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SEO For Dental Websites
Structuring your dental website’s data, also known as schema, makes it easier for search engines like Google to rank local businesses. For example, patients issuing a voice command like, “Find a dentist near me,” through a mobile app, feeds back search engine results for dental practices closest to their current location.
How Google chooses which practices to rank in what order, is no accident.
What Is Structured Data?
Structured data arranges information in your web pages into clear and searchable sections. It’s similar in concept to taking a spreadsheet filled with data and adding columns with labels and formatting to makes it easier for a user to understand.
Adding structured data to your webpage performs a similar function. Search engines can quickly locate relevant results that match up to a user’s query and feed them back in to the search engine results pages (SERPs).
There are several different sets of rules supported by popular search engines, along with two standard web languages.
The vocabulary from schema.org is most commonly associated with the markup used in SEO web pages. The mark-up can be added directly to the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) used to build your dental web page. When FooCo builds a dental or orthodontic website or is commissioned to optimise a website over 6-12 months, we place relevant localized business data into page headers using a web language called JavaScript. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is another alternative language to use in loading structured data.
How Does Structured Data Help Local Dental SEO
Embedding a dental clinic’s web pages with location information allows Google and other search engines to quickly scan the page for items that match the dental patient’s query. 50% of people who looked up a local business on their phone visited it in person the next day. Overall, mobile users perform 60% of local searches using a mobile device.
The key is making sure all information remains consistent across all aspects of a company’s online digital media. Search engines also reward websites that use structured data with enhanced organic search result placement. These features can come in the form of:
- Stylized search results that include images and videos and other types of visual enhancements.
- Knowledge graphs that contain brand information about a dentist or orthodontist.
- A carousel-style collection of results made up of dental contact information.
- Accelerated mobile pages (AMPs) that make it easy for users to see relevant details on a dental practice.
Applying Structured Data in Dental Websites With Local SEO
Schema.org contains many attributes that can be embedded in your HTML to distinguish specific bits of information. For example, adding an H1 tag to the header of a paragraph helps a search engine understand that you’re emphasizing a title or applying importance to a page section. H1s can be particularly beneficial to local SEO when you add phrases like the function of your business (dentist) and where it is located (Surbiton) into the wording.
Common Local Dental SEO Attributes
The following local business attributes from schema.org can be very beneficial in helping your dental practice online. They represent the items most looked for by web searchers. Properly used attributes can attract more local traffic and help search engines enhance your result before presenting it to the potential new dental patients.
- Email —Allows you to leave a contact email.
- Location —Provides your practice’s geographical location.
- Telephone —Provides a telephone number to call your dental surgery.
- Payments Accepted —Lets a visitor know what forms of payments your dental practice accepts.
- Address —Provides the physical address of your practice.
- Area Served —Indicates the area in which your dental clinic provides services.
These attributes also assist in voice searches, since voice-only searches are estimated to account for 30% of web user sessions by 2020.
How much your dental practice benefits from structured data in local SEO depends on how competitive your area is and what level of local seo competence your dental competition is striving for. At FooCo we often find active SEO work among are client’s competition is weak so we can show impressive returns on SEO investment over just a few months.
Conclusion
It’s worth taking time to learn more about structured data and the role it can play in enhancing your dental practice website placement in localized search results. Here’s a rundown of what you should ask your SEO specialist to keep in mind:
- Using structured data makes it easier for search engines to rank and categorize your pages, based on a user’s search criteria.
- Adding special tags around your dental practice’s business information helps enhance visualizations in SERPs.
- Making your information consistent across your digital platform allows users to find you through both web and voice searches.
Leveraging structured data to your advantage helps “future-proof” your content, ensuring new local patients can find you using any web search technology.
If you’re interested in turning your website and digital presence into your primary new patient driver why not contact FooCo today and ask about our dental marketing packages.
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