SEO for Dentists: The Definitive Guide for 2024

How do you do SEO for dentists?

In this definitive guide, I’ll reveal the SEO tactics top dental practices use to attract new patients from organic search.

You’ll learn:

And so much more. Let’s get into it.

Understanding the Importance of SEO for Dentists

Prospective patients search on Google for dentists 2,807,200 times per month across the United States.

There is a high demand for dental services, which is why you must have a dental SEO strategy focused on relevant keywords in your local area.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a new dentist or an established one; a well-executed search engine optimization strategy can help you attract more patients in any specific area you’re servicing.

Don’t get me wrong:

Traditional marketing methods like word of mouth or referrals should be your #1 priority.

But after that, you need a primary channel that can send you prospective patients 24/7, 365.

SEO makes that possible.

What is Dentist SEO?

Dental Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of ranking for relevant keywords your ideal clients are searching for. The more relevant the keywords, the more qualified the website visitors will be.

And this inevitably will lead to higher conversion rates.

Google uses over 200 ranking factors to determine what website should rank and in what order. This is why most practices hire dental SEO experts to handle this intense process.

But even then, I still think it’s wise that every dentist knows what a real SEO process looks like. That way, when you’re ready to find a partner, you’ll know exactly what to look for.

Why is SEO Important for Dentists?

You can use dental marketing strategies to improve online visibility and attract potential patients.

But SEO is different.

You don’t need to dance on TikTok to get more patients.

Instead, you can tap into the best lead generation source that works for you 24/7, 365. Google is that source, and it’s superior to other digital marketing channels for one reason: Intent.

For example, when scrolling on social media, advertisers must interrupt you to get your attention. These platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, try to show you the most relevant content based on your behavior and interests.

But the challenge is that you don’t have any clear intent when scrolling on social media.

The opposite is true with SEO or driving leads through organic search. Because of keyword data, you know exactly what a potential patient is looking for.

Conduct Dental Keyword Research

Keyword research is finding search terms that you’ll want to rank for in Google Maps (sometimes called the local pack or 3-pack) with your Google Business Profile (formally Google My Business) and in Google’s traditional organic search. These are also the keywords you’d want to use for Google Ads.

A well-executed search marketing campaign will allow you to occupy as much real estate as possible on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

This means you’d rank #1 in Google Ads, which is typically above the business listings and traditional organic results:

Then you’d also rank #1 in the local pack:

And finally, you’d want your website rank to be #1 in the traditional SERPs:

This marketing tactic allows you to dominate the local search results, which means your dental practice will get the most clicks and website traffic.

Keep in mind:

Ranking on the first page of Google is no longer a valid SEO goal. The SERPs are loaded with features that eat up clicks.

That’s why your new SEO goal should be to rank in the top 3 if you want to generate maximum organic CTR (Click Through Rate).

How to Perform Keyword Research for Your Dental Website

The last thing you want to do is guess what your local patients might search in Google. Instead, use the SEO tools professionals use to streamline keyword research.

My favorite tool is Semrush.

Here’s how to use it to find keywords that your target audience is searching for right now:

Open Semrush, go to the Keyword Manager, and enter a broad phrase like “dentist [YOUR CITY]”:

Semrush will then spit out keywords relevant to your local area:

Don’t worry about how you’ll optimize for these right now. Instead, you need to focus on building a keyword database of commercial phrases.

“Commercial” is the intent behind the query.

For example, let’s say someone is searching for “dental implants in St Louis.” The intent is clear because the probability that they’re in the market for dental implants is very high.

Armed with this intel, we can create the most relevant, high-quality web page to perfectly satisfy their intent.

All of your SEO marketing efforts should revolve around supporting these keywords with commercial intent because they’ll get you the best Return on Investment (ROI) for your SEO efforts.

Top Dental Keywords to Rank for

Your dental practice can use many keywords to attract more patients, and they are pretty consistent across most cities. If you have a new website, targeting keyword phrases with lower competition is smart.

And as you build up authority, you can then have a chance to rank for the more competitive phrases.

Here are keyword combinations that typically have good local search volume for a healthcare provider like a dentist:

• dentist + [CITY]
• dentist near me
• cosmetic dentist + [CITY]
• dental implants + [CITY]
• teeth whitening + [CITY]
• emergency dentist + [CITY]
• pediatric dentist + [CITY]
• family dentist + [CITY]
• sedation dentistry + [CITY]
• dental care + [CITY]
• dentures + [CITY]
• invisalign + [CITY]
• veneers + [CITY]

Optimize Your Dental Website for SEO

Now that you’re equipped with keywords your prospective patients use, it’s time to optimize your website.

Optimize Your Website Structure

Sometimes, people confuse website structure with URL structure. So, let’s clear things up by starting with what site architecture is. In short, it concerns how you link to pages on your website.

One of the most important parts of this process is how you use your main navigation.

In short, you want your primary dental services linked in your sitewide navigation. These service pages will typically target your core service and your primary location.

Linking to these pages is critical because it helps with website SEO by improving crawling and indexing and supports user experience (UX).

URL structure, conversely, is about constructing your URL (not internal linking).

Many different types of URL structures work, but here are the ones we typically use depending on the size of the dental practice:

No Folders

This is my favorite, and I’m using it for this blog post you’re reading.

Instead of having a bunch of complicated folders, you go right off the root domain.

Folders

A folder-based structure is a good strategy if you’re targeting many locations.

Take a look at Delta Dental’s URL structure:

• /us/en/member/find-a-dentist/missouri/st-louis-dentists.html

They have the country (US), the state (Missouri), the city (St Louis), and core offering (dentist)

Here’s the key takeaway: ensure the keyword phrase is in no matter what URL structure you pick.

Create High-Quality Dental Content

Content is a broad term that applies to every page on your dentist’s website, including service pages, company pages, and blog content.

Each page will use different website content frameworks to match the intent.

For example, if you’re targeting “dental implants st louis,” you’ll want to build a service page with a conversion-focused design.

On the other hand, if you’re targeting “dental implant statistics in St Louis,” you’ll want to create an informational blog post.

Sadly, most local businesses, like dentists, execute content marketing incorrectly. In many cases, they’ll target informational keywords like “What is a dental implant.”

This isn’t 100% wrong, but it’s only 50% effective.

Here’s the deal:

You don’t want to target keywords with national intent because A) you won’t rank and B) they aren’t relevant to your target location.

Here’s a better approach:

Target keywords that include your core service offering and the location.

Some examples we would deploy for an SEO campaign for a dentist in St Louis would be:

• What’s the Average Cost for a Dental Implant in St Louis?
• How Many Dentists Are There in St Louis?
• The History of Dentistry in St. Louis
• The Future of Dentistry: Technological Advances from St. Louis Clinics

The key is focusing on topics with unique answers specific to the target location. You don’t want to target keywords with the same answers no matter where you like “What is a Tooth.”

There needs to be a unique variance for the specific location.

Don’t Forget About On-Page SEO

Creating keyword-driven pages is the lead domino for improving your search engine rankings. However, you must also ensure your SEO content is properly optimized.

The best way to do this is BEFORE you create your SEO content.

Here’s a simple process you can follow:

Use an On-Page SEO Tool

Surfer is a good option. Go into Surfer, enter your keyword into the SERP analyzer, open the audit report, and copy the NLP keywords.

Now go into ChatGPT, enter the following prompt, and use your NLP keywords:

Create an SEO content brief/outline for the keyword phrase "[KEYWORD]" using the following NLP keywords:
[NLP KEYWORDS]

ChatGPT will spit out a solid outline.

Go back to Surfer and create a Content Editor report with the target keyword. Paste the content outline from ChatGPT:

You can then send this content editor report and outline to a copywriter to create the content.

Once the content is optimized for NLP, you must ensure the core on-page SEO elements are in place.

• Your primary keyword should be in the URL, title tags, meta description, H1 tag, first sentence, and a variation in the H2.

Doing this alone will put you ahead of 80% of dental websites.

Mobile Optimization for Dental Websites

Once you’ve nailed your content marketing strategy, it’s time to ensure a solid user experience (UX).

Two levers influence UX the most: mobile experience and loading speed.

The key is to use a responsive website design compatible with mobile, tablet, and desktops. In general, your web design strategy should also be conversion-focused.

That means having your phone number above the fold (typically in the menu or above it):

Also, make sure the phone number is clickable on mobile to ensure you get the most phone calls possible.

Ensure you have lead generation forms or CTAs above the fold on all of your commercial landing pages.

A well-converting design won’t be afraid to share their contact information.

Lastly, focus on building an effective homepage design.

A potential patient should see that your practice has years of experience, a strong track record, credentials, and great online reviews.

You want to clarify that you’re the best dentist for them in that area.

Establishing expertise is also a big part of Google E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines.

Don’t be afraid to show off your experience and expertise as a dentist.

Most importantly, all of the informational content on your blog should be written or fact-checked by a subject matter expert (typically the lead dentist).

Some themes like GeneratePress allow you to have a responsive website design out of the box.

However, I’d still consider working with a designer and web developer to ensure your site is effective.

The second big part of technical SEO is your loading speed.

Go to Google PageSpeed Insights to test it.

If your dental practice’s website scores lower than 80, you’ll need to turn loading into a project. The good news is that most marketing services can handle this for you.

Local SEO for Dentists

Ranking in the local pack needs to be your #1 priority because it typically sits above the traditional Google search results.

And everything you’ve learned so far will influence your local pack rankings.

But there are some specific variables you need to optimize for:

How to Optimize Your Dental Practice for Local SEO

Here are specific actions you need to take to maximize your local SEO performance:

1. Have a Physical Dental Office Address in the City You’re Targeting

You’re probably thinking, thanks, Captain Obvious, but it’s the most critical local pack ranking factor.

You can get everything else right, but if you don’t have an address in the target city, you won’t rank.

2. Create and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

If you haven’t already, go here to create your GBP and add as much detail as possible.

3. Create a Process for Generating Patient Reviews

You can generate a review link with your Google Business Profile. Share this link with your happy patients and make it a habit to collect reviews.

4. Optimize Your NAP-W Information Across All Online Directories

NAP-W is an acronym for Name, Address, Phone, and Website. Your NAP-W information must be consistent across all local directories like Yelp and Yellow Pages.

You can audit your listings using BrightLocal.

You’ll often need to clean up your citations and build new citations on trusted directories.

The final piece of the local SEO equation is to grow your website authority through backlinks.

SEO Link Building for Dental Websites

Link building is the process of getting backlinks from other websites. It’s one of the most important SEO ranking factors, but it must be done carefully.

Incorrect or dangerous link building practices are the single biggest penalty risk you have in SEO.

A penalty from Google will wreck your search rankings and immediately negatively impact your online presence.

The good news is that you can avoid that altogether by using link-building techniques that work (are are safe).

Link Building Strategies for Dentists

The key to effective and safe link building is to focus on high-quality content. The truth is that your commercial pages aren’t linkable.

So, you need to create assets that people want to link.

I showed you how to create such assets earlier, but it’s best to focus on data-driven assets, free tools, or anything valuable for your local audience or other websites in the dental industry.

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, use this ChatGPT prompt:

Give me 10 content marketing ideas for a [TYPE OF DENTIST] dentist in [LOCATION] that can act as link bait.

It’ll give you a good foundation to build upon. Then, create 3-5 assets and begin the linkbuilding process.

I recommend using what I call the Relevancy Pyramid.

In short, you should focus on your most relevant link opportunities and slowly work your way down the pyramid.

For example, if you’re a St Louis dentist, the best backlink you could get is from another St Louis dentist. There are a few problems, though.

First, your competitors aren’t likely to link to you, and second, the **** of opportunities is tiny.

So, you’d need to move down the pyramid to widen your base on opportunities.

For dentists, I’d look for opportunities to score backlinks on dentist websites that compete in your city.

You can offer a guest post or interview exchange.

SEO Analytics and Reporting for Dentists

The best SEO companies will set up or optimize your Google Analytics account and likely create an SEO dashboard to track performance.

But you might be wondering how you quantify your SEO results.

Understanding SEO Metrics

There are two different types of metrics you should track in an SEO campaign: leading and lagging.

Leading metrics like the quantity of SEO assets created or the volume of backlinks acquired are within our control. Both of these should climb at a consistent speed every month.

Lagging metrics are those that are byproducts of the work.

For example, your results today are the product of what you did or didn’t do yesterday, weeks ago, or even months ago.

Some of the best-lagging metrics for local SEO are impressions, website clicks, and phone calls from your Google Business Profile.

On the traditional SEO front, you should benchmark and track organic traffic (Google Analytics), on-site conversions (phone calls and lead form submissions), and impressions and clicks from Google Search Console.

SEO Services for Dentists

You have a few choices when executing an SEO campaign for your dental practice. First, you can try to do it yourself. I’ve given you plenty to work with today, and you can do many things yourself.

The second option is to leave it to a professional and invest in dental SEO services.

What to Look for in an SEO Agency for Dentists

Many dental SEO marketing agencies are out there, but how do you pick the right one? Ask them the following questions:

What is your SEO process?

SEO is a multilayered discipline that requires keyword research, SEO competitor analysis, technical SEO, on-page SEO, SEO content creation, linkable asset development, and link acquisition.

If the prospective SEO agency only discusses a few of these elements, you’re investing in an incomplete SEO strategy.

It’s like building a foundation for a crown but never putting the crown on the tooth. You can’t just do some parts of an SEO campaign.

You need all of these elements working in harmony to produce long-term, sustainable outcomes.

What’s your reporting like?

Be careful if they only mention analytics and dashboards but don’t mention reporting on the deliverables. Many shady SEO companies engage in black hat SEO.

They will be super secretive about what they’re doing to your website. If they say, “It’s proprietary” or “We can’t share our trade secrets,” run for the hills.

A legitimate SEO agency will share all the leading and lagging metrics for your SEO campaign. You should be able to see what they’re doing every single month.

How will we communicate?

Good SEO companies understand the importance of consistent and frequent communication. If the prospective agency says they’ll send a report once a month, then they don’t value transparency and client service.

Imagine if you only spoke to your employees once per month. How difficult would it be to know what they’re doing or how well they’re doing their job?

How Much Does SEO for Dentists Cost?

A dental practice with one location in a major metro (like St Louis) should expect to invest around $5,000/mo into local SEO services. The investment may be lower if you’re in a smaller city like Chesterfield.

You’ll likely need to invest $10,000/mo or more if you’re a multi-location dental practice.

Conclusion: The Future of SEO for Dentists

Understanding the SEO process is wise when hiring the right dental SEO company. However, you likely wouldn’t advise your patients to perform a DIY root canal.

The same is true for your SEO.

You CAN do it, but is it worth the risk and opportunity cost?

You’ll have to answer that question for yourself and your practice, but we can help if you’re interested.