SEO for Orthodontists

What are the Benefits of SEO for Orthodontists?

The primary benefit, and the reason why savvy business owners are investing in SEO, is that it gives you the ability to improve your search rankings. While SEO can be used for any search engine, the primary focus is Google and this is the search engine most commonly used by consumers. In fact, nearly four billion people use Google every day! This is especially impressive considering there are roughly 4.39 billion internet users total. With a market share of 90%, it's no surprise that most SEO strategies focus on Google—rather than its competitors like Yahoo or Bing.

It's no secret that the higher you rank, the more clicks your content will receive. This is because most consumers consider the top three links to be the most related to their search, and the most trustworthy. In fact, Google's first page captures 71% of all organic traffic!

Quite literally, it pays to rank on Google's first page. But without SEO, in such a competitive market, it's almost impossible for potential clients to find you. In this digital world, you need an online presence for patients to discover your orthodontic services. Here are a few additional reasons why search engine rankings, and subsequently search engine optimization, should matter to your business:

SEO Costs Less Than Other Methods

SEO services aren't free, but they are significantly more cost-effective than paid advertisements—which is the usual advice digital marketing agencies (who aren't SEO experts) give to their clients. The whole point of SEO is to get your content ranking organically, compared to PPC ads (pay-per-click) that can cost thousands of dollars. Additionally, since more traffic comes into high ranking sites, you will generate more leads with less ad spend. This is a win-win situation all around!

You'll Get More Visitors to Your Site

Like we mentioned above, the vast majority of clicks go to organically ranking content on Google's first page. Once you've achieved that top spot, the more visitors it will attract. Not only does more site visitors mean that you'll have higher conversions and gain prospective patients, but it also creates a positive feedback loop.

Google ranks content that is authoritative, trustworthy and well written. However, clicks and backlinks (more on that later) also contribute to "telling" Google your content is good enough to rank. Since the first page gets more clicks, once you've landed there it will be easier to stay.

SEO Enables You to Target Ideal Customer

Keyword research is as much an art as it is a science. Perhaps you've dipped your toe into SEO,  and have tried to integrate keywords like "orthodontic patients" or "braces" in the hopes of starting to rank. This is a great starting place, but these keywords are likely to be highly competitive, meaning it will be much harder for you to make a splash online.

Instead, it's better to focus on local SEO. This technique uses geo-targeted keywords to help your content appear in front of clients that are in your city—or even your specific community. They can also help you expand to neighborhoods where you might not be ranking very highly. Examples of local SEO include "orthodontist in [CITY]" or "braces near me." Search terms like these are less competitive, so they're usually easier to rank for.

Why Choose Digital Shift?

Since 2007, our SEO agency has helped business owners across North America find the growth they need to have business success. Our SEO experts know everything there is to know about the search engine algorithms, and we will create unique SEO strategies for your business that will help you increase your patient intake and ultimately increase revenue.

We've spent years honing our methods, and are continuously staying up-to-date on Google's Terms and Services. Our team also monitors algorithm updates, so we can keep providing an efficient and effective SEO for orthodontists.

What You Gain By Partnering With Digital Shift:

Access to a wide range of digital marketing services designed to build your brand.

• Content that gets you ranking on Google's first page.
• A team of marketing professionals that focus on building long-term relationships with our clients.
• Transparency in everything we do. You'll have 24/7 access to our client portals, so you can be as little or as highly involved as suits your needs.
• Month-to-month contracts, so you can change your plan at any time.

For proof of our outstanding digital marketing services, take a look at our client case studies. We're proud to say the difference we've made for business owners across North America has been significant!

SEO Tips for Orthodontists

To get your orthodontics practice on the map (literally in the case of Google Maps), there are a number of steps you can take. If implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy seems like something you don't have the time for—or you want to skip the learning curve and hire the pros to do it for you—give us a call to claim your free consultation today.

In the meantime, incorporate the following tips into your marketing efforts as soon as possible to connect with your target audience, reach more potential customers and boost your bottom line.

Start an Orthodontic Blog

If you've been looking into SEO for orthodontists, you've likely heard the advice to start a blog. All too often at Digital Shift, we have clients who start a blog with no direction because they think their business just needs to put more content out there to be noticed by Google. While this is true to an extent—more content usually is better—it's not enough to simply have a blog. You must have a content marketing strategy that is focused on using relevant search terms to communicate to Google that your content is worthwhile to rank. It's also imperative that you write high-quality content that's actually useful to consumers. Google is smart, and poorly written, short, boring content is just not going to make the cut.

Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

A properly outfitted Google My Business listing is key to your SEO campaign's success. Why? Because it shows Google that your business is legit, and helps you rank organically on Google Maps. This means that when potential patients are looking for an orthodontist, they're more likely to stumble across your site.

Also, Google My Business is a key tool for improving your orthodontist practice's reputation. Patient reviews are critical to persuading new patients to join your practice. You should be replying to both positive reviews and negative reviews. This illustrates your dedication to your patients, and shows you're willing to make amends if someone has a less than favorable experience.

Embrace Social Media

For industries that are focused on working with people, such as the dental and medical fields, it's really important to build a community on social media. Your social media account can help provide valuable information to your prospects, give patients a chance to get to know your staff better, and ultimately build brand authority.

Social media can also be a useful way to generate leads, or develop a paid ads strategy. In fact, Facebook ads have the capacity to be highly targeted—which not only helps get your orthodontic practice in front of a cold audience, but is also useful for retargeting.

Start a Link Building Campaign

The internal link structure on your website's blog posts is very important. But so are backlinks. Essentially, back links are links to your content that are placed on a different site. A local link building campaign is a way of illustrating to Google that your content is trustworthy, and it helps increase your search rankings. Generally, back links take the form of guest blog posts or resource lists.

Improve User Experience on Your Website

User navigation is key for converting leads—no one will waste their time trying to navigate an illogical or slow site. Also, Google prefers it when sites are easy to use and have quick load times. It's worthwhile to analyze your site and see if it could be re-organized to provide a better user experience.

Choose Our Expert Marketing Agency

We hope these SEO tips for orthodontists help you feel inspired to kick your marketing efforts up a notch. However, if you're ready to take your SEO strategy seriously, give our digital marketing experts a call today. We'll set you up with a free consultation that will ascertain your pain points and provide comprehensive solutions to your marketing problems.

Book a consultation online, or give us a call at (888) 380-2260 to get started today!