Local Dental Directory Listings
You'd be amazed at how many directory and listing websites there are across the web. Sure, you know about Google Maps, Healthgrades, and Yelp, but did you know that there are over 200 actual directory/review/listing sites out there? Did you also know that if your dental practice isn't consistent with its listing information that you could become penalized?
So your practice hours are different here and there. It would take weeks to go into every listing to check and edit your information. Is it worth it to spend the time and energy to make all these tiny corrections?
Google and other search engines are pretty obsessive with this stuff. Their logical brains don't understand subtle differences such as your area code being listed as (801) and 801, and they prefer to reward dental practices who have consistent information everywhere their name exists.
Let's get into this a little bit to show you how consistency and robust information is important for your dental practice directory listings across the web.
Location. Location. Location.
When a potential patient searches for "Tooth-colored fillings," the search engine assumes this person is in need of a dentist within close proximity to replace his or her old silver amalgam fillings with modern tooth-colored resin. One could begin to assume that this incredibly intuitive search engine may also be smart enough to detect and disregard discrepancies with a dentist's listing information, but this simply is not the case.
For service businesses, such as dental practices, local search is king. Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are populated with local options answering the search query. These are based on where the searcher's device is making the search.
To be sure your practice gets listed on that SERP, Google needs to understand exactly where your practice is located. And therein lies the problem.
Name. Address. Phone.
With hundreds of directories out there, it's easy for there to be inconsistencies in listings for a dental practice. Name, address, and phone (NAP) seem so simple, but the slightest error can throw off the algorithm.
The algorithms used by Google and Bing are smart, with billions of lines of code, and they are constantly evolving. The push toward local returns is one of those evolutions, as the above-described person with cavities detailed. In the past, keywords were critical to search and the system could be gamed. That's why the person searching for a dentist in Poughkeepsie could have search results listing a dentist in Scottsdale. The algorithms no longer make that mistake.
But they can become confused by the seemingly simplest stuff…like NAP. Your dental practice listing is this:
Swiss Family Dentistry
456 Yodel Boulevard
Swissville, PA 15060
(215) 987-9876
Open Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On some listings, the name is Swiss Family Dental, the address fluctuates between 456 Yodel Boulevard, Yodel Blvd., and Yodel Bl. The area code is either (215) or 215. The entire phone number varies between (215) 987-9876 or 215-987-9876 or 215.997.9876. The hours are listed as 8 AM-5 PM here, but 8 am to 5 pm there. It's Monday on one listing, Mon. on another.
Add in modifications, such as changes for summertime hours, possible "suite" versus "#," and you continue to perpetuate your issue across the web. Humans can see these are all the same place, but those logical algorithms yearn for consistency. They view these variations as different practices. They are confused, and confused algorithms are angry algorithms that are less likely to serve your dental practice information to the searcher.
So, search engines respond by punishing these inconsistencies in organic search listings. This equates to your practice getting pushed to the bottom of the results page, far away from where your clients are looking.
Local Power
You're busy making your patients' smiles gleam. You don't have time to try and correct every listing on the web. That's where we come in. At MyAdvice, we've been building the Internet's most beautiful, hardest working dental practice websites for over 20 years. And we've been optimizing them for search long before SEO even became an acronym. You could say we've been around the block, and we understand the value of properly listing your address on that block.
Our Local Power service allows our team to ensure that your NAP is consistent across the internet's most important directory listings. We can add photos and descriptions to make your listings more robust and valuable to potential patients. We can update hours for summer or holidays in an instant.
Bottom line - we can make sure your name, address, phone, hours of operation, description of services, and everything else is the same everywhere it appears on the web. That makes a huge difference in local search and Google will reward your dental practice with higher rankings.
Let's Get to Work Cleaning Up Your Directory Listings
Your dental practice website is one of your most important employees! Its role in your success cannot be overstated. So, let's work together to make your N.A.P. and other information consistent across the web, making it easier for Google to tell the world exactly where your dental practice is. At MyAdvice, we've been building and optimizing some of the web's most effective websites for over 20 years. Check out our dental website portfolio and then let's talk. Complete the form below or call 435-575-7470.
More than 150 million people access local directories each month.
