Google ranking positions or traffic?
What’s most important for your website?
Google ranking or website traffic volume and quality – what wins? The answer is it’s all important. However, what I’d like to address in this blog is the apparent fixation of some dentists purely on how they rank in Google. Whilst it is a solid objective to get to number one for key search terms, actually more important is to get *lots* of terms to prominent positions as this will typically lead to higher traffic volumes in the mid to long term.
So really your key metrics should be traffic levels (differentiated by source) and the conversions resulting from it. Of course it’s also sensible to keep an eye on where key terms are ranking as this is a great indicator of the overall SEO strategy success, but traffic and conversions should be the ‘go-to’ measures.
Let’s take a closer look….
This chart shows the typical search demand curve and the relative levels of traffic resulting from keyword searches. What we can see is that in terms of overall searches, the contribution from the “chunky middle” and “long tail” is significantly more than the “fat head” terms. So it’s a big mistake simply to focus on the obvious dental search terms whilst ignoring the longer tail.
The implications of a very narrow SEO campaign
The graph above illustrates that if you narrow your search campaign to the “top” terms, you actually miss out on the majority of the searches and traffic which results from the less obvious (but important) variants. This is quite eye-opening for the inexperienced.
As well as missing out on lots of traffic, you also end up in the most fiercely contested environment i.e. the keywords that everyone goes for because they don’t understand the value of mid and long-tail terms.
You can also find yourself “compartmentalised” by Google if your focus is too narrow. We have one design (not marketing) client who took their SEO campaign internally and concentrated purely on the phrase “cosmetic dentist”. All of their blogs, links, citations, on-page text etc etc was skewed to that particular phrase. They were actually successful in getting to number one in Google for that phrase, but unfortunately not much else. A few years down the track, the practice decided to target more general dental terms but were stuck in the huge “cosmetic” bucket where Google has categorised them.
Broaden your SEO activity
If you are to make sustained traffic progress and avoid compartmentalisation in search results, your SEO work needs a broad base. Make sure your website text is written carefully and includes contextually relevant phrases as well as your main keywords; use your blog to target additional information and “long tail” searches and ensure your off-site SEO works in unison to support this.
A broad SEO campaign may cost more to implement and manage than a very targeted one, but the results from wider search term penetration in Google and increased traffic can bring exceptional results.
Summary
Whilst there is a tendency for some people to be focused solely on where their favourite search terms rank in Google, it’s actually the quantity and quality of website traffic which are your most important metrics. The graph above shows just how much traffic you can miss out on if your SEO campaign is focused purely around the most popular search terms. Consequently you are much better off going for a balanced and broad strategy which targets a range of terms – the popular ones and the ‘long tail’.
If you’d like to discuss the best ways to improve the quantity and quality of traffic to you dental practice website, we’ll be pleased to help you develop and implement a strategy that works. Please call the Dental Media digital marketing team directly on 01332 672548 for a no-obligation discussion.