How much does dental SEO cost? A guide for UK practices
Google charges nothing to appear in its ordinary (organic) search results, so dental SEO costs are the time of whoever does the work. Expect three shapes of quote: a one-off fix, a monthly retainer, or a new website plus monthly work. With us that is £295 to £495 one-off or £395 to £595 a month, excluding VAT.
What you are actually paying for
Dental SEO is the work that helps your practice appear when local patients search Google for a dentist, a treatment or an emergency appointment, in the map results and in the ordinary list below them. Our page on local SEO for dental practices explains how Google picks the practices it shows and what we look at first.
Google itself charges nothing for any of this. It says it never accepts money to include or rank sites in its search results, that it costs nothing to appear in its organic results, and that advertising with Google has no effect on where your site appears in them. So what you pay an agency or freelancer for is time and know-how. We'd group quotes into three shapes:
| How it is sold | What it usually covers | When it suits a practice |
|---|---|---|
| One-off fix | An audit, then the fixes it finds: page titles and descriptions, the Google Business Profile, structured data, speed and mobile problems | The site is sound but Google isn't showing it for the treatments you offer |
| Monthly retainer | Ongoing work: new and stronger treatment pages, profile posts and photos, a review routine, internal links, a monthly report | You want steady growth in enquiries for particular treatments |
| Website plus SEO | A new site built for search, then monthly work on top | The site itself is the problem: slow, out of date, or missing pages for your main treatments |
Paid search adverts are a separate cost. Google bills the ad spend, and an agency charges a fee for managing it. Ask any agency to show the two apart.
What makes one quote higher than another
Compare quotes on what drives the work, not the headline figure:
- How many treatments you want to grow. Each treatment a patient searches for, such as implants, clear aligners or emergency appointments, needs its own page and its own checks. One treatment is less work than five.
- How many sites you have. Every location has its own Google Business Profile and its own local results.
- The state of the website. A site with missing pages, a slow mobile version or the same title on every page needs fixing before monthly work pays off.
- Who writes and checks the wording. The General Dental Council's guidance covers any advertising, promotional material or other information a practice produces, including the website and anything else carrying a dentist's name, so someone has to check every new page against it. More on that below.
- What gets reported. A report that counts calls and bookings by source takes more setting up than one that lists rankings.
Our prices, as a worked example
We publish fixed prices, so here is what each shape costs with us. All exclude VAT and are on our prices page.
| Service | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fix-it package | £295 to £495, one-off | Fixes what the free review finds, with a before-and-after check |
| Local SEO | £395 to £595 a month | Rolling monthly, 30 days' notice; includes AI recommendation tracking |
| AI recommendation tracking on its own | £49 a month | Whether AI assistants name your practice when patients ask |
| New website | £1,200 to £1,800, or £99 to £149 a month over 12 months | 8 to 10 pages, yours to keep |
| Google and Meta ads, added to Local SEO | £250 to £350 a month, plus £250 set-up | Above about £1,500 a month of ad spend, 15% of spend instead. Ad spend is billed by Google and Meta to your own account |
Where a price is a range, the free review and a short call tell us where you sit in it, and we confirm the figure in writing before work starts. If you're not sure whether your site is the problem, our page on websites for dental practices covers what a practice site needs.
Doing it yourself
Google says a small local business can probably do much of this work itself, and points owners to its free SEO starter guide. For a practice, the free part that matters most is the Google Business Profile. Google says verified businesses with complete, accurate details are more likely to show in local results, and it suggests keeping your hours up to date, replying to reviews and adding photos. Our Google Business Profile guide for dentists is a set-up checklist you can work through yourself.
The cost of doing it yourself is staff time. It tends to fall down when nobody owns it: the profile goes months without an update, or new treatment pages are written without anyone checking them against the GDC's guidance.
The GDC check is part of the price
The GDC's guidance on advertising applies to your website and anything else that carries a dentist's name. It says advertising must be accurate and not misleading, claims must be backed up with facts, and you must avoid claims likely to create an unjustified expectation of results. A practice website must also show set details, including the practice's complaints procedure and the date the site was last updated, and every dental professional named on it as providing care must have their GDC registration number shown. Only dentists on a GDC specialist list may use specialist titles.
So when you compare quotes, ask who checks new pages against this guidance, and when. A cheaper quote that leaves the checking to you is not like for like. Our free GDC advertising checker gives a first pass on any wording you have been sent.
Questions to ask before you sign
Google's own advice on hiring an SEO lists questions worth asking. The first four below are drawn from it; the last is our own addition for practices:
- What will you do each month, and will you tell me every change you make? Google says to be careful of anyone secretive about what they intend to do.
- What results do you expect, in what timeframe, and how will you measure them? Look for enquiries and booked appointments, not only rankings.
- What's your experience with practices like mine and in my area?
- Can I speak to past clients?
- If I leave, what do I take with me: the website, the domain, the Google Business Profile and the ad accounts? And how much notice do I give?
Walk away from anyone who promises first place in Google. Google says nobody can promise a top ranking, and warns about anyone claiming a special relationship with Google. It also says you should never have to link to your SEO from your own site, and to be wary of agencies that email you out of the blue.
Next step
Before you pay anyone, find out what needs doing. Our free website review looks at your website, where you show up on Google Maps and whether AI assistants recommend you, and lists the three fixes most likely to help.
Questions people ask
How much does dental SEO cost per month?
It depends on how many treatments and sites you want to grow and the state of your website. Our Local SEO plan is £395 to £595 a month excluding VAT, rolling monthly with 30 days' notice. Compare any quote on what work it covers each month, not the figure alone.
Can I pay Google to rank my practice higher?
No. Google says it never accepts money to include or rank sites in its search results, and that advertising with it has no effect on organic results.
Is a one-off SEO fix enough?
Sometimes. If the site is sound and only titles, the Google Business Profile and a few technical problems are holding it back, a one-off fix may be all it needs. Monthly work makes sense when you want to keep growing enquiries for particular treatments.
Should a dental SEO company promise first place on Google?
No. Google says nobody can promise a top ranking and advises finding someone else if a company does. Ask instead how they will measure results and report enquiries.
Sources
- Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
- GDC: Guidance on advertising
- Dental office marketing ideas: 13 ideas for UK practices, ranked by cost
The most useful dental office marketing ideas for a UK practice cost little or nothing: a complete Google Business Profile, a steady review routine, a monthly profile post, an NHS website profile confirmed each quarter (NHS practices in England) and clear treatment pages. Start there, add paid ideas later, and check every idea against the GDC's advertising guidance first.
- Social media for dental practices: what to post and the rules that apply
Dental practice social media marketing means using your practice's own accounts, and any paid ads, to keep patients informed and bring in new ones. Posts about your practice can count as advertising, so the GDC and ASA rules apply: no promised results, genuine before-and-after photos with signed proof and consent, and the assessment wording on treatment posts.
- Dental practice marketing: a channel-by-channel guide for UK practices
Dental practice marketing is everything that helps local patients find, choose and book your practice: your Google Business Profile, website, local search, reviews, paid ads, social media and messages to existing patients. Fix the free basics patients see first, keep every claim within the GDC and ASA rules, and measure booked appointments, not clicks.