If you’re looking to increase your dental practice’s search engine rankings, but aren’t sure where to start, you may be considering hiring a Dental SEO Expert.
By working with someone who has expertise in the field of dental marketing, you can focus on what you do best and let someone else handle the rest, freeing up your time and money to grow your business and build new client relationships!
Why should I hire an Dental SEO expert?
If it seems like there are more dental practices online than ever, that’s because there are. How do you ensure yours stands out from everyone else’s? Working with an expert digital marketing consultant can help.
You might think that dental digital marketing isn’t something you should pay someone for, but if your practice is spending money on advertising and PR, then isn’t investing in getting your message in front of potential patients online worth it?
A strong online presence can lead directly to new patients and less overhead from staff. Hiring a professional will help direct you’re marketing efforts with proven best practices and make sure everything is done efficiently and effectively.
Before your hire an expert, there are a few things worth considering. First, who will be handling your digital marketing?
Will it be someone from inside your practice or someone external who understands how dentistry and online marketing work together?
If you decide on an internal hire, make sure that person is empowered to pursue digital marketing without getting tied up in inpatient care and billing duties.
Second, think about what results in you want out of working with an expert. Don’t look for sales leads; instead, look for new patients and increased website traffic from people researching their options rather than just looking for information.
Check if they are an expert in dental marketing
If someone is pitching themselves as an expert in marketing and not specifically dental marketing, stay away.
If they haven’t had experience with dentists or dentistry, it doesn’t matter how good their advice is; it won’t apply to your practice.
Look for someone who has worked in dentistry and see if you can talk with past clients.
It may be hard to find customers who want their names out there but talking with past clients will give you great insight into how experienced your candidate is.
Finding an experienced Dental SEO expert will help make sure your practice stays on top of Google search results and helps generate new patients for your practice.
The best way to ensure that your investment in a Dental SEO expert is working for your practice is to make sure they are an expert in dental marketing.
You want someone who has experience specifically in dental marketing and has had success with dentists.
If their experience comes from other types of businesses, it may not apply directly and there’s no guarantee it will work.
Using another practice as an example, having worked with hundreds of practices has helped us come up with effective strategies for helping our clients get seen by new patients on Google search results.
Research the company, especially its portfolio
One of your first tasks should be to research dental SEO expert agencies and ensure that they’re not a scam.
You must do your homework here because poorly researched decisions can cost thousands of dollars.
We suggest searching for reviews on Google or Yelp; doing so will reveal what patients have said about their dental SEO experts in general and their experience with those companies specifically.
Another thing you should keep an eye out for is whether any articles mention your target agency or any staff members by name.
If your target company is mentioned in any of these articles, read them carefully. This will give you an insight into their ethical standards, as well as guide how to respond in certain situations.
For example, if there’s an instance where they’ve been publicly criticized by clients or other dental SEO experts, try and determine whether they have acknowledged their mistake and taken action accordingly.
If they haven’t responded publicly to any complaints or feedback, then we recommend staying away from such businesses altogether.
Ask what similar jobs they have done
A dental SEO expert has very similar job functions to an online marketing professional, so ask about their experience in similar roles.
Have they worked with other dentists and what do they think are some of their strengths? Be sure to inquire about how quickly he or she can provide returns on investment.
Finally, be sure to discuss any potential long-term strategies for building traffic and leads for your business.
If you feel he or she has potential, don’t be afraid to ask for samples of his or her previous work as well.
Ask how they plan to get results
When you’re hiring someone for any job, it’s important to get an idea of how they plan on achieving results.
It’s especially true in SEO, where many people claim they can help your site climb higher in Google. Before handing over your money, ask them exactly what they plan on doing and how they plan on doing it.
In all likelihood, if they have good answers, you’ll have good results when working with them. However, even if their answers are solid (and easy to understand), don’t be afraid to push back if something sounds fishy—it might just save your website from getting blacklisted by Google.
Evaluate their strategy and plan with your budget in mind
When you’re hiring an expert, consider whether they’ll work with your existing marketing strategy or if they’ll create one for you.
Also, evaluate how much time and money are going into their plan. Consider building an in-house strategy and using experts on a contract basis.
For example, many law firms don’t want to be bothered with driving traffic, which is where social media experts come in handy—you can hire them for just that part of your campaign.
If that’s not practical for your business, focus on what marketing strategies are important (i.e., paid search), then figure out who has experience running those campaigns and can help your business run more effective campaigns in-house.
Conclusion
Nowadays, many practices are leveraging online marketing tools, such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, and social media for improved visibility.
But not all practices are leveraging it effectively. Dental practices must outsource their digital marketing needs because they simply do not have time or resources to effectively manage these platforms.
Many dental practices avoid outsourcing because they assume that outsourcing is too expensive. However, smart planning can reduce costs while still bringing in higher leads and profits.
If your practice has struggled with creating and implementing an effective digital marketing strategy, it’s probably time to hire a professional digital marketer – preferably one who specializes in dentistry – so you can put your focus back on patient care.