SEO vs PPC for Dental Practices: Which One Should You Choose?

Yes, it costs money but this type of advertising separates the tire kickers from those whose goal is to reach the top pages in Google and acquire customers quickly through search results.

Which one should you choose? A reputable digital marketer can help you make the right choice based on where your practice stands right now and what your goals are for the future.

Having said that, we believe both SEO and PPC have their merits and we recommend using them together.

Below we’ll explain the benefits of using PPC combined with SEO.

Benefits of using PPC and SEO together

Using PPC ads will get you to the top for a period of time — if the organic SEO is weak, you are left paying more to maintain your position.

But, if you approach it holistically you’ll be better off with using your organic SEO to elevate your PPC efforts.

They are meant to be partners yet so many experiment with one or the other and it always yields a less that optimal result.

For this dental office in Hollywood Florida you can see that they are second on the list of local searches with all their information such as reviews, address, phone number, and map.

If you look to the right, they are also right there on the PPC ads.  If they only had one or the other, they would be buried by other offices that have their PPC enhanced by organic SEO.

Why PPC itself is beneficial

Though we are great advocated of using both, we will inform you of why PPC is beneficial to your business.

There are two types of people out there that are searching for businesses. One is the tire kicker who may just have an interest in what dental practices have to offer.

For example, they may have just spoken to a friend who had their teeth whitened and wanted to weigh up what was out there for themselves.

Maybe they are just checking out the dentist. When she clicks to get the website, true, she may not make an appointment BUT the dentist won’t pay for the click.

This is what organic search is for. It’s for research which is great bedfellows with PPC. This person is not the ideal customer for PPC.

The second type of person is the ideal customer for PPC.

They are the ones that are closer to or right on top of the buying phase.

This is the person with the toothache and wants to get the closest dentist or the person who just got insurance and can choose their own dentist so of course they’ll go local. So you can see the benefit of having both.

See also: 7 Orthodontic Marketing Ideas

More benefits of using PPC to grow your dental business

• Time Sensitive Information: Information that is time sensitive, such as flash sales or a special deal on a new technology is best done with PPC. This way you’ll get the amount of people you need in the shortest time because it will be at the top of the search quickly. This means you get the most of your sale and it justifies the money spent. With a good digital marketer the CPC is low and the ROI higher. It’s a science that works.
• PPC Data: PPC data is valuable because it provides a more direct ROI and Conversion data result. You’ll know exactly what value a particular keyword has. This way you aren’t wasting time and can readjust your copy.
• Expedient Results: You could see results from your PPC in the form of great responses within an hour.

So the four top reasons for using PPC are

• Fledgling: PPC can benefit your practice in several stages. If your practice is fledgling then you need an excellent digital marketing agency to keep up with the constant management it takes to use PPC to your greatest advantage. You need new patients and you need them yesterday. You have no time to sit and market, you are setting up a practice. So, PPC ads get the first initial herd of patients in quickly and then you and your digital marketer will work on a plan going forward. What that plan is depends greatly on how the first run went, your city and demographics, and what you plan to accomplish.
• Growing in leaps and bounds: Have so many patients you have to open another office? Expansion is one of the most exciting parts of a healthy practice. PPC is the best way to get people to know about you and fast. They can see what a hit you’ve made in other cities and they’ll be able to see all the great reviews you have from your patients there. If you aren’t moving but you are expanding to more people, either way, PPC can do the same to get new people in. The key is it’s fast and though SEO is just as important, you can use PPC to get everything kick-started.
• Established: If you are established and have new technology, products and or services your practice will gain much benefit from PPC. You’ll want existing patients who may have gone somewhere else for a particular service to come to you and stay with you.

Learn More: 6 Ways Your Dental Website Can Dominate Page One of Google

Why PPC and SEO should be used together at any stage

We eluded to the fact that PPC and SEO are fantastic bedfellows and we’ve talked you through, in simple comprehensive terms why PPC is the bomb when it comes to giving your campaigns and Google presence a giant boost.

So, now that we’ve hopefully got you into the groove with PPC, let’s give you reasons to do both.

• Keeping you on top: PPC will in fact GET you on top but Organic Search SEO is going to be what keeps you there. Don’t be tempted to stop PPC and shift to SEO as soon as you are sitting high. This will only result in a short-term result. The cost will be controlled by your digital marketer.
• Gives you great strategy optimization: When you have both PPC and SEO you can analyze twice the data. This makes it easier and cheaper to see what those keywords are doing. Then, you can make an educated choice as to which to keep and which to stop.
• PPC keyword results will act as a keyword picker: This means you get to see which keywords gave the best result and now you can use the same keywords to create the copy and content that will in turn create the best organic search!
• You can push a particular technology or service: This means you can now hook a PPC ad to just one of the services or technologies you want to sell. It will have a picture and optimized write too.
• Enhance Site Search Data: This gives you the ability to see which keywords worked best on the website from your PPC ads.
• It turns around negative press and reviews: Face it, there are times when you’ll get negative press. But when PPC is targeted toward positive press you can reduce the damage greatly. For example, there is an incident involving your business that makes it to Google. PPC ads can be directed to any content you wish. This means people see your story or the positive or truthful side of what actually happened. For instance, the Gulf oil spill was handled in just this way redirecting people with PPC ads to the content that covered the cleanup project.
• Increased Click Through Rates: You can see by this infographic from SEER INTERACTIVE what the result was for CTC’s {click through rates} when used alone or combined PPC and SEO.

Your reputation grows and so do the clicks by your prospective patients when you are in both PPC and Organic search.

• Conversion rates nearly guaranteed: This case study by Search Engine Watch is a great resource to look at for how PPC and SEO combined almost guarantee conversions. Remember, you aren’t just there to look pretty and celebrate being on the first page top rank. That ranking must be turned into conversions.

So, you have now received the most comprehensive, easy to understand education on PPC alone and its benefits at any stage of your business.

You now understand the benefits and the definition of SEO and organic search as well as how powerful they are together all you need now to make sure it is cost and result effective is to hire a competent and reputable digital marketer.

This is a crucial step in the process. Growing a business means you are utilizing powerful digital tools and they all have to be worked together holistically to work effectively.

There are no ways around it if you are serious about having a relevant business presence.

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