Are you wondering how you can hire an ethical Dental SEO company
that you can trust? In this blog post we'll discuss what you need to
look for when hiring an internet marketing company for your dental
practice.
Dentistry is a highly competitive
business, (as I'm sure you know!) and in order for your practice to
thrive, you need to market your practice online. SEO (search engine
optimization) is a big part of online dental advertising, and one you
can’t neglect as a dentist in today’s
industry. However, it can be difficult to find a reputable dental
digital marketing company, as there are a lot of shady SEO and web
design agencies out there looking to make a quick buck from unsuspecting
dentists.
Fortunately, it’s possible to avoid untrustworthy & just plain bad dental SEO agencies
if you educate yourself and take the right precautions, and our dental
SEO company has written a lot of useful resources to help you protect
yourself from bad SEO companies and SEO scams. In this article, I’ll
give an overview of the 3 main things you need to do to find the top
dental SEO company, one that you can trust, and also refer you to
additional resources for further reference.
1. Ask The Right Questions
When interviewing a prospective company, you'll want to ask
them certain questions to help make sure they are reputable and
qualified. From our article 10 Questions You Need to Ask a Prospective Dental SEO Company, here are some important things to ask a dental SEO agency you’re considering hiring.
If you ask the right questions, you can cut through the disguises of disgustingly bad dental SEO companies.
1. Can they guarantee rankings on the first page of search engine results?
The answer to this question should actually be NO. There is no
way to ethically guarantee first-page rankings, and agencies that claim
they can do so are either lying or using shady means of achieving these
rankings.
2. How do they stay on top of search engine algorithm changes?
SEO is a fast-changing field and a good Internet marketing
agency will be able to tell you exactly how they stay on top of
important industry changes and best practices.
3. How often will they send you reports?
An experienced company will send you frequent reports detailing what they’re
doing for you and how your search engine results are improving as a
result. They should send you reports at least once a month.
4. What SEO tools do they use?
The company you hire should be upfront about how they will
expand your online footprint. Will they use content marketing? Social
media? What about web analytics and local SEO tools like ahrefs and Bright Local? The agency should explain what they do thoroughly and in language you can understand.
You can learn more questions you should ask a prospective SEO agency in our above-mentioned article, and also brush up on some basic online marketing definitions to gain a better understanding of the techniques they would use to market your practice.
2. Look Out for These Red Flags of Bad Dental SEO
In addition to guaranteeing first-page rankings, there are
several other warning signs of a bad SEO for dentists firm. From our
articles the 10 Types of Dental SEO Companies You Need to Avoid and Is Your Dental SEO Company Using These Shady Strategies?, are some more red flags to look out for when considering a prospective provider.
- Focusing on quantity (number of backlinks, articles, etc.) rather than quality
- Using only one or two SEO strategies (e.g., just PPC and blogging)
- Not being able to answer your questions
- Not wanting to provide any details about their methods
- Offering “keyword packages” (promising rankings on X number of keywords for X amount of money)
- Claims or prices that sound too good to be true
- Difficult to get ahold of or bad customer service in general
- They don’t run an audit of your current online presence/SEO efforts to identify the strengths and weaknesses
- They don’t ask you about your goals (which might be to increase traffic to your website, improve SERP visibility, minimize the effects of bad reviews, etc.)
- They can’t provide testimonials or a portfolio of their work (portfolios are especially important if you’re also buying web design services)
A good dental SEO/dental web design company will be able to show you a portfolio with examples of their good work.
Perhaps by showing some dental websites properly optimized for search:
Or perhaps they will show you some of the SEO results they are capable of obtaining:
Companies that have these red flags likely use shady SEO strategies
(keyword stuffing, spinning or plagiarizing content), which will cause
Google to penalize your website, making your SEO rankings even worse
than before you started paying for SEO!
3. Know What You Should Pay for Dental SEO
The exact amount you should pay for SEO for a dentist office will range depending on your area and the exact services you need to meet your goals — for example, do you need only SEO services or web design services as well? Though there’s no one-size-fits-all number that everyone should pay, it’s important that you have a rough idea of what is an appropriate range. This helps you weed out companies whose pricing is suspiciously cheap or way overpriced.
Before hiring, you will want to set a budget based on your
goals and interview multiple SEO companies in your area so that you get a
range of the going rate in your area.
To give you a quick-and-dirty range of how much of your
hard-earned money you should invest in dental marketing, you might
expect to spend from somewhere around $1,000 to $3,000/month for ongoing SEO services. For more a more detailed look at this subject, check out our article How Much Should a Dentist Spend on Marketing?
Conclusion
To find a dental SEO company you can
trust, you need to do your due diligence. You need to ask the
prospective agency the right questions and be on the look out for red
flags of shady companies that just want your money. You also need to
make sure you don’t agree to pay too much — or too little — for what
you’re getting.