An Uphill Battle for Dental Websites

A Raw Deal By Design

Links from other websites to your website is the top determining factor in ranking your website. No secret here. Let’s take this a bit further. In most local markets even the most basic SEO efforts should get your site into the top 10 results for your primary keywords. Being at number 10 should give you at least a handful of visitors per day – let’s assume 10.

Moving up to number 5 should at least double the number of visitors (20). At position 3 it should double again (40), at position 2 again (80)  and finally at #1 you should get about 160 visitors. (These figures are based on my experience in the Dental market.)

The difference between 10 visitors per day and 160 visitors per day are almost always related to your website’s backlinks.

There is more to links than simply the number of links to your site  - but this is a different conversation. The first point I want to make is this: It does not matter how good a dentist you are – if you do not have enough backlinks to your website you will be leaving a lot of business on the table.

The Website Problem Dentists Face

Backlinks are responsible for about 70% of your website’s ranking power. Where do you get backlinks to your site? You can’t buy them as this violates Google’s policies and will result in your site, and the link provider’s site, to be penalized (or banned) from the ranking results.

You Have To Earn Backlinks

Your website has to be so rich in information that other website would want to link to your site. In other words, your website has to offer content to compliment the content from the linked site. This is where almost all dental web sites hit a brick wall.

All Dental Websites Are The Same

Almost. As an example, let’s compare Farmington Hills Dentist Mark Langberg’s website with that of Irvine Dentist Frank Seo. They both offer almost the same information on the same dental topics – sedation dentistry, teeth whitening, crowns and bridges, porcelain veneers, implants, and the list goes on. Even though each of these dentists feel their site is different (tell me how?) – it is highly unlikely that a mainstream blogging site or news site is going to link to either of these sites and excel it to Google’s dental website heaven.

This leaves dentists at the mercy of SEO pundits who claim that they will get them the links they need – and once again they set themselves  up to compete with peers on exactly the same level.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not trying to rain on your parade; I am actually sympathizing with you as I believe you have a raw deal competing in the Google World.

You are Different, Your Website Not

There are reasons why people prefer one dentist over another. Whether it is your skills or your personality that draw patients to you, you need to inject yourself into your website. Use the same language, the same style, the same charisma. No one does this better than Los Angeles Cosmetic Dentist Sam Muslin.

Of all the dental websites I have ever visited this one stands out in that it is truly an extension of the man himself. All the content was written by the dentist in the same tone that he would speak to you if you were his patient. The same patients you see in his practice are the ones featured on his website. No stock photos. No copywriters. No templates. Only more of the same Dr. Sam Muslin. This is a website with remarkable content, worthy to be linked to from anyone in need of reference material to enhance the quality of thir related blog post or news article.

Dare to be different!