What are search engines looking for?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. The purpose of SEO is to increase website traffic, expand brand awareness, and improve rankings.
Oral health providers need to invest in a dynamic SEO strategy to be able to meet their current and potential patients where many of them are: are- online. Most online users are searching for new health providers on the go. In fact, the amount of mobile search traffic is likely to exceed that of desktop computers in the foreseeable future. Search engine optimization for local search is more prevalent than ever before for any local business model.
So, in order to ensure you’re making the most of your SEO strategy, it’s important to know what search engines are looking for. Let’s take a look:
1. An SEO Friendly Site
Create a quality user experience, with cross-device compatibility using responsive design. A responsive site’s layout changes depending on the type of device used to view it. This creates an optimal user experience whether a potential patient is searching for you on their desktop, tablet, or cell phone. As a result, it allows your content and contact details to be well-displayed no matter the size or shape of the screen.
2. Unique Content
Typically, most dentists and orthodontists use the same library content to describe their common procedures. No matter how successful your practice is, rankings will plateau when Google re-crawls their search engine and realizes that the content you have isn’t tailored to your practice specifically.
It’s imperative you know who your audience is and monitor your targeted keywords. If your local listings and website are optimized for keyword queries that your target audience searches for, then you should show up in search engine results. Additional content beyond your common procedure pages, like case studies and patient reviews, are especially useful for establishing the personality of your practice's brand image. Case studies can showcase the incredible work that you do, and patient testimonials and reviews can further speak to that. Not only will they foster an idea of your office culture and values, but will also encourage prospective patients to easily engage with your practice online even before they give you a call.
A potential patient wants to know why they should start treatment with you, and whether your practice is able to meet their specific needs. By providing a variety of information about how your practice operates and the kinds of results you produce, they are likely to spend a longer amount of time on your website doing their due diligence. By increasing their time spent on your website, you are also increasing the likelihood that they will pick up the phone and give you a call.
3. Meta Descriptions and Title Tags
Title tags are used to tell search engines and visitors what any given page on your site is about in the most concise and accurate way possible. This title will then appear in various places around the web, including the tab in your web browser.
Metadata is important because:
It has the most SEO power of any tag on the page for establishing keyword relevance
Its contents are the source for the blue-link text shown in the search engine results pages (SERPs)
It’s the best place to get a concise description of the content on the page
As a part of your Sesame SEO service, your designated specialist will create unique meta titles and descriptions that are the optimal length for your site.
4. A Quality Link Profile
When Google crawls a website they check the page’s content as well as inbound and outbound links to conclude your relevancy to keyword searches. This means that even though you may be the top provider of a service in your area, another doctor who has created a successful online campaign through link building with social media & local community programs might rank better. Why? Because with an effective only campaign like that, Google’s perception is that they are the more trusted and preferred brand.. That’s why it’s important to get links from reliable sites that point back to yours, and to combine this with building a couple of links from a number of smaller websites.
All that being said, here are some ideas you can use for link building:
- Charities
- Local schools
- Community events
- Associations or organizations you work closely with
- Better Business Bureau
- Chamber of Commerce
- Online community newspapers that have mentioned your practice
- Community bloggers that have mentioned your practice
Having other websites linking, AKA pointing, to yours is a huge way to generate more traffic and better rankings. Do you sponsor clubs, charities, or organizations? If these groups are willing to link to your website on theirs, our SEO Team can link to them on your "Meet the Dr." page where you can touch on your community involvement. The links gained are all the more powerful when the anchor text in the link contains keyword phrases that describe the nature of the page or the site gaining the links.
5. Schema Markup
Schema is a collection of HTML coding tags that can be added to your website to highlight key information about your practice. As a part of your SEO service, we add schema markup to your contact information to highlight the fact that you are a local business and a doctor, as well as testimonial schema that highlights patients who have left you five star reviews.
Here at Sesame Communications, our dedicated team of SEO specialists stay on top of the latest Local SEO strategies in the industry. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our SEO Team for more tips and tricks on how to conquer SEO strategy!