How Can Dentists Benefit from Local SEO?

A dentist in the digital age needs a web presence. If you run a dental practice, you may already know this.

However, you might also find that your website isn’t sending as many new patients your way as you expected it to. That might be due to the nature of your web traffic.

For a local business like a dental practice to thrive, its website needs to attract the right kind of visitors. Local SEO for dentists can help you transform your site, transforming your business as a result.

What is Local SEO?

A website can’t deliver any value to a business if no one visits it. With search engine optimization (SEO), a business owner can direct more traffic to their site. SEO helps them achieve this goal by helping a site’s pages and content rank high in relevant Google search results pages.

That’s important. According to Forbes, the first page of Google search results accounts for about 71% of clicks. Your site will get considerably more traffic if it shows up on the first page of Google results when users search for the types of information your website offers.

That said, not all traffic is valuable traffic. If you’re a dentist, you benefit most from web traffic consisting of local users. Local SEO’s purpose is to help you generate this type of traffic.

Reasons a dentist should prioritize local SEO include:

Improving Visibility in Your Area

Someone searching for general dentistry information could live anywhere. Even if they find your website, they likely won’t schedule an appointment if they live across the country.

Someone searching for a dentist in their area will use certain search terms and perform certain search behaviors that differentiate them from other users. A local SEO strategy can help you tailor your web presence so that your content is more likely to show up in the results for these types of searches.

Improving visibility in your region will naturally help you attract more web traffic from local users. Doing so is key to making effective use of your marketing budget. In addition, you’ll be competing with less web content if you aim for local relevance.

Improving Reputation

It’s not uncommon for a proper local SEO strategy to translate to better Google MyBusiness reviews, more positive mentions on social media, etc. These improvements to your local reputation can help you grow your dentistry practice with relative ease. Instead of attempting to convince potential patients that you may have the qualifications and skill necessary to serve them, you can trust that your positive online reputation will speak for itself.

Focusing on the Needs of Your Area

Different types of people need different dentistry services. For example, dental care for an elderly person may not be exactly the same as dental care for a young child whose primary teeth are still developing.

Your website content shouldn’t merely address the needs of a generic patient in need of vague dentistry services. Your web presence should offer content speaking to the needs of the people in your region. You’ll find doing so is easier if you embrace local SEO.

Local SEO Delivers a Strong ROI

Need more convincing? Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recommends local SEO for business owners in part because it offers a strong return-on-investment. If you run a dental practice, local SEO can help you consistently attract more patients while making the most of your marketing budget.

You can also partner with local SEO experts to optimize your web presence if you’re not sure where to start. What’s most important is to get to work! The sooner you begin developing and implementing a local SEO strategy, the sooner you’ll see major benefits from it.

Main Street ROI offers local SEO services to dentists and other local business owners.