Dentistry is a highly competitive profession. After you have finished many years of school, you may be led to believe that the hard part is over. In many cases, you are correct in that assumption. However, there is one significant challenge for any dentist with an entrepreneurial spirit, finding new clients. In other words, dentists need marketing, and there’s no bigger marketplace for dental patients than the internet. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play. With proper strategy and implementation of a dental SEO plan, you can garner new clients without paying insane amounts of money for leads.
Benefits of Doing Your Own SEO
If you are like most dentists, one of your first thoughts may be, “Why would I pay someone else to do dental SEO if I can do it for myself?”. Learning about internet marketing and attempting to launch your own SEO campaign is possible, but it may not be as easy as you think. In fact, it isn’t easy at all. However, there are some benefits. Below, you will find some of the more visible benefits of completing your own search engine optimization campaign.
- Learning New Things: If you take the time to learn dental SEO principles, you will have a greater sense of knowledge about what needs to be done. Even if you don’t follow through with a campaign, the knowledge will make you a more educated consumer when you go to look for a dental SEO firm.
- Cutting Costs: While you will not save time, you can potentially save money by doing your own SEO every morning or night when you are away from the practice.
- Accurately Representing Yourself: While most SEO marketing firms are very good at conveying your message, there are some out there that aren’t. If you attempt to build your site and fill it with content, you will not have to worry about your message being misconstrued.
Completing your own SEO can be a huge undertaking. It will take time to hone your skills and find your way through the ever changing landscape of dental SEO. Google and other search engines are constantly modifying and upgrading their algorithms, so this learning process will be an ongoing endeavor.
Potential Pitfalls of Doing SEO Yourself
While doing your own SEO has its benefits, there is also a downside. After all, you will be spending massive amounts of time learning a variety of new skills (if you do not already have them). Some of those skills include:
- Website building and optimization
- Knowledge of SEO dentist marketing
- Strong ability to write (blogs, guest posts, home pages, etc.)
- Understanding of keywords and search engine algorithms (which are always changing)
This list is by no means all encompassing, but it gives you an idea of the amount of time that you will have to spend learning the nuances of dentist marketing online. Unfortunately, making a misstep in your dental SEO execution could cause potentially irreparable damage to the ranking of your site. Search engines like Google, Bing, etc. all have complex algorithms that benefit you, if you comply and penalize you, if you don’t.
When To Use a Professional SEO Service For Your Dental Practice
Deciding to outsource your dentist SEO to an experienced web development and SEO team can come with many rewards, especially your reclaimed time. If you do not have the time to truly immerse yourself in dental marketing strategy, it will serve you well to outsource your SEO campaigns. In addition, dentists who would like to grow their practice quickly learn that they need a team of experts handling their dentist marketing needs, so they can focus on retaining clientele through excellent dentistry.