Links – the most important factor for SEO

No link-building in your monthly optimisation package? Then it isn’t SEO…..

Google isn’t usually too forthcoming about which factors are most important for improving search ranking results, but earlier this year, they declared their hand quite openly by stating the top three things which do make the difference. These were, in order of importance, back-links, high-quality content and “RankBrain”. We will discuss the latter two in future blog articles but today we are discussing the importance of “links” and in particular, why you need check that this critical aspect is covered in your monthly contract with your digital dental marketing company.

Unfortunately, as we’ve touched on elsewhere in the blog, some dental marketers can be quite sneaky and frugal with the truth when it comes to detailing what you actually get for your money. A key case in point is where they deliberately exclude link-building from their “SEO” packages unless you buy their most expensive version. That’s correct, even though we know that links are the most important factor for search ranking, several well-known dental marketing companies actually exclude it, but still label their offer “SEO”. If you think that doesn’t sound quite right, you’d be right.

Without at least some link-building, even if you are in a relatively non-competitive environment, then chances are that you won’t realise the Google ranking positions you’d hoped for. By then, you’ve already spent thousands of pounds and just end up being up-sold to the more expensive service which does include link-building. So what’s going on here?

The quest to tie you in to a monthly contract

Some marketers will do all they can to subscribe you to monthly services and will tailor what they have on offer to suit your budget. Once they have you, then they have more opportunity to sell additional services at a later date. The problem here is that they are not transparent about what they aren’t delivering and the “links” example above is a classic illustration. The marketer knows that most dentists and practice managers will have heard that SEO is important, but they also know that few of them will understand the relative importance of the various disciplines involved. Link building is hard work and time consuming; hence why marketing companies will try to avoid it.

So by describing their “cheaper” packages as SEO, even where they are just very basic website maintenance packages, they “hook” the unsuspecting client into subscribing for something that isn’t actually what it purports to be. As time progresses, the marketer then up-sells the client to the next level package and so forth. Their primary objective is to get you to subscribe to something, even if it’s the low level package to begin with. Once you’re in, it can be very difficult to get back out again, particularly if the company designed your website using some form of convoluted system which isn’t portable.

What are your options?

Armed with this knowledge, you can drill into the detail of you monthly web support package and try to determine what it really means. Are you getting what you think you’re getting or not? Does your “SEO” really means SEO or is the critical factor, link-building, missing? Are other important elements missing too?

Rather than subscribe to a pre-configured package which is designed to hook you in and then up-sell you, why not consider a fully transparent service which is tailored to your specific needs and details exactly what will be delivered? Then make sure to get a detailed monthly report which shows how the campaign has performed and exactly how many new patient enquiries were delivered. There’s little point in getting a £95 per month “SEO” package which really only guarantees you a few quick page updates and an automated report from Google Analytics. This isn’t SEO at all, at least not that will make much difference to your Google positions; even if that’s what you were told or were hoping.

Summary

Given that it is now accepted that the key factor for moving the Google ranking needle is good quality back-links from third party websites to your own, it’s well worthwhile checking your monthly marketing package to see if this activity is being performed or not. If it isn’t, then your “SEO” package isn’t really SEO at all. Whilst your marketing company may be doing small changes to your website pages under the guise of optimisation, this really isn’t enough to move the ranking needle, particularly if you have a lot of local competitors. Chances are you’ll be seeing this in less than stellar search positions too.

When making the choice of web design and marketing partner, please look closely into the detail of what you are being offered. More often than not, the “package” you got cajoled into isn’t delivering anything like what you though it was. Instead, you may wish to consider a marketing service tailored to you specific needs with full transparency and deliverables?

Perhaps you are confused about what you are subscribed to already and if it’s delivering value or not? If so, please call the team at Dental Media for more information and a free audit on 01332 672548 or click the free audit tab at the head of the article.