Mastering AI in Dental Marketing: Aligning with Google’s E.E.A.T Principle
AI is not something to fear, but rather, something to embrace to stay ahead of the competition. The latest in AI technology (ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini, Midjourney, just to name a few) are extremely user-friendly and accessible. You can put these tools to work to create authoritative, engaging content to improve your dental website in a fraction of the time.
There’s still a balance that must be struck between AI-generated content and the benefit of the human eye. Google has thus created—and adapted—the E.E.A.T. principle to measure high-quality content. If you follow it, you can utilize AI technology to help reach your dental SEO goals.
How Google Ranks Content
Google uses web crawlers to read and index webpage content across the mass expanse of the internet. The better Google is at providing internet users with the information they seek at the top of their search engine results page (SERP), the more users trust and use Google as their preferred search engine.
With the billions of pages of the internet to crawl, Google uses several factors to measure the quality of a page. Google’s E.A.T principal and PageRank work together and are high on the list for establishing search rankings.
PageRank assigns each page a numerical value based on importance. This is primarily determined by the number and quality of links pointing back to that page. These links are critical to guiding web crawlers from page to page as they index relevant information. A high PageRank score will influence where a site lands on the SERP. For further information on Pagerank there is a great article titled, Google’s PageRank demystified, which I would recommend.
If you’re a dentist that wants to be recognized online as a leader in your field, then you need to understand Google E.A.T. principle.
The Evolution of Google’s E.E.A.T Principle
Not too long ago Google added another “E” to the E.A.T. principle for content guidelines. E.A.T (now E.E.A.T) is how Google evaluates if they are providing helpful, relevant information for their users. The extra “E” added “experience” to the previous requirements of “expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.” This addition was made, in part, to include content that is created by those who have experience with a particular product or service, but perhaps not the expertise of a professional.
For example: an expert would likely be yourself, a dentist, who writes about the benefits of regular flossing, but a local influencer or blogger with experience might write content about their thoughts on the latest water pick flosser (though you could write about that too).
With these principles in mind, Google search raters evaluate if search results match user searches.
AI’s Role in Dental Marketing
So can the E.E.A.T. principle and AI peacefully coexist? Thanks to Google’s Helpful Content Update we now know that AI-generated content will not be penalized by search engines, as long as it still meets the standard of the E.E.A.T. guidelines. This is encouraging for dental marketers wanting to figure out the appropriate use of AI-generated content to speed up their content efforts.
Before Google first announced its Helpful Content Update, many were concerned that AI-generated content was going to hurt overall search rankings, but there seems to be an understanding that AI content does have its place, when used correctly.
Creating E.E.A.T Compliant Blog Posts
Take those E.E.A.T principles and implement them as you dive into SEO blogging for dentists. Naturally, you’ll have a certain amount of expertise at the ready, but be sure to include your experiences and demonstrate your trustworthiness as well.
While SEO for dentists focuses on keywords, meta descriptions, and linking, the E.E.A.T. Principle looks at the depth and value of your content. When you successfully execute both, you’ll gain high-ranking pages across your website.
Balancing AI and Human Creativity
It’s your job (or your dental marketing company‘s job) to find an equilibrium between AI and human creativity. While users love the convenience that comes with more technology, there’s nothing that can currently replace real human interactions. That’s why you have to discover how to create relationship-driven marketing in an AI world.
To do so, use AI as a springboard or assistant for content creation, and check out this guide to dental SEO blogging. AI is perfect for generating and refining ideas for content or rewriting wordy, complex material in a more relatable and understanding way. Avoid copying and pasting AI content fully into your website. Always review AI content for accuracy and adjust phrasing as needed.
AI might not always produce completely original content, so you may want to run the content through a plagiarism checker to make sure everything is entirely your own.
Collaborating with a Dental Marketing Agency
As technology and trends change, dental marketing can get more complex and it’s a struggle to keep up. Outsourcing your dental marketing to an agency can ensure that every piece of content meets the E.E.A.T. guidelines and is primed for SEO.
My Social Practice has over a decade of experience driving organic traffic to grow dental practices with powerful websites and content marketing. By releasing your team from trying to maintain your marketing, you can return your focus to patients in the practice.
Embracing E.E.A.T. for Dental Marketing
If you want to improve your online visibility organically, leverage AI technology to help your practice start ranking higher on Google Maps and Search. When you understand how and why Google ranks information, you can start creating content that not only performs better online but also gives your patients the type of content they want to read.
After you’ve harnessed the power of AI in copywriting, explore AI in graphic design as well for unique and fun images for your website and social media content.
Q&As
How can AI improve patient interactions?
ChatGPT has the unique ability to help you change the tone of voice of your writing. So if you naturally write in a rather professional or clinical tone, you can input your writing into ChatGPT and ask it to help you make it sound more relatable and casual. This is far easier for patients to connect with than something that reads like a dental textbook.
What are some ethical considerations when using AI in dental marketing?
Not all AI-generated content is accurate or completely original. Check it for accuracy, and put your own spin on the material. This will put some of the human touch back into the writing to help you successfully produce winning content. As always with medical professionals, stay HIPAA compliant with all content that you produce or enter into ChatGPT.
How can dental practices ensure their AI-generated content remains unique and high-quality?
The best content out there is likely a combination of human and AI writing material. Use your expertise and professional experience to determine what type of content needs to be written about and then inject your own writing into whatever ChatGPT produces. AI cannot speak from experience so let that be a large part of your content strategy.
Can AI tools help in understanding and predicting patient needs and trends in dentistry?
Most AI tools have access to the internet to form their responses. They can tell you commonly searched for phrases, popular keywords, or trending topics around different elements of dentistry. The free version of ChatGPT, however, only has information up to 2021 so certain responses might not be entirely up to date.