Dental SEO: Internal pages in local pack?

[barry]

Hi All,

I'm pretty new to the local seo world, so this might seem like a pretty basic question, but here it goes....

I have a new client who is a dentist in Toronto. One of his main areas of specialty is Invisalign (see-through braces for adults).

If you search "Invisalign Dentist Toronto", you see a local pack with 7 listings, but all of those listings point to the site's home page, not the page on the site which is dedicated to Invisalign. Obviously, from a user's point of view, it would be better if these listings pointed directly to the Invisalign page within the website.

Is this just the way it is in local SEO (that only home pages are linked to from the local pack), or is there a way to get more relevant internal pages listed as well?

 

[Dustybones]

Hi Barry, Its best to link to the main page as the practice offers various specialties. Also, Google says in the Guidelines "Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or "refer" users to landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business, including pages created on social media sites." There are some exceptions when it comes to dealing with practitioner pages. Linda covers this in her training. Is this a Dentist offering Invisalign or is it an Orthodontist offering Invisalign?

Here are the guidelines: Guidelines for representing your business on Google

Hi All,

I'm pretty new to the local seo world, so this might seem like a pretty basic question, but here it goes....

I have a new client who is a dentist in Toronto. One of his main areas of specialty is Invisalign (see-through braces for adults).

If you search "Invisalign Dentist Toronto", you see a local pack with 7 listings, but all of those listings point to the site's home page, not the page on the site which is dedicated to Invisalign. Obviously, from a user's point of view, it would be better if these listings pointed directly to the Invisalign page within the website.

Is this just the way it is in local SEO (that only home pages are linked to from the local pack), or is there a way to get more relevant internal pages listed as well?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Barry,

Justin is right. Thanks, Justin!

The page that ranks in the pack is going to be the page that the business links to from their G+ Local listing. Most use the homepage, because it's typically the most authoritative page and therefore the easiest to rank.

But as importantly, you typically would not want to link the G+ L page to your Invisalign page. If you did you might rank higher for Invisalign, but likely would not rank well for Dentist and Cosmetic Dentist the main keywords that get the most traffic.

So the key then, if Invisalign is one of the most important services the Dentist offers, is to have the home page well optimized for that term and have a clear link to the Invisalign page. And to have Invisalign mentioned on lots of other pages too. Mentioned on the services page. Blog posts about Invisalign advantages, images tagged Invisalign etc.

BUT don't over-optimize. Think about: "How can I be sure patients know we offer Invisalign and how can we best educate and serve them?" Think of potential new patients that hit the site and just make sure the info is easy to find and beneficial to them. Google can figure it out from there.

 

[CharlotteSEOExpert]

Great question Barry! The listings that show up in the local pack are Google My Business profiles, you want to make sure your homepage is the website you have listed there as that profile is for the entire business. You want to make sure you utilize the best categories, in this case for Invisalign, you want to make sure you have the "orthodontist" category selected. From a website standpoint, if Invisalign is your dentist's main focus area, have content relevant to Invisalign and call to actions for that service on the homepage. This content and call to actions, direct the user to the Invisalign page. Hope that helps!

Lamar Hull

 

[SmallBizGeek]

I agree with all of the above. Just optimize the homepage for Invisalign. If Invisalign is the client's specialty, the website in general is going to be optimized for that with calls to action, testimonials, before and after photos etc.

As an aside, and slightly off topic, I currently have an orthodontic brace. I almost went for invisalign a few years ago but wound up with the standard metal brackets. I'm 33 and braces among adults seem to be gaining popularity.