Do You Need SEO For Your Dental Practice Website?
How much is prominence in Google rankings really worth?
Whilst most dentists have a good idea that good search positions are beneficial, you might be surprised to know that it is relatively few who really know the true worth. This probably explains why less than 15% of all dentists’ websites have active SEO in place. Less than a third of these have what I would rate as effective SEO, but more of that later.
In today’s blog we’ll take a closer look at one of the most popular questions I’m asked as an SEO specialist “does my website need SEO?” – the answer is “very probably yes” as you’ll see when you read on. Let’s start with some basics….
What is search engine optimisation (SEO)?
SEO is a process whereby the position of a web page is improved progressively in search engines. For the sake of this discussion, we’ll refer to Google as this is the engine where over 80% of all search queries are directed in the UK. So it makes sense that our activities to boost dental website rankings are primarily focused on Google.
Some people get confused and think it is a website that is actually ranked by Google, but it’s actually a page within that website. So you can have a situation where, for example, the implants page ranks very well but the Invisalign page not so well. In this case the dentist may request a specific SEO campaign to improve searches around the word Invisalign to promote that particular page or pages. More generally though, a good SEO campaign will target a wide range of search terms to promote a range of website pages.
How is SEO carried out?
This is a huge topic in itself but as an overview, optimisation is in two main parts as follows:
- On-site optimisation – this is all about making sure that the website is structured to be as receptive as possible for the algorithms that make up Google’s search engine. This ranges from excellent technical configuration to the inclusion of great content which answers users’ queries better than competitor websites. On-site SEO is becoming increasingly important and poor technical configuration can no longer be easily overcome with good off-site SEO.
- Off-site optimisation – these are the activities which create signals around a website which Google picks up on and uses as votes of confidence when deciding where a website should rank. When it comes to off-site SEO, good back-links, reviews and citations all make a big difference to where a website ranks.
An optimisation team will employ all of the techniques mentioned above to progressively improve the prominence of a website in the free listings Google. Although we don’t tend to refer to other engines much in the UK, if a website does well in Google, it will often do well in other engines such as Bing too.
Why is dental website SEO so important?
This is all about getting the right sort of traffic and in the right quantities to your website. After word-of-mouth referrals, organic searches in Google still deliver more enquiries than any other mechanism or channel, beating paid ads and typically much more cost-effectively too.
The top 3 positions in Google are crucial; along with prominence in the map/local results that also appear on page one of searches. Indeed recent data suggest that nearly 76% of all clicks through to websites go via the top 3 search positions. It makes sense then that getting your website pages into the top 3 places for a variety of key searches has to be a priority. Thereafter, competition is typically quite significant and reaching the ultimate objective of position 1, can take a long time to achieve.
However, what is clear is that patients are shopping around for more expensive treatments and so if you are in the top 3 places, then you are “in the mix” and well placed to receive an enquiry.
What payback can I expect from SEO and how long does it take?
It can take several months to gain momentum with website optimisation, particularly where competition is significant. Getting to the top positions can take a year or more and so patience is required – remember that it’s not just you carrying out SEO as you ascend page 1 of the search results, those around you are too.
Typical SEO campaigns cost anything from around £300 to £800 but in areas of very strong competition this can easily extend above £1k. The payback however is excellent and as a rule of thumb, using the “lifetime value of a patient” model, a spend of £400 per month is easily covered by 4 or 5 new patient bookings. Where the treatments booked are more lucrative e.g. ortho or implants, then that payback is even better.
As we’ve mentioned elsewhere in this blog dentists in the UK often look at the spend without scrutinising the returns on that spend. They then decide not to proceed unfortunately, and in doing so, quickly start to lose out in the race to rank well in Google. The longer the procrastination, the more catch-up has to be done.
Why does SEO have a poor reputation?
I mentioned at the start of this blog that of the 15% of dentists websites which receive SEO, less than 5% is any good. The truth is that a lot of marketing companies sell SEO services but either do it badly or actually don’t do anything at all – yes nothing at all! It’s usually a number of months, sometimes years, before the dentist realises and moves on, often hopping from one bad agency to the next.
Another important thing to note is that many agencies will tend to overcharge if they feel they can get away with it – for example on popular dental agency in the UK prices from around £800 per month and still delivers demonstrably poor value with minimal transparency.
Sadly this is one of the main reasons why SEO gets a bad reputation and only the select few land on a reputable supplier and gains the success they expect. This shouldn’t put you off though – it’s just a case of doing some very thorough due diligence before you step in.
Summary
Hopefully I’ve demonstrated why, in most cases, SEO for a dental website is very important and a key component in the competition to attract new dental patient enquiries. Patience is required but the payback can be huge when you get it right. However, you need to take care as the pathway is potentially rocky and choosing the right agency that won’t rip you off is essential.
If you would like to discuss website optimisation in more detail and see how the team at Dental Media can bring their experience to promoting your practice website, please get in touch on 01332 672548 for a personalised evaluation.