18 SEO FAQs
Welcome to the dental marketing guy show this is a special episode for those of you who are interested in learning more about what SEO is, how it works, how do you choose a company. There's been a lot of discussion on dentaltown.com in the marketing section of the forums and I would really like to encourage those of you who are confused or perhaps frozen and analysis to consider this episode an answer to some of the more basic frequently asked questions regarding search engine optimization or as we call it SEO.
Welcome to the Dental Marketing Guy Show, I’m the dental marketing guy your SEO expert on dental website. In response to much debate and much confusion going on dentaltown.com in the forums and really the entire dental industry at large. I'm offering 18 answers to your 18 most frequently asked questions about dental SEO let's delve into this.
Number one most frequently asked question by dentists about their SEO- What is SEO? SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization and search engine optimization is the process of making you more visible on search engines.
Number two, what's the difference between paid search results and organic search results? Organic search results are those which you are ranked due to the merits of what your website is about. They are not pay per click paid results require you to pay money to Google being in Yahoo in order to appear in search results.
Number three, what are Meta descriptions and do they still matter? Meta descriptions are the descriptions which appear in this screenshot which show you below the title that is clickable on your website a short description which users can read when they are searching for your dental services. Do they still matter? of course they matter because this affects what people expect to see when they click on your website however for search engine ranking purposes stuffing keywords into the made a description doesn't work as well as a used you and you should avoid that.
Number four, should I optimize my domain name by having keywords in it? It depends, keywords in your domain name do make an impact on your search engine rankings the catch is it depends on your campaign. The way you craft your SEO campaign depends on whether you should have keywords in your domain name. for example, having a keyword of your city or dental or dentist in your domain name may initially help you rank to a certain extent however this should not be confused with comprehensive SEO services there is a limit to how much the keyword in the domain name can help you and in fact some of the best ranked websites have no keywords in them at all and that's because they taken a comprehensive branding and SEO approach what you don't want to do is buy an exact match domain name. for instance dentist your city.com or.net or .anything else this is because the exact match domain may artificially rank your website for a temporary period of time however it can have ramifications for how your campaign performs in the future and be sure to contact an SEO professional who you trust before making the decision on which domain name you should buy.
Number five, how do I know if I'm using the right amount of keywords on my website? This is a difficult question to answer because it depends on your unique case. The general rule of thumb is don't stuff keywords into your text artificially. Make sure the content is natural, that it flows that if you are having coffee with someone reading from your website script, that it would sound normal. There’s no specific magical keyword density for every dental practice instead of looking for some arbitrary number of keywords in your dental website, think about what the user feels and how they are interpreting what you're saying on your website. The number one thing we want to keep in mind is case acceptance and conversion from browsers to buyers. That’s what matters don't worry about SEO, if you're working with an SEO professional who you trust you'll get the keywords just right.
Number six, what's the difference between inbound links and internal links? internal links are those which are on your website they link from your blog post from internal pages, your services pages, they go to the homepage and away from the homepage to other pages. By linking from your home page to, for instance, an Invisalign page you’re pulling authority from the homepage to the invisalign page. This helps the invisalign page rank highly for those types of keywords. Inbound links are very important, every time someone links to your website your search engine rankings can be impacted, usually significantly.
Number seven, how many internal links should I have? Just like keyword stuffing should be avoided also linking too much should also be avoided. Just focus on the user and have your web designer use their discretion on how best to link the inner pages of your website. It would also behoove you during the web development process to have someone who understands SEO to help guide the web designer on the best decision to make with respect to interlinking of your dental website.
Number eight, where is the pipe symbol on my keyboard? here in this screenshot you can see the Apple and PC versions of the pipe key as noted in our YouTube videos this helps you separate sentences or certain keywords so that users can more easily read the title tag. Making it more click-worthy getting you more website traffic.
Number nine, do I need to know code myself to do my own SEO? You don't need to know coding to do every aspect of SEO but certain on page elements do require some coding knowledge. Be sure to work with an SEO professional who understands both the coding on page SEO side and the off page factors which help you rank highly.
Number ten, what is robots.txt? Robots.txt is a page on your website which should be created to help search engine bots understand which pages to crawl which pages to not crawl this help search engine bots become efficient in knowing exactly the content that you want indexed on search engines so that your patients can find you for the keywords that they are entering.
Number eleven, what is the site maps.XML file? This is a file on your website which help search engine bots easily navigate your website.
Number twelve, what's the difference between being indexed and being crawled by search engine bots? Being crawled by search engine bots means that your website has been visited by Google, Bing, or Yahoos so called spiders. They crawl on your website to see what it's about. From that crawling they make a decision on whether or not those pages should be indexed. Indexation is when your website is able to be found on search engines.
Number thirteen, how can I see which pages on my website or indexed? It as easy as typing in sight S ITE: www.yourdomain.com, whatever it may be to find the pages on your site that are indexed by search engines.
Number fourteen, why do my images need alt text? Alt text is what you label your images. This is very important because search engine bots can easily read what your images are about. By using alt text you are telling search engine bots what your photos are all about.
Number fifteen, how long does it take to see SEO results? This depends and you should have an SEO professional assess your unique situation. some of the factors which impact your rankings and how fast you can see SEO results depend on these things- how much content you create, the quality of that content meaning how much users engage with that content, and if you're a big or a small site with lots of domain authority or very little. The age of your domain name also impact your SEO. bigger websites with more pages tend to outrank smaller websites with less pages.
Number sixteen, very important question. Should I hire someone to do my SEO for me? Hiring someone to do your SEO is a very big decision and it can be extremely beneficial in gaining you new patients. However, there are some dangers, if your SEO company doesn't know the modern rules of dental SEO, beware. make sure that your SEO company understands the modern rules of SEO for more information on what the modern rules of dental SEO are check out my blog post of the top 100 factors on dental SEO.
Number seventeen, what's a good goal to set for my SEO campaign? Typically if a site is very low ranked on search engines, meaning it's under page 3 this would best be measured by increased rankings. You’re not going to get new patients immediately from going from page 10 to page 2. But we will be able to measure the progress through those rankings. Once you do reach page 1 the goals can change a bit, the number of organic visitors meaning those who come through Google, Bing, and Yahoos unpaid search results is a good figure to look at. ultimately the only figure that really matters is how many new patients are you getting from your SEO campaign and even beyond that, what's the case acceptance rate these are the figures that really matter the most your, bottom line.
Number eighteen, what has changed about SEO in the last few years? A lot has changed and many of the people who were doing SEO four or five years ago are no longer doing SEO. This is because SEO has become a real dental marketing strategy not something that is easily done in isolation from your dental practice. Be sure to work with an SEO company who understands dental marketing, this will help you increase case acceptance and ultimately help your new patient flow.
I hope these answers have helped you in your dental marketing campaign as always for more information please visit my dental marketing agency.
