2015 Dallas Dental Society Presentation discussion of what effects dental practices online. How to improve Google rankings and online reputation management. Topics apply to many industries as well as dental.
3. The Good
• Being on top of Google isn’t good, it’s GREAT -
Great rankings mean more potential new
patient callers.
• SEO isn’t just about high rankings, it is also
about increased web “visibility”.
• SEO should help promote “top of mind”,
branding, and loyalty and thus help increase
referrals too.
4. SEO Basics
• A person who performs SEO services is typically referred to as a
“SEO”.
• Some refer to SEO as Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
• Search engine ranking is basically a popularity contest. This
contest is judged by search engine algorithms.
• Google has the most advanced algorithm and provides the most
“RELEVANT” results and is thus the most used.
• Search Engine algorithms change near daily. A GOOD SEO studies
and adapts to these changes.
• A GREAT SEO understands the algorithms but also provides great
online marketing which is rewarded by higher popularity.
• SEO is divided into “Black Hat” and “White Hat”. People who try to
game the system and cheat are Black Hats. People who just do
things right and abide by Google’s terms and conditions are White
Hats.
5. Brief SEO History
• Early Google algorithms used the number of
other sites linking to your site (backlinks) to
determine your popularity. The more backlinks,
the higher your rankings.
• If your site was truly popular, other people would
link to it naturally.
• People found ways to create automated
programs to create backlinks unnaturally. This
was the start of Black Hat SEO.
• People also started selling, trading and
exchanging backlinks.
6. Results of Black Hat Methods
• Google’s search page results became less relevant
and they had to update their algorithms to
combat Black Hat Methods and to keep the
quality of their results.
• Backlinks couldn’t come from sites that had porn,
pharmacy, gambling or were “spammy”.
• Backlinks counted most if they came from
industry related sites.
• Backlinks became weighted. A backlink from the
home page of CNN might be worth 1 million
backlinks from my Grandma’s blog.
7. Google’s Current Algorithm
• There are literally thousands of factors, but here are some of the most
important.
• Backlinks are still important (30-50%) but have to be done very carefully.
• Content is now very important (but is not King). Your site has to have
fresh, unique, well written, industry related content. Bullet points don’t
count. Pictures and Video help.
• Your site must be mobile friendly and load quickly (no really large
pictures).
• Social Media Signals. How many followers, how often you post, how many
people mention you / like you / etc.
• Citations. Any site where your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) are
listed. You must claim or create your listings and have consistency across
hundreds of sites.
• Reviews. Reviews. Reviews.
• Velocity. Review Velocity, Backlink Velocity, Social Signal Velocity, etc. The
rate you get backlinks and reviews should appear natural.
8. SEO Evolution
• Overall, SEO has changed. Unfortunately many SEO “pros” have not.
• You can’t buy a cheap program and automatically create articles and
backlinks that will gain rankings. You can’t pay someone in another
country $5 to boost your rankings. You are more likely to hurt your
rankings.
• A good SEO will know traditional SEO like on site optimization and
backlinks. They should also know:
– Content Curation and Creation
– Content Marketing (Blogging, Article Marketing, Email/Newsletter, etc)
– Social Media Marketing
– Online Reputation Management
– These will increase top of mind, presence, loyalty, and branding.
• Basically, to be a good SEO you need to understand marketing. You need
to understand Google’s algorithm but you also have to understand how to
make remarkable content that is relevant and than how to publish and
advertise it online to gain popularity.
9. The Bad
• Google used to just ignore unnatural backlinks,
plagiarized content and lack of mobile
friendliness.
• Now Google PENALIZES sites that are “over
optimized”, have been found breaking terms and
conditions, or that are not mobile friendly.
• This means your site could not only drop in
rankings, it could be removed entirely and
banned from Google’s index of results.
10. The Bad continued…
• Many SEO companies and professionals have
not evolved with the Google model and still
try to do what worked 2 years ago or 5 years
ago. This can easily result in your site
receiving a penalty.
• Google Penalties are EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to
recover from. In most cases you are better off
getting a new domain name and starting all
over.
11. The Bad continued…
• SEO seems expensive, but in the end it has a better ROI
than pay per click ads or most other marketing
methods. If SEO costs $1k per month but brings in 30
new patients or more monthly, it is a great deal. It is
also cheaper than “renting” a site or purchasing leads.
• SEO takes time. Pay per clicks provide near immediate
results, however, they are extremely far more costly
than SEO. SEO usually takes about 3-15 months for
best results.
• SEO has become too involved to try to do in-house.
12. The Ugly
• Fake reviews. Many SEO companies, without
practice’s knowledge in some cases, have
started purchasing fake positive reviews for
their clients.
• Likewise, some unethical companies and
practices have engaged in buying or creating
fake NEGATIVE reviews for competitors.
• Practices need online reputation
management.
13. The Ugly continued…
• Negative SEO. Now that a site can be penalized by Google, there
are methods which can be employed to negatively affect sites.
• Some unethical companies have employed negative SEO to take
down and harm their competitors.
• Negative SEO can also be employed by disgruntled employees,
former associates, and upset people. Even just by someone to see
if they can do it.
• If you Google Negative SEO, you will find hundreds of companies
offering services to harm your competitors. It becomes more
popular every month.
• Practices need to monitor for negative SEO. If caught early it is
possible to stop rather than being too late and having to deal with a
site that is banned or penalized.
15. Questions?
• Pricing information:
– SEO: never accept a cookie cutter, menu pricing. Every SEO case
is very custom with different needs and competition. Our SEO
packages bundle traditional SEO, on-site SEO, Social media
marketing, content marketing, negative SEO monitoring and
online reputation management. Prices in the DFW area for
dentistry range from $600 to $2,000 monthly (average about
$1k).
– Online Reputation Management (ReviewCentral.us).
• $299 for one year contract ($95 setup fee plus $17 monthly)
• Or $95 setup fee plus $22 monthly.
– Negative SEO monitoring
• $349 annually ($29 monthly)
• Or $34 monthly.
• Includes consultation if negative SEO is detected.
16. Thanks
• Please feel free to contact me at:
– Jason Moran
– Personal Cell Phone: 214.232.7437
– Email: jason@ekrum.com
