SEO

Orthodontic practices today spend thousands of dollars on Internet marketing to engage new patients online and encourage them to contact their office for a new-patient consultation. Unfortunately, no matter how flashy your Web site is, the ability for patients to find you quickly on the Internet is dependent upon one key factor: Is your Web site easy to find on local search?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the science and art of enhancing the standing of your Web site and Web 2.0 marketing elements (blogs, video, and social networking sites) on the search engines in your local targeted demographic. It affords you the opportunity to deliver your personalized PR message to new patients, over and over again, at the exact time they are looking for orthodontic services in your area. Internet marketing is the most powerful, inexpensive marketing tool available today—if set up correctly. SEO is the first and most critical piece of the Internet marketing puzzle because if a new patient can’t find your Web site, they will go to your competitors’.

How Search Changed Society

When Google came on the scene only a short 10 years ago, no one anticipated the impact it would have on the Internet and global society. In order to keep up, businesses large and small must alter their thinking and marketing strategies to compete in an Internet-based society in which consumers have changed the rules of marketing to meet their wants and needs, not those of business owners.

Online competition is fierce in this economy. It includes general dentists, pedodontists, and orthodontic peers vying for the attention of online consumers with disposable income. Prospective new patients have a larger selection of options to choose from, and these options are much easier to find with local search. Gone are the days of direct mail, newspapers, television, and radio as the marketing medium of choice. Consumers today shop and compare treatment providers online and often schedule multiple consultations to ensure that they are making the right decision to get the best possible return on their investment.

SEO, when set up correctly, ensures that your site indexes correctly on local search results with specific orthodontic keyword phrases that potential patients use when looking for treatment and services. Hopefully, your site shows up on the top of the list, preferably ahead of the competition. If not, it is time to check under the hood of your Web site and Internet marketing efforts.

What Is SEO?

SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of free traffic to your Web site from a search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, or Bing by natural, “organic” search results. This is not to be confused with paid advertising to improve page ranking or paid listings from databases such as yellow pages.com or dexknows.com.

The top-targeted local keyword phrases relating to orthodontic services are the following:

1. orthodontist [your city and state];
2. braces [your city and state];
3. Invisalign [your city and state]; and
4. orthodontics [your city and state].

SEO is usually about making small modifications to different parts of your Web site that you never pay attention to or see. Your Web site is coded for the search engines by your Webmaster. This is done in HTML language you can’t see or understand. Your Webmaster’s knowledge and execution of SEO can make or break your Internet marketing presence. When separated, SEO changes might seem like minor adjustments to the site, but when melded together, they can be dynamic.

No matter the size of your practice or what your experience level or professional background, everyone looks the same in the “eyes” of a search engine. Understanding the basics of SEO and how it affects all the different pieces of the Internet marketing puzzle will allow you to intelligently monitor your online efforts when outsourcing services or overseeing staff.

How SEO Works

Think of the various search engines as massive computer databases sending out hundreds of thousands of their own crawlers, computer spiders, or “Googlebots” to continuously scan what’s new on the Web. Each is programmed with its own mathematical algorithm based on keywords. They scan and index trillions of Web sites, blogs, videos, Facebook pages, and e-press releases looking for new content. It is your responsibility to code your Internet marketing programs, including your Web site, to conform to their rules or guidelines.

These computer-generated inspectors can’t read the written word. They don’t care what your Web site looks like, they don’t register the quality of your written content, and they pay no attention to your professional experience level. They are simply programmed for one thing and one thing only: to quickly sort through vast amounts of data in milliseconds.

Search engines, especially Google, keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret. The secrecy encourages the most content-rich search results for consumers and deters spammers from clogging search results with garbage. We do know, however, that some of the most common areas indexed are the following:

• meta tags, which include titles, descriptions, and keywords pertinent to your business;
• links (links that other sites make to your site are more important than your links to other sites);
• matching keywords on pages to meta tags;
• click-through rate (the accumulated number of times someone visits your site); and
• the age of the site (older sites have a higher click-through rate).

After all this information has been indexed, the search engine compares your site to other Web sites providing similar content in your area, and your site is ranked among the group. Search engine inspectors visit and re-evaluate your site multiple times per month looking for new content. The ultimate goal is to continually rank first on the first page of local “organic” search and on the maps for all the top orthodontic consumer keywords, especially on Google.

There is only one top spot for each local keyword phrase, and only 10 ranking positions on the first page of listings from each search engine. The window of opportunity to proactively position your practice for optimum results is closing quickly, especially in major metropolitan areas. Adding social networking to the toolbox of Internet marketing strategies is allowing some practices to dramatically improve their ranking and push competitors down in page position. However, unless all the pieces of your Internet marketing puzzle are search-engine-optimized correctly, it may be a poor return on time and investment.

It is my experience that most professional practices fail to maintain and update their Web site’s content and SEO on a regular basis. This is not the responsibility of your Webmaster; this falls on the shoulders of each business owner marketing themselves to their online community.

Test for Success in Your Local Targeted Area

It only takes a few minutes to determine if your Internet marketing efforts are working.

1. Go to Google and, in the search box, type in “Orthodontist [your city and state].”
2. Repeat with the keywords “braces” and “Invisalign.”

Does your Web site, blog, Facebook page, YouTube (or other) video(s) show up on page one of Google? Is your practice visible on Google Local Maps? Now repeat the steps again. Only this time, substitute all the surrounding towns in which you target new patients.

Did you know that, in the fall of 2009, the Google Places (Maps) reduced the number of listings from 10 in seven all areas of local search—and in some areas from 10 to three? Have you checked to see if you’ve been booted off Maps?

Since Maps is the first area that grabs the attention of consumers in local search, losing your listing could be disastrous, especially if your “organic” ranking below the maps on page one is not one of the top three. SEO does not guarantee positioning of your Web site on the maps, but sites set up and optimized correctly in the Google Local Business Center have a better chance of surviving the cut.

A wealth of opportunity is still available on the Internet. SEO can increase your visibility throughout your local area, which in turn will increase new patient referrals. SEO results will vary depending upon competition and demographic. In areas like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, it is very difficult to position yourself organically on page one of Google unless you were one of the first to enter the Internet-marketing race years ago or currently have an aggressive Web 2.0 marketing presence. If you have a site that is not performing well, consider an evaluation by an SEO specialist other than your current Webmaster to help you determine your specific needs and how to proceed.

Like it or not, the Internet is evolving at lightning speed. It’s tough to keep up with, and here to stay. Successfully implementing Internet marketing strategies now, to stake your claim in online real estate, will help secure the growth of your practice for the future.

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Mary Kay Miller is an Internet marketing coach specializing in Internet marketing solutions, SEO, and exclusive social networking services for orthodontic practices. She has more than 30 years’ experience in orthodontic practice management and 10 years’ experience in Internet marketing. She can be reached through her blog at orthopreneur.com.