Today, we’re diving into link building, a crucial aspect of SEO that has the most significant impact on how well your practice ranks on Google. However, it’s also one of the most challenging parts of SEO to master. Our goal is to break it down as simply as possible and provide you with practical, actionable tips that you and your team can use to secure more links for your website. By following these steps, you can significantly boost your online visibility and attract more patients to your practice.

Link building is arguably the single most important thing you can do to increase your rankings on Google. It is the biggest factor that Google looks at in order to determine whether to show your practice to potential patients or show one of your competitors instead. It’s a difficult part of the SEO process and funny enough it’s something many SEO companies don’t really know how to do very well.

A lot of people can do keyword research, a lot of people can optimize your website or write some content, but to really boost the visibility of your website you need to know how to do link building.

Link building is the process of acquiring backlinks to your website—essentially, getting other websites, particularly high-quality, authoritative ones, to link back to yours. For example, if my website links to yours, that’s considered a backlink. Similarly, if a local news outlet writes an article about your practice and includes a link to your website, that too is a backlink.

So, why is this important? Why does it matter? To understand this, let’s take a closer look at how Google works and why it’s so effective at helping people find what they’re searching for.

In the early days of the internet, many search engines existed—Meta Crawler, Ask Jeeves, Alta Vista, to name a few. But over time, most of them faded away, leaving Google as the dominant search engine. Why did this happen? The answer lies in Google’s ability to deliver more relevant and accurate search results. And a big part of that success comes from how it evaluates backlinks.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, were studying at Stanford, they had a simple yet revolutionary idea. They noticed that in academic research, the value of a paper often correlated with how many times it was cited by other papers. For example, if you were researching a topic in physics and found two papers, one cited 100 times and the other 1,000 times, the paper with 1,000 citations would likely be considered more valuable and worth your attention.

They applied this same logic to the web. The more other websites that link to a particular website, the more useful and authoritative that website is likely to be. So, if you run a dental practice and have a website, and I run a dental practice with my own website, and if your site has 10 other sites linking to it while mine has 100 links, Google might initially view my site as more authoritative because more sites are referencing it.

However, it’s not just about the quantity of links—it’s also about the quality. Google looks at the trustworthiness and authority of the websites that are linking to you. Using the previous example, let’s say your website has 10 backlinks from well-respected, authoritative sites in the dental field, while my 100 backlinks come from low-quality, spammy sites. In this case, your 10 high-quality links would carry more weight in Google’s eyes than my 100 lower-quality links.

So, if you want to improve your rankings on Google, the most effective strategy is to earn high-quality backlinks. Focus on building relationships with reputable sites, and aim for links that come from sources Google trusts. This can help your website stand out and rank higher in search results, ultimately bringing more potential patients to your practice.

Let’s dive into some practical advice that you and your team can use to boost your practice’s rankings on Google. We’ll start with the easiest wins—those “low-hanging fruit” links.

1. Directory Listings: Easy and Quick Backlinks

Creating profile pages on platforms like Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, YellowPages, Yahoo, and the Better Business Bureau can provide you with foundational backlinks. These links include a direct link to your website from your profile. While these links don’t carry a huge amount of authority—because anyone can create a listing on these sites—Google still sees them as valuable. If your competitors haven’t taken the time to create these profiles, adding your practice to multiple directories could give you an edge, potentially pushing you up to the first page of Google.

2. Niche Directory Listings and Citations

The next step is to secure links from niche directories specific to dentistry. These include websites like RateMDs, ADA.org, or the American Dental Association’s directory. If you’re an Invisalign provider, you should fill out your profile on the Invisalign website, ensuring your practice appears in their directory with a link to your website. Links from these industry-specific sites carry more weight because they are directly related to the dental field, making them more influential in improving your search rankings than general listings like Yelp.

3. Professional Affiliations and Sponsorships

Another effective approach is to leverage professional affiliations and community sponsorships. For example, if your practice sponsors the local little league baseball team, make sure your practice is listed on their sponsor’s page with a link back to your site. This type of backlink is especially valuable because it comes from a local organization, which Google views as a sign of your practice’s relevance in the community. Similarly, if you’re a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, make sure your practice is listed on their website with a link. This is another great way to gain a high-quality backlink.

4. Blog Posts and Articles from Credible Websites

Links from credible blog posts or news articles can significantly enhance your website’s authority. If a local newspaper writes an article about your practice, ensure they include a link to your site. Or, if there’s a local blogger focused on topics like parenting, consider collaborating on a post about dental care for young children, with a link to your practice included.

Here’s a real-world example: one of our clients in Ontario, Canada, is passionate about orthodontics and functional appliances. We partnered with a local blog, Modern Mississauga, to publish an article educating parents about alternatives to traditional braces for treating crowding in children’s teeth. This article includes a link back to their practice’s website. This type of backlink is highly valuable in Google’s eyes because it’s a well-written, informative piece hosted on a trusted local website.

5. Local Awards: High-Impact Backlinks

Local awards can provide some of the most powerful backlinks. For example, winning a local reader’s choice award can greatly boost your rankings because Google recognizes that this is a legitimate accolade that’s not easy to achieve. Similarly, earning a spot as one of the “Top 3 Best Cosmetic Dentists in Hamilton” can be a game changer for your SEO. Google sees these awards as endorsements from credible, trustworthy sites, making backlinks from these sources particularly valuable.

However, it’s important to note that these links must come from genuine sources. You can’t fabricate 100 fake award sites and expect to improve your rankings—Google is too smart for that.

6. High-Quality Backlinks: The Key to Ranking at the Top

The highest quality backlinks, those that can propel your practice to the first page of Google, are challenging to obtain. They require research, building relationships with local organizations, and doing excellent work that garners real local recognition. Being active in your community, participating in events, sponsoring local kids’ teams, or supporting charitable initiatives are great ways to earn these links. In many ways, good SEO practices align closely with good PR. It’s about being a valuable and visible part of your community.

By focusing on these different types of backlinks—from easy directory listings to more challenging community partnerships—you can build a robust backlink profile that signals to Google that your website is authoritative and relevant. This, in turn, will help improve your practice’s online visibility, making it easier for potential patients to find you.

It really depends on who your competition is. If you’re in a small town where no one is doing much with their online presence, simply creating some basic directory listings like Yelp, Google My Business, and YellowPages might be all it takes. You add some quality photos, make sure there’s a detailed description of your practice, ensure your hours of operation are accurate, and include a link to your website. That alone could be enough to make you stand out.

However, in larger and more competitive cities where many dentists are also investing in SEO, basic directory listings won’t cut it. Since everyone else is doing the same thing, you need to get more creative. You’ll need to find ways to get local organizations and websites to mention your practice and link back to your website. This requires higher-quality backlinks, which can make a big difference in how well you rank. This is also why truly effective SEO companies tend to be more expensive. Building directory listings is straightforward; it’s mostly just data entry. Anyone can create a profile on Yelp or set up a Google My Business page, and that’s often what you get from SEO companies that charge a few hundred dollars a month.

But this approach is rarely enough in competitive cities, where many other dentists are doing the same thing. As a result, you don’t end up standing out in Google’s eyes. It’s like, “Oh, you have a Yelp directory listing? Great—so does every other dentist.” “You made a Facebook page, a Google My Business page, and an Instagram account? Nice—but so did every other dentist in this city.”

To truly differentiate yourself and boost your rankings, you need to go beyond the basics and focus on earning high-quality, unique backlinks that set you apart from the competition. This is where the time, effort, and strategy of a skilled SEO team come into play, making a real impact on your visibility.

Link building is one of the most important and challenging parts of SEO, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. By earning high-quality backlinks from trusted sources, you can dramatically improve your practice’s visibility. Don’t let your website get lost in the crowd. Take control of your online presence and start attracting more patients today. Ready to see the impact?