Do Google reviews help with SEO? A guide for dental practices

With 92% of Australians relying on online reviews to help them with decision making, focusing on gathering Google reviews should be a central part of a dental practices ecommerce marketing strategy. Encouraging clients to leave reviews on Google can positively impact the search engine optimisation for dental practices, provide social proof and improve traffic to your website.   

In this guide, we will take a deeper look at how reviews can help with local SEO, as well as key tactics to harness the power of Google reviews, from how to increase the number of reviews you get to best practices when responding to good (and bad!) reviews. 

How Google reviews impacts SEO for your dental practice

Google reviews can help boost many areas of SEO, from targeting specific keywords to gaining more traffic to your website. 

Local SEO

Local SEO is an important part of your overall SEO strategy, and Google reviews form a pivotal part of this. Having a good volume of reviews, including recent ones, and the overall sentiment and rating of the reviews can all have a positive impact on your SEO. 

Organic keyword rich content  

Reviews that mention specific treatments and procedures, like ‘teeth whitening’, or ‘cosmetic dentistry’, can help your business show up when potential customers search for these treatments in their area. Reviews are the most organic and natural way to target these keywords, coming directly in the words of your customers. 

Improving social proof and promoting trust 

Social proof is important to clients who are looking for reassurance from peers in the research stages before making a decision. Positive ratings and reviews can aid this decision making and increase the chance of them converting into clients. 

Improve click-through rates and traffic to your website

All of these benefits can help  your business appear top in the SERPs (search engine results pages) leading to higher click-through rate and boosted traffic to your website, which should lead to increased enquiries and appointment bookings. 

Ecommerce marketing strategies to make the most of your Google reviews.

While collecting Google reviews will already have a positive impact on your SEO, using them within your wider marketing strategy can help to harness the power of customer satisfaction on multiple channels. 

Optimize your Google My Business profile 

In order to make the most of your Google reviews, ensure that your entire Google My Business (GMB) profile is optimised. This means adding your logo, business hours and contact details. You can even add professional photographs of your dental practice and practitioners. 

Automate review communications to loyal customers 

While it’s important for your reception team to ask your clients how their experience was in person, following up via other communications channels can help request reviews in a more direct way. 

Utilising automation functions for your customer communications can help you seamlessly collect reviews soon after their appointment, while your excellent service is still fresh in their minds. 

Tailor your communications to their preferences, such as email or SMS, to increase the response rate by targeting them via the channel they are most likely to engage with, and link them directly to your Google profile to leave a review. 

Make sure you add a personal touch, like ensuring you address them by name, mention the practitioner they saw and refer to the treatment or procedure or treatment they received. 

Respond to all review 

Ensure that you respond to all reviews, whether they are positive or negative, as this will indicate your level of customer service and trustworthiness. Set aside regular time to respond to reviews, weekly or monthly, and put together a bank of common themes and template replies to help you respond - however, make sure to personalise each reply! 

When it comes to negative reviews, it’s as important how you respond to these. Look into the claims within negative reviews, speaking to the practitioner and asking for information about the appointment to help you respond in a friendly, professional manner, backed by facts. 

Use reviews in other ecommerce marketing channels to amplify the social proof

You can include quotes from Google reviews in other marketing channels to help amplify your customer satisfaction. From including customer testimonials on your website, to featuring them in organic or paid social media campaigns, you can spread the impact of the reviews you gather beyond Google reviews. 

Be sure to ask permission from the original poster, or anonymise them by crediting the quote simply as ‘customer’ to protect their identity. 

So, do Google reviews help with SEO?

In short, yes they do! Google reviews are a key channel that can sometimes be overlooked as part of  marketing strategies. They provide an opportunity to boost local SEO, target niche keywords and provide social proof which can be used in multi-channel campaigns, from website to social media. 

Putting your efforts into personalised review request communications and taking the time to respond to all reviews can further boost trust in your dental practice in existing and potential customers. 

Looking to boost SEO for your dental practice?

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