimization.
SEO involves optimizing your website so that it appears highly in search engine outcomes and allows patients to find you. Consumers who find online for businesses generally narrow their options to the first few sites in search outcomes, and the ranking of those search outcomes depends on your site’s SEO.
If you want your practice to achieve the most possible visitors online, you’ll need to enhance your marketing efforts. And that starts with improving your SEO.
- What is SEO?
- What Are the Benefits of SEO for Orthodontists?
- What Can Orthodontists Do to Boost Their Website Rankings?
Connect with us to speak with a strategist about SEO plans from Ebizz Solutions, or keep reading this post to learn more about how you can start using SEO to attract more visitors and patients, and keep your site in rank in the first 5 sites in the search outcomes
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization involves improving or optimizing your website for search engines to provide your site ranks as high as possible. At the most basic level, this involves adding certain words and phrases that people are searching for— called keywords—to your content.
But search engines use much more than just suitable keywords to decide where websites rank for any given search query. They also consider factors like how fast your website loads, whether it is mobile-friendly, how long visitors stay on your site, the number of links required at your pages, and so on. This means that optimizing your site needs much more than placing words on a page.
Additionally, SEO becomes more complicated when you consider that all of your opponents are implementing it as well. Every other office in your area is researching keywords, acquiring online publicity, and publishing content that’s relevant to prospective patients.
Not to mention, the right keywords depend on the type of user you want to reach. People don’t just explore for orthodontists—they explore for orthodontists in a certain area or that perform particular services. Your SEO strategy needs to target the people looking for these specific criteria, which you can do with long tail keywords, like, “orthodontists in [your city].”
In short, SEO is an ongoing procedure that has the potential to be complex and time-consuming. However, the outcomes are definitely worth it, as we’ll describe next.
What are the benefits of SEO for orthodontists?
The biggest benefit from orthodontist SEO is the ability to rank higher in search engine outcomes pages. The higher you rank, the more clicks you will get from people who are exploring for orthodontists online. Because a vast majority of people choose to click on the first few search outcomes, it pays off to occupy the top spots for relevant search queries.
Here are just a few explanations why search engine rankings—and, consequently, orthodontist SEO—should matter to you:
You’ll get more website visitors
90 percent of clicks on the first page of search outcomes are on organic listings, and more than half of those clicks go to the first three outcomes for any given query.
Investing in SEO not only improves your website’s visibility, but also positions your practice as a trusted authority in orthodontics. And with more visitors, you’ll get better chances to convert the people browsing your website into patients.
SEO costs less than other methods
SEO isn’t free, but it’s quite less expensive than paid search, display ads, and many other marketing techniques. Given the traffic that comes into high-ranking sites, your technique could generate more leads with a smaller financial investment.
Not to mention that you likely make the money back that you expend on SEO, from the patients you attract.
SEO offers better targeting
Right now, you may be using broad keywords on your website, like “orthodontist” or “braces.” By using orthodontist SEO, you’ll be able to better target the people who are finding for services in your specific area and gain online patients. This may involve updating your keywords to something like “orthodontist in [your city],” or “where to get braces in [your state].”
What can orthodontists do to boost their website rankings?
Now that you know why SEO for orthodontists is so important, you need to begin implementing it. Search engine visibility for orthodontic techniques doesn’t happen overnight, and even after you’ve achieved your goals, you’ll need to keep working to keep your standing.
Many orthodontists struggle with attracting new patients. Our orthodontist SEO strategies can help improve your online presence and draw in more clients.
Use sensible URLs
Search engines don’t know what to do with incidental strings of numbers and letters. If your URLs (that is, the addresses of your pages) don’t contain the words and terms you want to rank for, you’re skipping out on a great SEO opportunity. Check each URL in your website and make sure they absolutely explain what the page includes.
For instance, your “About Us” page should be anointed something like “about-us.html.” But if you write a page about the significance of dental care, it should be something like “why-dental-care-matters.html.” Both of these URLs ensure that the user (and search engines) know just what they’ll find on that specific page.
On the other hand, stuffing your URL with too many keywords can hurt your rankings because it makes your website seem spammy. For example, “why-kids-need-braces.html” is an acceptable URL. But “kids-braces-dallas-austin-texas-dental-care.html” is deemed “keyword stuffed,” and may actually hurt your orders. Not to mention, it doesn’t say like a natural phrase.
Start an orthodontics blog
Of course, you want someones to come to your office to take care of their orthodontic needs. That doesn’t mean you can’t deliver some free advice before their first visit.
One way to attract new patients who are exploring online and showcase your expertise in your industry, is to create content that educates them.
If you don’t understand what to write about, consider responding patients’ questions about dental health and hygiene. You’ll gain the trust of new patients, and the large amount of content on your website will catch the attention of search engines.
Since blog posts typically include a high number of keywords, and you’re likely to write them into your scope without even thinking around it, they can deliver a huge boost to your SEO.
An added advantage of having a blog on your website is that they are easily shareable on social media. You can only share the link and your blog can be distributed among your friends, followers, and beyond.
Leverage local SEO
Nobody wants to travel far for orthodontic services, so they’ll narrow their search to local specialists. To be seen by these options, make sure your SEO technique includes local SEO.
Use your town and nearby towns as keywords in your copy, meta descriptions, or even in your domain name and page titles, if it makes sense to do so.
Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business can greatly enhance your local search company, making it easier for possible patients to find you.
Also, get your site listed in local guides like Google Maps and Yelp. This helps prospective patients find your practice, which will ultimately bring them to your website.
Build links to your orthodontics website
Search engines consider the trustworthiness of a website when ranking it for relevance. That’s why link building is an important part of orthodontist SEO.
When other people add links to your site, it’s a signal to search engines that you have content worth linking, and that your site is trusted by them. This can help enhance your rankings dramatically.
Acquiring links takes time, though. Unless you are actively asking other website owners for links, you’ll need to create effective content that people naturally want to link. In the meantime, try to add internal links, so visitors can quickly travel from one page of your site to another, building up page views and rankings along the way.
Start your orthodontic SEO strategy today
Ebizz Solutions understands the competitive nature of your industry, and we have professionals who understand how to make you stand out in the crowd.
If you don’t think you’ll have the time to optimize your site for searches, we can help!
Contact us today for a free quote and to learn how we can execute SEO for your orthodontic website!