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Search Engine Optimisation

If you’re a dentist and your website isn’t showing up in online searches, it might be because of mistakes in your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. SEO is all about making your website easy to find on the internet. If you’re not careful, you could make some of the most common SEO mistakes that can hide your website from potential patients.

SEO rules can change a lot. What worked last year might not work this year. So, it’s important to keep learning and updating your strategy.

In this article, we’ll talk about five common SEO mistakes that dentists often make. We’ll explain what they are and how to avoid them. By learning how to avoid common SEO mistakes, you can make your dental practice easier to find online. This can bring in more patients and help your business grow.

Keep reading to learn more about SEO mistakes, why local SEO is important, and how to steer clear of common SEO problems.

Mistake #1: Using Research Intent SEO Keywords

SEO keywords play an essential role in helping search engines properly categorise your dental website and display it in search results when a user is seeking a dentist in your locality. Therefore, selecting appropriate keywords is crucial for an effective SEO strategy. Dentists who do not focus on choosing correct keywords may find it challenging to attract new patients.

Take, for instance, a dental clinic that chooses “dental implants” as its keyword. While this isn’t necessarily wrong, these are considered informational intent keywords. This implies that the term “dental implants” will be searched by other dentists for gaining information on new procedures or by patients looking to understand the cost of such treatments.

By optimising for informational intent keywords like the one mentioned above, your website might not appear in the search results of people seeking a new dentist in your area. It’s important to remember that new patients typically don’t use informational intent keywords. Instead, they’ll use transactional or navigational intent keywords to find a dentist. Examples of such keywords might include “dentist near me”, “same-day dental appointment”, or “dentist in XYZ area”.

Mistake #2: Not Updating Your Keywords is one of the Most Common SEO Mistakes

Most dentists choose their SEO keywords, write content around it, upload it on their website, and forget about it. However, it is essential to know the most relevant and effective keywords on your website; it is necessary to conduct research for keywords now and then. Since effective keywords are constantly changing, it is mandatory to perform keyword research to update your website with new keywords and remove outdated ones. Using outdated keywords can lower your website’s search rankings.

Mistake #3: Local SEO Mistakes

Many times, local SEO strategies aren’t given much importance in dental SEO. However, this can be a big mistake on your end. As per reports, about 50% of Google searches are local searches, and the conversion ratio for these searches is 80%. If a potential patient is looking for a local dentist using their phone, there is an 88% chance that they may either call the dental clinic or visit them within 24 hours.

Local SEO mistakes can significantly harm your ability to attract local patients. Local SEO is one of the best strategies focusing on targeting patients likely to see your practice. To appear on a search engine for local, new patients, it is best to team your SEO keywords with the location of your clinic and use it in your website content and ads.

Mistake #4: Setting It and Forgetting is a Common Dental SEO Mistake

SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular checks and maintenance. If your dental marketing company is checking on your website’s SEO once a month or two, it’s time to change your marketing partner. Google’s search algorithms are updated at least twice in 24 hours. This means that the Google algorithm gets updated in an entire year more than 730 times.

 With every single update, there’s a chance of your website ranking going low. On the other hand, a marketing team constantly updating SEO is likely to manage to put their dental client website on top of the search results and maintain its position for a long. Hence, it is essential to not just create and forget about an effective SEO strategy but keep updating it regularly.

Mistake #5: Changing Your SEO Strategy Before It Begins to Perform

SEO may take months to show results. Hence, you and your marketing company must be patient to see results. Dentists often get impatient when they don’t see results and ask their marketing experts to change their strategy. Unfortunately, changing strategies frequently can confuse Google and lower your website ranking, despite the experts implementing an effective strategy for you.

Mistake #6: Keyword Stuffing

A dental SEO mistake that many people make is “keyword stuffing.” This refers to placing too many keywords in the content to get a better ranking on search engines. But here’s the problem: keyword stuffing can do more harm to your search engine ranking than good.

Search engines have become increasingly sophisticated in assessing the quality of content. When they detect keyword stuffing, they often penalise the website instead of rewarding it with a higher rank. Keyword stuffing fails to boost your SEO efforts and can harm your online presence.

It’s essential to balance your keyword usage to avoid this detrimental practice. Incorporate keywords naturally and relevantly into your content to ensure it remains informative, engaging, and user-friendly.

Mistake #7: Ignoring Mobile-Friendliness

Accessing the internet via smartphones has become a necessity in today’s world. Therefore, it is crucial for dental practices to make sure their websites are mobile-friendly. If they fail to do so, it could significantly affect how their website ranks in search results and impact the user experience.

Search engines like Google also prioritise mobile-friendly websites in their rankings. Neglecting mobile optimisation can lower search engine visibility, making it harder for your target audience to find you online. Hence, dental practices should invest in a responsive, mobile-friendly website design. This ensures that your content adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes and devices, offering an optimal experience for all visitors.

Mistake #8: Not Optimising Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

In the intricate world of SEO, often, it’s the seemingly small details that can significantly impact your website’s visibility and performance. One such detail that’s frequently overlooked is the optimisation of page titles and meta descriptions. They are crucial in attracting potential visitors and convincing them to click on your link. However, many dental websites need to optimise these elements effectively.

By ignoring this SEO aspect, you’re missing a chance to improve your search engine rankings and failing to entice users to click through to your site. Crafting well-optimised titles and descriptions that accurately represent your content can significantly enhance your click-through rates and overall, SEO performance.

Mistake #9: Neglecting Website Speed

Another most common SEO mistake is ignoring the speed at which your website loads. A slow-loading website creates a poor user experience, as visitors will likely bounce away from a site that takes too long to load. High bounce rates can negatively impact your rankings, as search engines interpret these actions as a sign that the content or user experience is subpar. To tackle this issue, optimising your website’s loading speed is essential. Several strategies to achieve this include optimising images to reduce file sizes, implementing caching mechanisms to expedite loading times, and eliminating unnecessary plugins or scripts that may be weighing down your website’s performance. By prioritising website speed, you improve user satisfaction and enhance your SEO efforts.

Mistake #10: Lack of High-Quality Content

Good content is like the base of a successful SEO plan. It’s not just about having words on a page. It’s about creating unique, useful, engaging content that helps your readers. This means doing deep research to ensure your information is accurate and fits people’s needs.

Putting in the work to make content that shows you know your stuff will boost your SEO. Plus, you’ll get loyal readers who keep coming back because they like what you’re sharing.

Mistake #11: Inadequate Backlink Strategy

Backlinks, or inbound or incoming links, are links from other websites that direct traffic to your site. They are a vital signal for search engines to assess the credibility and authority of your website. However, an inadequate backlink strategy can undermine your SEO efforts.

One common mistake is pursuing quantity over quality. Acquiring a multitude of low-quality, spammy backlinks can be harmful, as search engines may penalise your site for such practices. Instead, focus on building high-quality backlinks from authoritative, relevant websites in your niche.

Another mistake needs to be paying more attention to the importance of natural and organic link building. Attempting to manipulate or buy backlinks can lead to penalties and damage your website’s reputation. A sustainable backlink strategy involves creating valuable, shareable content that attracts links from reputable sources.

Now that you’re aware of the dental SEO mistakes you should avoid in 2023, it’s clear why you should consider a dental marketing company:

We’re specialists in the unique challenges of marketing dental services. Our expertise lies in developing and executing long-term SEO strategies that align with your practice’s goals, ensuring steady and sustainable growth.

When you trust your dental marketing to professionals like us, you gain the advantage of maintaining a consistent online presence. This consistency significantly enhances your chances of ranking well in the competitive digital landscape. So, let us handle your dental marketing to help your practice thrive online.

SEO requires time, effort, and patience – the more you devote, the better the results. While SEO may seem like an easy job, some lots go behind it. Hiring the right marketing agency to handle the SEO for your dental practice can get you fruitful results, and experts in the field are likely not to make the mistakes mentioned above. 

 To learn more about how One Stop Dental Marketing can help your practice thrive online, give us a call at 1300 867 699.

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