Don’t get bogged down in code – here’s what the symbols within are saying about your SEO

How strong is your website? There are so many ways to go about answering that question, so the process can feel understandably weighty. What is “strength” when it comes to a website, anyway? And where do you get started with the evaluation process? The answers to your website’s strength might seem hidden away, but there are free tools and expert tips that you can try on your own before deciding on next steps.

We’ve compiled some of the most valuable below to help you along the way. These will determine how effectively your website appeals to both search engines and users, the two audiences that determine your online success. Once you’re paying attention to both fronts, your site is firing on all cylinders. But in order to get there, you’ll need to perform a thorough analysis first.

 Evaluate Your Practice Website With These Helpful Tools

• Pull up your page source – The page source, accessible in most browers by right-clicking anywhere on a web page and clicking “View Page Source” from the menu that pops up, has a lot to say. Don’t get overwhelmed by the code that comes up – instead, use “Control+F” or “Command+F” to look for a few phrases. You should check on your h1, h2, meta title, and meta description. Each web page should have a single h1 and a single h2 – both are big signals to search engines on the content of the page. If you have multiple h1s or h2s, that message could become muddled. Your meta title and meta description tell search engines how to display listings that link to that page, and the title plays a particularly important role in classifying your site’s content. All of these entities should be well-written and contain phrases that properly identify your business.
• Search for your own practice – Perform a Google search for your practice. What results come up? How is your site listed, in terms of both its title and description? It’s also wise to take a look at how your search listings are structured. The metadata on your practice’s website pages communicates with search engines and tells them how to portray the business and the specific page. A properly optimized site will inform users and appeal to their interests with each section of the listing:

• Check online directories – Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Bing Maps are the heavy hitters. And Google accounts for anywhere from 67%-90% of search traffic, so that should always be your top priority. Try pulling up your business on local listings directories like these, and you can see how it looks and what needs to be fixed. The location of your practice plays a big role in convincing new patients to convert, so these map listings are crucial.
• Take an objective look at your content – Most prospective patients are going to read your website (or at least 1 page of your website) before calling or clicking to contact you. If your site has copied text (if you’re not sure, you can check its originality with a free plagiarism tool), it’s not going to rank as well, and users aren’t going to get a feel for what makes your practice unique. Make sure your content reflects your practice’s mission statement! Photos and videos are also extremely important to have on each page – these improve page quality in search engines’ eyes and also provide visitors with strong visuals.
• Perform a mobile-friendly test – Analyze your URL to see whether your website is responsive. This will not only win over users but now leads to serious rankings consequences for those who do not comply.
• Steal your competitors’ secrets – Their online secrets, that is! Tools like SEMrush will allow you to check on what other dentists in your area are doing on their websites, and where they’re building links. You can also check on their rankings vs. your own for key local phrases.
• Check page speed – Another free tool for site managers, Google’s Pagespeed Insights will tell you what you might be doing wrong and whether your site is running too slowly. Site speed is imperative for a positive user experience and high rankings alike.
• Check for broken links – We recommend setting up a Search Console account with Google to do so, but this is only possible if you have access to your website files. You can easily check for 404s, 403s, and other link issues under Crawl → Crawl Errors. If you don’t have access, use a free tool to crawl your site and find any problems that need fixing.
• Consider your online reputation – Which review sites show up, and where they are in the  rankings? How positive are your online reviews? Making sure these profiles are strong is essential in building a presence that will have prospective patients feeling comfortable and trusting in your services.

Need help performing your analysis, or implementing any improvements? We’re here – just request a free website evaluation for a detailed rundown of where to get started.