A dental practice requires much ongoing time and effort to maintain. You must hire and train new staff, attend educational seminars to hone or acquire new skills, and purchase new equipment to offer more services. Then, having put in all that effort to provide top-flight services, you need to grow your customer base. 

An effective search engine optimization strategy can attract new patients and grow your practice. Like your practice, an effective SEO approach also requires time, knowledge, and content to obtain high organic rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs). Knowing what to do with SEO also means knowing what not to do. 

Read on as we debunk six common dental SEO myths.    

Myth #1: SEO Provides Immediate Results

The bad news is that SEO is not a quick fix. The good news is that it works.

SEO is a long-term strategy requiring ongoing attention and maintenance. A high organic ranking depends on high-quality content about your relevant keywords. The idea is simple — provide the information your customers want.

You are competing with every other dental provider in your area. Just like dental school, there are no shortcuts to success. However, you can rise to the top of SERPs by formulating and implementing a local dental SEO  strategy.

Myth #2: An Exact-Match Domain with Relevant Keywords is All You Need

Decades ago, an exact-match domain, WhiterTeethDental, rose to the top of Google. However, unscrupulous individuals snatched up exact-match domains quickly and filled the sites with unrelated information and advertisements. The algorithms powering SERPs are far more advanced today.  

A relevant exact-match domain does not hurt, as it will make it easier for patients to remember your site, but you need "domain authority." Acquiring domain authority takes time and consistency. That is, your dental practice needs a long-standing website with fresh content.

Myth #3: Keyword-Stuffed Content Works with Google 

This particular myth has legs despite being publicly disavowed. Keyword density indeed mattered at one time. However, Google no longer considers this metric in its relevancy determinations. 

All search engines, Google included, want the same thing as you and your customers: high-quality content that is informative and related to the search query. This does not require barely readable, keyword-laden content written for an unknown algorithm. Doing so may even result in your website being penalized by search engines. However, it does require providing fresh content that addresses your customers' questions.

Myth #4: There Are Shortcuts to the Top of SERPs

This SEO myth centers around tactics referred to as black-hat approaches. The term black hat refers to practices designed to mislead search engines, effectively cutting the line to the top. These tactics include keyword-stuffing, discussed above, but it also involves more nefarious conduct, such as cloaking and link buying. 

The best you can hope for from these techniques is a short-lived jaunt upward in the rankings. The worst-case scenario involves search engines discovering your tactics and penalizing your website. Black-hat methods are akin to a streaker at the Super Bowl — he may be on the field momentarily, but he is not playing in the game. 

Avoid black hat techniques and focus instead on what is known to provide sustainable long-term results. 

Myth #5: All My Dental Practice Needs is a Blog 

Blogs are essential to a strong SEO strategy, but more than a blog is required. Your dental practice should take a comprehensive and integrated approach to its SEO strategy. While such an approach will undoubtedly include a blog, you must also engage in keyword research, social media campaigns, and link building. Then couple that with your content.  It helps to know which are important.

Myth #6: A Social Media Campaign and Link Building are Enough

A thriving social media presence is a fun and easy way to build your brand and company. Similarly, you can and should submit your dental practice to relevant directories to build links, including registering a My Google Business page. Remember that the quality of links matters. Focus your link-building efforts on obtaining fewer, higher-quality links. 

Improve Your SEO

With these myths in mind, you are prepared to learn the SEO metrics to track your dental practice and boost your rankings. Contact our team at Dental Intelligence today to request a demo of our dental practice growth tools. 

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