Your Role in Your SEO Success

Homepage Content:

The home page is one of the most important pages on your website, both to potential new patients and to search engines. Having a home page that represents the unique character of your practice with a clear path to become a new patient is vital to new patient conversion.

Main Pages On The Top Menu Bar:

If your website makes use of some of our stock content, consider providing us with modifications to the content for those pages so we can tell your story. This is not only good for search engines, but for potential new patients who are interested in learning about your unique perspective on those subjects. Keep in mind that too many pages on the main menu bar can be a distraction from the ultimate goal — getting the visitor to the contact page.

Website Images:

Updated and professional photos show a visitor what it will be like to come in for their initial visit as a new patient. Think of this as your opportunity to make a first impression. Welcome them to your clinic with a photo of the outside of the office (taken on a nice sunny day) and include pictures of the front desk with smiling staff members greeting a patient. In addition, images of you performing a new patient exam or showing a patient their x-rays can help in the new patient conversion journey. Most importantly, always include a great headshot of the doctor(s).

Blogging is a great way to become the expert in your area. It’s not just easy, but a fantastic way to get new, unique content that is constantly changing onto your site—a bonus in the eyes of search engines.

Your Smile Marketing website comes with blog that you can craft articles for. After your write a post, publish it to your website or have us do it for you. After it’s live, make sure the post gets in front of your target audience by sending an email blast and/or sharing it on social media. Here are some blogging topics focused on building practice authority:

• Weekly Q & A or a patient question of the week
• Case or patient of the month—write about how the patient presented himself or herself in the clinic, course of treatment, and how the patient is doing now
• Healthy tips (e.g. the proper way to floss, caring for kids’ teeth)
• Recipes for smile-friendly snacks

We recommend combining blog posts about dental with topics focused on your local community. The goal is that others in your community will want to link to your blog posts for their viewers to read. Here are some locally focused topics:

• Write a series of blog posts about your community and why you love to practice there. Introduce readers to other local businesses and describe what makes your community a great place to live and work.
• Commit to sponsor a local event and write about it before and after, for example, a local 5K or Fun Run. Get the most out of the event by writing a post that announces the race and one afterwards letting readers know how it went.
• Offer a scholarship to a local student in your area. Then, ask your local business association, school, or Chamber of Commerce to promote it on their website. This would also work to sponsor an athlete for summer camp or something similar.
• Feature a “Team Member of the Month”. Include their favorite places to visit in your community. Where do they like to have lunch? What’s their favorite recreation in your area? Consider sharing your post with those folks to encourage social sharing. If you post it on Facebook, tag the relevant local businesses.
• Give lectures or roundtables on health related topics at your local library. Write a post promoting it, snap a few photos of the event and write a post afterward as a recap.
• Write about other local “like-minded” businesses that align with your philosophy: i.e. health food stores, bulk stores, organic farms, etc.
• Attend other events sponsored by local businesses in your community. Take some photos and write about them to recap. Again, share it on Facebook and tag the businesses that were present.

Great content isn’t enough. It needs to be promoted and shared to reach beyond your network of current patients and impact new patient production. Social Media can be effective for:

• Communicating with current patients and supporting the referral process
• Engaging and networking with like minded community members
• Sharing new patient testimonials
• Sharing content created for your website

If your website doesn’t contain links or buttons to your social profiles, please reach out to us. You may also consider a paid campaign on Facebook to grow your brand awareness or to support a particular initiative or event.

Reviews add social proof to the value of a business and a strong signal to search engines about the authority of a website, particularly reviews on your Google My Business Listing. Reviews should be obtained naturally (for example, they should not be done from a computer in the practice). Once you have 5 reviews, Google will often show a 5-star graphic next to your listing, a strong signal of social proof for conversion.

Adding subscribers to your website helps in two ways.

1. Each month an email goes to your subscribers with summaries of your newsletters and blog posts. This encourages past visitors to revisit your website and engage in your content. If they post it to social media or make comments on the blog, this further signals to search engines that you have great content on your website. Learn more about managing your subscribers.
2. It helps us track your new patients for you. Our new patient tracker can actually track whether or not a new patient that has been added as a subscriber has visited your website prior to commencing care. Learn more here