Local SEO for dental practices
When a patient searches for a dentist, a treatment or an emergency appointment near them, Google shows a map with three practices, then a list of websites. Local SEO is the work that decides whether your practice is one of them.
How Google picks the practices it shows
Google says its local results are based on three things: relevance (how well your listing matches the search), distance (how far you are from the person searching) and prominence (how well known you are, partly from links to your website and from your reviews). You can't change where you are, so the work goes into the other two. Google is also clear that nobody can pay for a better local ranking. Google's own explanation is short and worth reading.
What we look at first
- Your Google Business Profile. Primary and secondary categories, the treatments listed, opening hours, photos, and whether patients' reviews get a reply.
- A page for each treatment you want more of. A patient searching for implants or Invisalign should land on a page about that, not your home page. Google needs that page too.
- Page titles and descriptions. They are what people see in Google before they choose. Many practice sites use the same title on every page.
- Where you appear across your area. A Google Maps scan shows your position from points across your town, so we can see where you're strong and where another practice takes the patients.
- The basics that hold sites back. Slow pages on a phone, broken links, missing business details for Google (structured data), and pages Google hasn't indexed.
What the monthly work looks like
We start with the fixes the review finds, cheapest first, because a better title or a properly set-up profile can move a practice within weeks. After that, the steady work is new and stronger treatment pages, Google Business Profile posts, a simple routine for asking patients for reviews, and links between your pages so Google understands which ones matter.
Every change is recorded and checked again at 14 and 30 days: where you rank, how often you're shown, how many people click and how many call or book. If a change didn't help, the report says so.
Following the GDC's advertising guidance
Your website and Google profile count as advertising. The General Dental Council's guidance says it must be accurate and not misleading, must not create unjustified expectations of results, and must show things like your GDC registration number and whether you offer NHS or private care. It also restricts titles such as "specialist" to dentists on a GDC specialist list. Everything we write for you is checked against the GDC's guidance on advertising before it goes live, and we never write "best dentist in town" claims.
What it costs
Local SEO is £395–595 a month, rolling monthly with 30 days' notice, and includes AI recommendation tracking. If your site just needs putting right, the fix-it package is £295–495 one-off. If the site itself is the problem, see websites for dental practices. All prices exclude VAT; the prices page has the detail.
Questions practices ask
How long does local SEO take to work?
Profile and title fixes can show within a few weeks. New treatment pages and a growing number of reviews build over a few months. We show you the movement each month rather than promising a date.
Can you guarantee first place in Google Maps?
No, and nobody honestly can. Distance from the person searching is part of how Google ranks, so no practice appears first everywhere. What we can show is where you appear across your area, before and after.
We already have a website company. Can you work alongside them?
Yes. We can send them the changes to make, or make them ourselves with access. Your website, domain and Google Business Profile stay yours either way.
Do you work with NHS and mixed practices?
Yes. Patients search differently for NHS places, private treatments and emergencies, so the plan follows what your practice wants more of.