Let me answer this question with some additional questions: Do you have the time and bandwidth to update your website with SEO optimized content on a monthly basis to maintain your Google ranking? Are you regularly monitoring your social media presence and creating a community for your patients with frequent comments and responses?
Working with an SEO specialist brings new patients to your dental practice, keeps your current patients informed and engaged with you, and allows you to focus on what you do best, which is creating healthy and beautiful smiles.
That being said, if you want to avoid working with a company like GDW, here is what I would advise. Depending on how competitive your specific market is, this may not work, but it will at least help and move you further down the path to success, even if you have to hire an SEO specialist later.
- Fill out your Google My Business (GMB) profile. Include pictures and make sure every field is completed.
- Get online reviews – they are 19% of the algorithm weight for ranking. Ideally, you could use an automated program that asks each patient for a review that is integrated into your payment management system (PMS).
- Videos. Record some videos of you, give a dental practice tour, or create commentaries on individual services. You can also include video testimonials from patients with signed release waivers.
- Take before and after pictures of teeth only. Make sure to have patients sign waivers for this.
- Integrate videos, before and after pictures, and FAQs on your service landing pages.
- Have your front desk team compile common questions they hear from patients. Write the questions the way that patients asked them – this is what they’re searching for online. Pro tip: Answer the questions in text and video on your website.
- Use citations and directory sites. You may want to hire a professional for this, or companies like Yext will do a decent job.
- Tracking. Follow up on some searches you want to monitor and check on them only in incognito/private mode.
Things to Avoid at All Costs
- Hiring someone from Fiverr or Upwork to create "thousands of backlinks.” They are cheating, and you will get screwed by this.
- Spamming keywords into your page will be counter-productive.
- Spamming keywords into your GMB profile will be counter-productive.
If you follow these do’s and don'ts, and your market isn't too competitive, you may have a fighting chance. Give it three to six months, and if you aren't getting where you want to be, ask an SEO professional or a company for a proposal. They'll probably point out some problems and strategies you can use along the way (that's what we do anyway).
If you do all this and still come up short, at least you will have paved the way for a pro, and you won't have made anything worse.