On the surface, marketing for dentists seems kind of dry. After all, you cannot run patient-driving advertisements like many businesses, like a car dealership for example.

“For a limited time only, we’ll extract three teeth, with the fourth one free,” or “Five cavities filled, with a free cleaning thrown in to save you money.”

The best dental office marketing strategy is to leverage local SEO for dentists to attract patients that need a dentist and take the initiative to find one through a Google search.

Building a website allows your dental practice to reach your local market. However, if you practice dentistry in Baltimore, Maryland, you are not interested in attracting prospective patients in Dallas, Texas.

Your main goal would be to attract potential patients that require dental work in Baltimore, Maryland.

Effective local SEO for dentists can help your website and business listing rank high in the local searches performed by prospective patients that live in your area.

Let’s review seven local SEO strategies that can put your dental practice on the map, whether you clean teeth in Baltimore, Maryland or repair them in Dallas, Texas.

What is Local SEO?

Local search engine optimization (SEO) is the bridge between your dental practice and potential patients.

Running a locally-driven business such as a dental office requires building a website that attracts interest from residents. In other words, you want your dental office website to rank high in Google’s search engine for specific local searches that show intent and need for a dentist in your area.

For our Baltimore example, you want to rank high locally for certain keywords. A prospective patient who types in the search term “dentists in Chicago” is not going to have any interest in a dental practice located in Baltimore, Maryland – it’s just not geographically convenient.

Dental SEO is the way you build your dental practice by attracting new patients who take the initiative to search for a local dentist using Google.

Why Do You Need Local SEO for Dentists?

Marketing for dentists used to involve standard old-school strategies, including Yellow Page ads, newspaper ads, radio spots, local TV commercials, and billboards to grab the attention of potential patients. Now, you need to take your marketing effort online, and here’s why.

The Internet is the New Yellow Pages

Today, consumers turn to the internet, and Google, when looking for local dentists. Google has experienced a significant increase in the number of consumers that conduct “near me” searches like “dentists near me.” Consumers conduct nearly half of all Google searches for local businesses.

Here is one statistic your dental practice cannot ignore: Almost 80 percent of local mobile searches conclude with a consumer making a purchase. If your dental office isn’t found during that initial search the consumer is likely to visit a competitor.

Dental SEO Targets Potential Patients

Local SEO for dentists targets local potential patients. By including geo-targeted keywords in your website content, you rank your dental practice higher in Google’s search engine.

Local SEO for dentists also allows you to target specific members of your target audience. Perhaps you specialize in providing dental services for older adults or you have become well-known for completing the best implant procedure.

Dental marketing is all about targeting what you want for a patient base, and local SEO helps you achieve these marketing goals.

Patient Reviews Help Your Dental SEO

If consumers trust online reviews as much as a referral given by a friend or a family member, what does that say about the importance of local SEO for dentists? Google emphasizes positive online reviews to rank businesses in its Maps results.

The search engine giant does the same for dentists. Word of mouth remains one of the most effective marketing strategies. Today, word-of-mouth advertising consists of positive online reviews for a local business, including your dental practice.

Follow these seven local SEO practices, and your dental office should see an uptick in the number of visitors your website attracts and the number of new patients it generates.

1. Target the Correct Keywords

Keywords represent the needs and issues of prospective patients. Knowing the words they type into Google’s search engine goes a long way towards establishing a powerful local SEO strategy for your dental office.

Use the Keyword Planner tool found on the Google Ads platform to discover which search terms people use to find a dental practice and adjust them according to your specific location.

2. Google My Business Optimization

Google, the leading search engine, offers a free tool called Google My Business (GMB). Look at GMB as an affordable way to list your dental practice online. Complete an accurate dental office profile and you will get your practice noticed online when local consumers search terms such as “dentist near me” or “teeth cleaning near me.”

Makes sure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are the same across every platform where your dental practice is listed online. This consistency plays a role in your local rankings.

3. Create a Yelp Profile

If there is an online version of brother and sister, it would be the pairing of Google and Yelp. Dental SEO without Yelp is like an annual tooth cleaning without toothpaste. Both work together to deliver the results you desire.

According to Yelp, more than 85 percent of local businesses use the internet to find local businesses. Once they do, many of them turn to Yelp to learn more about what local businesses have to offer, as well as what customers have to say about the particular business.

Like Google My Business, completing an accurate Yelp profile can improve your search engine ranking.

4. Attract Google Reviews From Past Patients

As we mentioned, patient reviews matter for dental SEO. However, patient reviews left on your Google profile have the biggest SEO impact.

You have to encourage your patients to leave online reviews, whether it is a subtle reminder or a more obvious tactic like offering a discounted future cleaning – or a little gift bag containing a toothbrush and toothpaste.

5. Publish Educational Dental Content

Google’s algorithm for determining its search engine results has changed over the years. However, the one constant remains uploading content that helps consumers solve problems. Dentists that publish blogs have a marketing advantage over their competition that remains silent online.

Start a blog and watch your local SEO effort gain significant online traction. This will directly contribute to your website’s authority and its rankings in the organic search results.

6. Build High-Quality Links

Links that point to your website from authoritative sources are important for dental SEO, but so are links that take your visitors to other pages found on your website, which we refer to as interlinking.

A dental SEO expert can help you strategically add internal links that boost your search engine rankings on Google as well as map out a link building outreach campaign to help you secure inbound authority links.

7. Track Your Traffic & Analyze What It Does On Your Website

Google Analytics offers you several ways to monitor your dental SEO performance. You can discover not only how many visitors access your website, but also the characteristics of your online traffic once it’s on your site.

Google Analytics also shows you how often you convert prospective patients that eventually schedule a tooth cleaning appointment with you by utilizing conversion tracking. It’s also a good idea to monitor the sources of your traffic and identify where the most valuable referral traffic comes from.

If you notice one particular source is generating the best quality traffic you can adjust your marketing effort to pull more visitors from that source, effectively helping you to attract more patients to your dental office.

Final Thoughts

As a dental professional, you rely on the local market to grow revenue by attracting patients using a local SEO strategy designed to help your practice be found by consumers looking for a dentist near them.

The tips and information provided above can help you improve your visibility on Google and attract potential patients to your Google listing in the Maps results as well as your website content found in the traditional search results.

If you would like more information about our dental SEO services or to ask questions related to the above strategies, please contact us to set up an appointment to speak with our online marketing experts. We look forward to helping you achieve your business goals and driving more patients to your office through a variety of online marketing and advertising strategies.

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