Why bother with search engine optimisation (SEO)?
Being on the first page of Google search in your local area is one of the key ways of getting people to your website. If no one visits your site then it doesn’t matter how pretty it is or how much functionality is on it, the whole exercise has become pointless.
So are you looking for more visitors to your website? Are you able to see the direct link between visitors to your site and new patients in the chair?
What exactly is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is the process by which we rise through the Google search results, hopefully to position one so that your website is found when someone types into the Google search box.
How does SEO work?
In days and years gone by optimising a website was fairly easy to outsource, all you needed to do was find an optimisation company, pay them enough money and you would be number one on Google. The principal way that this was done was by creating back links, these are essentially links on other websites which direct back to your site. This is a typical link – and this typical link is seen by Google as a vote for your website – after all, if people are putting links on other websites back to you, you must be important right?
Links equals votes equals more visitors equals more patients in the practice.
In recent years Google has recognised that companies which offer optimisation services have been simply placing thousands of links around the Internet, all pointing to their clients’ websites and so Google have looked for other indicators on whether these links should be counted as a vote or not.
The best way, in my opinion, to optimise a website is to treat Google like a human being. Forget trying to beat the system, just think of them as human and ask yourself some simple questions about your website. If you wanted to work out a way of ranking websites to show which were the most popular what would you do?
How to know if a site is great
Here’s my logical top list of things that would indicate that a website is good.
- People stay on the site for a long time. If they do this then it must be good?
- People look at lots of pages. This must mean that content is good and people want to read it.
- People don’t bounce back to Google after doing a search and clicking on a link, if they stay on a website then it must have answered that question?
- Visitors to the website share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google plus.
How to write engaging content
- Why should they bother replacing missing teeth?
- Why should they bother straightening crooked teeth?
- Why should they bother looking after the teeth at all?
- What our dental implants?
- What type of orthodontics do you offer and what are they?
- How do dental implants work?
- How is treatment for orthodontics delivered?
The final ‘what if’ section is extremely important and starts the process of the patient imagining themselves going ahead with treatment. You need to ensure that you include some strong calls to action in this section and suggest that the patient call you or book an appointment.
So how does all this help with SEO?
Think about it. If you write your content in this way, people will like it, they will read it, they will engage with it, they will stay on the page longer, they will click on additional links visiting other pages of your website and they will not bounce back straight to Google after completing their search.
Google will see that people like your website, and if people like your website Google will rank you higher.
A further challenge to you is to think about what else you can do on your website which would get people to stay on longer? Start thinking images, videos, questionnaires and other engaging things for people to do.
What if your website ranked higher?
So finally, what difference would it make to you if your website ranked higher? If you got more people to your website and then got more people to engage with you and convert what impact will it have on your practice?
The reality is that a dental practice doesn’t need a huge amount of traffic to their site, they just need the traffic that is visiting the site to be high quality and convert.
“Mark and his SEO company have added incredible value to our clients’ websites. I would personally recommend Mark Oborn Ltd to anyone looking to improve their web presence.”
Iain Forster, Managing Director, DIO Corporation
If you want to learn more about search engine optimisation I have a free guide on my website, if you aren’t already subscribed simply enter your details to the right now for immediate access, it contains more insights and ideas on how you can begin optimising your website.
As more and more people turn to the Internet to find out any information that they want, it is becoming more and more important to ensure that your website ranks highly, so get writing, get engaging and start building!
