Why does dental practice website search engine optimization often fail?

And what can be done to make your website rank high in Google, even after you've spent a lot of money and nothing has worked?

I realized today that many dentists are relying upon total myth when it comes to building up their Internet marketing efforts. So let me set things right in this article: why search engine optimization is not working very well, and what to do instead.

The impetus for this article came today.

I spoke to a dentist I will call "Jim" (cuz that's his name, hi Jim!) and Jim was telling me he spends many, many thousands per month on advertising. Including on his website. Why doesn't he get better Google rankings?

I looked at his dental practice website and asked him about other sites that link to his website. He told me about a media website, a big TV station that links to his site. So I looked at that and we talked a bit.

I realized talking to Jim that many dentists want to get higher Google rankings and more traffic but they do not know how.

What you want to do to get high Google rankings is very simple. Imagine that you are Google. Your job is to place popular sites at the top of your listings when someone enters in a certain keyword.

Okay, you are Google. How do you determine popular sites? You determine that by looking at the other sites on the web that point to the dental practice website.

That is exactly what Google does. It measures the popularity of your dental website by looking at the following factors:

1. Who is linking to your site?
2. What are the links about?
3. How popular is that page that links to your site?
4. How many links do you have from other sites?

In the technical lingo, we are talking about "deep backlinks from high authority sites".

Ignore the dental website marketing consultants

Most SEO companies and dental website consultants completely avoid this topic…

A deep backlink is a link to a page somewhere buried in your site. A high authority site is a site that is deemed as being very popular by Google.

What is really important for Google rankings is getting very good quality links to specific pages on your site. Not links to the home page. And links that are from articles placed on popular websites, articles about dentistry.

That's a tall order. Where will you ever have time for crown and bridge? You are a busy man or woman already, and I'm saying that:

• Most of your search engine optimization efforts focus on your own website, and are wasted.
• The most important search engine optimization work is done on other sites, not yours.

Dental practice blogs and social media

There are solutions of course. If you don't do what everyone else is doing, you can stand out and do very well. That means:

1. Create a blog and post every day.
2. Post on various keywords.
3. Ping so the web world knows when you have a new post and can spider your site.
4. Promote the blog posts on various high authority social media sites.
5. Capture names and email addresses of prospective patients.
6. Rinse and repeat.

For more, see Dental Marketing using Social Media, and also Dental blogs and dental blogging.

And remember, this type of an approach with blogs and deep backlinks can all be out-sourced. Please join my ultra high quality email list and get my $59.95 book on case acceptance and dental marketing (the all time bestseller now in its third edition) instantly and free via download. I never share your name or email with anyone and you can opt out anytime.