The meta title and description of your web page play an essential role in your site’s search engine optimization (SEO). By using SEO best practices, your dental clinic can climb the search rankings to appear at the top of the results when someone searches for local dental practices.

Below, we give a rundown of the best practices for creating optimized meta titles and descriptions, also known as meta tags.

How Do the Meta Title and Description Help with SEO?

Your meta title and description describe the content of your web page, providing a short summary for individuals using Google or other search engines to find dental practices.

Meta tags have two important functions:

• Letting search engines know what your content is about
• Influencing users to click your link instead of the competition’s

Optimizing your meta title and description for each page is the key to increasing your website’s click-through rate, leading to more new patients for your dental clinic.

Why You Should Optimize Meta Title Tags for Dental SEO

The title tag represents the title of your web page, allowing users to quickly identify what the blog post or service page is about. It should be unique and eye-catching, leading to more clicks from potential dental patients. 

Follow Title Tag Best Practices

SEO experts have determined the best practices for creating title tags for Google and other search engines. When deciding the right title tag for your dental web page, you should follow these guidelines for best results:

• Keep titles under 60 characters
• Use action words to answer what, how, why, and where
• Avoid using duplicate title tags

Use Target Keywords

Target keywords are a vital part of SEO, so you should include them in your title tags. The keywords you use depend on the page content, but they should be words or phrases that users commonly search for to find the dental service you’re offering.

Examples of these include:

• “Dentist near me”
• “Dental implants”
• “Teeth whitening cost”

Write with a Unique Voice

If you’re competing with other dental practices, it’s crucial to make your title tags stand out from the competition. Potential dental patients are more likely to click on a link with an interesting title that matches their search intent. Use descriptive words to highlight the unique selling points of your dental practice, such as “Affordable Dental Implants in New York.”

Optimizing Meta Descriptions for Dental SEO

While meta descriptions don’t directly influence search engines to improve your ranking, they can indirectly help your dental practices reach the top of search results by improving your click-through rate.

Use the Right Character Limit

You should keep your description under 155 characters. If the description is longer than 155 characters, Google will cut off the text, making it less likely for users to click on your web page.

Add a Strong CTA

One of the most important aspects of a meta description is the call-to-action (CTA), which prompts the user to take a specific action that leads to the solution they’re searching for.

For example, a CTA can be:

• Learn more
• Call us now
• Schedule an appointment today

Include Target Keywords

It’s crucial to include your target keyword and other related keywords in your meta description. It does two things to help optimize your web page’s performance. It influences Google to use your meta description in the results and attracts more users by matching their search query.

Use Actionable Language

A description with an active voice can draw more potential dental patients in by addressing their problem and describing the solution your web page provides. A clear, actionable description is much more attractive to users than one that gives a dull summary of the content.

Make it Unique but Relevant

Your description should be unique and compelling, but it should always relate to the content on the page. Search engines will know if you use a description that isn’t relevant to the content on your page, hurting your ranking in the search results.

Optimize Your Dental Practice with Dental Intelligence

With Dental Intelligence, you can discover the most important details about the state of your dental clinic using our innovative software that connects with your existing systems. With the information we give you access to, you can streamline your office operations and save hundreds of hours monthly.

Schedule a demo today and see how Dental Intelligence can help intelligently shape the future of your practice.