Guide: SEO for dentists

People have long since stopped reaching for the phone book and instead rely on Google when looking for a dentist in their area. So if you still want to attract new patients these days, you have to invest in search as a marketing channel.

If you want your dental practice to be top of mind online, we have helpful tips and approaches for you in this article to attract targeted new patients and increase your practice’s online presence.

Why SEO is essential for dentists

1. With successful search engine optimization of your practice website, visibility and reach via search improve. If your practice is listed higher in the search, more potential patients will perceive you as a dentist.
2. Thanks to so-called Local Pack and Google Company Profile, your contact details are easier to find. For example, you can be called quickly just with one click from the search.
3. SEO always means improved user experience at the same time. Because search engine optimized design as well as content help users to find their way around your website better and to get desired information quickly.
4. With a search-optimized practice website, you’ll stand out from your competitors in your area and score points with potential patients with a great online presence.
5. Through deeper keyword research, you will learn to better understand your patients. This is because it will give you insight into unanswered questions, interests, as well as possible fears your patients may have about your services.
6. Thanks to top positions in search results, Google Ads expenses can be reduced, for example.
7. If you then eventually have a wider reach via search, more new patients will become aware of you and you can increase your sales as a result.

On-page SEO for dentists

Broadly speaking, on-page SEO means optimizing content as well as HTML basics for the appropriate dental keywords.

On-page SEO is therefore like brushing your teeth, the basic “online hygiene” so that you can appear on Google at all for relevant search terms and acquire new patients through them.

For example, the keyword “dentist Munich” is searched for an average of 9,900 times a month and to be in position 1 for it is extremely lucrative.

Our tips for on-page SEO in dentistry

• Do a thorough keyword research and identify the keywords that are lucrative, but for which it is also not too difficult to achieve good positions
• Then revise page titles, meta descriptions, URLs as well as the main content of your website
• If you want to go a step further, publish well-researched articles and posts on dental topics

Technical SEO for dentistry

If on-page search engine optimization is like brushing your teeth, then technical SEO is like flossing.

With this, you will go into the depths of your website and eliminate everything that is detrimental to your health. Because broken sitelinks, unavailable images or even slow loading times lead to a poor user experience.

Our technical SEO tips for your dental practice

• First, have a thorough website audit performed to determine where “the holes” are in your website
• After that, broken links and images as well as slow pages should be optimized bit by bit
• Check and improve the mobile version of your website
• To get even more for the search from a technical point of view, you should use structured data

Off-page SEO for your practice website

Off-page SEO is like the mouthwash in dental care. They have a fresh breath and the people around them appreciate it.

Transferred to the online world, this means that you need to make a good impression so that you recommend other websites.

Our tips for dental off-page SEO

• Create a complete Google company profile
• Match name, address and phone number on all platforms as well as your website
• Solicit reviews from your patients
• Operate social media marketing

Local search engine optimization for dentists

Especially the search for dentists and other dental facilities is very dependent on the location of the user as well as your practice. On the plus side, this means you are only competing with other practices in your area, not all dental practices nationwide.

The whole thing can also be applied to large cities, such as the Munich example shown above. Because especially there it is more effective to advertise with the actual location, if even directly search for a dentist in certain areas of the city.

So the closer you are to the location of the potential patient, the higher the probability of being displayed on the top positions in the search engine.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t stand a chance with a practice outside the city core. Here it is only the more important
with the help of targeted local search engine optimization
to better position you as a dentist in the search.

Tips for local SEO as a dentist

• Sprinkle the location into the meta titles and descriptions of your pages
• Ensure that location, practice name, and contact information are communicated consistently across all platforms
• Generate local backlinks, for example in the online editions of regional newspapers and daily papers or via recognized online medical directories such as Jameda
• Keep your Google business profile up to date and respond to reviews

Content strategies for dentists

The content strategy for your website must also be well thought out. This is because Google rates “Your Money Your Life” topics, which include health topics like dentistry, more strictly than others. Therefore, it is extremely important to be careful not to post false information on your website.

Another factor is
the E-E-A-T principle
which evaluates a website in terms of expertise, experience, authority and credibility. This means the content on your practice website must meet high standards.

That’s why you should focus first on the content that you can deliver best than anyone else. The focus should therefore first be on the services of your dental practice in order to provide potential patients with all the important information here.

To expand the content strategy, you can rely on blog posts or professional articles to provide information on general dental topics. This way, you can cover topics related to oral hygiene and dental care for patients on the one hand, and share your insights for colleagues with the help of professional articles on relevant topics on the other.

As a dental practice you need a good website

A good website is the basic prerequisite for effective search engine optimization. This is not only there to serve as a mere source of information for potential patients, but it represents you as a dentist and your entire practice as well as your team.

So you should make sure that it meets the needs of your patients as well as those of search engines. It’s not just about the look, but about attracting as many patients as possible with design and build.

To get the most out of your practice website, follow these tips:

• Clear and meaningful call-to-actions make users more likely to make an appointment
• Include an appointment booking tool, if possible, to simplify the appointment process for your patients
• Make sure patients can reach you directly with one click through the website. Be it by phone or by e-mail

Conclusion: Search engine optimization for dentists is worthwhile

With search engine optimization, you’ll stand out online against other practices in your area and manage to generate more new patients, increasing your revenue. It also helps increase your patients’ satisfaction by making it faster and easier for them to schedule appointments with you. If you need help with the development of an SEO strategy or the optimization of your website, we support you as a
professional SEO agency
gladly support you.