Dentists, how do your patients find you? Chances are, referrals from other patients play a role, your marketing and advertising plays a role, you’re location, signage and reputation in your community plays a role. Google likely also plays a role.

If someone is looking for a local dentist and they are unsure of where to turn, there is a good chance they’ll simply run a Google search for local dentists. When they do, does your practice pop up, or does your competition’s?

In the Google world, there is a term known as search engine optimization (SEO), which is the process of following certain tactics in order to rank higher on search engines like Google. The problem is, Google keeps its ranking factors very closely. No one really knows for certain what factors Google uses to rank websites.

The good news is, there are certain methods that can be used to help your rankings based on historical data, and you don’t need to know complicated SEO techniques. You simply need to know a few basics to make a big difference in driving traffic to your site.

First know this: Google is not concerned with your business, they are concerned with providing the person searching relevant search results. Over the years, Google has gotten very precise and very good about understanding the user’s intent — or bringing the person searching to the results they are looking for. In the early years, you might have searched for “Swedish massage in Springfield” and you would have been shown the website for a hot stone massage in Chicago because the owner of the hot stone massage place was more savvy in SEO tactics. Nowadays, most of the old tactics used to rank high on Google have been replaced with far more complex tactics. Now, business owners should simply focus their website on truly providing the user with experience they expect when they land on your website, and Google will find you.

That said, there are still a few basic SEO tactics that experts believe Google still uses which can give you a leg up on your competition. Here are a few:

1. Keywords in page title

If you don’t manage your own website, talk to your webhosts and tell them how you want to title your site. Chances are, you’ve titled it after your business name. Nothing wrong with that except you are missing out on a good SEO opportunity. In your title, you are essentially telling Google what users will find when they click on your website. Be specific: “ABC Dental Care | Dental Services in Milwaukee, WI”.

2. Keyword density

Whatever the keywords you are targeting, aim for 2-3% density within your content. This means the exact verbiage you want people to search for should be interspersed amongst your website copy at a 2-3% rate.

3. Build backlinks

Google will trust you more if others trust you. They look at things like domain-authority. If a large dental publication references your practice and links to your website from their website, that tells Google “hey, if this major reputable publication recommends people to check out their website, they must be doing something right”. By building “backlinks”, or websites that refer to yours, you’ll see a big increase in your SEO traffic.

4. Provide a relevant experience

Google uses something called “rank brain”. Ranking factors are not rigid anymore, they are formless, shapeless and they adapt to the object. Just like water that changes its shape when you put it into a cup, bottle or teapot. This is what so many previous “rules of SEO” don’t really apply anymore, and it drives SEO specialists nuts. The good news for you is that you just need to be who you claim to be, in both your physical office as well as your virtual office (or website) and Google will match people to you. The better you can articulate and convince Google that you will take care of the users they send your way, the more Google will trust you to do just that.

5. Track your results!

You can use a free tool called Google Analytics to link to your website. This will give you everything you need to know about your web traffic, where it is coming from and how much it has grown since you’ve implemented these techniques. One frustrating thing about Google Analytics is they no longer provide data about what keywords were used to reach your website. They will tell you if it is a result of a search, but not the keywords used, for privacy reasons. There are other paid tools out there that might help with this if you really gotta know.

Hope that helps, 5 ways to improve your web traffic and grow your number of patients through Google!