The year is 2020. More than 90% of total online experiences start on search engines. Today alone, that means about 5.6 billion searches will be received just on Google. Whether on their phones or through a smart speaker, consumers turning to search engines to find the services and products they want isn’t exactly a new trend, but it is a growing one.

Thankfully, search engine optimization (SEO) ensures you can meet them there.

SEO is broken up into two categories: Organic SEO and Local SEO. Both focus on improving your business’s rankings in online search results so more people can find, contact, and purchase from you.

Before we dive in any further, let’s clarify where exactly we’re talking about within a typical Google search:

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Make sense? Great, let’s continue… 

What is Organic SEO?

At its core, organic SEO has less to do with the physical location of your business, and more to do with whether or not your website is relevant for certain searches. That means looking at things like the content of the page, and how reliable it is to deliver the information users are looking for. 

In the instances of organic SEO searches, the intent of the user isn’t always tied to a location, most of the time they are simply looking for information. Think about how your intent changes when you search for “pizza delivery near me” as opposed to “pizza recipes”. Your results with those two searches will likely be different, too. Here’s another example that your patients can probably relate to: “best dentist in Columbus” vs. “what to expect with dental implants”. See the difference?

When looking at how to best optimize for organic SEO, it’s important to look at strategies such as:

• Targeting relevant keywords on your website
• Creating quality, in-depth content about your industry, products, and services (in this case, written content and visual content are extremely important)
• Speeding up your website’s load time
• Streamlining the navigation and overall user experience
  

Just to name a few… 

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO differs from organic SEO because it is entirely based on location. It has everything to do with where the user is searching in proximity to where your business is physically located. 

People searching and interacting with businesses within the local SEO “3-pack” (remember the image above?), want relevant, accurate business results to serve their immediate needs. Not surprisingly, local SEO searches done on mobile devices boasts an average 80% conversion rate. 

Since this is the case, strategies to help optimize for local SEO include:

• Consistently earning quality, positive reviews
• Claiming & maintaining your business profiles on local listing sites like Google My Business and Yelp for Business Owners
• Creating location-specific website copy
• Standardizing all local citations of your business’s address, phone number, website URL, etc.
  

Again, just to name a few… 

Even though SEO optimization is aimed to benefit search engines, we have to keep in mind that it’s ultimately aimed to benefit the consumer. Your potential new patients are actively searching and deciding on whether or not to book an appointment with you. Providing relevant and consistent information for them to verify is imperative. Building a well cited, mobile-friendly website full of engaging content is essential. Choosing a partner to help you navigate those messy, ever-changing waters of SEO is a game-changer. 

Ask us about how we can change the game for you and boost your complete SEO strategy.