Link Building for Dentists: A Practical Guide

Backlinks (links from external websites) are crucial to ranking your dental business high on search engine results pages. In this article, I’ll teach you 10 different ways you can build them.

Link building is vital for all businesses — medical niches or fast companies. If it’s not part of your marketing plan, induct it today.

But wait, how will backlinks benefit you as a dentist?

3 Reasons You Need Link Building

Link Building Boosts Visibility on Search Engines

Backlinks are confirmed ranking factors. The more you build backlinks, the higher your chances of being on the first page of Google search results.

Backlinks Foster Relationship Building

Acquiring backlinks build your network of journalists, potential customers and medical professionals. These relationships will widen your scope and aid your business.

Dental Link Building Is Affordable

Link building and search engine optimization are relatively affordable compared to other digital marketing and advertising methods. You can divert the funds to improving your dental practice’s tools.

10 Ways to Build Links for Your Dental Website

Start a Blog

The best backlinks you can have in any business are editorial links. You get them when you create resourceful, relevant content that earns links from other websites.

One way to get such links is through a blog.

So, what do you need?

📌 Ideally, your website should have a blog — especially if it’s a WordPress site.

Either way, hire a developer to build a blog if you don’t already have it.

What’s next?

📌 You don’t want to write about topics with zero search traffic. At least not yet. Hence, keyword research. But how?

• Start with user-generated queries — what are your clients’ concerns? Get a breakdown of common questions asked? Partner with your marketing team and customer care department on this.
• Now, plug the keywords into Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. Here is an example:

I used the keyword “do I need to floss,” and I found this:

Fortunately, this keyword is easy to rank — as revealed by Ahrefs. Look at the “keywords ideas” section; pick a relevant topic.

📌 Now, let’s start writing…

• Get a word count idea to help outline your blog post; scroll to the SERP overview for a sneak peek.
• Take note of the “top keyword;” you’ll need them for the next step

• Go to Surfer > Content Editor > input the original keyword, and add the others in the “top keyword” > create

• Write and optimize your article on the editor
• Once done, export and publish the content on your blog

How about backlinks?

The idea is that your article will rank as quickly as possible. Then, other websites will send backlinks to it.

Frankly, that might take long. You can cut the time requirement by launching link building outreach campaigns for each of your published blog posts.

Further reading: How to Write SEO-Friendly Blog Posts for Beginners

Guest Post on Other Sites

Guest post backlinks are one of the natural link building methods. But build them correctly. Here is how:

Maintain the research and writing tips from strategy one. In other words, your content should always be high-quality. Otherwise, your guest post pitches might be rejected.

Besides, it is only appropriate to guest blog on high-authority, relevant websites if you spend considerable energy creating high-quality content.

How can you find such blogs?

📌 Use Google

• Type <dentist guest post> into Google search

• You can tweak the search query to get the best results. Either way, work with websites with at least 20 DR and significant traffic.

📌 Find where your favorite writer guest posts

• Go to Ahrefs Content Explorer > input the writer’s name > in content

• Follow the links and check if there are any guest submission requirements

📌 Outreach and submit the content 

Get Your Dental Practices on Local Media

Remember that I mentioned editorial links as one of the reasons to start a blog. You don’t necessarily have to start a blog to get them. You can do this instead:

Host newsworthy local events around your dental practice.

BTW, you don’t have to go all out and spend all your profit to create a newsworthy event. Something as simple as a medical camp for seniors in your locale on a fixed date and venue (use the local market) will suffice.

• You can organize the event around educational content on the proper way to floss or
• Free flossing for people or local organizations

Either way, the focus must be on your services as a dental professional.

Furthermore, create hype around the event. Partner with related businesses, other dental professionals, and influencers in your community.

After the event, ask for reviews. This way, you’ll convert new prospects. More importantly, local media houses will cover the event, write about it, and send a link to your website.

List Your Website On Medical Directories

Frankly, directory backlinks don’t carry the same weight as editorial links. Nevertheless, it helps to be where other medical professionals and local businesses are listed — especially for local SEO.

While you are at it, don’t list your business in any directory. Target the medical online directories. How?

📌 Use Google

• Type <medical directory + city> into Google search

📌 Join your school’s alumni directory

While your alma mater might not necessarily be in your city of operation, list your website there. It will count as an extra authority boost.

Create a Listing on Google Business Profile (GBP)

GBP is like a directory but better than most. It was created by Google to help businesses get seen and is a crucial aspect of local SEO ranking.

If you don’t already have a Google Business Profile, create one now. With it, your dental website stands a chance of being seen — even before typical organic search results. This way, you can rise above the fierce competition on search engine result pages.

Furthermore, if your GBP is well-optimized, you can get your business into Google 3-pack for your desired keyword.

HARO Link Building

Providing expert quotes on Help a Reporter Out is another way to get natural links (editorial backlinks). Fortunately, the process is straightforward. You don’t need to stress like when you were creating a blog.

Follow these steps to get started on HARO:

• Join HARO as a source; it is free.
• Pick areas of interest in the preference settings

Unfortunately, the only niche remotely close to dentistry is “biotech and healthcare.” but even that is too wide. So, what should you do?

• Upgrade to the advanced or premium package

With any “paid” plan, you can set alerts for keywords — e.g., dentist, dental health care, etc.

Once that is done, wait for the daily email notifications. Answer the queries, and wait for your link.

EDU Links

Remember when I mentioned joining alumni directories. Edu links are just as important — if not even better.

Unlike the alumni directories (or other similar forums/groups), edu links are high-domain-authority backlinks. That is due to 2 reasons:

1. You can only attain edu backlinks from a college/university website with domains ending in “.edu.”
2. Google awards schools high authority scores because they are credible sources.

Good news: you can milk the opportunity to get some much-needed boost to your search rankings.

Now to the crucial question: how can you get edu backlinks:

• Guest posting: yes, same old guest posting. This time, however, the articles will be academic-inclined. You can write about new discoveries in the dentistry niche and how you apply them to patients. Otherwise, your pitch will be rejected.
• Volunteer to speak at guest events: schools also have their press releases and newsletters, and you can get backlinks from those by speaking at their events. Bonus: media houses and other local businesses will also pick the story.
• Donate to schools: donations and scholarships, like guest speaking, are highlights of press releases and newsletters. So, if you can afford it, sponsor local organizations and student scholarships. I’ll recommend you do so only for dentistry students. This will help put focus on your profession as a dentist.
• Partner with student writers: school blogs often have sections where students publish articles. Reach out to such students. Offer to provide hands-on quotes and case studies to the articles. This will help fetch natural backlinks to your web pages.

PR Backlinks

PR backlinks are similar to HARO links – both get high-quality backlinks from journalists. But they are not as easy to find for super-niched businesses in the medical line.

For that reason, try this method:

📌 Explore your tools and their manufacturers

For example, you’re likely using an intraoral camera to educate your patients about their oral health. Let’s say the manufacturer of your camera is MouthWatch. Do this:

• Compile a use case of clients’ feedback on using MouthWatch’s intraoral camera.
• Reach out to the admin of MouthWatch.

The case study will likely be published as MouthWatch doesn’t have any. They will write a PR about it and promote it on news sites. In turn, you’ll get a backlink.

• Now, replicate the idea for all your tools.

📌 Compile in-depth case studies of clients

Note: you must get your client’s permission for this. Why?

The case study will include photos & videos of your treatment process — before and after your intervention, notes, and client feedback. Not everyone will be comfortable with gaining exposure.

Now what?

• Pitch medical journalists with local coverage; tell them about the video and what you achieved.
• With such detailed processes and authentic proof, you’ll likely get several backlinks for your dental website.

Go After Your Competitors’ Backlinks

I wrote an extensive guide on how to find and target competitors’ backlinks. Check it out to master this link building strategy.

Explore Unlinked Brand Mentions

If you apply the 9 link building techniques, you should already have popularity in the dental industry and some quality backlinks by now. And it can even be more when you claim the unlinked mentions. Here is how to do that:

• Register an account with BrandMentions
• Input your keyword > unlinked

• Reach out to the owners of the sites to acquire more links.

Link Building Can Scale Your Dental Business

Don’t dilly dally. Start building high-quality links with the link building tactics in this article. Then, watch how you convert more website visitors, gain more patients and increase online visibility.

What if the link building strategies are too complex?

Well, you can always hire an expert to plan your link building process and SEO strategy.