Post by Max Cron, Marketing Assistant for Southern Dental.  Southern Dental is a New Orleans Cosmetic Dental practice. Max helps out with optimizing their website, blog posts and content for Google search results locally in Louisiana.

How Ranking Highly on Google Helps Attract More Dental Patients

Ranking high on Google is a method that definitely helps to attract more dental patients. While you work hard fixing smiles, the goal of many businesses is to continue growing their client base, and the dental industry is no different. If you are looking to grow your number of patients, attracting them through Google is one of the best ways to directly reach individuals who are already looking for your service. If you want to know how ranking highly on Google helps attract more dental patients, this guide can help. Ranking among the first few results can dramatically increase the number of people who use your business. When people conduct a local search for a dentist in your area, you’ll want to be one the top hit. But in order to come in number one on a local search, you’ll need to understand SEO and how to implement a strategy that can get you there. 

What is a Local Search? When someone uses Google to conduct a local search, they are looking for a service or product in a particular area. As dentists, targeting a local SEO strategy rather than a general SEO strategy can get your company name in front of potential patients in your own area. These searches include when individuals look within a particular city or state, or a “near me” search. Being optimized for a local search can help you rank high on Google nationally. 

How Ranking High on Google Can Help Get New Patients When someone is looking for a new dentist in their area, they are likely going to go to Google and conduct a local search. This local search will pull up all the dentist’s office in the area, but because people are not likely to browse through pages and pages of results, they’re only going to pay attention to the first few results. If you are able to get your name within the first few results, many more potential patients will come into contact with your name and your website. While each person who does a search will not choose to use your service, you will become much more visible than you would if your page was ranking on the second page or beyond. For a service like dentistry, successful marketing can be difficult to come across. Because your patients only need your services at a particular time, they will not always identify with your marketing efforts and they might go unnoticed. But, SEO is different because it pulls your marketing efforts to the forefront at the exact time that your potential patients are looking for it. If you focus your marketing on developing a strong local SEO strategy, you can consistently get your name in front of the exact individuals who are looking for a service you provide, thus increasing your number of new patients. 

How to Rank High in Google There are a number of ways to increase where you rank on a local SEO search. If you’re looking to get new patients through the power of search engine optimization, here are just a few things you can do to increase your visibility:

Get Reviews Google likes to recommend services and products that other people have enjoyed in the past, so one of the best ways to rank highly on a local SEO search is to get positive reviews from your current clients. Setting up a Google MyBusiness page where clients and customers can leave reviews about the experience they had at your dentist’s office can help push your company name to the top of the search list. 

Connect with Your Address and Phone Number Google uses a number of clues from your website and other pages to determine your area of service. Be sure to include the name of the city or cities you operate in on all your pages. Include a correct physical address and phone number on your contact page and on all your social media pages. This can help Google associate your website, industry, and city together so when someone does a local search, your company will appear. As marketing continues to move into the digital world, you can’t afford to not do everything you can to appear on the first page of Google search results. Consider a local search like the Yellow Pages of a phone book. While people used to flip through the Yellow Pages to find the service they were looking for, they now turn to Google for the same information. If you want to begin ranking highly on Google to attract more dental patients, be sure you are listed and your patients can easily find you. About the Author Max is a Marketing Assistant for Southern Dental. He helps out with optimizing their website, blog posts and content for Google search results locally in Louisiana.

How Ranking High on Google Helps Attract More Dental Patients