Think about the last major purchase you made either for your practice or home. I bet you spent at least a few hours researching on websites. If you were looking for office furniture you probably compared different models look, the cost and most importantly what others said about them. You probably didn’t contact the company until you narrowed it down to one or two choices.

This is exactly what your potential new patients are doing to your practice.  So the first essential you need to know is that the buying process is changing. Buyers or potential new patients are more sophisticated and have much more information available to them.

You may still get most of your new patients from referrals but they are likely to be on-line. Consumers like to see that others have had a good experience. So online review management becomes really important.

The good thing about digital marketing is that it lets you be found by more people. The downside is that it works the same for your competitors.  This is the second essential that everything is more competitive.

Have you noticed how the concepts of web design have changed? If your website is more than 2-3 years old it needs an update. The third essential is that things are changing so quickly in the digital landscape. Best practices from just 2 or 3 years ago are no longer the best strategy. Google changes its search algorithm often so it is hard to keep up, even for a marketing professional. Google now has over 200 factors it considers in its ranking algorithm!

The fourth essential is that more searches are happening on mobile devices than on desktops. This switch is also driving the fifth essential, Google’s ‘near me’ searches. They are now prioritizing search results this way. This becomes a very important factor for a dental office.

If you’re not a marketing professional

If you find it hard to know what the best ways to market your practice are, try to think of things in a strategic sense instead of tactical. Don’t do SEO just because your friend is or that you read that you have to. I’m not saying don’t do SEO. It is very important especially for a location based business like a dental office. I’m saying develop a real strategy before trying any tactics. I speak to many dentists who complain that their marketing is an expense, ‘something they have to do’. Your marketing should be an investment with a return. If your marketing is not expanding your practice then stop it, take a step back to figure it out and develop a strategy that will work.

To develop a strategy think about who your ideal new patient is and how to reach them. And don’t just say everybody with teeth. Every practice is a little different and targets a slightly different new patient.

Once you have your overall strategy you can start to think about how to build your web presence. Yes, these days it’s not enough to have just a website. Social Media is playing an increasingly important role. Review sites and business listing aggregators control results in different search engines.

Web Presence Vs. Website

What exactly is ‘web presence’? It is the sum of your website, social profiles, business listings and review sites. A robust web presence is essential these days for good search rankings. Just having a good website is not enough. One of the most important web assets, especially for a local business, is a well rated ‘Google my Business’ page. After Google my Business comes the other social media platforms. Linkedin, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram are all viable channels to market your practice. Beyond social media are business listing sites like Bing for Business or Infogroup. You also need to manage your listings in professional, referral and review sites. I need to catch my breath!

If it seems like quite a lot to keep track of you are right. But the fact is that all of these elements contribute to how your practice will show up in search rankings. If you’d like to check out the state of your current web presence go to https://moz.com/local/search  enter your practice and moz will calculate a score for your web presence.

Local SEO

Change has affected SEO more than any other digital marketing tactic. Keywords may not quite be dead yet but they are much less important in determining rankings than they used to be. Google has gotten much better at reading and understanding context. Google doesn’t even always use the vaunted meta descriptions in search results, using actual content from the page that it knows is relevant.

These days to be successful at SEO you need to think like Google. If they are focused on returning the most accurate search results design your SEO strategy to make your web presence as attractive as you can. Instead of trying to game or fool Google by stuffing keywords give them what they want. Here is how we prioritize different tactics for SEO for dental offices.

1. Up to date and optimized website
2. Google my business page
3. Consistent Social Media Profiles (more is better)
4. Business Listing and Citation Sites
5. Professional Site Listings
6. Content creation
7. Social Media publishing and Monitoring

Reviews Matter

Here are search results for a dentist in my hometown.  The three highest ranked offices have a healthy number of high reviews. These reviews are the ones that reside on your Google my Business page. The takeaway from this is that reviews matter. Google thinks that if a business has a lot of current good reviews it must be the top rated business. More and more Google is relying on these types of signals in search rankings. Notice I said current reviews. Freshness and frequency both matter to Google.

Keeping this in mind is one of those little things you can do to help your marketing. Google reviews aren’t the only ones that matter. Third party sites like Yelp have some influence as do some of the dental listing sites. Part of your strategy has to deal with review management.

Do you need someone to help you?

The great thing about digital marketing is that the biggest investment is time. You can do much of it yourself or buy a service like Yext or Moz to help you with certain parts of your web presence. However, as I mentioned before using tactics outside of an overall strategy can limit the chances for success.

Digital marketing is evolving at a rapid pace. It is hard to keep up not only with the changes but also how they affect your strategy. A qualified marketing pro definitely helps you stay abreast. Unfortunately, even in marketing, not everyone has kept up. I am often surprised by the number of marketers preaching tactics that are no longer effective or as important as they once were.

We start our conversations with new clients about strategy and identifying their ideal target new patient. From this information, we develop a strategy and decide which tactics to use. If someone starts discussing tactics first they may not be as successful as someone taking a more methodical approach.

If you would like to read more about SEO in 2017 please download our free ebook

If you would like to read more about ‘The Future of Marketing’ click here

After all, in order to maximize the ROI of your digital marketing investment, a w3c compliant, mobile responsive and adaptive website that is fully optimized with the latest white hat SEO tactics, is absolutely necessary.

You want to start 2015 off with some impressive and lucrative search engine rankings, right?

1. SEO Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

First things first. It’s important to understand that SEO is a very dynamic beast. Your SEO strategy should be looked at as part of your ongoing digital marketing strategy.

Granted, there are a few things your SEO consultant or company can do only once, and likely not have to tweak for months or years, but with the many changes in search marketing that are happening almost daily, your SEO strategy better be on point.

For example, not only do Google’s search algorithms change frequently, up to 500-600 times per year, people are changing the way they use search engine. Think of the increases in mobile search and voice search.

Users will search differently when using mobile search, due to typing on challenging mobile keypads, and when using voice search, users will be sure to use specific, targeted, long-tail phrases.

A business website SEO person needs to stay on top of these regular changes and understand how to adapt your SEO strategy quickly and efficiently.

2. SEO Cannot Exist in a Silo

In the coming year, large organizations and small to medium sized businesses will integrate their SEO strategy into their overall marketing strategy – both digital and traditional marketing. If not, the lack of cohesive effort of teams working on the same goal will show up like an nasty, oozing pimple pulsing out of your company’s bottom line.

You certainly need an experienced SEO consultant to head up your SEO strategy, be sure that the SEO team integrates their strategy with your social media team, content writers, traditional marketers, and most importantly, your sales teams.

For example, a company could have a solid SEO strategy in place where they are seeing top rankings for their targeted keywords. This fact is bringing their website or landing page some serious traffic from many qualified prospects and customers.

Let’s say they also have an extremely successful PPC campaign running on Google AdWords alongside their winning organic SEO strategy. This campaign is bringing in qualified leads that are costing the company money with each click.

If the company’s teams aren’t integrated properly or if the communication between SEO and sales departments isn’t clear, think about what the company is missing out on and how they are losing out:

1. Qualified leads being driven to the website or landing page from organic search.

2. Since there is no lead generation forms or no Facebook tracking pixels have been set up by the digital marketing team, the company is losing warm leads that could be turned over to the sales team to close. The simple, sad reason for this could simply be the lack of communication between the SEO team, the digital marketing team, and the sales team.

3. Qualified leads being driven to the website or landing page from paid search. This is great news typically, but if your website isn’t mobile responsive, easy to navigate, with clear calls to action, users could leave your website without converting one of your goals (lead generation, media download or a purchase).

The SEO team would need to be monitoring the PPC/CPC campaign diligently and monitoring the number of clicks and comparing that to the number of conversions. Another reason why SEO and sales/marketing teams need better integration in 2015.

3. Think Mobile First Always — Even With SEO

The fact is, Google wants your site to be mobile responsive. Period. Good SEO starts with good website development. Good website development starts with a “mobile-first” approach. Mobile SEO is the real deal.

Google’s search ranking algorithms most definitely rank mobile responsive websites higher than those websites that aren’t “mobile friendly.” Have you noticed how Google helps users by clearly identifying websites that are mobile friendly, in mobile search?

Google now lists right in the search results page whether a website is mobile friendly or not. This should be a sign that search engines favor mobile ready websites and reward these websites with higher search rankings.

4. The One Constant In SEO is Change

Change is inevitable. If there is one thing you can be sure of in the world of search is that things will change. Often. As previously mentioned, Google’s search algorithms can change over 500 times in any given year, without notice.

It’s not even just search that changes frequently. Other aspects of digital marketing are known to change often. We’ve seen this with Facebook’s declining organic reach and the changes to their News Feed algorithm.

Instagram just started rolling out advertising from select brands to select users ion the USA and more recently the ads have made it to Canadian Instagram users. Twitter started showing us RT’s based on our followers, our interest, and our tweets.

The best thing you can do for your internet marketing strategy is to stay on top of all these important changes or hire a professional to set up and manage your digital marketing strategy.

5. Google is a Referral Engine, Not a Search Engine

When you moved to a new city or new neighborhood, you’d likely ask local friends, family or neighbors where the best place to get a haircut or groceries near by. You may inquire about where the closest gym, library or vegan cafe is in relation to your new house.

These people would like to give you the best advice — or the best referral, because you are a friend or neighbor. They wouldn’t want to send you someplace where they themselves wouldn’t go.

Google is like your most knowledgeable best friend. When you ask it a question, it wants to give you the best possible answer. This is why I say Google is better seen as a referral engine than a search engine.

If your website is built with a mobile-first approach, is responsive and adaptive to all screen sizes and website browsers, has the proper basic SEO set up, and is regularly publishing quality content that is fully optimized, Google will reward your website with top rankings over your competitors.

Why? Simply because if your competitor’s site isn’t optimized as well as yours is, why would Google — a searcher’s best friend — rank any other website higher than the best one?

It wouldn’t. The point is, make your website valuable to your target customers, easy for them to find and simple for them to navigate. You’ll be rewarded by Google and other search engines.

To Wrap Up

• SEO is a long-term strategy. Be prepared to be in it for the long run.
• Integrate your SEO with the rest of your sales and marketing team. You cash even go so far as including operations team in that mix. Internal communication is vital.
• You know we live in an increasingly mobile world, right? Are you reading this on your mobile phone right now? If not, how much content did you consume via your smartphone today? Mobile SEO is essential to your website optimization strategy.
• Be ready to turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes. SEO is constantly eve loving. So is digital marketing as a whole, so this is nothing to be in shock and awe about. Stay on top of the changes or make sure you hire a skilled professional SEO consultant or SEO agency that can help you reach your goals.
• Treat Google like a referral engine, not just a “search” engine. If you want a referral, you need to step up your game. This means to ensure your website is user friendly. Start with an SEO audit. Take a look at your user interface (UI) and the overall user experience (UX) of your website, from a user’s perspective.

:content courtesy of semrush