“Backlinks” in SEO terminology are when another website links to your website.
Earning backlinks is an essential part of competitive SEO campaigns, so you might wonder why you haven’t heard about this term before.
Most orthodontist and dental websites don’t require backlinks in order to rank well in less competitive markets. Blogging and on-page SEO can help you gain traction by covering your SEO fundamentals.
But for those who are in highly competitive markets, it helps to have others cite you as an authoritative source of information. Let’s talk about what this looks like:
You’re familiar with Google My Business and Facebook and perhaps even less well-known websites such as BBB or Yelp. These websites allow you to link back to your dental or orthodontic website by listing your name, address, and phone number along with your hours of operation and directions to your practice. When you link to your website, this counts as a backlink. This is a standard form of backlinking that every dental professional can expect from an SEO company.
However, there is another style of backlinks that causes a much more competitive advantage. It is when you are able to be linked back to your website by becoming an authoritative source of information. Simply put, when someone editorially links to your website as a supportive resource, Google notices you being editorially cited.
The more prominent a source that mentions you and links to one of your webpages, the more Google believes you must be an authority on the matter that you’re being linked about.
For instance, Kreeb Family Dentistry was cited as a dentistry expert. It’s not a far stretch for dentists to be a dentistry experts, but having other websites publish an article on dental, orthodontic, or health-related topics and then link to your website is different. The link allows Google the opportunity to see who is generating the most link-worthy (or useful) content.
Creating content in the form of writing, photography, and video is proven to increase your SEO presence and help you get found by prospective patients. But with all the unique content out there, some competitive markets leave Google wondering who the best dentist to rank really is.
When Google sees a unique, helpful blog post or another web page on your website is linked to by journalists, bloggers, and other content creators, Google shows preference towards you for earning backlinks
Google’s algorithm, designed originally by Google’s founders, was from academia. In academia, the studies and journals, and research papers that were published had an authority scale. That authority scale was based on how many times the article was “cited.” Google took this lesson to their search engine algorithm by deciding who ranks at the top should be linked, or cited, the most.
Over time, the algorithm has become more sophisticated regarding how much weight it gives various links. Working with a seasoned SEO analyst can help you decide whether or not what’s holding you back is actually a lack of backlinks. This applies to both dental SEO and orthodontic SEO.
I talk to dentists who are interested in getting more new patients every day. One common theme I’ve noticed with dentists who are unhappy with their current or previous marketing provider is that there was always a lack of sufficient research before signing the contract.
Many dentists feel that signing a marketing contract is the problem, but upon closer inspection, I’ve discovered that in every case where a dentist regrets signing a marketing contract, it involves little to no research before signing. The research, should it be sufficient, will actually cause many dentists who think they want a particular kind of marketing to learn it won’t help them reach their goals. For instance, ⅗ dentists who contact me about SEO for their dental practice website have found that I don’t recommend my SEO services automatically. That’s because the research I perform disqualifies the dentist for SEO.
Just as not everyone who calls your practice is qualified for one particular procedure or another, not every dentist should do SEO or Google Ads or any other specific kind of marketing avenue.
The goal isn’t to do a particular kind of marketing tactic. The goal is to get you more and better patients. That’s why my marketing analysis is such a critical part of my initial process. Without a marketing analysis that turns over every stone, we’re basically flying blind as to what kind of marketing should work best for you.
Sometimes dental professionals think I only do SEO for dentists. This isn’t the case, but I do have a strategy that revolves around it. I do many forms of marketing, including but not limited to SEO, Google Ads or PPC marketing, dental website design, social media marketing, and various forms of advertising. But why should I offer any of these to you when we haven’t had an opportunity to see which one is right for you? I’ve noticed is that many marketing companies who offer product A always seem to think product A will get you the new patients that you want. Somehow, they just seem to know. Every. Time.
What if we started with what tends to offer the highest ROI and then used a process of elimination to rule it out, given evidence that indicates as much? What if we used actual logic instead of sales pitches? What if you thought of SEO in the same way as other decisions you make in your life…fully informed? What if we did the equivalent of an initial oral exam, only for marketing instead of dentistry?
With these two steps in my marketing analysis, you can find yourself fully informed about what course to take. Just like a new patient who accepts an initial oral exam.
The patient calls your office and demands “just a cleaning.” What do you do? Every office has its own policy, but the vast majority of dental offices will instruct the patient that while meeting with a dental hygienist is a great idea for overall dental health, they need an initial oral exam in order to have a complete understanding of what’s going on in their mouth.
Self-diagnosis can lead to mistakes by dental patients. Without expert research by an actual dentist, patients lead themselves to all sorts of erroneous conclusions about their dental health. The same can be done in dental SEO.
In this article, we’ll talk about the two questions few dental marketing companies ask before selling SEO. We’ll talk about how to use common sense when assessing a dental SEO company. Finally, we’ll discuss how you can perform the equivalent of an initial oral exam, but for marketing instead of dentistry. By the end of this article, you’ll realize what dental SEO companies have been doing wrong all these years, and how you can virtually guarantee new patients
We’re all familiar with the patient who wants “just a cleaning.” No initial oral exam. No need to talk to a real dentist. No interest in diagnosis. No interest in prognosis. No interest in perio issues. No interest in hearing gobbledegook about good oral health care. They want a cleaning, and all your years of clinical research and experience are flushed down the toilet, regardless of the complexities going on in their mouth.
You can probably remember some of these patients because they might name a tooth number, say something like “occlusion” in the middle of a sentence, and overall just know better than the dentist who “wants a new boat.”
The irony of this scenario is that you are actually doing a major disservice (and possibly harm) to this patient by ignoring potential dangers, yet you ultimately have to decide if allowing them to do “just a cleaning” is the right thing to do.
Some dentists would try to persuade the patient to take a more balanced, informed decision and allow for an initial oral exam. Others would quickly dismiss the patient. Regardless of what you might do, this scenario is as relatable as it is important to consider.
In dental SEO, I see this kind of “just a cleaning” logic applied all the time. Only, instead of being an arrogant know-it-all, the vast majority of dentists are told by marketing companies to suspend their logic when considering marketing decisions. In particular, I see a lot of marketing companies who sell sell sell without any process which mirrors an initial oral exam. Dentists are logical enough to realize something is missing, but when every marketing company you talk to is telling you the same thing, it seems like there is only one option. Just buy whatever it is that they’re selling.
After all, you contacted them so that you can get new patients, right? You do want to grow your practice, right? Sales pitches are so abundant that until you hear a more logical option, it can be easy to become overwhelmed and cave into the belief that this must be the only way available to you.
But, you know deep down that the scientific method that you’re used to has been suspended. Just because Dental Marketing Guy offers SEO has nothing to do with you. That’s when you realize that something is missing. The equivalent of an initial oral exam, but for dental SEO.
Over the years, I had great success with doing SEO for dentists. My services speak for themselves, as I’ve ranked some of the most competitive keywords in existence in the dental space. Even ranking #1 for “dental SEO expert,” despite a 3-year layoff from doing my own SEO. The reviews on the Dental Town forums are plentiful, and I always appreciate dentists like you leaving me glowing reviews about the results I’ve brought you.
But there are a handful of cases that didn’t go my way. Unlike other marketing companies, I don’t shy away from my past failures. Few as they may be, I learned powerful lessons in each and every case. Lessons that allowed me to think in a new way. Lessons that took my mindset beyond just being good at SEO. I needed something more powerful. I needed to apply the scientific method to everything I do as a dental marketing specialist. Simply being good at something isn’t enough. Just as you may be confident in your clinical skills, imagine how your hands would be tied if you disallowed yourself to do a comprehensive oral exam. You may even call it a “fool’s errand,” and you’d be right.
When I talk about SEO which is “doomed for failure” in the subheading of this article, I’m talking about SEO which doesn’t include such comprehensive research.
Comprehensive research in dental marketing is that which turns over every stone by assessing the myriads of factors that might impact both your level of risk and also your potential upside. It’s taking a detailed look at exactly what you’re up against and determining what your viable options are, and also what I’d recommend you do if I were in your shoes. The same way you do for patients who are wise enough to accept an initial oral exam.
In fact, the initial oral exam is so paramount as the first step for any logical dentist, that it’s usually required as an official policy. Such is the case with my company when it comes to what I call a “marketing analysis.”
My marketing analysis, much like an initial oral exam, involves a thorough step-by-step process that is flexible enough to allow for new findings when the situation calls for additional research in any one particular area. This flexibility is critical so that you don’t create any misunderstandings or avoid any pitfalls, hidden dangers, or missed opportunities.
My marketing analysis has a basic framework, which I’ll share with you in the form of two questions. Without the answer to these two questions, we’re just flying blind.
In my marketing analysis, which you can learn more about in the first-ever dental SEO course, we go over the entire step-by-step process which allows me to determine risk and opportunity with SEO, and then eventually all marketing strategies outside SEO available to you.
If you check out my SEO course, you’ll find expert help from some of the best and brightest minds in the SEO industry. *Notice I didn’t say dental SEO industry*
The best people in SEO. Period.
For now, let’s talk about the logic behind these two questions we seek to answer in our marketing analysis.
The first question, asked another way is: Suppose we eliminated everything we know about logic and just approached SEO with a “just a cleaning” approach. I also have referred to this in years past as the “pay and pray” approach. You just decide that The Dental Marketing Guy has done a good job in the past, and therefore he must do a good job in the future. You partner with me to offer you SEO because it worked for some other dentist and every other marketing company says you absolutely need SEO to compete in dentistry.
What would happen?
Would you get 100 additional new patients? Would you get 0? Would you get 30? Would you get 10?
Until we can answer this question, we really have no idea what we’re getting into. This is the madness that currently is being offered to dentists who look for SEO services.
In fact, it’s so mad that if someone tried to sell you any other form of dental marketing this way, you’d immediately know to walk away.
Imagine trying to get TV ads, but there is no discussion of how many people watch the channel at the time your ad was to appear. Or a direct mail campaign, which never specifies how many houses you’ll hit. Or a billboard at an unknown location, with unknown traffic levels. One of the first things you’d ask about a radio ad is the number of listeners when your ad appears. Even Google Ads and FB Ads provide data, albeit it may not always be accurate when it comes to FB Ads.
The more you think about my marketing analysis, the more you realize that it’s not just a preferred way of approaching marketing…it’s the only logical way.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can get the number of searches (often called “search volume” by industry leaders) from many tools which I go over in my dental SEO course. It’s commonly available, and even some dental marketing companies I speak to offer some ballpark idea of the data to dentists seeking SEO Which, to their credit, is far more than most dental marketing agencies out there selling SEO to dentists every day.
The first question could also be asked as simply: what’s in it for you?
But even armed with this knowledge of search volume, and even when you use my formula for boiling down the likely number of new patients you’ll get from a given search volume, there is a much bigger piece of the puzzle missing.
The second question is where the rubber really meets the road! With this second question, you can’t get some SEO newbie. You need a seasoned SEO analyst who is familiar with identifying risks and forming a prognosis that is both accurate and reliable.
The second question, asked another way is simply: what are other dentist’s websites doing differently from yours? Why, specifically, are they ranking above you?
The formula for assessing this is simple yet complex. The complex part is knowing which things to identify as SEO factors, and also knowing how much weight to give each factor in determining why other dentist’s websites rank above you on Google.
The simple part is going line by line and discovering this data.
Just like an initial oral exam, looking at the mouth is simple, but diagnosis and prognosis require a professional clinician.
One thing to keep in mind is that you cannot control some factors. Start-up dental practices, for instance, can’t control whether or not they are getting into the Google race 12 years after most practices in their neighborhood.
Domain age is but one factor outside our control. And we’d be foolish to ignore it just because of our lack of control.
Among factors that are within our control, we have options based on the competition level. We are then able to determine how aggressively we need to approach SEO, if at all. If SEO is a good idea in the first place, or if we should move to other marketing avenues.
The bottom line is there are two types of marketing philosophies, and they are both legit. I write about the two major marketing philosophies in this article.
The two major marketing philosophies are the process of diversification and the process of elimination.
This marketing analysis is based on the marketing philosophy of the process of elimination. We start with SEO, which is what I know best. Then we move on to the next option, but only after safely eliminating SEO as a viable marketing option for you.
Until SEO can be eliminated, based on a discussion with you about your goals and what type of marketing you’ve tried in the past, my opinion is that you’re going to waste some money with the diversification approach.
This doesn’t mean the diversification approach is wrong. It simply means that as I’ve been doing dental SEO over the years I’ve found the diversification approach to be best suited towards certain types of businesses, and although there are definitely exceptions to the rule where I have moved into the diversification approach, I believe that for the overwhelming majority of dental practice owners, my usual approach of using the marketing analysis in an elimination sequence is far superior because it respects your marketing budget.
Speaking of marketing budgets for dentists, if there is one thing you should take away from this article, it’s simple:
Don’t spend one penny on dental marketing until you’ve done a marketing analysis. Not one penny on a website. Not one penny on a domain name purchase. Not one red cent.
Unless, of course, you really are just looking for cleaning. Then, I’d recommend contacting someone other than a marketing company.
Learn more about dental SEO.
That is right. You will have fewer page views in those one-to-two seconds, decrease customer satisfaction, and see fewer conversions.
Today’s consumers have high demands that they expect, especially regarding the speed at which they browse the web.
They want an unhindered user experience to quickly and effortlessly find what they are looking for on the web.
Fast loading websites have become a requirement to remain competitive and not lose visitors to your website.
Before making changes to your website, you will need to measure its performance first. Several tools on the market will enable you to test and measure your homepage speed, including:
This article will use the GTmetrix tool and The Dental Marketing Guy website to measure, analyze, and recommend improvements.
You can either use the public version of GTmetrix or register for a free account. The public version always uses the same configurations.
With a free account, you can change the conditions, such as the testing location and connection speed, for a more accurate result based on your target audience.
Start by heading over to the GTmetrix home page, entering the URL of the site you want to test, and clicking Analyze.
GTmetrix generates a performance report with Web Vitals and a Grade when you run your speed test. The GTmetrix grade is derived from two sources:
Web Vitals, introduced by Google in 2020, is a standardized set of user experience and web performance metrics.
GTmetrix focuses primarily on the following Web Vitals metrics:
In our example, using Dental Marketing Guy, the GTmetrix speed test results are:
Now let us see where we can make improvements on specific metrics. Boost Your site speed with these five ways to cut the time it takes your home page to load.
When visitors land on your home page, their browser requests to access your site’s content. However, if your website has excessive JS, CSS, HTML, and other assets, the page load is reduced because they take longer to process.
Minification refers to stripping out unnecessary characters in your site’s code and does not change its functionality.
Examples include removing unnecessary line breaks, white spaces, comments, redundant code, and characters.
WordPress (WP) users can use a plugin such as W3 Total Cache to minify JS files, CSS, HTML, and other assets.
Non-WP users can use online tools to minify codes.
Assets refer to elements such as images and favicons. Naturally, you want to make them as small as possible and compress them without sacrificing quality.
Minification increases page speed by making the transfers smaller and more efficient. In addition, GTmetrix triggers structure audits after scanning your site.
The audits are based on Google’s best practices for optimal front-end website performance. They are assessed and ranked according to their impact on your performance and how well you adhere to the best practice standards.
Even though the structure audits do not directly affect your Performance score, they can improve overall page loading time.
Click on the down-arrow to open the specific suggestions for each element. GTmetrix suggests focusing on this top issue section first as they have the most considerable impact on page speed and performance.
Each time a page on your website redirects somewhere else, it prolongs the HTTP request and response process while reducing loading times.
There will be some situations where a redirect is necessary. However, remove any unnecessary redirects on your site to increase the speed at which pages are loaded.
Dental Marketing Guy has no issues with too many page redirects.
WP users can use a plugin to reduce redirects. However, GTmetrix recommends redirecting necessary URLs on the server-side because they are cacheable, fast, and universally implemented.
Image source GTmetrix
Browser caching can significantly improve page load times by asking website visitors to save and reuse your site’s files.
It works by enabling browsers to store various information and files, such as JS files, stylesheets, and images, so that the entire page does not need to reload every time the same visitor lands on it.
In our example, the impact is low under the structure tab for cache policy. However, GTmetrix still offers recommendations for improvement.
GTmetrix identifies a resource as cacheable if it meets all of the following criteria:
GTmetrix will flag all the static resources that need attention and improvement when you are not leveraging browser caching.
Click Audit to see the list of resources with transfer size and the cache time-to-live (TTL).
When your site does not have the correct HTTP cache headers on the server, site speed is affected and slows down.
Many site owners struggle with leveraging browser caching, especially when it occurs on resources you do not control.
For example, if your Audit shows a third-party ad network as a cache issue, you can do nothing as it is not a resource you control.
WP users can use one of the many powerful caching plugins, such as WP Rocket, WP Super Cache, and W3 Total Cache, to optimize and create lightning speed page loading times.
TTFB is the total amount of time browsers need to wait before receiving the first byte of a response request.
It refers to how long it takes for a page to start loading. The metric is made up of the Redirection Duration + Connection Duration + Backend Duration and is a key indicator of web performance.
A slow TTFB might result in website visitors only seeing a blank page while the browser waits for your server to respond.
Requests for your web page from users are sent to the server. The server, in turn, generates an appropriate response and sends back your page resources to the user.
Below are a few ways to improve TTFB:
Using the Waterfall tab in GTmetrix, TTFB is measured from the test’s start until right before receiving the page requested.
One of the best ways to reduce TTFB is to enable browser caching.
A CDN is a network of servers with nodes located in different regions. The servers are spread around the world.
The benefit of using a CDN is to reduce load times by caching your page’s static content, such as JS files, images, and CSS.
When a visitor lands on your site, resources are served from the cache of the closest CDN node. This is instead of loading resources from your original server.
Leveraging a CDN will improve page loading speed by hosting and delivering copies of your website’s static content from servers located in various locations across the globe.
It works by reducing the distance user-requested data has to travel between your servers and the visitors’ browsers.
Image source GTmetrix
GTmetrix will look at page request response headers, identify those not served from a known CDN, and trigger an audit.
While CDNs can significantly improve website performance across different locations, they are not essential to your website’s functionality.
Whether or not to use a CDN will depend upon your performance goals and the location of your target audience.
We cannot overstate how critical site speed is to success. You must regularly monitor page loading speed and make improvements where necessary.
As we have shown above, several factors affect home page loading speeds. Therefore, using a tool to help identify issues and provide valuable suggestions on areas to optimize performance is invaluable.
Be sure to look beyond just the scores. Instead, do a deep dive into the specific aspects of your website’s performance that have the most impact on your page load times.
Do not forget that every second it takes your web page to load significantly increases visitors’ chances to leave.
For help with your dental website design let’s talk!
Whether you’ve been casually researching SEO best practices, or you’re a seasoned SEO pro, Cora can help lift the veil on what others in your neighborhood are doing to get (and stay) ranked.
But first, a little history on Cora and why it matters to your SEO:
Cora SEO Software was created by Ted Kubaitas, a veteran of the SEO game for over a decade. Ted has seen SEO change rapidly over the past several years. Ted’s approach towards SEO is different from some of the more creative mindsets in our profession. Ted is very analytical and data-oriented.
In fact, Ted’s background is in mathematics. Ted believes that quantifying your SEO is a big part of his success in ranking websites in some of the more competitive niches (often more competitive than dentist “your city” type keywords).
And because of the high competition, there was a serious problem.
…and much more.
It took vast amounts of time to go over SEO data. Ted found himself spending countless hours going over a sea of SEO data which needed to be cherry-picked for action and a clear path to SEO victory.
Ted did what many entrepreneurs do. He looked to solve his own problems.
That’s when Cora came into the picture. Ted created a software to compare correlation data (correlation is the root of the brand he framed in “Cora”). He created this software to help him more quickly and efficiently solve SEO riddles.
You might ask yourself…Why isn’t your website ranking, yet? What factors are at play which causes one website to rank over another? What actions can you take (beyond the normal, standard optimizations), which will help my clients rank highly?
How do you know your SEO company is fully engaged in the problem-solving process of getting you ranked?
Ted and I have the same kinds of questions as you do.
Ultimately, the problem Cora strives to solve is simple. What’s holding you back?
“The problem Cora strives to solve is simple: What’s holding you back?”
Many SEO companies find themselves asking the same question. “What’s holding us back?” I’ve used Cora, and I’ll let you in on a little secret…it’s not easy to decipher this data.
Cora uses the term “matches,” which is to describe an exact match of your keyword in a certain aspect of your website. For instance, you could label one of your images “dentist in San Luis Obispo wearing black scrubs.” This would lead to a match of your image label to the keyword dentist in San Luis Obispo.
Cora is a double-edged sword for many website owners. The complexity of this tool is what makes it so effective, and yet what makes it difficult to understand. Additionally, once you’ve been able to interpret the data, diagnosing specifically what’s holding you back requires a certain level of expertise.
That’s why I’ve decided to help you better understand how to read, interpret, and take action on Cora’s data.
There are over 500 SEO correlation factors which Cora helps you identify. We’re going to build this list, over time. Please return to this blog post, bookmark it in your browser, and stay tuned for updates to this new, software’s ultimate guide.
Here are some of the most important SEO factors which Cora can help you identify:
If you ever hear someone refer to your “title tag,” that’s what is meant by “meta title.” Your meta title is what appears on Google’s search results as the clickable link. It’s usually a blue or purple link that offers a brief description of what a searcher can expect once they click on your result.
Since your title tag describes what your page is about, it is a very important ranking signal to Google. Knowing what your keywords are can help you best choose which title tag is optimal for each page on your website.
Adjusting your title tag to include keywords which match searcher intent, compelling your prospects to click on your result, is widely regarded as one of the fastest, easiest ways to lift your Google, Bing, and Yahoo rankings. It only takes a few moments (once you know your best keyword for that page), and because of the dramatic lift you can get in your rankings, I’ve listed this as the top priority which Cora can identify for you.
If you join my dental SEO course, one of the first things you’ll find out is that the domain name you choose is an important, foundational element to how SEO will turn out for you.
Having your keyword(s) in your URL has been proven in controlled SEO studies to help you appear as more relevant to search engines for your keywords.
One of the most important aspects to your SEO is to learn who is linking to your website, and who is linking to your competition. Ahrefs founder Tim Soulo decided to integrate his platform with Cora in order to best allow you to gain access to this vital data.
Competitive analysis in SEO is made much more clear when you integrate Ahrefs and Cora, together. Since most websites fail in gaining editorially-granted backlinks, Cora and Ahrefs allow you to see just where the low hanging fruit is regarding backlinks.
For instance, you might be ranked #7 for “dentist [your city]” and find out that the only difference between your dental website and the #1 ranked dental website is the fact that this #1 ranked dentist has several links from local businesses’ blogs, directories (such as Chamber of Commerce in your city), and appears in the local news website, with a link back to this dental website.
Ted tells me in an exclusive interview that Cora does require some SEO expertise to interpret and analyze the data.
However, the whole point of Cora is to try to find a single, meaningful piece of data that essentially proves why one website ranks over another. In our current hypothetical, it would be clear to me that the locally-relevant backlinks to our #1 ranking dental website is part of why this dental website ranks #1.
Cora is all about using the process of elimination to determine which SEO factors will most efficiently boost your authority and relevance to your target keywords.
In my experience, backlinks typically play a substantial role in rankings. That’s why I’ve listed Ahrefs Backlinks at the #3 position.
This blog post is a work in progress. Please come back often to see this list grow into a comprehensive resource. I didn’t want to have you wait several months for me to finish the entire guide. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like more help with using Cora.
Cora is a no-obligation, month to month SEO software. And if you purchase Cora, you’re welcome to use my discount code I’ve negotiated on your behalf! Just enter “DMG” as your discount code, to get 25% off for life!
Need help with dental SEO?
