SEO is complicated, but here’s why it can work in your favor!

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Intro: You are now listening to another episode of the Insurance Untangled podcast, where we explore the various challenges faced by dental practices due to their reliance on insurance. Join us in this podcast as we dive deep into the issues surrounding dental insurance dependence and offer practical solutions and strategies to help you take control of your practice’s financial future.

Ben Tuinei: Welcome to another exciting episode of the Insurance Untangled podcast. My name is Ben, and I’m one of the co-hosts on this podcast. That’s, you know, we’re dedicating our lives towards helping practices untangle themselves with insurance. Uh, today I have my good friend and co-host with me. I’m gonna be interviewing him, uh, Naren Arulrajah. Naren, how are you, my friend?

Naren Arulrajah: I’m doing great, Ben. And yourself?

Ben Tuinei: Good. Good, good. Thank you. Wonderful. And we have a very exciting topic to talk about today. You know, we always talk, about various different, uh, concepts, insurance-wise, marketing-wise. Today we’re gonna talk about the concept of SEO, search engine optimization. So the topic is "SEO is Complicated, But Here’s Why It Can Work in Your Favor." So, first question I have for you, Naren. Why is SEO so difficult, even for dental practices? I think for businesses in general, even when you are working with a very experienced marketing company. Why, why is, uh, the realm of SEO just a very difficult realm to exist in?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I think the reason SEO is difficult for a lot of people is, um, we all think there is a magic answer. You know, um, we think, you know, we buy a piece of software, then all of a sudden it’s gonna work out, or we hire that one person, and all of a sudden all of our problems are gonna work, you know, be solved. But in the world of business, usually that’s not the case. In the world of business, there are a hundred details that all have to be figured out for something to work out. You know what I mean? It’s not one thing. It’s rather like all of the above is what makes somebody successful.

Two books that I really loved — one is called Tiny Habits, and the other one is called Atomic Habits. And in the book Atomic Habits, the author talks about how the team from England that won many Tour de Frances, you know, in a row, or, you know, over a certain amount of time — they didn’t win because they had Armstrong, you know, or some magical player or anything.

By the way, we all know what happened with Lance Armstrong, right? Supposedly he was taking drugs and performance-enhancing drugs, and there’s a whole scandal around it, right? So this magic bullet usually doesn’t create success unless there’s some cheating going on, unfortunately. So usually, successful people are successful because they do a hundred things well.

So that particular British team — they did a hundred things well. For example, they realized dust in the bicycles can have a negative impact on the performance. The bed these riders are sleeping on in all these hotel rooms — remember, Tour de France goes through so many towns and so many cities — has an impact on the quality of sleep. So they truck their beds, or their mattresses that these guys are gonna sleep on. They have, you know, vacuum-sealed trucks to drive the bicycles so they don’t get any dust.

You know, even the paint — they painted white, because if there is any dust, it’s easy to see. So it’s those, these hundred details, right?

And SEO is one of those places that are like 3,000 details. Google makes $250 billion just from ads. So they have every motivation to not give you free traffic. They make a lot of money through ads, so they make it really hard. And the way they make it hard is they make 10 changes a day — 3,000 a year — so that you will keep getting kicked off even if you are doing well.

Um, so you have to pay attention to these details — you know, 3,000 of them. And today, you can’t do it alone. You need a massive army of experts doing different things. And because people don’t have that kind of thinking, they don’t have the team or the, the, the, the, the structure of the, you know, British cycling team that keeps winning, you know, these cycling races again and again and again — they don’t have it. They don’t do those hundred things well.

So that’s why I think people struggle with it. We all want a quick fix. We all want some magic bullet, and it doesn’t exist.

Ben Tuinei: Got it. Got it. You know, it’s interesting when you look at different companies out there too, you know, um, where — and, and I’m kind of thinking about the service area of, of SEO, right? Um, when it comes to, you know, mistakes, what are common mistakes marketing companies tend to make when it comes to performing SEO tasks for a dental practice?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. What are the common mistakes? I think, I think as a business owner, you can’t be held responsible for if your SEO company or your marketing company isn’t doing a good job. But what you can be held responsible for is to make sure they are doing what they need to, and they’re achieving results. Like, for example, you know, ask them to show you your monthly report — Google Analytics report.

If you’re not ranking for a hundred or more keywords on page one — meaning top 10 results — that means they’re not doing a good, a good job. Today, there is the haves and the have-nots in the world of SEO — the haves who are ranking for a hundred or more keywords, and they get 95% of the free traffic, and the have-nots don’t, and they get pretty much no free traffic, which means they have to spend tons of money on ads to get equivalent amount of business.

Um, so that’s a clear way to start doing this. Start using a tracking number. How many new patient calls are you getting, you know, from different kinds of marketing, including SEO? If you’re not getting 20 or more new patient calls and you have been doing SEO for a while, there’s something wrong. You need to change something.

So you as a business owner need to know how to know if somebody’s doing a good job and then hold them accountable. Now, you might even go a step further — ask them how many NAP profiles are you managing for me? How many of those have consistent information? Once in a while, run a Copyscape check to see if there’s any original content issues. There’s all these nuances.

But I’ll start by looking at the top two things, which is: how many keywords am I ranking for — is it a hundred or more in the top 10 results, according to Google Analytics? And then how many phone calls am I getting from the SEO tracking number, and is it 20 or more new patient calls a month?

Ben Tuinei: Got it, got it. Yeah, like what you mentioned with the, um, analogy with, um, Lance Armstrong and those Tour de Frances and those — you know, there’s just a lot that goes into that. And I can’t imagine for, uh, marketing, particularly with that of, you know, uh, SEO — there’s just probably so many things to keep, to pay attention to, right? Which can be overwhelming for anybody, right?

So you, you mentioned there that SEO has a lot of, uh, a lot of these moving parts like AI and Google updates. How can a practice keep up — sort of, sort of keep updated with changes without feeling overwhelmed with this kind of, uh, marketing management?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I think exceptional people do exceptional work, and ordinary people do ordinary or mediocre work, right? So if your company — your marketing company — is ranking you for a hundred or more keywords consistently, month after month, they will probably have a lot of the changes happening in the Google world under control. You know, because to maintain that level of excellence, you have to keep up, you have to be the best at what you do. You have to be like playing an A-plus game, right?

So that’s what I would be looking for. Like, for example, just to give everyone, you know, caught up on what’s going on with the world of AI — as all of us know, almost two to three years ago, we first heard of ChatGPT. Now every company under the planet is investing hundreds of billions of dollars — I’m talking about the big tech companies from Apple to Microsoft to Google to, you know, ChatGPT and Oracle and Tesla — on AI, right? They’re buying all these expensive servers. They’re trying to build their, you know, own AI powerhouse capability.

And that’s impacting how people do search. So Google has gone all in on AI. Google was the company to start on AI long, long, long time ago before anybody even thought of AI. They bought DeepMind so many years ago, and they were like some of the pioneers of AI. They bought Boston Robotics — again, one of the pioneers of AI. So they have been in AI for a long time, but they have been very cautious.

So when ChatGPT came out and did this, you know, chatbot that anyone can use and talk to and get answers from an AI, it changed the game. So now, if you go to Google, you see something called AI Overview. So pretty much, if you are asking a question around learning about a topic, Google is gonna show their answer directly.

So, for example, you know, I want to know the relationship between high blood pressure and oral health, right? I heard somewhere, and I want to do it. I just type it in — Google will tell me, like in a paragraph format, what I need to know about that topic. Like, for example, I was trying to find out what causes skin cancer — just curious. Google will tell me in a summary format.

You know, the other day I was curious about — one of my friends treats cancer — and I’m like, what are the top ways you can treat cancer? So it told me: okay, chemotherapy, you know, surgery, and radiation, right? Those are the top three ways to treat cancer.

So for those kinds of queries, Google is already starting to provide answers where it’s a paragraph-format answer — kind of like ChatGPT. They’re calling it AI Overview. So you need to understand that.

So, for example, if you type in a query like, "How much do implants cost in Chicago?" or [insert U.S. city name], you’ll get a paragraph on it. Google will tell you it ranges from here to here, here are three different providers who have talked about pricing, here are the links, you can go and check them out.

So if you want to be part of that AI Overview answer, you need to follow Google’s guidelines on how to do things and whatnot. And we do that for our clients. So we have been putting a lot of effort to pivot our company to make it AI-friendly, because Google is going that direction, and still, Google controls around 90% of the market share.

Now, people still type in "dentist near me," you know, "emergency dentist [city name]." So those, you don’t need an AI, because people are looking for a particular business. So Google’s traditional search is good. So when you type in "dentist near me," Google will show you three or four dentists with lots of reviews and everything else near you. Or if you type in "dentist [zip code]" or "Invisalign [zip code]," Google will show you local businesses with reviews and so forth.

So, um, a lot is going on. So you just need to make sure that you’re — like, for example, we are sending out an update to all of our clients about how AI is impacting and what we are doing about it now.

One thing that’s becoming very obvious is, metrics like how many people went to your website is becoming less and less relevant, because you can go directly to Google Maps and get the business owner’s reviews, get the business owner’s phone number — you don’t need to go to the website anymore.

So the visits to the website is becoming less important. Now, I can go to AI Overview for a question like, "How much do dental implants cost in [zip code]?" and I can get the paragraph answer from Google with three links. Now, I would only click on your link if yours is one of the links referenced in the AI Overview, right? Otherwise, I’ll get what I need right off of Google. And if I’m not interested in a provider, I don’t click. But if I’m interested, I’ll click on one of those people who have given a price, and I’ll go to that person’s webpage, right?

So I think understanding all these changes and staying ahead — working with a company that totally focuses on SEO, like we focus on helping dentists crush the competition — and 95% of our clients stay with us year after year because we really, really, really zoom into that.

So I do think — like, I think this is true in life, right? 90% of your battle is finding the right people for your team. Same thing for partners. That is 90%. You get the wrong partner, you’ll go in circles. You get the wrong team member, you’ll go in circles and you’ll spend three times more money fixing that mistake than getting it right in the first place.

So do your research. You know, like one of the things we do is we do a comprehensive marketing strategy review to look at you and your competition. How are you doing compared to your competition on all the things Google cares about, on all your rankings? And then once you know what you’re doing, then follow a plan — follow a strategy — to make sure you’re dominating Google.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah, I love it. I love it. Lots to do, lots to kind of figure out when you’re looking at online marketing, SEO marketing. Um, just curious here, Naren — why is there so much negativity in the SEO industry, and how does that sort of affect dental practice owners that are really trying hard to master this SEO game?

Naren Arulrajah: Um, yeah, the way dental practice owners can really see if they’re mastering the SEO game is, you know, start looking at your Google Analytics report. Find out how many keywords are you ranking for. Find out, you know, how many times are you showing up. Find out how many phone calls you’re getting. And if you’re not doing well in these things, book a marketing strategy meeting — like I kind of alluded to.

This is a, you know, 45-minute — sorry, one-hour meeting — and our team will do six hours’ worth of research, and it’s a free analysis, right? So you will get an in-depth analysis of your marketing, and if you are doing all the things you need to do to dominate Google or not. And if you’re doing the things that you need to do to dominate Google, keep doing it. If you’re not, figure out what you need to do and just go make it happen.

Find the right partner who can do those things and then hold them accountable, like I said. So first, know where you stand. Then figure out a partner you have confidence in. Ask a lot of questions. Do, you know, a lot of digging. Ask them to show examples of other clients who are doing well. Ask them not just one or two, but many, so you can really get a feel for what’s going on. Do your own digging. Ask questions. If you feel confident, then go with the company — and then hold them accountable.

Ask them: how do I know if you’re doing a good job, right? In our case, I’ll tell you, right? You need to rank for a hundred or more keywords within 12 months. You need to get 20 or more new patient calls within 12 months. If you’re not getting those things, something’s not working.

You know, of course SEO is just part of it. You still need to focus on landing pages, getting people to say yes, getting people to like you, getting people to trust you. Because remember, you can’t put a gun to somebody’s head and say, go buy this dentist’s Invisalign service — you can’t do that. They have to choose. They have lots of choices, you know?

So really, really understanding the whole buyer’s journey — all the way from SEO to, you know, Google reviews, to, you know, before-and-after pictures, to even simple videos that make people like you and trust you — all of those components.

Now, I wish there was a shortcut. I wish I could tell you, you press a magic button and all of a sudden all this works. Yes, your SEO company can get you to rank for a hundred keywords. Yes, your SEO company can work on your NAP. Yes, your SEO company can make sure you’re showing up on AI — whether it’s ChatGPT or Gemini or Google AI Overview or Google AI mode — they can do that.

But you still have to do your part: get those 10 reviews a month, focus on your call conversions. Like, I see another problem — some clients get a lot of phone calls, but they’re not booking them. So you have a conversion issue.

So you also have some role to play. Part of that role is finding the right company you have confidence in and then working with them and holding them accountable. And the other part of the role is getting those reviews, getting those call conversions improved — if those are your issues.

I mean, hoping for magic is, is like — and then blaming somebody because that magic doesn’t happen — is not a smart way to go. So really zooming in and figuring out where the issues are, figuring out what you need to work on, and then working on them systematically, step by step, month after month, quarter after quarter — that’s the key to success.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah, it’s, uh, quite a journey. You know, lots of challenges and lots of tasks along the way, which to me — because the process is so complex — I think that creates a lot of opportunity for people that really, really focus, especially those that partner with the right marketing companies, you know, in an effort to be as competitive as you wanna be. So, if I’m a dentist, how can I use SEO to stand out and be as competitive as I can be against those that are doing it — including, you know, the DSOs that are sort of doing this regularly and mastering it?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. I think the beauty is, um, because SEO is hard, very few people do a really good job at it. So most people are getting patients from PPO plans, and those patients — you are getting paid 55 cents on the dollar. So to do a million dollars in dentistry, you only get paid $550,000, right?

So that’s what happens if you’re in that bucket. If you’re in the Google Ads bucket — again, we have done studies on this — you need like $10,000 to get the same number of new patients that you can get with $1,500 worth of SEO. People don’t trust ads, so they are less likely to do business with you because they don’t trust you. So you need a lot more of them to equal one good person from SEO.

So knowing that that’s what 90% of the people are doing — things that are less effective — focus on SEO. Become, you know, one of those 5% of the people.

And the other advantage with SEO is you are attracting people who you want to attract, right? I want to grow Invisalign — I can go after them with SEO. I want to attract implants — I can go after them. I want to focus on people who care about health and gum disease — I can go after them.

With PPO plans, you don’t choose them, right? They’re coming to you because you are free in their mind. In other words, it’s like going to a soup kitchen — "Now I have this benefit, I can use it for free, I’ll go there and get it." I don’t appreciate it. I don’t want to pay for anything, even if I need to pay for it. Like, you have all this baggage.

So even though it’s painful, it’s so much better — if you want to create a life where you’re not dealing with patients you don’t want to deal with, you are rather picking and choosing the ideal patients.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah. No, no, I like that. You know, finding the ideal patients — I think that’s sort of in the bucket of the right things to allow your marketing strategy to do, right? But as far as the implementation — and I know I’m probably, you know, diving a lot into the meat and potatoes and technicalities of SEO — but what are some other right things that I should focus on to be successful and be as competitive as I can be with SEO?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. I mean, as a business owner, I would set a target of getting 10 or more reviews a month, right? Because even if your SEO is doing really well, if you are not getting those 10 or more five-star reviews every month, people are gonna be less likely to choose you.

And these reviews also are things Google looks at — many of these other platforms look at — to decide whether you’re gonna rank or not, right? So I would really, really focus on both sides of marketing — both the SEO piece and then the influence piece.

Influence: I think Google reviews, cases, right? A lot of people don’t have good cases on their webpage. So A) they don’t rank — if I were to type in "Invisalign," the Invisalign page doesn’t show up. But even if it does show up, I don’t see any compelling examples of amazing smiles they’ve done.

They may have done a ton, but it’s not on that Invisalign page. And a lot of times, people get caught up on close-ups as opposed to full-face pictures. So again, these are habits you need to develop. Why? Because consumers don’t understand close-ups. They’re not trained professionals. They’re just people who wanna know: "Is me spending $10,000 on this particular solution better than me going on that vacation?"

So you have to communicate to them how this is gonna change their life. So when you show that before close-up and the after full-face picture, and they see the transformation, they’re like, “Oh, I look like the before, and I want to look like the after.” And they’re like, “Oh yeah, I want to spend $10,000. I want to do whatever it takes to make this happen,” right?

And it’s kind of sad though, because very few people are doing these things. Very few webpages I go to have compelling before-and-after — especially the full-face after pictures. Very few are ranking on Google for those keywords.

So I think there’s so much opportunity. I mean, it’s almost like — it’s kind of like getting into dental school, right? 5% of you will become dentists. It changes your life in terms of how people look at you, how much money you make — all of those things. But becoming the 5% takes time, and it takes effort, takes planning and dedication and everything else. And very few people take that difficult path.

So I do think there is something to be said about taking that difficult path and doing what needs to be done — thinking long term.

Like you thought long term as a dentist, right? You don’t start making a penny for 10 years, right? From the time you finish your high school, versus your buddies — they could be making money the next year. They probably don’t even need a college degree. But their life is not gonna be the same as your life.

Fast forward 15 years from now — they’re gonna be working on an hourly base, you know, working in a low-income job and living hand to mouth. And you have net worth, and you have all kinds of other things going for you, right?

It just — it changes you, right? But that kind of long-term thinking — I wish, you know, if there’s one thing you can take away from this — look at marketing as long term. Like getting people to know you, like you, trust you.

Naren Arulrajah: It’s not short term. You have to — you know, they don’t have to come to you. You can’t put a gun to their head. So you have to make them want to come to you.

So what are the things you can do to be best at it? You know, to be best at helping people find you — SEO. To be best at helping people like you — those tiny videos that are on all these landing pages. To be best at helping people choose you — those before-and-afters with the full-face after pictures and the Google reviews. And just do them right, day in and day out.

The difference between your degree — you have to study for X number of years and you are done. Here, it just becomes a habit. And you just keep doing those things. Either you do it, or your partner does it, and you hold everybody accountable. And as long as those things are happening, you’re gonna do well.

And you’re going to — you know, last year was good, this year will be better, the next year will be even better. So you’ll continue to build and continue to grow.

Ben Tuinei: Wonderful. Love that. Love that. You know, as those that are listening and hearing these great and wonderful tips that you’re sharing — if I’m a dentist, and I’m ready to invest in a very, very effective SEO strategy that really, really works despite all the challenges in doing it, what do you recommend they should start?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. Um, I do — I think I talked about this. You know, you need to know — you need to have a plan. And that plan, I think, is something you can get with a marketing strategy meeting. So if you go to insuranceuntangled.com/msm, book that meeting, and you’ll get a full-fledged plan. Start there.

You’ll know where your competition is, you’ll know where you are. Then sit and think for a day or two — like, where do you want to end up? And if you want to be the best at helping the right patients find you, the right patients like you, and the right patients choose you — then make a commitment and go down this road. And then see if things are going as planned.

If they’re not, have a meeting with the CEO. Like, I get into meetings with our clients if things are not going well. And I don’t hide — I’m the founder. I started this 18 years ago. And you need that kind of commitment.

Like, you know, being the best in the world at something — it doesn’t happen easy. You need commitment from the top. You can’t be dealing with just, you know, salespeople. You need to know what the company stands for. You need to know what they believe in. And then you need to, like, get behind it and do your part, right?

You have to get those reviews, you have to get those videos, or you have to get those cases. Right? Outside of that, hold them accountable for what they’re responsible for.

Ben Tuinei: Mm-hmm. Love it. Love — and I think—

Naren Arulrajah: That kind of a relationship, where you pick the right partners — everyone is working in an interdependent fashion — is the key to success.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah. No, I love it. And if I can, um, you know, let listeners know that you can click on the show notes to look at the insuranceuntangled.com/msm  link. That is the link that you want to click on to request a marketing strategy meeting.

I personally highly recommend it. You know, SEO is not easy. I’ve tried it on my own for my business, and it’s not something that, personally, like me as a business owner — how do you even have time to look at a million different areas that you have to focus on and master to dominate Google?

But I can attest to what Naren said — that very, very few practices do this effectively. A lot of practices do this, but very few master it to the level that Naren’s talking about. So insuranceuntangled.com/msm  to take advantage of that complimentary marketing strategy meeting.

Ben Tuinei: And I just want to take a minute to thank you, Naren — another amazing, great episode. Wonderful content and feedback. Appreciate your insights that you shared with the listeners today.

And to our listeners, thank you again for joining us today on another amazing episode of the Insurance Untangled podcast. Don’t forget to share this episode with friends and family on social media or any other platform that you like. As well as — give us some love, give us some reviews, and that, of course, will help other doctors find this particular content.

And don’t forget to check out our quarterly webinars. Insuranceuntangled.com  has all that posted there. We hold those webinars quarterly as an appreciation to give some CE back to our listeners and those that are new listeners that join our community.

Until we meet again, folks, we wish all of you the best of success. Take care now.