Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your website appear in the top search results when potential patients look for services that you offer in their locality. Keep in mind most users never click past the first page. So, ranking higher can help you book more appointments, reach a larger patient base in your vicinity, and stand out from the competition.

But how do you optimize your website or social media pages for SEO? Link-building is one of the most effective ways!

Link-building starts with writing SEO-optimized content for your website or blog (which can just be a dedicated page on your main website). You can also explore affordable dentist SEO services or professional link-building services to enlist the help of dental SEO experts for this task.

The next step is incorporating high-quality backlinks, local SEO techniques, and targeted keywords in the written content. Before we go over these dental marketing strategies, here’s an overview of some general link-building practices:

Understanding Hyperlinks and Backlinks: Building Bridges to Dental Success

Link building allows you to build bridges between your dental practice and other reputable websites in your industry. These connections, called backlinks, play a significant role in boosting your website’s visibility in search engine results. Think of backlinks as digital recommendations or endorsements that tell search engines your website is trustworthy and relevant.

When exploring the world of dental SEO, you might come across terms like hyperlink or backlink. These terms describe the clickable text you see on webpages, but there’s a slight difference between them. Hyperlinks can be any links, including links to your own webpages and social media accounts. Contrarily, backlinks are inbound/incoming links from another website to yours. The text that is linked, as shown below, is called an anchor text, and it’s extremely important.

Say, a person suffering from toothache looks up “best dentists in Los Angeles” online. The first search engine result page (SERP) might not show the highest-rated dentists in their location, but it will definitely show the highest-ranked dental websites and business profiles.

Luckily, there are link-building strategies you can use to have your site rank among the top 5 results.If you’re not sure where to start, or frankly don’t have the time, we recommend hiring link building services to make the most of your SEO efforts and dominate search results.

Characteristics of High-Quality Dental Backlinks

Adding backlinks can sometimes do more harm than good for your dental SEO. Why? Because the quality of your backlinks makes all the difference!

Let’s explore the factors that impact a backlink’s quality.

Domain Authority: If potential patients get referrals for your services from a reliable source, like family member, they’ll be more confident about trusting you, right? Similarly, backlinks coming from high-authority domains serve the same function. They indicate that authoritative and credible websites are giving you a vote of confidence, lending more value to your webpages as a result.

Recommended Read: The Impact of Link Building Services on Domain Authority and Trustworthiness

Relevance: It doesn’t make sense for a bakery to recommend your dental services, does it? Similarly, it wouldn’t make sense for an unrelated or irrelevant website to link to yours. Relevant backlinks from sites in the same niche as yours significantly impacts their quality.

Placement: If backlinks aren’t included in the content naturally, search engines will pick up on it. Links should also be in a place where readers can actually see them. So, the genuine and natural placement of backlinks and hyperlinks matters for ranking.

Anchor Text: Remember how anchor text is super important for link-building and dental SEO? That’s because anchor text is what allows you to make your backlinks keyword-rich.

 Good Anchor Text

While the second example contains a possible dental keyword (“tooth infection”), it’s too long.

The first example is good, since it features a high-ranking dental keyword (“tooth extraction”) and links to a high-authority web page related to tooth extractions. Like we said, relevancy is key.

Recommended Read: Dentist SEO: The Importance of Backlinks and What Kind of Links to Target

Polishing Your Online Presence – Generating High-Quality Backlinks and Optimizing Local SEO for Dental Practices

Now that you know what a high-quality backlink entails, let’s see what professional link building experts have to say when it comes to creating a foolproof link building strategy for dental practices.

Create Valuable and Relevant Content

Your potential patients are looking for credible information and entering queries relevant to your services.Your first order of business should be to create high quality content that not only answers their questions, but also satisfies search intent.

Here are some example of possible search queries:

• “What is a root canal treatment?”
• “Should I get veneers”
• “How much do dental implants cost?”

Your aim is to rank as one of the websites in the top search results for topics like these. While it may be hard to rank above government organizations’ websites because of their domain authority, you can still rank on the first page by hiring professional SEO services.

Such content titles for blog posts, articles, infographics, and videos offer valuable insights into dentistry-related topics.

Your dental content marketing and SEO strategy should include relevant, updated, and informative content that’s easy to share. When you produce valuable content with an aim of informing the reading, other websites in the dental industry or related fields may be more likely to link to your content, citing it as a trusted resource.

Leverage Local SEO

Local SEO for dentists allows you to improve your website’s visibility in the region you want to target. When your potential patients search for “best dentists near me”, your website should pop up in the results considering most users want results localized to their queries.

Recommended Read: Effective Local SEO Solutions: 5 Strategies Tailored for Dentists

Engage with Local Dental Community

Reach out to dental associations, local dental blogs, online dental communities, and influential dental professionals. Engage in discussions, offer to contribute guest posts, or collaborate on projects. By building relationships and networking within the dental industry, you increase the chances of receiving backlinks from reputable sources.

When these sources link back to your site, it can drive their audience to your website. This referral traffic can be highly targeted and is likely to convert into patients if your website is geared toward local clientele.

Remember, paying for backlinks is a BIG no-no as it can get your site penalized. So, the better and more effective alternative is to build relationships within your community. This network can be beneficial for future collaborations, referrals, or sharing of expertise.

Make Guest Contributions to Other Dental Websites

Many established dental websites accept guest contributions in the form of guest blogs. You can reach out to them with well-crafted, informative blog ideas that align with their content and audience. When your guest post is published on their site, it might include an author bio section where you can include a backlink to your dental practice website.

Hiring the right link building service can help make the most of your guest blogging efforts.

Recommended Read: Unleash the Power of Guest Blogging for Dental Practices: Insider Tips and Tricks for Successful Outreach

Let’s Recap!

An all-encompassing linkbuilding strategy for dentists helps you rank higher on the world’s most used search engines, thus generating more online traffic, booking more appointments, and reaching a larger patient base.

Link building strategies involve the creation of SEO-optimized content containing high-quality backlinks and hyperlinks. You can optimize local SEO for dentists, build connections with the local dental community, and appear as a credible guest contributor on high-ranking dental websites to generate natural backlinks for your own site.

Earn Your Crown As A Top Dentist by Hiring Professional Link-building Services

Now that you understand what you need to do, you can hire link-building experts to support you on this journey.

Our dental SEO experts will boost your online rankings by generating and optimizing SEO content for your website. We can bring organic traffic to your site by helping your webpages obtain genuine backlinks and capture a spot on the first search result page.

We’re ready when you are – give us a call!

The post Link-building 101 for Dentists: How to Dominate Your Local Market appeared first on Global-marketing Inc..

The biggest challenge for dentists in the digital age is building brand awareness in their local community. When operating in a highly saturated market, losing the patient base to competitors is inevitable—unless you leverage SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

The first step in appearing in Google search results is an optimized web presence AKA a well optimized website/profile that checks all the SEO boxes. If you’re looking for an all-encompassing SEO service tailored for dentists, check out these affordable SEO packages.

The second step is optimizing your site/profile for local search. This includes GMB optimization, leveraging local SEO, and getting positive customer reviews.

GMB stands for Google My Business, more commonly referred to as Google Business Profile or Google Business Listing.

GMB is an important factor in local SEO. It helps your business appear in local search results. This means that when people in your locality search for phrases like “denstist near me” or “dentists in New York [your area], your web page/social media profile/GMB profile pops up in the top results.

So, how do you drive traffic to your dental practice with a well-maintained and optimized GMB listing? Let’s dive into it! Start by watching this video for a simplified introduction to Google business listings.

Marketing Challenges for Dentists

Dentistry is an ever-evolving field comprising a steadily growing number of practitioners every year.

Here are some of the common challenges dentists face when it comes to building brand awareness in the digital space:

1. Stiff Competition: Regardless of your location, competition in the dental care industry continues to increase worldwide. There are over 18,000 dentists in California alone, many of whom have their own individual practices. Operating in a highly competitive industry can impede your ability to stand out, making dental marketing a challenge.
2. Online Reputation Management: Many dentists create social media pages for their practice. Unfortunately, unverified reviews can ruin your online reputation and harm the legitimacy of your services.
3. Lack of SEO Knowledge and Time Constraints: Many seasoned dentists aren’t tech-savvy or digitally proficient. As such, keeping up with evolving Google My Business SEO strategies can be challenging, especially with a dentist’s busy schedule.

You’re in luck, though. With help from our dental SEO experts, you can set up your Google My Business Listing and establish your brand identity online.

Understanding Google My Business (GMB)

Here’s how you can get started. Google a popular dental practice in your locality and see what comes up.

Did you come across something like this?

That’s what a Google business profile looks like. Google listings appear in search results based on your locality. Potential patients in your locality will be able to view it on Google Maps if they search for a similar query in Google (more on this later).

Google My Business (GMB) listings and profiles have one goal: establishing a business’s online presence. Google, the world’s largest search engine, has millions of active users every second. If you want to increase the brand visibility for your dental practice, you need to be visible where potential patients are most likely to see you—on Google!

How GMB Local Optimization Benefits Dentists

GMB optimization involves carefully curating your professional persona on the search engine. It puts all the important call-to-actions and business details in one easily accessible place. This way, you can reach potential patients more effectively, efficiently, and quickly.

Google My Business profile optimization experts agree that Google profiles help dentists manage updated business information, interact with patients, monitor reviews, respond to queries, and get dental marketing insights.

Claiming and Verifying Your GMB Listing

Anybody can make a social media page for a business and make unfounded claims about its services. Social media business profiles don’t go through a verification process, making them far less reliable than a GMB listing. For you to create a legitimate business profile on Google, you need to claim and verify important business details.

Follow this basic step-by-step guide to creating your GMB profile.

Step 1: Claim Your Business

First things first, you need to let Google know the name of your dental practice. Head to the Google Business Profile page and input your business name.

Then, click “continue” and add your business to Google.

Remember, your business might physically exist on the map, but it won’t show up on Google unless you claim it. Search “my business” on Google, select the right location on Google Maps, and claim your business. If your business isn’t already listed, input the relevant information and confirm your business location.

Step 2: Choose the Right Business Category and Sub-Category

Defining the industry your business operates in is vital to optimizing your GMB profile. You can type in one relevant keyword for your business category to access a drop-down list of related categories.

Choose the business category that encompasses your business type as the primary category. For example, you will opt for “Dentist Clinic.” Then, choose sub-categories based on the services you offer, for example, “Cosmetic Dentist” and “Pediatric Dentist.”

Step 3: Build Your Profile

Once Google confirms that your business name is unique, start building your profile. You’ll need to input the following information:

• Location (you can choose multiple)
• Address
• Contact information
• Hours of operation

Providing updated information about your dental practice that is consistent across your online presences is vital for local SEO.

Step 4: Verify Your Business

Lastly, it’s time to verify your business. This can be done in one of three ways: by email, postcard, or phone. Input your current mailing address and wait to receive a verification code via mail in the following days.

Optimizing Your GMB Profile

Creating your GMB profile is usually not enough to boost brand visibility. You have to optimize your Google listing, too, which is a task that anybody who’s not a dental SEO expert would struggle with. Fret not! You can always reach out to a GMB optimization agency like ours for assistance.

Let’s explore the most important aspects to focus on when optimizing your local business listing on Google.

Craft a Compelling Business Description

When you’re done building your business profile, Google will ask you to add a business description before completing the process. This business description can make or break your GMB listing.

Come up with a description that encapsulates the essence of your dental practice. Explain what your business does, what it aims to do, and how it stands out. Even though Google allows a word limit of 750, avoid using generic adjectives or being too wordy. Concise and informative is the way to go!

For instance, if your dental practice is located in Manhattan, NY, your business description could look like this: “[Business Name] is committed to providing exceptional dental care to children and adults in Manhattan, New York. Our experienced and trained professionals offer veneer treatments, dental crown and bridges, root canals, and more.”

Optimize Relevant Keywords

Picture this: you need to describe your business to somebody in just two lines who’s never heard of it. Which words are the most important to include in those two lines? If you thought of words like “dentist” and “dental care,” those will be your keywords!

In the world of dental marketing and SEO optimization, keywords are king. Using location-specific keywords can help you reach customers in your locality.

Incorporating the right, relevant keywords in your GMB profile, posts, and description is essential for ranking higher on the search engine result pages (SERPs). The first 3-4 results for any search query are sponsored by Google, but the other results rank on the first page solely due to effective keyword optimization. The goal of GMB and keyword optimization is to have your dental business rank among the first-page results.

You can use Google Keyword Planner to identify high-ranking keywords in the dental industry.

For professional assistance and expedited results, consider outsourcing the task to our SEO agency.

Leverage Visual Content

Underestimating the power of visual content is one of the worst mistakes you can make when it comes to GMB optimization for your dental practice. Visual aspects like pictures and videos do an excellent job of attracting a viewer’s attention.

Add high-quality pictures and videos of your dental clinic, office, and the tools you use. This will help you showcase your dental business and give patients an idea of what to expect.

You can also leverage Google Business Profile posts, also known as Google My Business (GMB) posts, to incorporate keyword-optimized content and visual imagery in your listing. These typically appear in the “Updates” section of your business profile.

Manage and Respond to Reviews 

Adding genuine reviews from previous patients to your Google listing is an excellent way to leverage your credibility as a dentist. Google business listings have a separate ‘Reviews’ section highlighting the reviewer’s name, rating (out of five stars), post date, message, and pictures (if attached). As the business owner, you can manage and respond to reviews using your profile.

In case a review violates Google’s policies or is verifiably fake, you can flag and report it by specifying the policy it violates.

Leveraging the Q&A feature is another great way to optimize your GMB listing. Google allows you to answer sample questions when setting up your profile. Patients can also ask questions, which are often answered by other community members.

Regularly checking your profile for new questions can help you respond in a timely manner.

Highlight Your Services

Google listings feature a ‘Products’ section where you can list the services you offer. A list of services helps potential patients better navigate your listing. You can add prices for each service if you offer fixed rates. Make sure to update the prices on your profile as soon as you revise them.

Analyze Key Metrics

Lastly, but most importantly, analyze key metrics to monitor the effectiveness of your GMB listing optimization efforts.

Keep your listing up-to-date. Regularly check your GMB listing to ensure all information is accurate and update it as necessary.

Google provides insights on how customers found your listing, what actions they took, and where they’re coming from. Use this data to improve your listing and overall marketing strategy.

Put Your Business On The Map (Literally) With Google My Business Optimization Service

If all of this is a bit much for you, get in touch with our team of Google My Business experts. In addition to promoting your brand online, we will also maintain your online presence, which includes updating and managing your various profiles, responding to online reviews and creating tailored Google Maps marketing strategies to help you stand out from the crowd.

So, what are you waiting for? Drive more foot traffic to your business with an optimized Google Maps listing today!

The post How Dentists Can Boost Brand Visibility With GMB Optimization appeared first on Global-marketing Inc..

It’s a tricky one, right? Take a wild guess.

50,000? Nope.

100,000? Not quite.

As of 2023, there are a whopping 185,897 dental businesses in the US.

To a layperson, this is a boring fact. To a dentist, this is an alarming statistic that emphasizes the competitiveness of the dental industry. You’re competing with thousands of other dental businesses at any given time. If you fail to market your practice like a seasoned pro, you’ll lose patients to other clinics.

This is where dental SEO swiftly enters the picture. By optimizing your website, you can reach a wider audience, get more calls, turn visitors into patients, and grow your dental business.

In this blog, we’ll focus on one of the most critical components of dental SEO: backlinks.

• Why are backlinks so important?
• Which kind of backlinks should you generate?
• How will they benefit your business?

Sit tight, we’re covering everything.

Backlinks for Dentists 101: The Basics

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of link building for dentists, let’s take a quick refresher.

Link building is the process of receiving backlinks from other websites. Think of backlinks (hyperlinks that take web users to your page) as online votes. When an authoritative website like Forbes gives your dental blog a shoutout in its content, its audience will check your work out.

Forbes reaches over 150 million people each month. When such a big audience lands on your website, you’ve pretty much won the jackpot: high traffic, great conversions, and stronger brand identity.

Since Forbes has a high domain authority (DA), you’ll also enjoy an increase in your website’s DA. The cards will start falling into place.

As a dentist, you should have a razor-sharp focus on building high-DA backlinks that help your business generate greater online visibility.

When some of the leading names in the healthcare industry (Mayo Clinic, WebMD, Healthline, etc.) cover dental topics and provide a link to your content, a swarm of their audience will flock to your website. Once this starts happening frequently, your dental business will become a common sight on SERPs and achieve significant growth.

Sounds like a plan? Let’s get you there!

We’ve covered the basics; it’s time to dive into the deep end.

What Kind of Backlinks Should I Target?

There are many types of backlinks; some are useful, some yield poor results, and some can get you penalized.

As a dentist, you must proceed with caution. While every business has a lot on the line, dentists, doctors, lawyers, professors, and similar professions are at greater risk. If you start using black-hat SEO practices, your reputation, qualifications, expertise, experience, and skillset will be questioned and denigrated.

The wrong kind of backlinks fall under the black-hat SEO umbrella. Tread with caution, do your research, work with an expert, and generate high-quality backlinks that benefit your business.

Focus on building the following backlinks:

1. Editorial Backlinks

Editorial backlinks are extremely common in the dental industry. These backlinks are embedded in high-quality, relevant, and authoritative material, e.g., press releases, online journals, reputable publications, etc.

You’ll earn an editorial backlink when your content (blog, article, infographic, video, etc.) is mentioned, or someone from your team (you, your dental assistant, the anesthesiologist, etc.) is quoted.

Online journals and publications don’t always include links. Your content may be mentioned in the bibliography without an official hyperlink.

This will still benefit you. However, in this case, we recommend reaching out to the journal/publication, thanking them for highlighting your work, and requesting an official backlink.

Here’s an example of an editorial backlink in a press release on PRWeb:

Recommended Read: A Quick 8-Step Backlink Audit Guide

2. Backlinks From Guest Blogs

Guest blogging is your golden ticket to acquiring high-DA backlinks that give your business the ammo it needs to get ahead. Now, backlinks from guest blogs aren’t always the panacea they’re made out to be. If you write a guest blog for a low-DA website, chances are it’ll do little to nothing for you.

However, you can’t always start off great. If your dental practice is new and inexperienced, you can’t expect backlinks from the top dogs right off the bat. A high-DA website will rarely link to a low-DA website (unless its content truly blows them away).

Do just that; up your quality game. Write for medium-DA websites and work your way upwards. Once you get the hang of guest blogging, you can start crafting power-packed content that high-DA guest blogging platforms cannot turn down.

Since you’ll have a studier online reputation by then, the top dogs will recognize you. As a result, they’re more likely to offer you a shiny backlink.

Your guest blogs must satisfy Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) requirements. How do you do this?

To check E-E-A-T off the list, make sure you hand the guest posting task over to experienced dentists who have expertise in the relevant topic and are capable of writing authoritative and trustworthy content.

In addition to having dental prowess, they must also have a mastery of SEO. Tall order, eh? While you’ll have to put a little more effort into finding the right person for the job, the legwork will pay off.

Recommended Read: Google’s New E-E-A-T Explained: How to Master the Update

Moreover, dentistry falls under the category of ‘Medical Advice’ in Google’s YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics. Since your website and content offers advice or information that can impact someone’s health, the quality standards are high for your content.

YMYL content needs to satisfy the highest level of E-E-A-T and adhere to healthcare content guidelines.

Find guest blogging opportunities by running hyper-specific Google searches. Use a primary keyword (dentists, dental practice, etc.) and follow it up with the right search terms.

Here are some examples:

• [primary keyword] guest post
• [primary keyword] guest posting
• [primary keyword] guest post opportunities
• [primary keyword] write for us
• [primary keyword] guest article
• [primary keyword] this is a guest post by
• [primary keyword] contributing writer
• [primary keyword] submit guest post
• [primary keyword] contribute to our site
• [primary keyword] submit an article
• [primary keyword] contributor guidelines
• [primary keyword] accepting guest posts
• [primary keyword] become a guest writer
• [primary keyword] become a contributor

See what we mean? The primary keywords must be researched beforehand; don’t let guesswork lead the way. High-DA backlinks earned through guest posts will give your practice a power-packed boost.

Here’s an example of a guest posting backlink from a guest post submitted to Cosmetic Dental Treatments:

Recommended Read: Why Your Guest Blogging Strategy Is Failing

3. Directory Backlinks

If you want to steer your business in the right direction, turn to directory listings for dentists.

Web directories are well-crafted, well-organized, and comprehensive online catalogues/lists of businesses and their respective websites. They’re extremely useful from the link building standpoint.

However, like everything else, directories aren’t always equally beneficial. If you earn directory backlinks from low-quality directories, your dental business will not benefit in any way. In fact, you may get penalized if the backlinks arrive in swarms.

In 2023, Google’s algorithm is smarter than it’s ever been. No matter how smart and sneaky someone is, they can’t get past Googlebot and human quality raters.

Avoid black-hat directory link building and turn to trusted, reputable, and reliable directory listings for dentists. Take some time to find directories that are relevant to your practice, services, and location.

Here are some of the leading directories to list your dental practice on:

• The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD)
• The American Dental Education Association (ADEA)
• The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD)
• The American Dental Association (ADA)
• 1-800-DENTIST
• Clinic Search
• Cosmetic Dentist Directory
• USA Dentist
• Free Dental Care US
• CareDash
• Smile Guide
• Dental Clinics
• OpenCare
• Ortho Pages
• eHealth Scores
• FSNHospitals
• Delta Dental
• Wellness Directory
• Dental Plans

Most directories ask aspiring members to submit their dental practice’s full name, logo, website URL, photos, phone number, physical address, email address, working hours, specialization, year of inception, primary category, and business description.

Now, you can either take the reins yourself or hire a company that uses cutting-edge software and artificial intelligence (AI) to take care of all the legwork for you. We recommend the latter.

If you manually build directory listings, you’re asking for a decent amount of stress and frustration. The process isn’t easy; it requires a lot of time, consistency, and attention to detail. Automating this task is a great way to get rid of the hassle and save manual labor for other critical tasks that cannot be automated.

You can always get back in the front seat whenever you want. However, starting off, you can’t afford to kick things off on the wrong foot. Work with dental link building professionals who can help you generate high-quality dental backlinks with ease and adroitness.

This is what directory listings look like on AACD:

Once you open the listing, it’ll provide basic information about the business:

4. Comment Backlinks

When a business comments on a blog, they’re normally allowed to provide a link to their website. This is known as a comment backlink.

Unfortunately, this practice is generally frowned upon because it’s often misused. Spammers exploit comment link building by leaving a trail of copy-pasted comments across hundreds of blogs.

This is everything that Google stands against. If you resort to this tactic, your website will eventually get penalized, and your SERP rankings will drop.

Comment backlinks aren’t gimmicky by definition. In fact, they’re great (as long as you use them correctly). Leave genuine, original, and relevant comments on high-DA blogs. Avoid leaving a comment just for the sake of it. Instead, focus on providing value to readers and seal the deal with a link that takes them back to your page.

This technique will only work well when you leave insightful comments that bring new ideas to the table and start a thought-provoking conversation.

Appreciate the blog for the value it provides and add something that supplements a point already mentioned in the blog. When you cover new facets, people will feel compelled to read your comment all the way through and explore your website.

Moreover, the website itself will take notice and offer you a guest posting opportunity (if they accept guest blogs) or, at the very least, acknowledge your efforts.

While building high-DA backlinks is important, it’s not always the ultimate goal. In some cases, receiving unlinked acknowledgment from the biggest names in your industry is pretty neat as well. This is a great way to establish trust and authoritativeness.

Use comment backlinks wisely and strategically to propel your dental business forward. Each comment should be 100% original and unique. Once you start leaving value-added comments, your online presence will start shaping up.

Let’s look at an example. New Dentist Blog recently published a blog titled “Emotional Intelligence Is Still a Vital Skill for New Dentists.”

Keep scrolling until you reach the comments section. Notice something? The blog has earned a handful of comments, some of which provide immense value to the audience. These two stand out to us:

Each of these contributors has shared a link to their content. Even if a link wasn’t provided, users could still click on their profile and access their business.

The first commenter promotes a video, while the second takes this opportunity to promote their upcoming event on emotional intelligence.

You don’t have to leave a long comment each time. As long as you provide value within a few sentences, you’re good to go.

Recommended Read: What Is HARO and How to Use It for Backlinks

5. Citations

If you haven’t turned your attention to citation building for dentists yet, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon.

Citations allow businesses to add their name, address, phone number (NAP), and domain link to a web directory. They’re very similar to regular directory listings for dentists. However, they also require you to provide your NAP.

Now, citations aren’t always hyperlinked. Think of them as online mentions; they may or may not be linked.

Yelp is a great example.

Let’s say you’re looking for the best dentists in California. If you run this search on Google, the results will include Yelp listings. Something like this will catch your eye:

This is a citation. Citations are incredibly useful for local businesses. Unless you provide telehealth services, chances are that your dental business is local. This is why citations are a lifesaver for you. Your business will start showing up on Google SERPs and earn more patients.

You can also build structured citations on:

• Yelp
• YellowPages
• Facebook
• Foursquare
• Google Maps
• Apple Maps
• MapQuest

A structured dental citation is very similar to what you’d find in a directory. You have full control over what goes on your page. Here is an example of a structured dental citation on Yelp:

Unstructured citations, on the contrary, are found on websites that aren’t business directories, e.g., magazine/newspaper websites, social media posts, blogs, review sites, etc.

Here’s an example of an unstructured dental citation found on a news website:

Once your business develops a good reputation in your local community, you’ll start building organic unstructured citations.

While this citation doesn’t include a hyperlink, it’s still extremely useful. Notice how the dental clinic’s number is listed towards the end. Yes, people can’t click on the number and make a direct call without any effort. However, the article is so touching that they wouldn’t mind doing a bit more legwork.

When your dental business is continually under the limelight for all the right reasons, people will feel compelled to go the extra mile to contact you. This is why unstructured citations are imperative.

Both structured and unstructured citations will help you strengthen your brand identity and polish your clinic’s reputation.

Citation building for dentists isn’t exactly a piece of cake. Start off slow. Work with experts to find the right platforms and improve your public relations efforts. Consistency will ultimately help you check this box off the list like a seasoned pro.

Recommended Read: How to Get Published on Yahoo News

Should I Avoid Paid Dental Backlinks?

Let’s address the elephant in the room.

Paid backlinks are a big no. And yes, they can get you in trouble sometimes. When Google realizes that you’re using paid links to mess with the algorithm, your site may be removed from the index entirely.

However, it’s important to note that paid backlinks aren’t always the bad guy they’re made out to be. Let’s quickly understand why.

According to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, there’s nothing long with paying for links as long as you’re honest about it. If you’re using a paid link, make sure you use robots.txt, rel=”nofollow” or rel=“sponsored” to ensure that the paid links aren’t followed by crawlers. If you don’t do this, you’ll get in trouble.

However, paid backlink usage is acceptable when it’s done transparently and honestly.

Unfortunately, many businesses flout the rules because disclosed paid backlinks don’t really do much for you. This is where the repercussions start.

If you want to err on the side of caution, avoid paid backlinks entirely. However, if you can use them responsibly and truthfully, you have nothing to worry about.

Does Dental SEO Set Your Teeth on Edge? We’ll Handle It!

SEO isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

If you’re having trouble launching a robust in-house SEO plan and sustaining good results, turn to the pros for help.

At Global-marketing Inc., we specialize in SEO for dentists. By injecting link building into our SEO plans, we ensure that your dental business dominates Google SERPs, earns a power-packed boost in online visibility, and turns more visitors into patients.

Let’s begin!

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