Pick a Lane: Time or Money
Check out our article featured in North Texas Dentistry Magazine. Click here to view the digital edition and dive into some great dental insights!
All doctors want their practices to dominate certain Google keywords (‘best dentist near me’, ‘best dentist in X town’, ‘best orthodontists’, etc.). As with most good things in life, there are two ways to get there, time or money.
Let’s tackle money first. Paid Google Ads are instant. If Dr. Bert on Main Street wants to rank higher than Dr. Ernie a few blocks down Main Street for certain keywords, Dr. Bert simply has to pay more for them. Boom.
I’m not saying it’s the smartest strategy, by the way. What if both doctors want ‘best dentist on Main Street’ and those happen to be very expensive keywords?
- Dr. Ernie spends $2,000 on ‘best dentist on Main Street’ and gets one new patient
- Dr. Bert rethinks it, spends $2,000 on better-converting keywords, and gets three new patients.
- Dr. Ernie gets an imaginary trophy, and Dr. Bert gets a new boat.
Either way, $2,000 was paid to Google for a new client(s).
Now let’s tackle time. The way to get to organic top search results (not paid ads) is time.
- Time to write relevant content each month.
- Time to update your site with relevant changes each month.
- Time to ask for, and respond to, patient reviews.
- Time to request or buy backlinks from credible organizations.
- Time to ensure your site has all the proper virus protections.
- Time to ensure your site is loading quickly.
- Time to ensure it’s backed up, should it go down.
- And most elusive, time for Google to index all the above (out of your hands).
Here’s why it matters. Imagine you are Google. And Elmo searches for ‘best dentist near me’. You, as Google, get to determine who ranks higher, Dr. Bert or Dr. Ernie.
Imagine Dr. Bert’s site has new, relevant, and original (not copied) content, lots of reviews, solid links to credible organizations, and is safe and fast.
Imagine Dr. Ernie’s site has dated content, few reviews, it’s slow, unsafe, and no one vouches for it.
You, as Google, are clearly going to rank Dr. Bert above Dr. Ernie. Because Dr. Bert put in the time to make his site educational, engaging, fast, safe, and has lots of folks vouching for it.
So unlike my daughters, who somehow magically seem to get all my time and all my money, you will have to pick a lane (time or money) for your practice to dominate the Google search terms of your choice.
