How to improve organic (free) traffic to your dental website
Optimising free traffic channels for new patient enquiries.
There are numerous ways to increase the volume of traffic to your practice website which fall into two main categories – free and paid. The paid traffic originates from advertising on social channels such as Facebook or via the Google AdWords system, whereas free traffic comes from sources such as free clicks on Google results or from clicks on links on third-party websites.
In this blog we will take a quick look at optimising organic search traffic, i.e. the traffic which originates directly from clicks on search engine results; in the UK primarily from Google.
Why is organic traffic so important?
First off, it’s free! So good organic search results mean that you receive a lot of website visits without having to pay for it. Consequently increasing organic traffic is the primary goal of any SEO campaign and should also be a priority target for any dental business owner who is serious about acquiring new patients from the web. Although pay-per-click is very useful for certain circumstances, the mid to long term goal should always be to develop prominent and sustainable positions in the organic search results. So how can we do this?
Optimise your website content
A website is certainly not fire and forget and to rank well in Google you need to optimise it periodically. Firstly you need to define your target audience and then understand how those “personas” look for products and services in search engines. Ideally you should spend time with your marketing partner to define “buyer personas” which will from the basis for targeting your marketing systems. This research also needs to be built into your website when selecting the right type of content and how it is optimised for the user and for search engines – for example, if your primary target is dental implants for older people with suitable disposable income, then that type of content needs to be generated and added to the site. It also needs to be refined periodically based on usage data from tools such as Google Analytics.
Encourage links back to your website from elsewhere
Links really do count when it comes to improving your search rankings and gaining new traffic – but they must be good quality. If you see an opportunity to gain a link from a dental supplier’s website for example, it’s well worth grabbing.
Seek out reviews and citations
This is essential to help penetrate the “local” search results in Google i.e. the three results that appear on page one accompanied by additional business data. A citation isn’t necessarily a link but it is a mention of your business on bona fide local websites which Google picks up and aggregates. Lots of mentions such as this help establish your business credibility and prompt Google to include you in local search results. To help this, you should also actively seek business reviews – another proven way of showing your worth to Google. Take a look elsewhere in our blog to find ethical ways to gain reviews whilst staying within Google’s guidelines.
Create good quality content
Simply put, if you create good quality content, Google will find it and include it in the search index. So for example if you blog regularly and use “long tail” keywords in a carefully defined and targeted article, then this is a great way to pick up additional organic traffic.
Promote your content
Don’t simply sit back when you generated new content; you need to broadcast it too. So blow your own trumpet a little and link to your work from social media channels, LinkedIn, high-quality reference sites and the like. Make sure you don’t spam anyone though, as your users (and Google!) won’t like you and will distance themselves.
Measure the effect
By this I mean use data effectively to analyse your performance and to improve. Google Analytics is a free package which will provide all sorts of information about your website including the sources of your traffic. It’s easy to implement and quite simple to assess the main data.
Summary
Whilst you can pay to drive traffic to your dental practice website, the best mid/long term strategy is to develop a solid and sustainable organic presence in the search results. So as well as any pay-per-click your are running, it pays to allocate a sensible budget to an organic SEO campaign designed to do just that and incorporating the techniques noted above.
Need help and guidance? Please get in touch with the Dental Media search engine optimisation team on 01332 672548 for unbiased advice.