Given the prevalence of Google in our information-seeking pursuits, your digital marketing strategies need to focus on performing well on the search engine giant. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever-evolving field within digital marketing, and your dental practice’s marketing is well-served to take it seriously. At its core, SEO is all about having your website come up near the top of the results when someone searches for a topic related to you. There are myriad factors that influence your rankings, but relatively recently, Google has started updating its algorithm to add more weight to page experience, which is a metric that judges a user’s experience on your website. While learning about page experience and SEO can be complex and often filled with marketing jargon, MDPM Dental Marketing is here to break down these concepts, so you will understand why your dental practice’s marketing efforts must consider these concepts in its strategy.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is all about getting your website to rank highly on Google searches. If you are a dentist in North Texas, you would ideally want your site to be the first one that pops up when someone searches for “best dental practice in Dallas.” Many factors can contribute to this, and it is helpful to break them down into the front-end and back-end. Front-end ones include regularly updating your website, so Google continuously indexes your website, putting it at the top of what it considers valuable sites. Google’s algorithm also wants your website to be filled with helpful information. At the end of the day, Google is all about providing its users with information, so it highly values the ones that accomplish this. Many people go about this by keeping a blog that discusses various topics. This allows you to share your expertise with users and shows Google that your site is an active and valuable resource. When you write about a specific topic, you include keywords that will cause your post to come up in relevant searches; the more helpful pages you have, the more likely Google will be to show them to curious searchers. Google also likes it when websites are easy-to-navigate, and information can be accessed in as few clicks as possible. The search engine wants your website to provide a good experience for users, and it will reward you with a higher ranking for doing so. For a more in-depth explanation of this, here is a helpful page from Google itself.
Page Experience Ranking
Page experience, on the other hand, is the more technical side of SEO. Again, Google wants your website to offer a great experience to users, and a major part of this is the functionality of your pages. Google refers to the different aspects as signals, including core web vitals, mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, and no intrusive interstitials. Core web vitals primarily focus on providing a good user experience. Your pages should load quickly, be interactive, and maintain visual stability. Consider your own web-browsing experience; if a page doesn’t load quickly or if it doesn’t seem like its features are operating as intended, you probably aren’t going to remain on the website for very long. Similarly, if you visit a website on your phone and it isn’t optimized for a mobile device, you probably won’t stay because it is more difficult to use. With this in mind, your website shouldn’t just be mobile-friendly (meaning your website can load on the phone); it also needs to be responsive. No matter what device viewers use, they should be able to navigate your website easily without having to zoom in excessively to read it or keep missing when they try to click links.
HTTPS certification shows that your website meets necessary security standards and ad placements. While your website can certainly run ads, they shouldn’t detract from the information your pages provide. Again, consider what you find to be valuable in your website with all of these elements. If there is something that you find improves a website, Google’s overall page experience will value it as well. Ultimately, SEO and page experience ranks prioritize a great user experience and valuable information.
Contact Us To See How We Can Improve Your Rankings
As a marketing company that specializes in working with dental practices, we innately understand that you would rather spend your time giving great care to your patients than worrying about search engine optimization, page experience rankings, and digital marketing in general. At MDPM Dental Marketing in Dallas, TX, we have a dedicated and experienced team that can handle all aspects of your digital marketing. If you have any questions or would like a free analysis of your website in addition to your social media and online presence, we encourage you to contact our office at (972) 781-8861 today.