SEO For Dentists [An In-Depth Guide]

If you’re like most dentists, you’re always looking for ways to bring in more patients. And if you’re not already using local Dental SEO to market your practice, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.

In this in-depth guide, we’ll give you some tips on how to optimize your website for search engines and get more traffic from potential patients. 

So read on and start boosting your business today!

ProSites’ Dental SEO Guide:

• SEO For Dentists & Dental Practices [An In-Depth Guide] (➜ Currently Reading)
• Dental SEO Marketing Company [How to Hire the Best]
• Dental SEO vs PPC: How to Integrate Them for the Best Dental Marketing

In this article:

• Dental SEO Basics
• Why is Dental SEO Needed?
• Onsite SEO Best Practices for Dental Websites
• Offsite SEO Best Practices for Dental Websites
• Some Common Dental SEO Questions Answered

Dental SEO Basics

Search engine optimization (SEO) can be a powerful tool for generating leads to your dental practice. While the complexities of SEO may seem overwhelming, understanding the basics is essential for dentists who are looking to drive more patients and expand their online presence. 

SEO Dictionary for Dentists

Before you can do anything to improve your ranking, you have to understand some basic industry terms so you’ll know with certainty what to do. Here are some of the most important SEO terms you need to understand before you can help move your site up in the ranks.

• Google Algorithm: A very detailed and ever-changing set of rules and tests that search engines use to validate and verify how well optimized a site is for search.
  
  Sites with lots of click bait, bad links, duplicate content, irrelevant content or obvious black-hat techniques will not pass the algorithm’s tests.
  
  Algorithms really serve as stand-ins for the human user – to try to figure out what users want so the search engine can display the most relevant and authentic search results.
  
  Google updates their algorithm about 500-600 times per year. Our friend, Mary Haynes created a resource that tracks all the important changes over the years.
  
  
• White Hat/Black Hat: Just like in old cowboy movies, white hat local SEO techniques are the good, proper local SEO techniques that make a site well-suited to users who are likely to search for it.
  
  Conversely, black hat uses all kinds of tricks to fool the algorithm into giving a site a better ranking than it should. Google and other search engines are constantly finding ways to punish black hat techniques, so webmasters who think they’ve “won” the SEO game with black hats do so at their own risk.
  
  Black hat techniques don’t last, and they’re a terrible way to try to build an online reputation for a dental practice.
  
  
• Organic Traffic: Organic traffic is the amount of website visitors who come to your website as a result of an unpaid search result. You (or your dental SEO company) should take a look at your average organic website traffic month over month and then work to improve the number of visits.
  
  Google analytics is a free tool provided by Google. You can see all your traffic sources from the “All Traffic” report. If you need help setting up Google analytics on your website, you can read it here.
  
  If you have access to an alternative web stats provider, they should provide very similar reports. Just look for the “all traffic source” report.
  
  Once you have access to quality data, you can improve your website and increase qualified organic traffic to your website.

• Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The page of URLs that shows up after a user does a search on a search engine. Search engines use complicated algorithms for choosing what results to display, but they mainly focus on matching searchers with sites that provide the most helpful answers to their intended questions.
  
  The most basic SERP consists of Ads, a local 3-pack (if the intent of the search is local), & organic results (seen below). Other popular SERP features, depending on the intent of the search, may inclucde Featured Snippets, People Also Ask results, Video Carousels, and Knowledge Panels. There are of course many more.

• Local Listings (3-Pack): For searches with intent that Google deems to be local, Search engines results pages display 3 local businesses. The 3-pack shows the top closest & best ranked businesses that match the search.
  
  For dentists, building a local presence and being visible in the coveted Local 3-Pack is crucial for attracting new patients.
  

• Bounce Rate: The percentage of people who click on your site only to immediately hit the “back” button to return to the search engine. It’s an action that tells the search engine your site was not what they were looking for.
  
  Having a high bounce rate could indicate a poor user experience on your site, or unqualified traffic going to your website. If the intent of a page on your site is to move visitors onto a next step, like filling out a form, then your SEO efforts should work to decrease the bounce rate of that page over time.
  
• Keywords: Keywords are the individual words that make up a searcher’s query. When the same keywords or keyword phrases are used in the content of your website as the search query, search engine algorithms may potentially rank your site well for the given query.
  
  For general dentists, we recommend that you place the following industry keywords on your homepage:
  
  “dentist in [city], dental office in [city], and dental services in [city]”
  
  These are valuable keywords with commercial intent for a local dentist.
  
  
• Search Ranking Position: Most dentists think that by searching for their practice on a search engine, they can find out how well they rank. However, what most don’t know is that there will always be some degree of personalization applied to your search results.
  
  Therefore, you may actually see results that are skewed to what Google thinks you prefer based on your location, search history, and even IP address.
  
  The best way to get non-personalized results is through the Search Analytics dashboard via your Google Search Console account. This dashboard shows you the keywords that you are ranking for along with their average position on the page. Once you implement SEO, overtime you should see your positions move down to a lower number (e.g. position 6 to position 3) for the keywords that you are targeting.
  
  
• Click through Rate (CTR): Clickthrough rate is the number of clicks that your website gets divided by the number of times your website appears in search results. For example, if your website appeared in search results 100 times, and it was clicked 10, then your CTR would be 10%. Over time, your click-thru-rate should increase.
  
  
• Top Landing Pages: It’s also important to identify which web pages are attracting the most traffic to your website (known as a landing page).
  
  This information can help you determine if you’re attracting the right kind of visitors to your dental practice, and the information that people are most interested in.
  
  Being the most popular pages, your dental SEO provider should work to enhance these pages to turn more visitors into new patients.
  
  
• Crawlers/Robots/Spiders: Simple programs that surf the web by following hyperlinks on web pages. They make copies of what they find and then use their algorithms to index them for quick retrieval when someone enters a search in the search engine.
  
  
• Impressions: How many users see a page or ad – not the same as a click. It’s important because it’s the most commonly used technique for measuring and accounting for web advertising.
  
  
• Google Analytics (GA): An invaluable tool for understanding how visitors interact with your dental website. By providing information on the number of people who visit your site, click through which pages, and more – Google Analytics can help you determine what content resonates with your audience best, as well as provide other useful data points to inform decisions when it comes to marketing and business strategy.
  
  
• Google Search Console (GSC): It is a set of tools created by Google to help website owners understand how it crawls their content and provides insights into optimizing their site for better visibility in organic search engine results.
  
  With features such as an index status checker, keyword rankings tracking, URL inspection tool, internal link analysis, structured data testing and more -Google Search Console can provide you with crucial information about how well your site is performing on the web.

Why do SEO for Dentists?

As a dentist, having an online presence is essential for staying competitive. Without the reach of search engine optimization (SEO) you may be missing out on a large audience in your vicinity that is searching for specific dental work — whether it’s finding preventive care, fillings, root canals or more. 

SEO puts your practice at the top of local searches with organic results like articles and blogs. With this kind of approach to dental marketing not only will potential patients find and trust your services, but also enticing them to use them as well.Here is the ultimate SEO checklist for dentists that maximize online visibility.

How Does Dental SEO Marketing Help Patients Find You?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of marketing your website to highlight the services you provide, so prospective patients can easily find your website when performing an online search. 

An effective dental industry SEO strategy uses various online marketing methods to help improve your ranking on major search engines such as Yahoo!, Bing, and Google. Combined, these methods communicate with search engines, telling them that your website is relevant for particular search keywords.

SEO for dental practices isn’t just an easy way for new dental patients to find you online. Having an optimized website gives potential patients the opportunity to connect with your dental practice and learn more about the services they’re interested in. Optimization proves to search engines that you relate to a searcher’s needs, allowing the searcher (prospective patient) to believe you are a credible answer to their problem.

Here are some things your practice can do to begin the process of developing a good dental search engine optimization strategy.

Add relevant keywords

When it comes to dental practice optimization and boosting the number of potential customers, leveraging the appropriate dental keywords is essential. 

Long tail searches will help attract the right kind of prospective dental clients who may be looking for specific dental services such as teeth whitening or dental bridges. 

As a dental professional, adding relevant search terms withing your service pages can be a beneficial exercise that draws in more leads for your upcoming campaigns.

Optimize for local searches

One of the best ways to ensure your business is successful is by optimizing for local searches. Focus on geographic areas, cities, towns, and landmarks within your immediate vicinity. Adding these to your pages can be an essential part of your overall marketing strategy. 

By optimizing for local dental related keywords, you can increase your chances of properly targeting potential customers that are more inclined to become a loyal patron of your business.

Additionally, properly optimizing for local search can help you extend your reach beyond the geographic limitations of your immediate office location and provide extra visibility to potential customers who are looking in surrounding areas for the exact services you’re offering.

Create service specific content

Creating service specific content is an important marketing strategy for dental practices. 

By focusing on dental services such as dental implants, teeth cleaning, and teeth whitening, practices not only communicate their expertise directly to consumers in need of dental healthcare, but can stand out among the competition. 

Additionally, content related to dental exams and x-rays or treatments like a root canal can be used to help educate your potential customers by creating awareness and understanding around dental health and treatment options available. 

Crafting content around the services your practice offers not only helps potential customers make more informed decisions about their dental health needs but also increases overall visibility of your dental practice.

Start blogging

Starting a blog is an excellent way to build credibility in the dental care industry. You can use it to share informative dental care tips and become an established authority source on a variety of related topics. 

As well as helping you establish yourself as an expert in the field, blogging can also help you attract and retain readers who are interested in learning more about best practices for oral health. 

Blogging is also a great opportunity to build relationships with your readers through comments, content shares, and feedback.

Earn mentions & links

Earning links is a great way to boost your domain authority and increase your keyword rankings, as search engines will see your link from other reputable sites as a vote of confidence. 

Not only that, but earning links through helpful content also helps build trust with your readers. By respectfully linking out to industry leaders or top-tier resources, you showcase yourself as an expert in the area — all while creating more opportunities for backlinks in return. 

It’s not only important to add relevant link references, but to make sure they make sense within the context of what you’re discussing — no one likes a random off-topic link. 

In the end, if done correctly, earning links can be an effective way to boost website traffic and diversify how new users find you.

If you’re interested in learning more, get our FREE whitepaper: A Dentist’s Guide to Local SEO Search and How It’s Affecting Your Practice for more information and resources on what you can do to improve your rankings and online visibility to potential new patients today. 

Onsite SEO Best Practices for Dental Websites

While SEO marketing for dentists has changed quite a bit over the past 10 years, one thing has stayed relatively constant and important above all else. The entire point of SEO is to “optimize” your site to ensure it has the best possible search engine ranking. In the world of search engines, that means one thing: showing up on the first page of results. 

Most people never click over to the 2nd, let alone 3rd or 4th pages. Why would they when Google gives them five to ten compelling options on the first page?

In search, if you’re not on the first page, you might as well not exist. To be clear, optimizing your dental practice’s web presence IS THE ONLY WAY to get first-page ranking. And even if you’re not actively seeking new dental patients, you should still care about having a good ranking. That’s because your current patients frequently look for your practice with an online Google search.

The following sections cover some of the best practices to understand in order to optimize your website.

1. Establish a benchmark

Note where you’re currently at by pinpointing key analytics metrics such as keyword rankings, number of visitors to your site, conversions (visitors who fill out a form), and bounce rate. Utilize free analytics tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to better understand your dental website’s performance and measure improvements as you implement your dental website SEO strategy. 

2. Identify goals

Best dental search engine optimization practices dictate that your benchmark data should also be a window into where you’re doing well, and what areas you can improve upon. Whether you’re looking to increase ranking, page visits, time on page, decrease bounce rates, or improve conversions, get clear about your goals and identify how you’ll measure success.

3. Optimize page titles and meta descriptions

Page titles and meta descriptions are found in the code of each web page and should be unique for each page on your dental website. This text is also displayed on search engine results pages to give searchers an idea of what your dental website is about. 

To optimize them, add relevant dental keywords and include your dental practice’s city and state within the copy. Note that the page title must remain under 60 characters and meta descriptions under 156. Check out this SERP simulator from our friends at Mangools to help you optimize your page titles and meta descriptions.

4. Optimize website content

Optimizing content requires a balance of including enough keywords within your copy for search engines while also sounding natural to readers. Assign specific keywords to each page of your dental website and include them in headers, paragraphs, bulleted lists and in the call to action of the page.

Add local structured data mark-up

Structured data mark-up is what search engines use to gain more information about your dental website. It’s added directly to a page’s HTML and makes it easier for web crawlers to determine basics about your dental practice such as reviews, services you offer, and hours of operation.

Google then uses the mark-up to highlight that information directly in search engine results pages.

Structured data helps your dental practice stand out in search ranking results by highlighting your dental practice in a ‘rich snippet’ which is an enhanced Google result listing (example below).

Test your dental website for structured data by using this tool. Then, ask your website provider to help you implement Local Business mark-up code using this generator. Copy and paste the code for your dental website provider to implement. If you want access to more dental marketing resources, check out ProSites’ free must-have eBook guides or dental marketing podcasts.

5. Improve your click-through rate from search results. 

Click-through rate is a behavioral factor that Google will look at to determine interest in a specific page i.e. how often searchers choose to click on a listing from a search engine results page matters. You can influence whether someone will click on your webpage by optimizing each page title and meta description across your website’s pages.

Your User Experience Is an Important Part of Dental SEO

Search Engine Optimization takes time. But there’s a way to make an immediate, positive impact on the results you’re getting from search engine traffic. While you’re using all the right technical, SEO best practices to please Google – you should take a step back and think about how you can improve user experience. Here are some dental marketing infographics that can be great resources to promote your dental practice.

Most of what you (and your competitors) are told about optimizing your website for search engines deals with making changes to the site to make it more appealing to search engine algorithms. That is, many dental marketing tips deal with giving the search engine what it wants in order to improve your organic rank for your targeted search phrases.

But there’s another side of the SEO coin – and it’s especially important for dentists.

Search engines don’t make dental appointments – people do.

So, while focusing on what the search engine wants, also consider what your prospective patient wants.

Whatever organic traffic you get now is not likely to change overnight based on improvements you make for search engines – but you could improve the number of leads that turn into patients based on changes you make for the user.

Here are three specific ways to immediately make your website design more user friendly – and get more out of your existing organic traffic:

1. Simplify your dental website’s navigation

If you want your dental website to stand out from the competition, it needs to be user-friendly and easily navigable. Simplifying your website’s navigation is a great way to ensure that visitors find what they need quickly and effortlessly.

Here are some tips for how to streamline your dental website’s navigation.

Organizing your services into groups can make it easier for visitors to find what they need quickly.

For example, if you offer different types of dental treatments, such as general dentistry, cosmetic procedures, and orthodontic care, you should organize them into separate categories on your website menu. This will help visitors find exactly what they are looking for right away without having to search through a long list of services.

2. Utilize UX design to create SEO-friendly layouts

Have you ever wondered why websites with the same amount of content as yours appear higher on a Google search than yours?

The answer lies in the way they are designed. User experience (UX) design is essential to ensure your website is optimized for search engine optimization (SEO). UX design is not just about making sure your website looks good, but also ensures that it’s readable and easy to navigate.

Here’s how you can use UX design to create SEO-friendly layouts:

Make content easy to digest

When it comes to content, not all formats are created equal. In order to make sure your content is easy for readers to digest, you need to be mindful of how you structure and format the text.

Headings are essential for helping readers quickly understand what your content is about, so make sure that each section has a clear heading that accurately reflects the material in that section.

Bullet points are another great way to break up blocks of text into more easily readable segments.

Leverage headings

Headers are an essential piece of website design for a number of reasons. A primary benefit is organization since headers provide a visual structure to the page that can allow users to quickly skim and understand what information is most important.

Include an urgent, obvious call to action on your website

Utilizing CTAs liberally can increase your website’s conversion rate optimization (CRO), as they direct users through the journey they take on your website and help to keep them there longer.

When implemented correctly, button links that contain CTAs can either lead users to a specific page, such as a product page or contact form, or initiate an action such as inviting them to subscribe or learn more about what you’re offering.

Be sure to make sure the text within your CTA is clear and concise; avoid confusing language or ambiguous direction.

Utilizing labels such as ‘Book Now’, ‘Request Appointment’ or ‘Contact Us’ links are great examples of CTAs which offer button links for visitors to easily click through.

With the right implementation strategy, placement of CTAs wisely throughout your site could be a big boost in conversions.

Display your contact information on all pages

Make sure all of your web pages have at least a phone number and address prominently displayed near the top of the page. That way, no matter what page someone ends up on, they have the opportunity to reach you by phone or see your location.

Include elements that link to related content

Cross-linking relevant content on a website is a great tool for both usability and search engine optimization.

This technique helps users navigate around your site more easily by acting as an anchor between pages that are related, thus preventing any confusion or frustration.

It also helps you boost your search engine rankings as the links to other pages on your site can improve the relevance of each page in relation to specific keywords and can build further trust with the search engines.

3. Optimize for Site Load Speed

Site speed is an important factor when it comes to SEO. In order to rank high in search engine results, your website must be optimized for load speed. This means that your website must be able to quickly and efficiently load, which can be a challenge for some businesses.

There are several ways you can improve your site performance, including image compression and minifying code such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript files.

Image compression reduces file sizes without sacrificing quality so that they will load more quickly on browsers while minifying code removes unnecessary characters from code files making them smaller in size and easier for browsers to read.

Caching is another way you can improve site performance; this involves storing data from previous visits so that it doesn’t have to be completely reloaded every time someone accesses your website.

Optimizing your website’s load speed is essential if you want it to rank high on search engine results pages and also keep visitors engaged with your content.

4. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Ensuring mobile responsiveness is essential for SEO success.

If you haven’t yet heard, Google has officially stated that mobile-friendly sites will be favorably ranked in search engine results.

For years Google (and other search engines) have been nudging, prodding and not-so-subtly telling us what they’re looking for in terms of good ways to optimize for search for mobile devices.

Google is done with sites that aren’t mobile-friendly. They’ve spelled it out in black and white – and we need to take notice.



When creating a website, it’s important to consider the various platforms and devices users may access your site on, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktops.

Making sure that the layout of a website remains consistent across different screens and browsers will allow for easier navigation and ensure a positive experience for all users.

Responsive design elements can be used in combination with fluid grids, intelligent images, and media queries that adapt to multiple device resolutions in order to guarantee an optimal display while maintaining compatibility across multiple platforms.

A well-executed, cohesive website design and SEO strategy can result in a better user experience for your customers while helping to improve your site’s search engine rankings. By working together collaboratively, both the marketing and design teams can help create a website that not only looks great but also functions well and delivers results.

Offsite SEO Best Practices for Dental Websites

Offsite SEO is an important part of your website’s success. It helps improve your website’s ranking and brings more visitors to your site. 

To get an edge over your competition, prioritize the 6 following items:

1. Setup and claim ownership of your Google Business Profile 

Have you ever noticed the businesses that appear on the right-hand side of your search results? That is because they have taken the time to create and claim ownership of their Google Business Profile (GBP).

 

A GBP allows customers to find your business quickly and easily, and also provides them with important information such as opening hours, location, phone number, website URL, and reviews. Creating a GBP is a great way to increase visibility for your business online. Let’s take a look at how it’s done.

• Setting Up Your GBP
  The first step in creating your GBP is to go to Google Business Profile and click “Manage Now”. You will be asked to sign in with your Google account details or create an account if you do not already have one.
  
  Once signed in, you will be asked to enter some basic information about your business such as its name, address, phone number, website URL and category.
  
  Then you will need to verify your identity by either postcard or telephone call. This process ensures that only legitimate businesses are listed on the search engine.
  
  
• Claiming Ownership of Your GBP
  After setting up your GBP you will need to claim ownership so that you can manage it properly. You can do this by clicking the “Verify now” button at the top right-hand corner of the page after signing into Google Business Profile or by following the instructions provided by Google when verifying via postcard or telephone call.
  
  After claiming ownership of your GBP, you can start adding additional details such as:
  • Update your business category
  • Update your hours
  • Update your address
  • Add pictures
  • Describe your services
  • Make a list of your services
  • Add business updates
  • Collect and respond to reviews
  • And more!

It’s also a good idea to respond promptly to reviews left by customers so that potential customers know that their opinion matters to you. 

2. Local Directories

As a dentist, you understand the importance of making sure your practice can be easily found in local directories. Your goal should be to have an online presence that is comprehensive, accurate, and consistent across all platforms. Here are some of the best local directories that are particularly useful for dentists. 

• Vitals.com
• Wellness.com
• Familydentaldirectory.com
• Doctor.com
• Caredash.com
• Healthprofs.com
• Freedentalcare.us
• Freeclinicdirectory.org
• Doctor-oogle.com
• Health-local.com
• Dentists4kids.com
• Zocdoc.com
• Ehealthscores.com
• Fsnhospitals.com
• Dentalclinics.org
• Dentists.com
• Healthsoul.com
• Everydentist.com

Remember that searchers and search engines use Name Address Phone (NAP) data to learn who you are and what you do. Look for duplicate or mismatch listings that may appear under an old address, name or phone number and fix them right away.

3. The Benefits of Guest Posting and Link Building for Local Dentists 

In addition to local directories, you need to acquire links from other dentistry related websites and blogs.

Let’s break down the benefits of guest posting and link building for local dentists. 

What Is Guest Posting?

Guest posting is when a business or individual provides content to be published on another person or company’s website. This content can be anything from an article about dental health tips to a blog post about the latest advances in cosmetic dentistry. 

By creating content for other websites, businesses are able to get their name out there and draw more attention to their own website as well as establish their credibility in the industry. 

What Is Link Building? 

Link building is when businesses create links back to their own site from other websites (often those they have already created content for). This helps with SEO rankings because it creates more pathways, or “backlinks”, leading back to your site. The more reputable and high-quality sites that link back to yours, the higher your site will rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). One way to acquire high-quality backlinks is by partnering with a guest post services agency, which can help you publish valuable content on other websites and earn links back to your site.

For local dentists, link building is especially important because it helps potential customers find your practice when searching in your area. It also increases your credibility among other dentists in the area, which can help build trust with potential customers.

4. Increase your number of Google reviews

With the rise of the internet and smartphones, patients are actively searching online for dentists and consulting reviews before making any decisions. That is why online reviews are so important for a dental practice—they can give potential customers an idea of what to expect from your business. 

Let’s look at some reasons why online reviews are so important for a dental practice. 

Reach a Wider Audience

Online reviews help you reach a wider audience than just those who have visited your office. Potential customers will be able to read these reviews and make an informed decision about your services without ever setting foot in your office. This means that more people will be able to learn about your business, even if they don’t live near you! 

Build Trust with Prospective Patients

Online reviews can also help build trust with prospective patients. People want to know that they’re getting quality care and that they won’t experience any unpleasant surprises while visiting the dentist. When potential customers read positive reviews, it helps them build trust in the quality of care that they would receive if they were to choose your practice over another one.

Inspire Referrals 

Online reviews can inspire referrals from existing patients who have had positive experiences with your service. Positive word-of-mouth referrals from friends and family members go a long way when it comes to building trust and inspiring confidence in potential patients. When people see that others have had great experiences with your practice, it makes them more likely to book an appointment or refer someone else!

Dental SEO Experts in Your Corner

ProSites has helped thousands of dental practices increase their reach and fill their calendars through SEO, paid ads, and more. Take your marketing to the next level by learning more here.

Some Common Dental SEO Questions Answered

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a key component in your dental practice’s website successful online marketing strategy. But it’s a very complex topic. We thought we’d highlight some of the most common questions below in case you too have the same questions for your dental practice’s marketing.

Q: Do hashtags (#) help?

A: This handy icon helps current and potential patients find posts on a specific topic in the social media arena (i.e., #teethwhitening). Hashtags are great for helping you distribute content on social media platforms and are a potential source of backlinks to your dental practice’s website. However, hashtags don’t yet apply to search engine algorithms.

Q: Is it possible to use too many keywords?

A: Keywords are great – up to a point. Google’s new helpful content update is designed to reward websites with helpful, informative content. This means that if your website contains helpful advice, tips, and other useful information related to dentistry, then it will be more likely to appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). 

The best way to make sure that your webpage appears in SERPs is by using the right keywords.

When it comes to selecting keywords for your dental practice website, it’s important to focus on ones related specifically to dentistry and dental care. 

For example, if you specialize in pediatric dentistry, then the keywords “pediatric dentist” or “children’s dental care” would be good choices. Additionally, you may want to consider local-specific keywords such as “dentist in [city]” or “dental office near [zip code].” These localized keywords will help ensure that your website appears at the top of SERPs when someone searches for a dentist within a specific geographic area.

Q: How long does it take to verify a Google Business Profile (GBP)?

A: As a business owner, it’s essential to have an up-to-date Google Business Profile (GBP). A GBP helps potential customers find your business and all the necessary information they need to decide whether or not to visit your office. Creating a GBP is the first step, but you must also verify it before it can appear on search engine results.

One of the most popular methods for verifying your GBP is postcard verification. The process involves receiving and entering a code sent via mail. Once you’ve submitted the code, you should be able to view your profile within three weeks. After that initial waiting period, however, you may experience delays if someone from Google manually reviews your profile for accuracy and compliance with their guidelines. 

Q: How do I correct my Google Maps location?

A: Your business’s physical location is essential to being found by potential customers. If your business appears in the wrong place on Google Maps, it can be difficult for customers to find you and contact you in the right way. Fortunately, there is a process for correcting incorrect locations on Google Maps so that your business can be accurately displayed. 

Let’s take a closer look at how to do this. 

If you notice that your business appears in the wrong place on Google Maps, you can easily correct this by editing the location within GBP. To do this, simply log into GBP and select “Info” from the left-hand menu. You will then see an option called “Address” which allows you to enter your correct location information. Once you have entered this information and saved it, it should appear correctly on Google Maps within 24 hours. 

Q: How do I check my keyword ranking on major search engines?

A: Knowing where your website ranks in the major search engines is key to understanding how effective your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is. If you’re a dentist, having a strong keyword ranking can give you an edge over your competition and help you attract more patients. 

The easiest way to check your keyword rankings on Google is by using Google Search Console (GSC). 

• GSC provides an easy-to-use dashboard that allows you to view the performance of your website over time. 
• It will also show you which keywords are driving traffic to your site, as well as where those visitors are coming from. 
• GSC also provides detailed data about clicks and impressions for each keyword, which can help you identify opportunities for improvement and make sure that your SEO efforts are paying off. 

Q: Do I need specific pages that focus on the services that I offer?

A: The goal of your website should be to sell the services you offer. If you want to sell higher-ticket items such as dental implants or veneers, rather than a general cleaning, make sure you have landing pages that highlight these dental services. The ideal dental SEO strategy includes showcasing and marketing the services you most want to be known for. 

Q: How do I know if my website is bringing in new patients each month?

A: A dental website is a great asset for any practice. It’s a way to reach potential patients, build trust and showcase your services. But how do you know if your website is actually bringing in new patients each month? The answer lies in website analytics. Here are some of the most important metrics that you should track to understand whether your website is driving real results. 

Measuring Website Traffic

The first metric to measure is website traffic, which includes the number of unique visitors and the total number of visits to your site. This will tell you how many people are visiting your site each month and whether that number is increasing or decreasing over time. If you are seeing an increase in traffic, this suggests that more people are aware of your practice and turning to your website for information about it. 

Analyzing Conversion Rates 

Conversion rates refer to the percentage of visitors who took some sort of action on your site, such as filling out a contact form or booking an appointment online. An improved conversion rate can be seen as a sign that more potential patients are engaging with your content and taking action based on what they read or saw on the page. If you notice an increase in conversions, it may be time to adjust or refine some elements of your page content or design in order to further optimize it for better performance. 

Tracking Leads from Your Site

Tracking leads from your site—which includes emails, phone calls and requests for additional information—can give you an accurate picture of how many people contacted you after visiting your dental website. 

This type of lead tracking can help you determine which pages are performing best when it comes to generating interest among potential patients. It can also help inform decisions about where and how much money you should invest in digital marketing campaigns moving forward. 

Q: My website brings in new patients, but why aren’t they the demographic that I want?

A: If your website is bringing in new patients, but they aren’t the type of patients you want, search engine optimization can help you market the services that will attract your desired demographic.

For example, a restorative dentist may prefer patients with severe esthetic problems or patients needing dental implants, rather than patients wanting general dentistry services. A targeted dentist SEO strategy can highlight the services you want it to, so you weed out less desirable patients.

Q: When should I add SEO to my online marketing strategy?

A: Now! Search engine optimization takes time to produce results, which means starting now will set you up for success in time for the busy season. Here’s the video about top questions that you need to ask your (potential) dental SEO provider. Also, don’t forget to check out Dr. Juan Lopez successful online dental marketing story, too.