Where your practice is found on a Google search can have a profound effect on the number of customers coming through your front door. Since patients are becoming increasingly reliant on searching Google to find the best options nearby, it’s important to be properly visible online.
How do you ensure your practice is the one that is found?
A key thing to remember is that – regardless of whether it is in a dental or other field – potential customers usually only look at the first page of Google’s search results.
Research shows that no matter what field you’re in, people only look at the first page of Google’s search results. The number one result gets about 34% of the enquiries, then it drops off quite sharply after that with 15% for dentist #2 and 10% for #3. Accordingly, there is almost nothing for dentists on page 2 or 3 of the SERPS (search engine result pages).
This is why it’s crucial for your dental practice to be ranking as high on page 1 of Google as possible. It makes a real tangible difference to how many new customers you get.
There are many factors that influence how well your website will rank, but some of the more important ones include:
Keywords are key
If you have a new practice with an equally new website, and are in an urban area, you might be starting off much further down in the SERPs than page 2. To move up through the ranks, appropriate text needs to be added to your new website, and many other things need to be done to get your website up there ranking with the best of them. Especially for competitive areas, one of these necessary things is to ensure you have plenty of patience. Data takes time to accumulate and become meaningful and so changes made can take time to have an effect. It’s also important to remembe that other dentists in your area may also be trying to improve their own Google rankings at the same time, as well.
Keyword combinations are a great start to increasing your website’s search engine rankings. When people look up different things online, they often use similar keywords which means that the sites with these word combinations will be ranked higher in results than those without them. A good SEO company can identify what type of key words you need on each page so as to not only rank well but also stand out from competitors.
For example, if you see yourself as a ‘orthodontic clinician’, you might have that term plastered all over your website but never get an enquiry because everyone in your particular area searches for ‘local dentist’. You need to use terms that people actually use, and these aren’t always what you might expect.
It’s not just about the data
Customers are more likely to trust a website that seems like it was designed by professionals with experience in the industry. Your site needs both well put-together functionality and presentable design so customers can easily find what they need, as well as having it make an initial favorable impression on them.
Website design is a crucial aspect of your company’s image. If potential customers find that their browser takes them to an outdated or broken site with ugly logos, poor quality images and illogical layouts they will likely go back into search until they can finds one which has been recently updated by someone who knows what looks good and they feel they can trust more.
Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint an exact issue with the design of your old website, especially if you’re accustomed to it and no longer able to be objective. The best thing to do is look at the websites of large companies or franchises and see what they are doing. Some businesses renew their website every few years. Is your website’s design in the same ballpark as the leaders?
To find out more…
To get your dental practice highly visible on Google when people are looking for the services you provide, get in touch today.