SEO for Dentists - Key Performance IndicatorsI
If your dental practice is considering SEO to increase your website traffic, then you should read the information below. How will you know if your SEO is working? What metrics exist to help quantify performance and results?
The key performance metrics below are critical to understanding your website's SEO performance, and if your SEO company is actually doing a good job. Your SEO company should report to you these metrics below on a monthly basis.
Phone calls
We typically use a tracking phone # on websites that we are doing Premium SEO. The tracking phone # is a local area code phone # (same area code as the practice phone #). We can also use toll-free numbers if desired.
When a patient or potential new patient calls the number on the website it immediately routes to the actual practice phone #. This allows us to use tracking software and report how many phone calls came from the website each month. We can also report the date & time of the call, the duration of the call in minutes, and the incoming phone #.
In addition, we have the ability to record phone calls if needed. Phone call recording increases the amount of people who will hang up prematurely since we normally need to include a message that the call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes (this requirement is dependent on state laws). So if a client wants phone calls recorded we advise them only to do it for a limited time for training purposes, and then turn it off.
Appointment requests
This metric shows how many people requested an appointment through the website.
Total website traffic
This metric shows all the traffic that came to the website during the month. There are 3 sources of website traffic that make up total traffic:
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Organic traffic
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Referral traffic
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Direct traffic |
Organic website traffic
 This is when someone does a search on Google or some other search engine. They may type in a search term such as "Seattle dentist". Then the search engine displays the search results, and the person clicks on a link to visit the website. This is called organic traffic. There are 2 sub-categories that make up organic traffic:
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Non-branded organic traffic: This is when the person searching types in a generic search term such as "Phoenix dentist". These are people who do not currently know about the practice so this data represents new patient potential.
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Branded organic traffic: This is when the person searching types in the doctor(s) name or the practice name. They already know who the doctor is or the practice's name. Most of these will be existing patients, but some may be referrals who are researching the practice. |
Referral website traffic
This is when a person is on another website and clicks a link on that website that takes them to your website. There are 2 sub-categories that make up referral traffic:
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Other websites: The person searching could be on your practice Facebook page, or a business directory like Manta or Healthgrades, or any other website that has a link back to your website.
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Paid Ads: When someone clicks on a paid ad from Google or some other search engine and the ad links to your website. |
Direct website traffic
This is when a person types a website address directly into the browser address bar and goes directly to the website. Or they might have the website saved as a bookmark and click on the bookmark to go directly to the website.
Keyword phrases
These are all the different words and phrases that people typed into the search bar which resulted in them ultimately coming to the website. For example these could be terms like "Denver dentist", "Dr John Smith", "cosmetic dentist in San Diego", "Bright Smiles Dental", etc.
Landing pages
This is the number of pages on the website that generated traffic to the website (i.e. pages people visited as a result of doing a search). Websites with poor dental SEO will typically have 10% - 20% of their webpages generating traffic. However, after WEO Media performs SEO on a website we can typically get 50% or more of the webpages generating traffic. This is achieved by implementing numerous SEO techniques.
Linking root domains (a.k.a. incoming links)
This is the number of links pointing (linking) to your website from other websites. Search engines look at incoming links as one of the primary indicators for how important a website is. There are many factors that search engines evaluate with linking root domains including:
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Quantity: how many links are pointed to your website, in general, the more the better.
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Relevance: If the links are coming from websites that are in the same industry (or topic) as your website this is very helpful.
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Power / Importance: If the links pointing to your website are coming from websites that get a lot of traffic themselves, then this is very beneficial for SEO performance. |
Your SEO company should be reporting this information to you every month.
If you would like a complimentary SEO consultation for your dental practice, please contact us today. |
