Many factors contribute to SEO. The strategies that worked two, five, eight years ago won’t necessarily get you good rankings today. As the Internet continues to develop, so do search engine strategies. You see, while your website needs to look great to visitors, it also needs to look great to search engine spiders if you want it to come up near the top of the rankings. These five points should help you understand why the search engine optimized website you build today doesn’t look like a dentist’s site that was built years ago – even though that other dentist’s site is ranking well.
1) Longevity
Search engines love faithful websites. They gauge a site’s longevity by how long it has been posted on the Internet and how long the text has been intact. While you can’t go back in time and gain the benefit of a site that’s been live for five years, you can keep your text intact starting today. The more you change your copy after the site is live, the more you negatively impact your SEO. Adding new pages and photos, a few lines here and there, and removing out-of-date copy is okay in some situations. An overhaul will set you back. However, if the whole look and feel of your site is outdated, go for the overhaul and expect a temporary drop in rankings. Consult your SEO professional before making a change.
2) Competition and Location
What websites are you competing with? Is your office in a major metropolitan area or a small town? These factors are an important part of your overall SEO strategy. A good SEO team will look at your competitors’ websites and your location to create a plan that will help move your site to the top of the rankings.
3) Keywords
The keywords in your copy are the terms that people type in search engines, like Google and Yahoo, to find a dentist. Keywords generally include your name, the practice name, cities and areas near your office, and services. Choosing good keywords is not a job for the novice. While there are programs out there to help you determine the popularity of words, many other factors go into selecting the right keywords. First, your SEO team will look at your services, then they will research your online competition. The keywords your SEO team suggests should accurately reflect your business. Keep in mind that some of the things you do are not searched for very often. For instance, teeth whitening is a popular term in nearly any market. However, debridement is a little-used word that the general public does not know, much less search for online. Give your site about six months before you alter your keywords. Your SEO professional can review ranking reports with you to determine whether alterations should be made.
4) Keywords in Copy, Layout of Copy, Headlines
Let’s face it. You’re more interested in the look and feel of your site than in the text that goes on it. That’s natural. Search engine spiders don’t care about colors, lines, pictures, or design, though. They only look at the words on a website. The way your keywords are used in your website text is very important. Some factors are location of keywords on the page, headlines, links, words around links, repetition of keywords (not too much, not too little), number of keywords on a page, and the list goes on. It is in your best interest to trust a professional SEO writer to compose optimized copy according to the latest strategies.
5) Backend Work
Ah, the technical stuff. Your SEO team will do a lot of backend work to ensure your site’s success. This will include the initial market research and keyword choices, as well as efficiently and effectively submitting your site’s strategy to search engines. You do not have to understand all of the backend stuff. After all, you’re interested in results, right? Each month, your SEO professional can send you reports (and teach you how to read them) so that you can understand how your site is doing on the search engines. Consider this much like an assessment of your financial portfolio if you use a full-service investment firm. Let your SEO team do the work; your job is to reap the benefits.
You spend your days, evenings, and weekends studying dentistry to stay on top of the latest clinical and administrative tools to make your practice successful. For an equally successful website, you need a team of technical gurus who stay abreast of the ever-changing strategies and techniques for search engine optimization. For more information on search engine optimization and custom dental website design, visit TNTDental online.