When Should You Begin Search Engine Optimisation For A Dental Website?

So you want prominence in Google but don’t know how or when to start?

Most people would agree that getting your dental practice website prominent in Google is important but just how important is perhaps less-well understood. To help understand a little better, let’s take a quick look at typical visitor statistics for websites in different positions on page one of the Google search index:

• Position 1 – 32% of traffic
• Position 2 – 24% of traffic
• Position 3 – 18% of traffic
• Position 10 (traditionally bottom pf page one) – 2.5% of traffic

Traffic drops away progressively as you fall below half way and then peters out to very little at all as you move on to page 2 of the search results. You’ve probably heard that it’s pretty pointless having a website on page 2 of Google and it’s not wrong – languishing back there means that very few folk are going to find you from a Google search unfortunately.

Of course there are other ways to get traffic to your website but most of the viable alternatives to a “traditional” Google search involve paying – either ads on Google, social media or both.

Hopefully the data above serves to illustrate just how important good search rankings are for any business, not just dentists. We also know from our SEO work with lots of dental clients, that their fortunes in terms of new patient acquisition improve hugely as their websites climb up page one. Similarly we see the opposite effect when clients gain prominence but then decide that the “job is done”, stop their SEO and slide back down the rankings.

Suffice to say then, that prominent search ranking positions are extremely important indeed.

When should a dentist start SEO for their website?

The correct answer is as soon as the new website has established a foot-hold in Google and all pages have been crawled and indexed – this is the process whereby your website is found, evaluated by Google and then included in the search results. We usually recommend that you wait several weeks following the launch of the new website in order to see how it fares. Sometimes a website can do quite well quite quickly, particularly where there is limited competition. It’s also important to evaluate the starting position as this will indicate, at least to some degree, the scope of the SEO work required.

At this point it’s important to raise a word of concern about website designers and marketing agencies who sell “bolt on” SEO packages irrespective of the extent of optimisation work a website actually needs. All circumstances are unique and will depend on the strength of the competition and the targets of the website owner, amongst other factors. So it makes sense that the SEO project is bespoke and tailored to those particular circumstances. The bottom line here is that you must not fall for the “bronze”, “silver” or “gold” SEO packages that a provider might try to sell you. That just isn’t serious optimisation work unfortunately and indicates that insufficient evaluation work has been done.

Why start dental SEO early?

This is a conversation I regularly have with clients and the reasoning behind beginning early is quite straightforward. When you launch your new dental website, almost certainly you will be competing against others in the area, some of them who will already have been carrying out some level of optimisation for some time. Typically this tends to be the top four or five websites in Google search and more often than not, the higher they are placed, the stronger their optimisation actually is.

Simply put, a new website has some catching up to do and even with a well-structured and competent campaign in place, it can take months to start competing. As a general rule, we try to move our clients to page one within the first few months and then progressively up the page of results over the following year. Of course the competition in the area together with the search terms targeted will have a large bearing on how quickly the process progresses. Also keep in mind that web savvy dentists tend to keep an eye on their search rankings and if they see a new player moving up, they’ll also step up their own game. They know all too well just how important those prominent search results actually are.

The bottom line here is that the later you start, the more catch-up you will need to do. Of course you also need to factor in the new patient enquiries you will have missed out on simply because they didn’t find you when searching for a new dentist or treatment in Google.

How does a dentist get started with SEO?

A few do’s and don’ts to help you get started:

• Do look for a trusted SEO practitioner with a good track record
• Do make sure that they have experience with dental SEO – not all SEO is the same
• Do make sure they have a demonstrable track record with dentists
• Do be realistic about fees – competent SEO is not easy and takes time to do well
• Do get a second opinion if you are unsure – there is an awful lot of BS spoken in the world of SEO
• Do ensure that you get a transparent monthly report
• Do focus on website traffic and enquiries as the key indicators of success

• Do not think that the most expensive provider is the best. Some of the most expensive SEO providers in the dental world are actually very poor
• Do not fall for “quick win” promises
• Do not offshore the work – there are very few good offshore teams and cheap usually equals bad
• Do no try to do it yourself unless you have a lot of time to learn and to implement
• Do not get tied into long-term contracts – for examples we specify 4 months
• Do not stick to the same supplier if they fail to deliver
• Do not fall for automated BS SEO audit reports that companies use to bamboozle the uninitiated – a lot of it is meaningless and doesn’t evaluate what Google actually does
• Do not buy SEO services based on keywords – it’s far more about increasing traffic and conversions (enquiries) not whether a low search volume keyword is ranked top

We also recommend trying to learn the basics if at all possible, at least to get an overview. That way you can discuss strategy with your provider and have a basic understanding of what is being targeted.

Summary

A website with prominent search rankings is a huge asset for a dentist and will typically deliver high-quality enquiries at lower cost than ads. This really us the cornerstone of your promotional activities and something you can build on using other channels e.g. ads, social media etc.

Website prominence in Google rarely happens without search engine optimisation and the sooner you begin, the sooner those prominent results (and patient enquiries) will materialise. It’s easy to procrastinate and hope that new patients will find you anyway, but that’s often not the case. So please keep a place in your budgets for your website and SEO to ensure it gets found.

If you’d like to know more about search engine optimisation for dental websites, please call the team at Dental Media for a no-obligation discussion on 01332 672548.