In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for dental practices cannot be overstated. As more and more individuals turn to online platforms to discover healthcare services, the need for a robust online presence has become a critical factor for dental practices to succeed.

If you own a dental clinic in the UAE, you must be wondering: “How much does dental SEO cost?” The range is influenced by many factors such as the level of competition, the extent of services provided, the geographic targeting, and the reputation of the SEO agency.

SEO also involves many different types of services, starting from on-page optimization to technical SEO to content development to link building and more. Your budget will also be determined by the type of SEO services your practice needs.

Globally, the average dental SEO pricing ranges from $500 to $5000 per month. The same range is also applicable for the UAE’s digital marketing landscape.

Here we will talk about all aspects of dental SEO cost in the UAE so you can leverage the best ROI from your SEO campaign.

How Much Does Dental SEO Cost?

All businesses need a strong presence online; even dental clinics are not an exception. As a dental practitioner, a common way of increasing your organic traffic is SEO. A smart and effective SEO approach can help you outrank your competitors and establish a larger following. 

Today people with dental problems often use search engines like Google and Bing to look for dental practices nearby. This is your opportunity to increase your patient count! 

Here’s a general guideline for the typical cost range of various SEO services in the UAE.

Keyword research 

Cost Range: 1000 AED to 5000 AED 

Keyword research helps you locate the keywords with high demand that are relevant to your dental practice. You should try to emphasize on long tail keywords like “best dentist in Abu Dhabi”

On Page SEO

Cost Range: 2000 AED to 10,000 AED

The meta titles, descriptions, headings, and content need to be optimized with the primary and secondary keywords. The meta titles and descriptions need to be inviting so users will click on your page when they will see it in the SERP.

Local SEO

Cost Range: 2000 AED to 10,000 AED

Your GMB (Google My Business) profile needs to be up to date and accurate. Make sure the name, address, phone number and office hours are correct. Encourage your patients to post positive reviews so you can improve your rankings on local search results.

Content Marketing

Cost Range: 2000 AED to 20,000 AED

Your website must have engaging, informative, and relevant content. You can discuss common dental problems and solutions or share dental tips and best practices with the audience. 

Mobile Optimization

Cost Range: 1000 AED to 10,000 AED

Almost everyone now uses a mobile phone to browse the internet, which is why your website needs to be optimized for mobile devices. Mobile friendly sites will help improve the UX (user experience) and your rankings as a result.

Website Speed

Cost Range: 1000 AED to 10,000 AED

People will leave your website if it takes too long to load and Google will also negatively rank it. Test your website speed regularly to make adjustments if needed.

Benefits of Dental SEO

Even if you have a website designed for your dental practice, you have to optimize to beat your competition and dominate the SERPs.

• Improved visibility

SEO will help your website to be in front of the patients when they will search for something related to your service.

• Higher traffic

Increased visibility will help you gain more organic traffic and reach out to new audiences.

• Targeted traffic

With the help of SEO you can target specific locations and keywords so that your website gets seen by potential clients in your area.

• Improved UX

SEO involves optimizing your website for a better user experience. This includes improving site speed, mobile responsiveness, and overall navigation. 

• Cost-effectiveness

Once your website is well-optimized and ranks high in search results, you will continue to attract organic traffic without incurring ongoing advertising costs.

Factors Influencing Dental SEO Costs

1. Keywords

Your website won’t reach its full potential if you don’t target local keywords such as “dentist in Dubai’ or “dental practice in Abu Dhabi.” You can reach out to new clients by targeting keywords for local search.

There are tools that you can use to look for these types of keywords such as Google Keyword planner, Moz Keyword Explorer and SEMrush

2. Content and On-Page Optimization

The content you post on your website needs to display your expertise in dental practice and help the audience improve their oral health. 

• Understand the audience: Recognize the needs of your target demographics and create content designed to cater to their questions, interests, and concerns.
• Relevant and informative: Discuss common dental procedures, health tips and issues. The information you provide has to benefit the reader in some way.
• Visuals: You have to add pictures, videos and infographics to make your content attractive and engaging.
• Testimonials: Post patient testimonials and before-and-after pictures to build trust. 
• On-Page SEO:  The key strategies include using relevant keywords in title tags, meta descriptions, and content, ensuring mobile-friendliness, optimizing images, incorporating schema markup, encouraging user engagement, and regularly updating content. Try to avoid keyword stuffing and integrate them naturally.

3. Local SEO

NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone Number. Having a consistent NAP with accurate information about your dental practice is a must for local SEO.

Google handles location-based searches differently than regular searches. Google’s algorithm for local search is based on several ranking factors that help locate you on Google Maps or Apple Maps and business directories like Google My Business. 

Citations are an important ranking factor as they help prove the relevance and existence of a business. If you don’t provide Google with relevant data, they will never reward you with high rankings. 

Google My Business allows businesses to set up a business profile on Google to help you connect with new clients and improve your online presence. Remember to:

• Provide all the information you can
• Update your profile regularly
• Make it user-friendly

4. Technical SEO

According to Statista, close to 60% of all web traffic comes through mobile searches, which is why mobile optimization is now an important SEO factor. 

People now spend a lot of time on their mobile phones. That’s why in 2020 Google announced that it will index mobile-friendly sites first. That means the mobile version of your website is ranked first so that mobile users get access to the latest and most relevant information quickly.

You can compress images, leverage browser caching, and minimize unnecessary scripts to optimize your page load times.

HTTPS is the secured version of HTTP that can be enabled using an SSL certificate. It is a protocol used to encrypt internet traffic, verify server identity, and make SSL or TLS encryption.

Types of Dental SEO Packages

Dental SEO packages in the UAE can be categorized in this way:

1. Monthly rate

This includes a full-service package where you partner up with a dedicated SEO agency and are charged on a monthly basis. Monthly rate packages often include a combination of on-page optimization, content creation, link building, and performance monitoring.

2. Project-based 

This involves a one-time fee for a specific set of SEO services or a defined project. This could be a website audit, on-page optimization, or the creation of a targeted content strategy. Project-based packages are suitable for you if you’re looking for a particular service or addressing specific SEO challenges without committing to a long-term contract.

3. Result-based

This is a dynamic package since you pay the SEO company based on predefined key performance indicators (KPIs) or specific outcomes, such as improved search rankings, increased website traffic, or lead generation. No payment will be made until you see results. 

4. Custom 

Custom SEO plans are a blend of all SEO pricing models and include customized SEO services based on the unique business needs and goals of each client. 

DIY vs Professional SEO

Once you know how much does dental SEO cost, next arises the dilemma of whether to pursue professional SEO help or go for a DIY approach.  You need to factor in budget, expertise and time when choosing the option you want to take.

DIY SEO: Advantages

No one can know your patients, goals and industry better than you and this knowledge can help you create personalized strategies for your website. 

• Cost effective- If you have expert SEO knowledge, it may be a cost-effective option to increase your website’s traffic and visibility all by yourself. Instead of paying a professional, you can use your own time and effort to get the results you want. 
• Control- Doing SEO or anything on your own gives you full control throughout the process, from choosing keywords to creating content and optimizing your website
• Opportunity to learn- DIY SEO will give you the opportunity to learn about search engine algorithms, how they work and how you can improve rankings for your website. The knowledge you gain can be used for other digital marketing strategies and content creation for your business 

DIY SEO: Disadvantages

• Time- The biggest investment you need to make for DIY SEO is your time. You will have to allocate time and attention away from other parts of your business depending on how much time you have available.
• Learning curve- There are a lot of things you need to learn about SEO as it is a very technical and complex topic. You will have to spend a lot of time learning before you can start executing strategies for your business
• Limited Resource- A professional dental SEO agency will have a large variety of tools at their disposal to execute SEO strategies that you may not have access to. This will put a limit on your SEO abilities
• Uncertain Results- Results for SEO can take time since it is a long term strategy. Without the help of a professional, you may get unpredictable results and be unable to measure your progress.
• Mistakes- SEO work not done by professionals run the risk of accidentally using a black hat tactic which may get you a penalty from search engines. This will negatively impact your website’s rankings on SERP (search engine result page)

Professional SEO: Advantages

• Skills- Professional SEO agencies have the experience and knowledge needed to create effective and detailed strategies for your website. They are always keeping up with the latest industry trends and they can leverage that knowledge to help your website get a higher ranking and improved visibility.
• Time efficient- Letting a professional agency handle your SEO needs will allow you to utilize your time wisely and focus on your dental practice more. Doing DIY SEO requires the time and energy needed to learn and execute the strategies on your website, however giving the task to a professional agency will ensure quality keyword research, optimized web content, etc on a quicker time frame.
• Results- Professional agencies have a proven record where they achieved great results for their clients. They are able to measure the success of their strategies using metrics and make adjustments accordingly to improve the ranking and performance of your website.
• Low Risk- Professional SEO experts are familiar with the risks of implementing black hat SEO tactics. That is why they take extra caution to avoid such practice, as search engines penalize your website and rank them negatively. Experts always stick to ethical SEO practices that will guarantee long term success and protect the reputation and ranking of your website

Professional SEO: disadvantages

• Cost- Going with a professional SEO agency can be an expensive choice for small dental practices but having an optimized website will show its results in the long term
• Limited Control- You might have limited control regarding your SEO strategies if you decide to hire a professional SEO agency. It is important to choose a partner that is transparent and understands the goals and identity of your brand
• Finding the right partner- There are so many digital marketing agencies available that finding the perfect SEO agency can be a challenge. This is why it is so important to read reviews and do proper research before choosing a company to represent your SEO needs

Essential Tools for Dental SEO

The main goal of SEO tactics is to improve your website’s ranking on Google and other search engines, but that is not possible without some effective tools at your disposal. These tools are used to conduct keyword research, improve visibility and optimize contents of your website.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the best overall tools for SEO and packages start from $83 per month.
This is one of the best tools available for SEO and can be used by both beginners and advanced users. Having this tool will help you do keyword research, monitor backlinks, perform website audits, etc. 

Some of the features may have a steep learning curve and it might take you some time to master and get familiar with but the overall software is very easy to navigate and use. You will also get timely and regular customer support via email and live chat, however phone support is unavailable.

2. SEMrush

Most SEO agencies will agree that SEMrush is a powerful SEO tool full of various features. It is commonly recommended by experts and is used for keyword research, website audits, etc. SEMrush offers a free trial for 7 days but after that you can choose a monthly or annual plan. Plans start from $108 per month and can go up to $416 per month. You will get a full refund but only if you cancel within 7 days of getting the subscription.

An attractive feature for SEMrush is the number of add ons available however they are not free so it might not be for all users. For example, using SEMrush Trends you can analyze the traffic coming to your competitor’s websites and understand the marketing tactics they used. 

Another add on that is very popular among SEO experts is the ImpactHero AI tool that can inspect your content by studying the buyer journey. This will reveal what is working and where you can use some improvement. Both of these add ons will cost $200 per month

All the resources and tools SEMrush offers can create a learning curve for both beginners and experts. Customer support is available via email and you will get a reply within one business day. Live chat and phone support is also available from 10 am to 6 pm (US time), from Monday to Friday.

3. Google Search Console

Google is the king of search engines, so naturally using their SEO tool will have its advantages. It is a free tool that can be used to crawl your website and look for errors. There is no way to fix mistakes if you don’t identify them first.

However, Google Search Console can only be used for websites you own which means it is not possible to do research on competitors. The features can also be very limited when compared to other tools like SEMrush, but you have to remember that this is a free tool by Google themselves while the others are paid tools.

4. Google Analytics

You can use Google Analytics to monitor user behavior and traffic to your website as well as measure your SEO efforts and see which areas need improvement and what strategies are working efficiently. 

Using this tool along with Google Search Console will help you see the different sources of traffic to your site such as organic and paid traffic as well as the engagement rates. This tool can be used by big dental clinics as well as solo dentists running a little practice. Small businesses usually use the version of Google Analytics that is free however a paid version exists as well. 

Final Thoughts

As you can see, the question “how much does dental SEO cost?” has many different answers because the price is dependent on many factors. If you work with a professional SEO agency and set achievable goals, you will see results of your investment over time through new patients and increased revenue.

If you think you want to choose an SEO agency to help promote your dental practice and boost its ranking, we want to invite you to chat with LinkBuilderPros so that we can help get you the results you want. We are experienced with improving the online presence for dental clinics so they can gain new patients and generate more revenue. We are very excited to contact you about your SEO aims and budget.

FAQs

1. What is dental SEO?

Ans. Dental SEO is the most reliable method of reaching new patients for dentists through Google’s search engine algorithm. Effective SEO strategies will get your practice a higher ranking for searches like “dentists near me’’ 

2. Can SEO really help dentists?

Ans. Dental SEO will help dentists gain new patients and sustainable growth in the long term. You can become a top dental practice on Google with the help of dental SEO