It is accepted that promoting your dental website to a prominent position on page one of Google is the most important element of your dental marketing campaign. 60% of all new patient referrals come via websites and 65% of all Google searches for dental services go to the top three sites in the rankings.<\/p>\n
Up until April of 2012, it was reasonably straightforward to promote a site quickly to prominent positions – this involved seeding your pages with your preferred keywords in the correct positions and then building lots of back-links to those pages using targeted anchor text for the links.<\/p>\n
Back then, it was accepted that 40% of Google’s weighting for site position in the rankings came from “on-site” factors (how your pages are constructed) with the other 60% coming from “off-page” factors (links). Most SEO practitioners would also tell you that lots of links could overcome poor on-site work and that lots of low quality links would still achieve a result. Even those with limited SEO knowledge could make progress by methodically building lots of low quality links. Quantity really could outdo quality given time.<\/p>\n
SEO pre April 2012 = 40% on page factors + 60% off-page factors<\/strong><\/p>\n Google realised that the search results were being “gamed” by SEO companies who were using unsophisticated “mass” link-building to promote client’s websites to prominent positions. This meant that lots of low quality sites achieved prominence, contrary to Google’s objective of delivering the best and most relevant search results to their users.<\/p>\n To combat this, Google launched an unprecedented change to its ranking algorithm (known as the “Penguin” update) which targeted a range of over-optimisation tactics including over-zealous link-building. Virtually overnight, hundreds of thousands of sites, including prominent dental websites, were penalised and fell many pages in the Google rankings.<\/p>\n Since April, the search index has been in a state of flux but it is gradually becoming clear that Google is now looking at a completely restructured set of parameters when evaluating your website as follows:<\/p>\n We would never profess to have deconstructed the Google ranking algorithm but we are in the privileged position of managing hundreds of websites and with access to a lot of Google Analytics data. This data suggests that the following factors and weightings are important post the “Penguin” ranking update:<\/p>\n SEO now = 55% on-page factors + 25% off-page factors + 20% social signals<\/strong><\/p>\n Whilst it is unclear to what extent the last three factors are contributing, it is logical to expect that Google is taking note of them as an indication of the overall quality of a website. High bounce rate, low page views and low page dwell times could be indicative of a poor quality site. On-page factors are certainly much more important in the new Google landscape, particularly for factors like fresh content to boost the overall relevance and foot-print of a domain. For example we are seeing big wins for dental sites that blog regularly in conjunction with quality link building and an active dental social media presence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Link building is still a critical factor! However, the quality of the link is now more important than ever. It is extremely important to ensure that the links are themed, from good sources and exhibit a broad range of anchor text (the words that form the link). Poor links in abundance will be penalised as will too much “exact match” anchor text. Link targets across a website should also be broader (and hence more natural) than before.<\/p>\n Google is now starting to look at social signals as an indication of the relevance and quality of your website. So if you are active in Twitter, Facebook and Google+ and generating a flow of “likes” “shares” and “re-tweets” then this is a good signal that you have content worth sharing. Whilst there is no firm evidence (yet) that Google is using this in their ranking algorithm, qualitative data strongly suggests that those with an active social presence as part of their search marketing are winning out.<\/p>\n The only constant with SEO is change! To keep up with the latest innovations by Google, it is important to use a trusted and knowledgeable dental SEO partner<\/a>. If you’ve suffered as a result of the recent Google changes or feel you need a more professional search marketing campaign going forward, please call us on 01332 672548<\/strong> for free advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" *Significant* changes in SEO since April 2012 It is accepted that promoting your dental website to a prominent position on page one of Google is the most important element of your dental marketing campaign. 60% of all new patient referrals …<\/p>\nHow has SEO changed?<\/h3>\n
The important new ranking parameters<\/h3>\n
On-page factors:<\/h3>\n
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Off-page factors:<\/h3>\n
\u00a0Social signals:<\/h3>\n
Summary and important considerations for SEO in 2012<\/h3>\n
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