Choosing the Right Dental Keywords for Your SEO Campaign

At this point, you’ve likely heard about or maybe you are even in the process of attempting to achieve better search engine optimization (SEO.) In this technology driven day and age, it’s an essential aspect of your online dental marketing strategy.

But for those trying to generate more dental patients, understanding and creating an SEO marketing strategy can be a challenging venture – especially if you are not sure exactly how SEO optimization works.

The First Thing to Know About SEO Optimization for Dental Practices

Effective SEO optimization requires that you determine exactly what you want to project to the public about your practice. These topics will be your “keywords”, the words and terms that you are telling a search engine that you should rank for.

But there is a strategy for selecting keywords, as your choices may be too narrow or too broad, which defeats its purpose altogether. So, the question is, how do you know which keywords will draw visitors to your website? Here are tips to assist you in finding keywords that will work for you.

Choosing Effective Keywords and Keyword Phrases

• Create a list of keywords you find relevant to your practice. Start by making a basic list of the services you offer, as this is the easiest way to generate initial dental keyword ideas.
• Take those initial keyword ideas and add to them, creating subcategories. For example, you probably have teeth on your initial keyword list. This, in and of itself, is too general; instead, add “cleaning and whitening”, or “hygiene tips.”
• Add your location to your keywords. For example, if your practice is in Houston, these keyword phrases may read, “Houston teeth cleaning” and “Houston teeth whitening”, etc.

Long-Tail Key Phrases

A long-tail key phrase includes three or four keywords. Although the majority of people do not search for long-tail key phrases, those that do are more likely to become your patients; therefore, this keyword method is essential.

Research Keywords Using Popular Search Engines

Researching keywords doesn’t require as much online marketing know-how than you may think.

Begin typing keywords you are considering into the search engine box. Before you click on the search button, look at the drop down menu. This menu offers relevant search suggestions.

For example, if you type in teeth whitening, there will be search suggestions listed, which may include, teeth whitening cost and teeth whitening strips, etc. The keywords listed in this drop down menu are the keywords and phrases that are ranking well.

Obviously, you need to create keyword phrases specific to your practice; nevertheless, the objective of this task is to give you information that will help you find keywords and create keyword phrases of your own. The ultimate goal is to combine keywords that place you in this VIP dropdown list.

Keyword Variations

Repeating the same keyword or keyword phrase is acceptable, as long as the meanings behind the keywords differ. For instance, teeth whitening and teeth whitening online are almost identical; therefore, consider using teeth whitening for less and teeth whitening in Houston instead.

Keyword Placement

In general, search engines give more weight to the first 200 words of content; therefore, make sure you use your keywords appropriately within this section. In addition, your keywords need to be placed strategically throughout the content (commonly placed every 100 words).

In Conclusion

The keywords you choose must coincide with issues your dental website consistently focuses on. Once you come up with a couple keyword phrases, you are well on your way to developing a strong SEO strategy.

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