By now you should know that SEO stands fo “Search Engine Optimization”. In other words what do you need to do to get your practice web site to show up high on a Google search.
If a quick Google search of your business’s name isn’t yielding much of anything about your company, you’ve got some catching up to do on your search engine optimization, or SEO.
via The 5 Essentials for Improving Your Website’s SEO : Marketing :: American Express OPEN Forum.
Unfortunately SEO vendors can sometimes over promise and under deliver. There is no secret formula known just to some obscure SEO provider that will guarantee your placement on page one of a Google search. On the other hand there are some fairly simple things you can do to enhance your Google rankings.
The American Express Open Forum article linked above does outline some simple and reasonable steps. Such as claiming your Google Place and keeping content fresh.
If you live in a large metropolitan area with thousands of dentists the competition to rank at the top of Google is fierce. No one knows exactly what combination of content, links, traffic, and whatever else will result in a top Google rank. Even the Google engineers don’t know as the algorithm is constantly changing. So even if you hit the magic formula once there is no guarantee you will be on top next week.
That means that for SEO to be useful it must be constantly monitored and updated. There are services that will gladly do this for you for hundreds or even thousands a month. I was told an office in New York City was spending over $100,000 a year to stay on page one in the city.
Does that kind of investment pay off? I don’t know but I am very skeptical.
On the other hand if you live in a small community, not attached to a metropolitan area and your town has only six or seven dentists, you will be on page one with very little effort.
I don’t think you should ignore SEO, on the other hand I do not think you need to spends thousands every month. Read the linked article and try the simple inexpensive steps first.