Tim Harper | Blog

One of the most interesting industries making use of e-marketing in SA are our Dentists, and I’m proud to say that my dentist is one of them. He sends out email newsletters every 2-3 months, he has a fairly keyword packed website and even has a blog!! I also seem to remember staring up at a poster with his URL on it the last time I was sat in his dentist chair.

Why you ask? – well I definitely did, and it seems as though ‘Dentist’ is a very competitive keyword in sa, (see google trends for dentist). On top of that, almost all of the first page of SERP’s for “dentist” are directories or News related articles, and only one of them is an actual dentist (based in hillcrest of all places). Myteeth is around 22nd, before this post, and the other ‘real dentist sites’ only number 3 in the top 30 spots for the keyword Dentist.

So with all of this in mind I still wondered why the big mailing campaign and the attempt at some SEO keyword stuffing on the site, and after actually reading the site I figured out that it’s a sales pitch for something way more sinister than a trip to the friendly dentist for a checkup – Cosmetic Dentistry.
Myteeth.co.za has links all over the place to free reports, new client specials, and it’s all a cover for…  getting veneers.

How Dissapointing.

I almost expect to find them right next to the free viagra ads in my spam mailbox some time in the future, whatever happened to the friendly neighbourhood dentist?

I also have some very broad SEO tips: get a few more cape town keywords on the homepage, get a geo.region and a geo.placename meta tag, this may help people searching for a keyword like cape town dentist.

I do however take my hat off to someone in an industry that isn’t traditionally very tech savvy for getting with the times and having something other than flyers in my windshield. I think there is still some work to be done on the SEO for his pages, I’m quite sure however that he may say the same about my teeth!.