Originally published in Trojan Today, September 2015.
In 2014, local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was marked by a few interesting changes. Google scrapped some programs, updated others, and launched Google My Business. Considering Google owns 67% of the search engine market, aligning your dental practice marketing strategy to absorb these changes is vital.
To put things into perspective, Google changes its search algorithm 500-600 times a year. While most of these updates are minor, major updates such as Google Panda and Penguin impact the rankings and organic website traffic of even the most robust and high-performing websites.
Local SEO is Big – Are you ready for it?
Localized online search is sophisticated, and your patients use a variety of parameters such as specific dental condition, location of office, healthcare budget, insurance acceptance, and others when looking. Local SEO has become complicated over the years, and it is now a major marketing strategy that requires specific focus and planning. Simply inserting your city and state within title tags and H1 headings will not deliver local SEO gains. You need to look at the bigger picture.
Let’s take a look at three of the most recent and important changes to local SEO:
Pigeon Update
With the introduction of the Pigeon update, the search engine giant significantly altered the way local results are calculated. What changed? The update favored directories over local businesses. This was good news for sites such as Yelp but did not do much for other business websites. So while sectors such as real estate, insurance, and jobs saw significant decline, sectors such as transportation, fitness, and medical saw an improvement in queries.
The Pigeon update also impacted the importance of ranking factors. Now ranking factors such as domain authority of website, quality of inbound links to domain, physical address in city of search, and quantity of reviews by leading review sites have gained prominence, while other factors such as physical address in city of search, individually owner-verified My Business Page, and location keyword in business title have decreased in importance.
You need to know: Pigeon has major local SEO impact. However, in spite of all the changes Pigeon introduced, website, links, citations, and reviews continue to be four areas of local importance for dental practices.
Google My Business
Previously called Google+ Local (2012), Google My Business was designed to make it easy for business owners to quickly and easily update and increase visibility for their brand on Google search, Google Maps, and Google+ all via one dashboard.
Using Google My Business, users have easy access to Google+, Google Analytics, Reviews, Insights, and even a hangout all on one screen. With the Google My Business app available on iTunes and Google Play, business owners can easily read and respond to all online reviews. And as the update for the app works perfectly with AdWords Express, users can keep track of their ad campaigns from any location using either a mobile device or simply over a desktop.
You need to know: Dental practices can use Google My Business to engage their target audiences from the convenience of a single location. Not only does this mean you can easily and quickly respond to patient reviews, but patient engagement is also improved as you keep patients in the loop.
Carousel
Google launched the Carousel feature for desktop searches in 2013. These interactive, horizontal listings were designed to include images a user could scroll during a search. When Carousel results started earning more clicks than maps, Google advocated the use of high-quality images. However, a few weeks ago, Google dropped the local Carousel for a number of types of businesses.
Instead of Carousel, Google now features an expanded 3-pack which does feature a thumbnail photo like Carousel, but has only the business name, review stars, and a short description in the listings. Clicking on one of the listings will not take the user to the business website or Google My Business page but instead direct the user to another SERP for the said business.
You need to know: With Google, “forewarned is forearmed.” And even though at present this move is mostly impacting restaurants, bars, and hotels, as Google continues to test this new feature, it may start including several other verticals as well. Dental practices should start focusing on being featured among the top three organic search results of the new local 3-pack.
Key Areas of Focus
Make your Dental Practice Mobile-Friendly
Smartphone usage is growing exponentially and if your practice is not mobile-friendly, you will lose a major chunk of your smartphone traffic to your competitors. So if you haven’t already built an optimized, responsive mobile version of your dental practice website, now is the time to get started.
Don’t Ignore Google My Business
- Ensure your practice location is accurately entered on the map.
- Ensure your practice name, physical address, and phone number(s) are accurate.
- Include information such as hours of operation and payment options, etc.
- Include your official website on the local Google+ page.
- Ensure use of specific categories, keywords, and descriptions of your practice.
- Encourage patients to leave reviews.
Get Listed on Major Business Directories
In addition to Google My Business, ensure your dental practice is listed on the leading business directories such as Yelp, YellowPages.com, Merchant Circle, and Foursquare among others.
Optimize your Practice Website
- Feature content that is useful and highly relevant on your homepage and optimized with local signals.
- Populate your website pages with relevant and informative content.
- Ensure your title tag summarizes the page.
- Ensure your city and state are included in your title tag, H1 heading, URL, content, and alt text on images.
- Focus on earning more quality links.
- Ensure all your social media and website meta data includes your practice address.
- Keywords spamming is a lost cause; don’t do it!
In Conclusion
Local SEO is going to be big, and there is great value for dental practices keen on expanding locally, but you cannot expect to gain traction by simply focusing on citations or by hammering away at one single strategy. It is all about the big picture and how you bring together various resources to succeed in your local area. Keep an eye open for changes that can impact your practice ratings, and regularly monitor the SERPs.
Google, Google Ad Words, Google Insights, Google Analytics, and Google Play are registered trademarks of Google Inc. ITunes is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc.
Naren Arulrajah is President and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, a complete Internet marketing company which focuses on SEO, social media, marketing education, and the online reputations of dentists.
FMI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/narena/