When it comes to getting your dental practice's website showing up well in Google or the other search engines, there are a number of factors you will need to take into consideration.

For this article, we will review what we consider the top ranking factors that Google is looking for.  Now, there are hundreds of factors that the search engines will be looking at; however, we can break these up into 2 primary groups.

1. On Page Optimization
2. Off Page Optimization

Within these 2 groups, we consider the following items as being the most important ranking factors.

1. On Page Optimization
   1. Domain name
   2. Meta title and description
   3. H1 tag and content
2. Off Page Optimization
   1. Citations
   2. Backlinks    

We will break down our optimization recommendations for each of these factors, but before we do I want to take a moment and give you a lens that I would like you to view all of the following recommendations through.

- Do what looks natural -

Search engine optimization can be a bit of a cat and mouse game between those trying to get their website to rank well and the search engines.

Google and the other search engines don't want to be manipulated or gamed.  They want to offer the best search results for their customer base so that their customers keep coming back to them. 

If a search engine's results are made up of low-quality websites, or websites with a lot of incorrect information on them, then people will stop using that search engine.  So the search engines want to protect their market share as much as possible, which means, they don't want to be gamed or manipulated.

When it comes to local search results... Pause, what is a local search result?

ie: I go to Google and I search for the following search phrase "dentist in city name". This will return results made up of both map listings and organic search results

Unpause - when it comes to local search results in the past number of years a large number of lead generation websites began to pop up. These were not real businesses, but a website designed only to rank for that local business search term.

These lead generation sites then would either redirect phone calls to an actual local business for a monthly fee or would capture leads from a form submission and then sell those leads to a local business.

This activity caught Google's attention and they began updating their algorithm to prevent these websites from ranking well. Obviously, there are many that still rank, but it had become substantially more difficult for a website to rank for a local business term that is not a local business.

Which brings us back to the lens. Make sure anything you do looks natural and is what a local business would be doing naturally.

Since most lead generation websites are trying to rank as cheaply as possible they often use low quality and often spammy ranking techniques that rarely work long term if at all.

So do what Google expects a local business to do, but better than your competition and you'll take over the top ranking positions for keywords your prospects are searching for.

We'll now go over our recommendations based on the steps we're utilizing to rank a dentist in Jacksonville FL. Just to disclaimer, you'll find many differing opinions when it comes to the following points, but these are the ones we feel have the greatest impact on overall organic search engine rankings.

Section 1 - On Page Optimization

Factor 1 - Domain name

Domain names are a key factor for ranking a website effectively in Google.

Why is that?

Because they can communicate to Google what your website is about.

Remember that Google's service is all based on an algorithm, a very advanced one, but it's still an algorithm run not by a human brain, but a computer system.

So when working with Google, try to make sure your business's website clearly communicates what it is about.

Now when it comes to the domain name, there are a few trains of thought, the first says to always use your brand name as your domain name (which isn't always possible). The second says to use the keywords you want your website to rank for.

So if your dental practice's name was Thomas Lang DDS, the first group would say your domain should be www.thomaslangdds.com

Now if your dental office was in Atlanta GA the second group would say your domain should be www.atlantadentist.com

Both of these have strengths and weaknesses that are beyond the scope of this article but know either could work. However, our general recommendation would be to use a combination of these two and go with something like www.thomaslangddsatlanta.com

This is kind of a long and little bit ugly domain, so for all print material, we would recommend having a cleaner looking domain name that 301 redirects to this URL, but again, that's out of the scope of this article.

What this combination does, however, is clearly communicates to Google who you are, "Thomas Lang." What you do, "DDS." And where you're located, "Atlanta."

Factor 2 - Meta title and description

The next factors have to do with your website's metadata. This is the information that you provide to Google from your website that you are recommending for it to show on its search results.

If your website's meta title is, "Thomas Lang DDS - An Atlanta Dentist That You Can Trust" then this is what you are recommending Google show as the title of your website when it displays your website in the search result.

The same goes for the description underneath your website's result in Google. It pulls this information from the meta description.

Our primary recommendation here is to make sure you include the keywords you are wanting your dental practice to rank for, but don't stuff keywords.

So in the title, include Atalanta Dentist or Dentist In Atlanta GA in the meta title.

In the description maybe use the opposite of what you used in the headline. If you used Atalanta Dentist in your headline, use Dentist In Atalanta GA in your meta description.

Again, do not overuse your keywords in your title or description. This looks spammy to Google and will cause a negative effect on your website instead of a positive one.

Factor 3 - H1 tag and content

The last bit of advice we have for the main on-page optimization factors has to do with your website's content itself.

Each of your website's pages should have (at least and at most) one H1 tag. Within this tag, you should include the primary keyword you're trying to rank for on Google.

So your H1 tag could look like this, "Thomas Lang An Atlanta Dentist That Puts Your Needs First."

Now that your H1 tag contains your keyword, what about the rest of your content?

We recommend that the rest of your content have your primary keyword "Atlanta Dentist" mentioned together a few more times, but don't overdo it. There's no need to try to reach a certain percentage of the content. As long as you have it listed in the other places mentioned Google will understand what your website is about.

If you are over optimized here, you can really risk hitting a Google algorithm penalty which will tank your website's rankings.

Section 2 - Off Page Optimization

Factor 1 - Citations

What are citations?

Citations are simply websites that list your practice's NAP (name, address and phone number) together on one of their web pages. 

These typically end up being business directory websites like Yelp, YellowPages, Manta, etc

We have two main recommendations for citations:

1st Recommendation - Make sure your practice's NAP is consistent everywhere they are listed.  Having incorrect or differing NAP information can cause issues with ranking well in the Google map packs.

Google looks at your NAP as a trust factor and a way that communicates that your business is who it says it is, it's located at a certain address and has a certain phone number.

Providing consistent and accurate information is key.

So, if your practice's name is "Thomas Lang DDS", then this is what you want to be listed on every website.  Having alternative names like "Tom Lang DDS" or "Thomas Lang D.D.S." can cause issues.

The same goes with your address or phone number.

You want to make sure that this information is accurate and consistent.

2nd Recommendation - There are many services that sell business citation listings creation.  Typically they sell them in large packages where they will set up your practice's business profile on 50, 100, 200, etc different online directories. 

Overall, we recommend avoiding these services.

They generally are pretty low quality, usually end up having errors that you have to go back through and fix regarding your NAP and put your business up on a lot of low-quality business directories.

These kinds of services can very easily hurt your website's rankings.

Our recommendation would be to compare your top competition in the map listings.

So search for your dental practice's (business's) keywords and write down the top website's that are showing up in the map rankings. 

Then using a service like Whitespark or BrightLocal, you are going to do a competition analysis and scan the top ranking map listings and see what websites and web directories they have business citations located on.

Compare the results from the top listings and find the web directories that the top listings have in common.

If 5 out of 5 of the top listings have a Yelp, YP and Manta listings, then these are web directories you definitely want your website to show up on.

If 3 out of 5 have a BrownBook listing, then this is still a good listing, and you should get a listing created there.

If 1 out of 5 has a Yellowbot listing, then you probably don't want this listing.

Doing this will help you in finding the right business directory citations for your practice's website.

Factor 2 - Backlinks

A backlink is when a website links to your dental practice's website.

So for example, you create a listing on Yelp for your practice and as you're filling out your information you put your website's URL in.  That URL will then be placed on your Yelp profile.  That link, from your Yelp profile to your practice's website is considered a backlink.

Google and the other search engines look at the links that a website has on it as extending some of the trust and reputation from the source website, to the destination website.

For example, if Forbes.com was linking to your website, this would extend some of the trust and reputation of Forbes to your website. Since Forbes is well known and trusted by the search engines, getting a link from this website would be beneficial to you.

However, this same extension could cause you issues.  Just like you wouldn't want a criminal to say that you were their best friend during a police interrogation, you also wouldn't want an unscrupulous or spammy website linking to your business's website.  Because the same extending principle would apply to it. Since Google doesn't trust UnscrupulousWebsite.com if they then link to your website, Google is going to become suspicious of your site and may well begin to view it in a negative light.

So the bottom line here is that you want links from highly reputable and trusted websites.

The other factor that comes into play when you're looking at backlinks has to do with the link anchor text.

What is anchor text?

Anchor text is the link text that you actually see and click on with your mouse on a website. 

Google reads this text to get an idea of the information that is being linked to.  It creates an association.

So if you have a backlink going to your dental practice website with the anchor text "Atlanta dentist." When Google crawls this website, it is going to see this link and then visit your website.

It is then going to create an association that your website has to do with an Atlanta dentist.

Now, when your anchor text is right and the source of your backlink is solid, these kinds of links can have a great impact on your website.

One thing to warn, however, is that many spammers have used this technique in the past to really manipulate Google into ranking a website. So Google has become very watchful regarding anchor text ratio.  So make sure you're not using the same exact anchor text over and over again.  That can cause you to trip a Google algorithm penalty and tank your rankings.

Great backlink sources

The following are some places you should make sure your dental practice is getting links from.  They are often going to be free for your practice and having links from these sources can greatly help your search engine rankings.

• Insurance companies
  • Do you accept any form of insurance?  Typically, if you're a part of a certain insurance group, they will list you in their company directory.  These can be great referral sources in themselves, but also communicate to the search engines that you're a real business.
• Finance companies
  • Do you work with any kind of finance companies?  One of the most well known of these is Care Credit.  They work with most medical practices and allow them to offer financing to their patients.  They have an online directory that you're dental office could also be listed in.
• Industry associations
  • Are you a part of the American Dental Association, your state association, and your city association?  There are also specialist associations that you can belong to as well.  Most of these associations will have an online directory listing their members. If you're a part of the association, make sure your online profile is set up correctly and linking to your website.
• Local associations
  • You will also want your business listed on your city's Chamber Of Commerce's website. Since belonging to the Chamber Of Commerce costs money, this communicates a great deal of trust to Google since a scammer, spammer, or lead generation company is very unlikely to pay that amount of money for 1 backlink.

There are numerous other locations you can get backlinks from, but our overall advice is, when in your power, to restrict your backlinks to websites that are trustworthy and relevant to your dental practice or business and would be link that would be normal for a business like yours to get.

Summary

Taking into consideration these recommendations can go a long way into optimization your dental practice's website and increasing your rankings.  I would suggest focusing on these first, before moving on to the dozens of other factors that will have a smaller increase in your website rankings.

About Author

Daniel is the head optimization engineer at Decrypted SEO Agency and works with dental practices to help them rank their websites in the top search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.