Frankly, the Biblical David may have had it easy when he went up against Goliath.
There are giants, and then there are giants. Google falls in the second category. Here’s why.
As of April 2019, Google captured an astounding 88 percent market share of U.S. organic search. That’s not a blip, either; in the preceding 12 months, Google’s share dropped to 84.5 percent one month, but the overall trend is upward.
That leaves about 12 percent for Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, MSN, and other search engines to divide between them.
Not only does Google dominate organic search, it has a two-thirds share of the paid search market. Bing has most of the rest.
For dentists, those amazing stats mean just one thing: Google is where you want to be. As one SmartBox client noted, “If you’re not on Google, you’re not anywhere.”
Of course, Google is a rather demanding search engine.
What Google Wants, Google Enforces
In recent years, Google has focused on optimizing the user experience and the quality of the results that searchers obtain.
To that end, Google values:
- Fresh (recent or updated) and unique content
- Content that is Expert, Authoritative, and Trustworthy
- Content that is optimized according to what Google views as best practices
Of course, best practices are constantly evolving, and it’s the rare dentist who has the time and inclination to stay current in the field. But the downside to not “following the rules” is an inevitable downgrade of your listing on search engine results pages.
To belabor the obvious, if your prospects don’t see your listing they won’t choose you.
Should You Do It Yourself?
Dr. Jonathan Gilbart of Hagerstown, Maryland, is one of those remarkable dentists who actually enjoys search engine optimization, paid ads, and other aspects of online marketing today.
However, he doesn’t waste his valuable time on it.
He said, “I’ve had different companies in the past. They’re good at this, they’re good at that, but they don’t put it all together. I don’t have time to put it all together. I want to focus on my patients and focus on what their needs are. I like to tinker with the stuff, but to be honest, I’m not that great at it.
“So, I wanted to find a company that could do everything, as far as marketing, for me. I decided to make the leap of faith, and I’m glad that I did because I’ve been very happy with SmartBox and their ability to take all the stuff, put it together, and handle that aspect so I can focus on my patients.”
Get Found, And Get More, With SmartBox
SmartBox is a practice growth firm that provides comprehensive, integrated, and strategic dental marketing services. We do “all the stuff” for our doctors, and we get them the new patients they want.
Discover what SmartBox can do for your practice by scheduling a Roadmap call. Invest an amount of time roughly equal to what you need to place a single crown or an implant. We’ll take a deep dive into your practice goals, the competitive landscape in your market, and how you’ll reach those goals.
Following the call, you’ll receive your completely personalized Roadmap to the success you want.
Google is very powerful. Smart dentists will ally themselves with a firm that has powerful solutions to the question of how to succeed on your own terms.