How To Combine the Power of SEO and Dental Content Marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO) and dental content marketing are unfamiliar terms for most dentists. Even tech-savvy individuals will most likely find the world of web design to be a frustrating place. Doing marketing on top of that can sound incredibly intimidating.

However, that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost.

In this guide, we’ll give you the following:

• A short introduction to content marketing for dentists
• An explanation of how SEO can help dentists
• Three strategies that combine SEO and content marketing

There’s a lot to cover, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

What Is Dental Content Marketing?

Content marketing for dentists means using different content, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, guides, articles, photos, and others to:

• Manage customer relationships
• Generate marketing leads
• Advertise your products and services

Excellent practices look something like this:

• Posting before and after photos of your clients around your clinic
• Printing self-made brushing and flossing guides to give your patients
• Being a guest speaker at a high school health awareness seminar

It’s no different online. Dentists can and do use similar practices to grow their businesses online. However you choose to do it, content marketing must be innovative and cohesive at its core.

How Does SEO Help Dentists?

SEO is a set of tools designed to unlock your website’s potential.

Think of SEO as braces for your website. It's there to make your content look its best to search engines. There's inherently nothing wrong with what you're already doing. However, there may be complications down the line if you ignore the little problems that show up here and there.

Just as braces need tightening on a schedule, your website SEO needs fine tuning. Start SEO by adjusting minor aspects of your website or content. Experiment until you find what works best for you, then repeat. This tweaking pattern continues until you feel everything is where it should be.

Here are some common SEO elements to familiarize yourself with:

• Keywords are markers search engines use to match your content with a search query.
• Content is anything you provide for consumption, such as blog posts and pictures.
• Web Design is everything from how your website looks to how it functions.
• Links are connections within (internal) or leading to or from (external) your website.
• Videos are an entertaining way to share critical information with your audience.

The goal is to bring out the best in your website. That is why SEO marketing techniques for dentists work well with high-quality content and vice-versa.

3 Ways to Apply SEO in Dental Content Marketing

SEO and dental content marketing are inseparable concepts. Together, these two practices work to deliver impressive results for businesses. It’s such an efficient pairing that plenty of online tools give you the best of both worlds at once.

Let’s look at three practical applications that connect you with new customers today.

     1. Add Tech Tools to Your Website

Integrate tools and applications that improve your site’s user experience (UX). Notable must-have tools for dentists include:

• Chatbots, which are customizable answering machines for your business. Using artificial intelligence (AI), they are your 24/7 customer service agents that respond to trigger words. For example, you could program chatbots to offer posts on sensitive teeth to someone complaining of tooth pain.
• Telehealth allows patients to access healthcare online. Providing critical services like general consultations and urgent care is good for SEO and UX. Remember, user-friendly websites mean happy users and search engines love that.
• Landing Pages are versatile web pages that serve one purpose: to get results. A good landing page would be an introduction to your clinic and your accomplishments in dentistry with a call-to-action (CTA) to book an appointment or contact your office.

AI and tech tools can be complicated, but don’t let that stop you. Many free and paid third-party website plug-ins, services, and applications don’t require coding knowledge.

     2. Create and Collaborate With Locals

Collaborations are an excellent way to receive natural backlinks and promote your content. Dentists can boost their marketing power by partnering with influencers, bloggers, and local community members.

Here are some ideas you can use to promote your clinic:

• Be a guest speaker on a podcast or radio show. Talk about the dental health issues you encounter in your daily practice and how listeners can avoid them.
• Offer to give a presentation on good dental hygiene to school children. Make children more interested and less intimidated by dentist visits.
• Reach out to parent groups about teaching children to manage their sugar intake during holidays like Easter, Halloween, and Christmas.

Not all collaborations will result in backlinks to your website. However, direct advertising is an excellent benefit that’s just as good.

     3. Tweak Your Appearance in Snippets

Snippets are short summaries of web pages that appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). Several elements appear in snippets, like the article’s title and a two- to three-line excerpt. A title and summary are normally enough to give searchers an idea of the contents.

However, most content management systems (CMS) today include tools that allow you to modify snippets through metadata. Essentially, this means you can have a snippet title and page summary that differ from your article’s actual title and content.

The optimal kind of snippet, however, is called a rich snippet. Rich snippets are made with structured data and can contain one or more enhancements, such as the following:

• Images give searchers a preview of your web page’s subject or content. If your website lacks visual content, consider adding images that create a welcoming and friendly feeling. Pictures of happy dentists and patients will help put prospective patients at ease.
• Ratings and reviews from your patients help convince prospects to visit your clinic. Prospects conduct their own research before booking an appointment with a healthcare provider. The faster you convince them of your fit, the sooner they will convert.
• Accordion menu, which provides quick access to major sections of your article. This works exceptionally well with articles that answer questions or discuss multiple topics, such as different types of dental procedures.

Structured data is not something you will want to create from scratch. Instead, find one of the many useful plug-ins that make rich snippets easy to create.

Summing Up

SEO and content marketing are nothing like dentistry, but that doesn’t mean they are impossible to do. Installing tools, plug-ins, and extensions are simple steps that anyone can learn and do. Leverage yourself, your clinic, and your expertise to do the rest.

Need help? Contact Digital Authority Partners to work with our team of content marketing experts.