SEO for dentists and SEO for websites which are not dental related is essentially the same in theory, but different in practice.

One of the key differentiators for a dental SEO expert and a general SEO company is the niche-specific testing which has taken place. Knowing the psychology behind how and why people search for a dentist on Google can help craft the most effective SEO strategy for your dental practice.

For instance, I’ve noticed that many times the highest ranking websites have earned links from places like dentaltown.com’s blog. By making sure we address the general SEO factors, and then augmenting them with a variety of over 101 dental SEO factors, we’re much more able to secure victory when compared to a general SEO agency which doesn’t have the relationships with Dental Town, Dentistry IQ, Dentistry Today, Dental Products Report, and myriads of other dental blogs.

By focusing entirely on what dental patients are looking for in a dentist website, we can create the most compelling content in order to get (and keep) you ranked! Simply put, being connected with the dental and SEO industries, we’re in optimal position to help you gain new patients from Google.

When new dental patients are what you want, hiring someone familiar with dentistry marketing can be useful in tying SEO to increased production.

By hiring a dental SEO expert who’s teachings are cited in the top marketing publications, you can be rest assured my SEO strategies stand up to peer-to-peer reviews.

Other SEO companies may work for less money, but their techniques are often secret to you, and sometimes not capable of withstanding the same standard of peer-to-peer review. This can place your website and SEO rankings in jeopardy, which can result in your website being banned from search engine results.

If you’re like many dentists I’ve talked to, you may be surprised to find that your SEO company is unable to identify what they actually did to boost your rankings.

The message on your website needs to do more than convey a cohesive message which attracts new patients. It needs to be recognized by Google as unique and helpful, and even cite-worthy. Over the years, I’ve noticed that many psychological factors influence a prospective patient’s decision on whether or not to pick up the phone and call you. Optimizing your website’s content for human beings (not just search engines) is a cardinal rule in doing SEO for dentists.

When hiring an SEO company, it’s very important to sustain careful research before investing in a particular company.

Some SEO companies will tell you that they only engage in ethical, white hat SEO. White hat SEO involves a series of techniques which Google approves of. This might involve content creation that your patients appreciate (not spammy blogs that most dental websites have), building relationships with bloggers, journalists, and other influencers in dentistry who have the power to cite your dental website, and providing a user-friendly, engaging website that helps address the hidden concerns and objections people have to visiting the dentist. These would all be what Google’s algorithm engineers would deem as ethical, helpful SEO tactics.

However, most SEO companies who refuse to say what kind of specific techniques they’d implement for you may be doing the exact opposite of “ethical, white hat SEO.” They may be engaged in what we in the SEO industry call “black hat SEO.” Black hat SEO is essentially a series of kaleidoscopic, short lived exploitations of loopholes in search engine’s algorithms. If these black hat SEO techniques are successful (they often aren’t), it is predominantly for a very short while. It can sometimes be difficult to revive a website which has been banned or penalized by Google, so your selection in choosing a white hat SEO company is paramount.

Often deemed easier than doing things the right way, black hat SEO tactics are favored by many SEO companies who feel they’re being compensated too little for what they’re doing for you. This is why you may have heard of many complaints from dentists who hired an SEO company for prices which are too good to be true.

Black hat SEO techniques can seriously harm your search engine presence. In the worst cases, you may wake up one day to find that Google has completely de-indexed your website from their search results (with no certain path to recovery).

By choosing to work with a dental SEO specialist who has a reputation to uphold, you can avoid many (or all) of these hidden risks. Having an open line of communication with your SEO specialist is a key component of having reasonable expectations. Being at least minimally, periodically involved in approving the SEO techniques being implemented can spare you from taking any unknown risks.

Having reasonable, flexible expectations that balance between timely results and long-lasting results is important. Finally, allowing yourself to calibrate your expectations according to trusted advice is probably the key path to victory in my SEO process. Sometimes things work faster than we’d expect, and sometimes I’ll need to bring in additional SEO experts to help us solve issues that are unique to your situation.

Adaptation is the name of the game in SEO, and we may need to shift our focus from one SEO tactic to another.

Think of SEO as a footrace. If you’re the only entrant, you can’t lose. But, if you’re in the Olympics, you’re going to need to train hard and race smart to make the podium.

SEO comes down to competition level. If you’re in a low-competition area where there are few dentists (and even fewer focused on SEO), then we can often set up a solid foundation for you and promote you at the #1 spot without any ongoing effort.

However, if you’re in a competitive metropolis area, it would be naive to believe that you could outrank hundreds of other dental offices with a one-time effort. Identifying how competitive you are may be is a logical first step in our SEO process.

This is where “velscoping your keywords,”the process where we find out how many people are using Google in your area, as well as what it will take to rank you, is the process which you should consider before hiring an SEO provider.

Yes! I welcome you to contact me and schedule a 15, 30, or 60 minute phone call where we can see if we’re a good fit. Many dentists who contact me are just curious to learn the competition level in their area. For this SEO analysis, I hand you the blueprint to your SEO success. There is a fee for this comprehensive SEO analysis, but our first conversation is completely free of charge and carries no obligation!

If you’re merely curious to learn a bit about how my SEO analysis works, feel free to check out my “velscoping your keywords” blog post.

My SEO process involves an amalgam of both proven, time tested techniques, as well as cutting edge strategies that other dental practices are unaware of. The only way to see if SEO is the right fit for you is to have an introductory brainstorming session.

For you busy dentists, I offer as much done-for-you SEO services as possible!

Only a thorough marketing analysis can describe how many new root canal patients you can get from SEO. With root canal specialists, you can specifically target these types of patients with Google Ads or PPC much more easily than SEO, at least at first. By using Google Ads, you can obtain useful data to see what kind of new patient potential there is, specifically with root canals

Only a thorough marketing analysis can describe how many new oral surgery patients you can get from SEO. With oral and maxillofacial surgeons, you can specifically target these types of patients with Google Ads or PPC much more easily than SEO, at least at first. By using Google Ads, you can obtain useful data to see what kind of new patient potential there is, specifically with getting more patients for oral surgery procedures including but not limited to:
SEO for getting more new patients for dental implant installation
SEO for getting more new patients for tooth extractions
SEO for getting more new patients for bone grafting
SEO for getting more new patients for corrective jaw surgery
SEO for getting more new patients for sleep apnea treatment
It is very important to make sure that you work with a dental SEO specialist who ranks themselves on Google for keywords such as “dental SEO expert” and “oral surgery SEO expert.” That way, you know they are aware of how to rank you for various keywords which your prospective new patients are entering.

Pediatric dentists have a unique job in the field of dentistry. It requires much patience and creativity that many dentists may lack. This doesn’t mean that you should be too patient with your pediatric dental SEO expert, though. Pediatric dentistry is typically less competitive than SEO for general dentists. There are two reasons for this; first, pediatric dental practices are most often chosen by mom.
Mom does much research on which pediatric dental office is the best fit for her child. As a result, you may notice that mothers will visit your pediatric dental office before even allowing their child to join as a new patient. Likewise, you don’t necessarily have to fight tooth and nail to get your pediatric dental website to the very top position on Google. Studies show that pediatric dentists will receive substantial traffic despite even being ranked below the fourth position on page one of Google.
In fact, the only cases I see where Google searchers hit page two of Google’s search results usually involve a mom doing her due diligence on a pediatric dentist for her child. Even if she will only click the top result on Google for her own general dentist, she will want to invest extra time in searching – and vetting – the absolute best pediatric dentist for her children. Secondly, pediatric dentist SEO is, in my years of experience, typically a lower competition level than SEO for other types of dentistry.
However, much like an initial oral exam, you should be prepared to do a thorough marketing analysis in order to make sure these rules apply in your case.

Periodontists who feel they need SEO absolutely must perform a marketing analysis in order to see if you’ll actually be able to get the periodontist new patients you want from SEO.

Many prosthodontists earn a living from their fellow dental professionals providing referrals. For prosthodontists who think they could be getting more new patients from SEO should first consult a dental marketing expert who can perform an all-important marketing analysis before making any decision on whether to pursue SEO for prosthodontist new patients.

A careful and thorough marketing analysis can most accurately answer this question. However, typically what I see in my practice of dental SEO is that specialty services have drastically lower search volume than general dentistry keywords.
A higher search volume for general dentist keywords means that the new patient potential in general dentistry SEO is vastly more powerful. While specialty services such as dental implants and Invisalign can bring lots of these types of new patients, it’s important to know that on average you will be able to get more types of new patients by targeting general dentistry keywords. Such general dentistry SEO strategies will often include a percentage of dental implant SEO and Invisalign SEO leads, as well. Overall, SEO marketing for dentists can involve both general dentist SEO and specialty services SEO, depending on your overall strategy.

Yes! Although some start-up dental practices may choose cheap SEO as a way to get the ball rolling, many start-up dental practices are underwhelmed with the actual work that’s being done in their SEO campaign, considering the average start-up dental office SEO campaign is around $399/mo.
That’s why I’ve made my minimum SEO package the industry’s lowest price at $99, and you actually get plenty of SEO items taken care of and monitored for you every month. While SEO for competitive markets won’t be a good fit for my minimum SEO package, many start-up dental practices feel it’s a good place to start. Best of all, SEO for start-up dental practices will usually be a minimal effort at first, as the larger SEO packages are usually best suited for start-up dental websites which want to become more competitive in record-breaking time. The larger packages can only be recommended upon expert review of a marketing analysis report of your dental SEO potential.