7 steps to perfect search engine optimization for dentists

Everyone has to go to the dentist at some point. In the past, you simply went to the local dentist or to the one your own parents always visited. But today people search the Internet not only for restaurants or clubs, but also for doctors.

And that is exactly why, as a dentist, you must ensure that you are at the top of Google when searching for dentists. Because most people don't look any further than the first page of a Google search.

In doing so, you must use search engine optimization for yourself. However, since this is a very extensive field of online marketing, in this article we will show you in 7 simple steps how to perfect your search engine optimization.

Step 1: Find and set keywords

The first thing you need to do is determine which keywords or search terms should find you and your practice. Keywords are words or short phrases that are searched for on Google. The more precisely you determine which of these keywords you want to be found for, the better potential patients can reach your website. Since the algorithm that Google uses for keyword searches is already very sophisticated, you can modify your search terms, for example with synonyms. Because once you've defined your keywords, you should make sure to use these terms as much as possible on your website. The use of synonyms is very helpful so that you do not use the same word all the time.

When choosing your keywords, there are a few criteria that you need to consider. First of all, you must narrow down the terms sufficiently. For example, if you use the keyword “dentist”, then you will be found in all searches that contain the word “dentist.” However, you only want to be found by people who really want to be treated by you. A keyword such as “dentist” together with the location where your practice is located, for example “dentist Munich”, would be better. This increases your chances of being found in searches for your chosen keyword.

In addition to narrowing down the search term, it is also relevant to check whether your selected keyword is actually being searched for. You should also consider how strong the competition is for a particular search term. To test these two values, you can use the free tool Ubersuggest use. With Ubersuggest, you can simply enter your keyword and immediately see the search volume and SEO difficulty of the term. Although the search volume is extremely relevant to see whether the chosen term is actually being searched for, keywords with a high search volume usually also have the greatest SEO difficulty, i.e. the most competition. The more specific the keyword is, the less competition you have. But as the specification increases, the search volume also decreases, because general terms are searched for more frequently. Based on these values, you can approach the perfect search term and thus find the optimal keyword.

Step 2: Structure of texts on the homepage

After you've set the right keywords for your company, you need to incorporate these keywords into the texts on your homepage.

When designing these texts, there are two key points that must be considered. These points are, on the one hand, the content of the texts and, on the other hand, the structure.
Because the algorithm that Google uses to evaluate texts is extremely advanced today. For this reason, the content of website texts must meet various criteria so that Google finds it relevant and appears on the front pages of search results. First, the texts must be of a certain length. A text length of 800 to 1500 words is a normal length and is rated mediocre by Google. Starting at 1500 words, the length of the text can help improve the website's ranking. A text that is shorter than 800 words is rated worse by Google because it cannot be of use to the reader.
In addition to the length, the text must also match the selected keyword in terms of content. This is because Google not only searches for the frequency of the keyword, but also assesses how the context fits the keyword. That is why the keyword must of course be incorporated into the text and not just appear in the text as often as possible in an artificial way.

In addition to the content of the text, the Google algorithm also examines the structure of the texts on a website. This structure must first contain relevant subheadings so that the reader can immediately recognize which content is covered in which sections. These subheadings must also follow a logical hierarchy across the board. This means that the order of the headlines is planned in such a way that a potential customer can follow the information and answer all their questions in turn.

If you structure your texts according to these tips in terms of content and structure, this can significantly improve your ranking in search results and you can reach many new patients.

Step 3: Provide metadata

Metadata is information about media such as images or videos that are not visible in the foreground of the website. They provide more information about the image or video. For example, if an Internet browser is unable to display an image, which may have various external reasons, then the alternative text is displayed instead, which should describe what is on the image.

However, the metadata relates not only to media on the website, but also to the description of the page that appears in search results. This description is called a snippet. Snippets are decisive for whether a searcher comes to yours or not. Because if this description does not provide enough information in terms of content, then no one will click on your search result. A very important and relatively unknown fact about snippets is that emojis can also be used in them. By using emojis, you can attract more attention to your search results and thus more traffic to your website. Here you can find a List of emojis, which can be used in the snippet. If you have set up your website via WordPress, you can use the free plugin to edit the snippet YoastSEO use.

Step 4: Optimize page speed

Why optimize speed? On the one hand, you should think about the visitors to your site. Because a slow-loading site is frustrating to use and is therefore visited less frequently. In addition, search engines also rate the speed of websites when creating search results. And pages that are too slow are placed worse. Therefore, you should also keep an eye on page speed when SEO optimizing your website.

To optimize speed, there are two very easy options that anyone can use. The first option is to edit the images that you use on your homepage. This is because the size of the images has a strong influence on how fast a page loads. You should therefore ensure that your images do not exceed a certain size and resolution. Because an image size of between 800 and 1600 pixels in width is sufficient for any website and the resolution should not exceed 96 dpi. If you have access to Photoshop, you can edit and adjust this key data very easily.

The second way to improve page speed is to use videos correctly if you're using videos on your homepage. This is because videos have a very large file size and extremely affect the loading of the page. It is therefore recommended not to embed videos directly on the website, but to embed the videos instead. This is because embedding links the video from another page and only displays it on your site, meaning that the page speed of your website is not affected by the video. You can get this embed from Youtube or another video platform, for example, if you upload your video there beforehand.

If you optimize your website using these two options, this can significantly improve your standing in search results and also significantly increase the satisfaction of site visitors. This is already a big step forward towards optimal search engine optimization as a dentist.

Step 5: Collect reviews

The relevance of online reviews can no longer be overlooked. Most consumers use the Internet to find out about the opinions and experiences of others before they buy something or use a service. According to one Study by Jameda 65% of patients search for doctors on doctor review portals. As a result, these portals even exceed the relevance of friends and family.

The most important of these portals are Google and Jameda. Google is known to offer the opportunity to rate all sorts of businesses and even medical practices. Jameda, on the other hand, specializes in doctor reviews.

There are many different ways for doctors to get their own patients to submit an evaluation. For example, you could personally point this out to each patient during or after treatment or distribute flyers and posters in the practice.

However, there is a much easier and more effective way to get more reviews. Namely collecting reviews with the WLAN marketing package from Socialwave. Because this not only allows you to offer your patients free WiFi in your practice, but you also have the opportunity to significantly improve your assessment management. You can collect your patients' email addresses and inform them regularly about them and also remind them to submit a review. To get a better idea of the features of the WLAN Marketing package, you can watch our explanatory video.

Reviews are also part of the search engine optimization that you can carry out as a dentist. The better you are rated, the higher you are shown in the search.

Step 6: Customizing content for mobile

After you've created your site and optimized all content, it's time to adapt all content for all devices. Because today, more than half of all Internet users use a mobile device. For this reason, adapting for mobile devices is essential for your search engine optimization. Search engines also check whether your site is adapted for mobile devices and rate your site according to this criterion for ranking in search results.

In order to adapt your site for mobile devices, you must consider various points that can visually or technically affect mobile pages. First, the texts on your page must not be divided into too long paragraphs, as you will then have a wall of text in front of you on a smartphone, for example. You also need to make sure that the buttons you use on your homepage are the right size for mobile sites. Otherwise, it may happen that the button is too big on mobile devices and the page doesn't look good.
The navigation of your site must also be adapted for mobile. This means that navigation can be used on a touchscreen.

In order to comply with all of these criteria at the same time and to make customization for mobile devices as easy as possible, you can automatically adapt content management systems such as wordpress use. Because WordPress offers the option to automatically optimize your website for all devices. This feature is called responsive design. As a result, the page automatically adapts to the user's device and scales all content to the right size.

Step 7: Monitoring

The last step towards perfect search engine optimization as a dentist is monitoring your site. This means that you regularly check the performance of your homepage and adjust content over and over again to improve this performance.

The reason for the need for monitoring is that search engine optimization is a lengthy process. After you have taken all steps to optimize SEO, it sometimes takes a few months before you can see the results of this process. To analyze these results, you can, for example, Google Analytics use.

So if you've got the first results from search engine optimization and you may see that the performance hasn't improved or even worsened, then you should repeat the steps from this post. Adjust your page's keywords again and look for new keywords. In addition, you must repeatedly revise and adapt the content of the homepage.

conclusion

As a dentist, if you want to optimize your website for search engines, then you should follow the seven steps that we have explained to you in this article. After completing all of these steps, you should be able to observe positive results.

However, despite positive developments on your homepage and in search engines, you shouldn't stop optimizing your site. Because search engine optimization is a lengthy and continuous process that should be carried out consistently.

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