In its early days, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was a numbers game. If you wanted to rank highly, you had to produce more than your competitors. The most successful content included as many keywords and inbound links as possible.
However, search engine companies eventually realized that this did not add up to a great user experience. Their users started complaining of poor-quality content. Aware that this was affecting their own reputations, large changes were made. Algorithms were rewritten to prioritize the relevance, quality, and presentation of content. Link and keyword-stuffing content was in turn penalized.
This had profound effects on the types of content that ranked highly. In an extensive study of 600,000 keyword phrases, 18 percent of the pages ranked 20 or higher on the search engine results pages did not even contain the keyword! Instead, these pages had a whole host of other indicators that showed their quality instead.
This demonstrates once and for all: quality content matters for your dental practice.
But what is quality content?
Let’s talk about what defines good quality content:
- It solves a problem that the user has
- It is written for a human to read, not for a search engine to rank
- It is interesting and informative
- It answers a question the user has
- It provides a different angle that was not expected
Why high-quality content matters
1. It helps you grab the attention of your potential dental patients
Quality content is a vital resource. It has the capacity to generate a great user experience to your prospective customers and to encourage them to come back for more. It grabs the attention of your audience and actively improves the reputation of your dentist’s brand. It’s important to continue creating engaging content to capture new opportunities and retain current ones.
2. You look like an authority on dentistry
Those four years in dental school were hard, but you left them an absolute expert on dentistry and you have the years of hard work to prove it. However, it will take more than a framed college degree to convince your potential patients to pick up the phone.
In today’s information economy, being an expert on something requires you to regularly display that expertise. By creating and sharing material that shows your knowledge of dentistry and related issues, you can begin to define yourself as an authority in this field. When that content is useful or informative, clients will feel willing to trust you and see you as a local expert.
3. It helps you rank higher
In years past, when search engines put a heavier focus on keywords, SEO was all about page ranking. Digital campaigns however are much more complex today. It is nearly impossible to attain a high rating without developing brand awareness and influence while improving the user experience for your potential clients. Content marketing is therefore a critical element of any digital marketing campaign.
4. You can more easily convert visitors into customers
Every dental practice in the country would like to have more people interested in booking an appointment with them, or in other words, quality leads. In the past, outbound marketing methods such as flyers and TV advertising time have been effective in developing new leads. But these marketing tactics are now a little long in the tooth.
The modern customer does their own homework before they decide on a product or service. While this may make it initially more difficult to directly entice potential customers, it does mean that the leads that come to you from your content will be warmer and more likely to book that annual check-up than leads from outbound marketing methods.
Content is still king
High-quality content captivates readers, answers their questions and helps them learn something new. It does so in a manner that is both informative and creative. The time and money you spend on high-quality content will go a long way towards improving your brand in the eyes of your current, former and potential dental patients. Content that offers useful and easily understood information will always be welcome as far as search engines are concerned.
Dr. Websites
Are you looking for the difference when it comes to content? We can create, optimize and publish high quality dentistry-related content for you. Contact us today to learn more.