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Episode Highlights:

0:22 Why this is the topic of this video blog
1:46 Google’s algorithm to decide SEO rankings
2:14 Offsite SEO: Location
2:53 Offsite SEO: Quality of the backlinks
4:52 Offsite SEO: Volume of backlinks
5:24 Onsite SEO: Onsite Content
5:44 Onsite SEO: Quality of Content
7:49 The Overall Strategy for SEO
8:35 The Difference: Target Search Terms
9:26 The Difference: Cost of Time
11:34 The Difference: Penalty
12:52 What you should really consider
13:50 The Next Step

Why this is the topic of this video blog

One of our clients sent me a link the other day and it’s a promo from another SEO company. And he goes, “Hey Liza, can you check this out? Is this any good? You know, I just thought, all right, I’ll have a look. And after watching the webinar, the bottom line is they’ve got a promo going on. They’re offering like $250 a month SEO for three months, then $4.99 a month for 12 months.”

So I was watching that and I was like, “Hmm, wow. You know, for people who don’t understand SEO, they must think this is an irresistible offer.” They also have some guarantees, like in 12 months, they’re gonna get you on the page one of 10 search terms.

And I was like, sounds pretty good. You know, this also reminded me of emails that we get from these overseas third-world countries agencies that says $99 a month SEO. And you know, like for a lot of our clients which are dental practices, they’re gonna, you know, like their specialty is dental, not digital marketing so they’re gonna go, “Wow. This one’s pretty good. You know, let’s give it a go.”

So I thought this is a really good topic to share with you what, in our opinion, the difference between say a $300 a month SEO versus a $3,000 SEO.

Google’s algorithm to decide SEO rankings

When it comes to SEO, Google has got over hundreds of algorithms. There are so many things that they look at when they decide which site is gonna rank on position one, position two, position three, position 30,000, right? So there are so many things that Google looks at. So we are not gonna go into all of them, but really it comes down to two things; onsite and offsite.

Offsite SEO: Location

Let’s start with offsite. It is the quality of links that links to your site. When we do analysis of clients who come on board with us who has been using other agencies in the past, which are quite frankly a lot cheaper than ours, what we find is that the quality of links that they’re getting are from places like Eastern Europe, third world country.

What it means is that it’s not quite relevant, unless you want to get patients from Eastern Europe or third world country. But if you want to get patients from local Australia then you want to get backlinks from sites that are local. Patients from Eastern Europe or third world country. But if you want to get patients from local Australia then you want to get backlinks from sites that are local.

Offsite SEO: Quality of the backlinks

The second thing, when it comes to offsite, is the quality of sites that are linked to you. So there’s something that we look at which is domain authority, or what we call DA score or AS score, authority score. It could be named differently but really it’s all very similar, the main authority.

So how much authority does Google think that website has that links to yours?

Just like your site will also have the main authority score. So a site that links to yours, that is very young, really poor content, really low volume of content very low traffic, and then linked to your site, then the, what we call the link juice, like the power that that site’s gonna give to yours is gonna be minimal, probably bugger all. When we do our analysis, a lot of the links, a lot of the backlinks, those sites has got the main authority of zero, right? So it is like, you know a lot of volume of rubbish that does nothing, right?

So what you want is you want websites that’s got longevity, it’s around for a long time, really good quality content, gets traffic and they link to yours, right? Then that is gonna have an impact. Like for us, four links from us is more powerful than 20 links from another agency, because we can see the results in Google analytics, right? So like I said, the domain authority of the sites that link to you are really important. Once again, you know, those sites with good quality, they don’t come cheap, just like fine wine. You are not gonna get a bottle of Penfold for $5, just doesn’t exist, right? So that’s another thing to take into consideration.

Offsite SEO: Volume of backlinks

And then the third thing to look at, if you are getting good quality backlinks, is the volume of backlinks. So for us, the price difference is the volume of backlinks that we will link to the site. So that’s another thing to look at is that, the price difference will also determine the volume of back. And like I said from the previous point, quantity doesn’t equal result, right? So you definitely want the quality first, and then you get the quantity. But that’s something else to look at.

Onsite SEO: Onsite Content

The next important point, when it comes to SEO, is onsite content. So, if you are getting a cheap provider, things that you wanna look at is does it even include onsite content? Because onsite content is really important when it comes to the overall SEO strategy.

Onsite SEO: Quality of the Content

So the next one to look at, if you are getting content as part of the SEO package, is are there original content written just for you that would not be found on any other dental websites out there?

Let me give you an example, we have two clients, and they were using a different SEO provider for a number of years actually. Really affordable, few hundred bucks a month. And the articles that go on the site goes onto every single one of the other clients, right? So what does that mean? They are not original content. As a matter of fact, in Google’s mind they’re called duplicate content, which does nothing. So therefore they pay all this money per month, even though it’s not as much, they’re not getting the results.

Now we’re still, when they switched provider and came to us, you know what that other company said? They said you’re no longer licensed to use our content. And they had to remove all those articles. And as a result, for the minimal SEO traffic that they had, they tanked and got penalised. So that is the cost of getting a cheap SEO company that gives duplicate content to all their other dental practices.

Because the reality is, if you’re gonna get a writer to write original content it’s expensive, especially dental content, which is medical content, it’s not the same writer who’s gonna write some generic fitness articles, right? So they require time to do research, unless they’re dentist themselves. Which, you know, then you would know the hourly rate of dentists.

So to get quality content, it is expensive, but they work. So you want to check whether the content that you get as part of the overall strategy is unique to you or whether it’s the same for all the other site. Which can have a negative impact as they go up, as well as in the long term, when they say you have to get it removed.

The Overall Strategy for SEO

So other than looking at the onsite and the offsite SEO strategy, what is the overall strategy? What are they trying to rent for you? Are they trying to give you vanity wins? Like 10 search terms on page one in 12 months? Or are they gonna have a real business impact that put extra dollars into your bank account?

In our case for clients, extra hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in their bank account. So are they just going after local search terms that is actually quite easy to rank, but with minimal volume, because with the client’s that we work with, when we first analyse them they are already on page one for those local search terms.

The Difference: Target Search Terms

But when I talk to them, they go, “Liza, we are doing actually really well with SEO, but we are just not getting more new patients. We are not doubling in two years or tripling in two years?”

Once we analyse this, because they’re ranking for all these search term that has got hardly any volume. So what you want is you want to rank for search term that’s got no suburbs or major cities like Sydney, and Melbourne, Brisbane, et cetera. It will take time, with the right strategy, but when it happens, it will have a real financial impact to your business, right? So you wanna go after terms like dentist, cosmetic dentist, Invisalign, right? Not just cosmetic dentist suburb, right? So those volume are minimal and it’s not gonna have a major impact to your business.

The Difference: Cost of Time

The next factor to look at when you look at the difference between a $300 a month SEO and a $3,000 a month SEO is time, the cost of time.

So I’ll give you an example. One of our clients, who has been with the previous SEO company for over two years, and when you look at the Google analytics the traffic is just pretty much flat line, like hardly any incline at all, right? So as a result their business hasn’t really grown that much. Like we talk about like 4%, 5% a year, right? Now when they start working with us, and pay substantially more for their SEO and digital marketing, their business has gone from a low seven figures to now an eight figure business in the same two years.

When I say same two years, I mean, in two years, which is previous company two years, now with us two years. But the bottom line financial impact is like double and triple because they got two what actually three businesses now, right?

So the cost of time of doing a $500 a month SEO, you times that by 12, that’s $6,000. So compared to, you know, having multimillion dollars difference in that two years in revenue is huge.

Another one of our clients been with us for 12 months you know, with that SEO company that penalised them for removing their 130 articles, which actually has a huge negative impact. So we had to work from the back foot for this client and work with the overall strategy that we do. And then for the month of January in 2022 the new patient number has actually grew by 230% compared to the previous new patient number in the month of January, which is a quiet month.

So, you gotta look that the cost of time of not getting this as quickly as possible.

The Difference: Penalty

The other difference to look at between a $300 a month SEO and a $3,000 a month SEO is penalty.

So there are two types of penalties that you want to look at, the first type of penalties is duplicate content, over-optimisation, blackhead strategy.

So these things could actually cost Google to not only not rank you, but they could de-index you, which means take you off the site. When they see that you try trying to treat Google. What does that mean? You go to Google, you type your website. It does not even appear, right? So imagine how would that impact your dental practice? So that’s the first type of penalty that I’m talking about.

The next type of penalty is the cost of disconnect. What happens if you go to that agency the cheap one that produced, well actually that cheap one that got you to top 10, 10 keywords in page one, but doesn’t have a actual financial impact, and you tell them that you actually want to move on, right? And then they put, over that time, they put hundreds of duplicate articles on your site and they say you’ve got to remove them. by removing a significant amount of volume of content from your website has a negative SEO impact.

What you should really consider

So you want, so you are gonna be mindful of those really cost effective way of doing things. And what is the cost long term, you know, what’s the risk involved.

So just like a patient coming into your practice to do a smile makeover, compared to doing an overseas holiday, you know the difference between quality and results, as well as the short term and the long term risks.

So it is the same when it comes to SEO, is that when you get a cheap provider compared to a premium provider, is the quality that you get as well as the risk that your business get exposed to both short term, as well as long term.

My client asked me, “What do I think of those offers?” And I said, “Would you risk your multimillion dollar practice with $300 SEO?” And he said, “No thanks.”

What will be your answer?

The Next Step

So I hope I’ve given you more clarity about understanding different providers when it comes to SEO and SEO prices.

if you want to double your dental practice in the next three years or less, we would love to help you. We have a program called the Practice Growth Program designed to help dental practices double their business in three years or less.

All you need to do is fill in the enquiry form below it. I’ll be in touch. We’ll have a chat and see if we are right fit for each other.

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