Link Building for Dental Websites

This blog post was written in association with My Dental Success. For more information visit www.adeogroup.co.uk/dentalsuccess

Back in July we wrote a blog post about improving the search ranking of a dental practice website.

If you are a dentist who runs a dental website you may have benefited from the tips given in that post and have started seeing some movement in your search rankings.

However, it may be the case that your local area is particularly competitive and other dental practice websites dominate the top spots of search engines making it difficult for your site to rank.

Today’s post is going to run you through the next stage of improving your dental website’s SEO using link building.

Some points before we begin…

The first step in creating a strong online strategy for your dental practice (or any business for that matter) is to have a great looking and user-friendly website. You can work with a web design agency to ensure you build a website and brand identity which reflects your business. If you are just starting out aim for a responsive (works on multiple platforms and devices), quick to load and safe website. These factors will aid your website’s aim of ranking highly, however will of course be constrained by your budget.

Once up and running you should claim your listing on Google My Business, verify your business and set up the social media profiles you believe will most benefit your business. You can also read this post on Local SEO for even more tips in improving your search ranking for local geographical searches.

Once you have completed these tasks you can begin a link-building strategy for your dental website.

Why Is Link Building Important in SEO?

Aside from Google Business and social media, good quality inbound links to your business is crucial for SEO.

Whilst link building as an SEO strategy has had its ups and downs over the years it cannot be denied that creating great quality links can significantly improve a website’s ranking.

It used to be the case that buying thousands of links would boost your website. However search engines cracked down on these ‘cheat’ methods and now use a complex algorithm to give more weight to links given by quality websites.

To give an example of how this pans out in reality, a link from a high quality website such as the BBC News website can be far more valuable than 100 links from spam websites. You can check the quality of a website by testing it for its Page Rank which is scored out of 10.

How to Create Inbound Links for Your Dental Website

Unfortunately it is difficult to get several links from top websites such as BBC News or those with a Page Rank 7 or above. However all is not lost. Here’s five ways you can build links to your dental website:

1. Use social media to build links to your website

You need to be active when it comes to engaging new clients or keeping the interest of existing customers. You may not have sufficient time and energy to socialise with your customers face-to-face. But doing so online doesn’t take up that much of time and energy. By setting up Linkedln, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus profiles you can engage prospective and existing customers and build your business’s visibility.

Furthermore, the more “Followers”, “Likes” and “Views” your profiles have, the better for link building. Initially you should create inbound links from your profiles to your dental website. Next you can share blog posts and landing pages on your chosen platforms. Not only will this drive traffic to your website but if someone were to find your blog post via Twitter for example and thinks it is useful then they may be more likely to link to it from their website, thus creating a link.

In some instances it can be a good idea to create a resource page on your website or a separate blog. Link the page to the homepage or main page of your website. You can then publish articles that provide expert dental advice like “Proper Dental Care for Dental Veneers” on the resource page.

2. Use your business relationships

Your dental clinic may have business relationships with companies that provide dental equipment and supplies. This can be a great way to create inbound links by linking your website from these companies’ websites.

For example you could send a testimonial recommending a product provided by your supplier who could upload the testimonial onto their website with a link back to your dental site.

Your dental practice may also have connections with dental specialists to entertain exclusive cases. For example, you may have connections with an endodontist, who is a specialist in root canal therapy or a periodontist, who is a specialist in treating and preventing gum diseases. Ask them if it is possible to create referral links from their respective sites to your company’s website.

3. Build relationships with patients, relatives and friends

Once you have exhausted your business relationships you can also seek the assistance of your patients, friends or family. If you have had patients who were impressed with your service, ask for their assistance. If they have a blog you could ask them to write about their dental experience and create inbound links from their sites, blogs and social media profiles to your dental site.

It can also be useful to ask patients to write online reviews in strategic places like Dental Finder websites. You should be able to suss out whether your patient would be willing to do this before asking.

4. Be proactive to bring attention to your dental website

Being proactive in promoting your dental business is the key to being successful these days. Aside from writing content for your own website it can also useful to allocate some time to writing guest posts on relevant websites. Choose blogs or publications that have a reasonable amount of followers or readers and make sure that any links received are ‘do-follow’ as no-follow links don’t link to your website.

Charity is another good way to promote your dental practice. Spare some money for sponsoring a good, charitable or leisure event in your local community, such as a football team. Then create inbound links from the local community’s website or events’ page to your website.

5. Add your dental website to online directories

There are many online directories which act like the web’s version of the Yellow Pages. By submitting your website to these sites you can create an inbound link, and also help people find your services!

Putting It All Together

Creating good quality inbound links and maintaining them might take up much of your time and energy, something that you may not have enough of. This is where you can make good use of an expert SEO company like Adeo Group.

Adeo Group have years of inbound link building experience as well as experience in other areas of SEO. Contact us today to find out more about what we can do to make your dental practice a successful enterprise – info@adeogroup.co.uk

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