How to use this local SEO guide for dentists
This local SEO guide for dentists provides an all-in-one resource for understanding:
• How local search engine optimization can attract patients
• How to use local SEO to serve more patients in your community
• How to get professional help with local SEO (if needed)
The basics of local SEO for dental practices
Learn the basics of local SEO for dental practices now:
What is local SEO for dentists?
Local SEO for dentists is the process of improving a dental practice’s visibility in localized search results, like ‘pediatric dentist near me,’ so the practice can reach — and serve — more patients. Common strategies include optimizing local listings, creating localized content, and more.
Using local SEO as a dentistry office has various advantages, such as the following:
- Expand internet reach: People look for answers around-the-clock, whether they’re looking for a new dentist or ideas for gifts. Local search engine optimization (SEO) makes it possible for visitors to find your clinic and proceed, such as making an online appointment request.
- Promote specific operations: Dentists can advertise specialized procedures, such as Botox, dental implants, or teeth whitening, using local search marketing. To draw clients searching for practices that take a particular insurance company, you may even employ local SEO.
- Boost lead quality: Local SEO has the potential to boost lead quality as well. This is due to the fact that local SEO assists individuals in finding the practices that are most pertinent to their region, requirements, and preferences, such as a Riverside, California dentist that takes Medicaid.
- Boost patient acquisition rates: Local search engine optimization can help you build a successful clinic. This is due to the fact that local SEO for dentistry offices concentrates on connecting with your ideal clientele and those who require your services.
- Boost online reputation: When seeking medical attention, people turn to others, including reading internet reviews. Through online evaluations on sites like Healthgrades, local SEO marketing helps practitioners establish their online reputation.
For dentists, is local SEO preferable than traditional SEO?
There are several choices for dentistry marketing, such as:
- Local SEO, which aims to increase your presence in regional search results.
- Conventional SEO, which increases your presence in search results that are not localized.
According to our thousands of hours of experience as a dental marketing business, practices gain from both traditional and local SEO since they enhance each other’s performance and increase your visibility in internet search results.
When someone searches for a paediatric dentist in the Brooklyn, NY area, they can see:
- Your local listing, plus…
- Your website’s localized content
Users are more inclined to visit your clinic as a result of the additional real estate in search results. Better yet, AI search engines like Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity may use this data to provide users with tailored results.
That’s why it’s worth investing in both local SEO and traditional SEO as a dentist.
What is the turnaround time for local dental SEO?
Local dental SEO typically takes three to six months to produce results for most offices. Timelines may differ, nonetheless, based on the practice’s current SEO initiatives and the quantity of rivals in their service region.
Note: Establish what success means to your practice before beginning local search engine optimization. Our dental marketing agency, for instance, considers local SEO to be “working” when it brings in qualified patients to our clients’ dental offices.
Getting started with local SEO for dentists
Learn how to get started with local SEO for dentists now:
How much does local SEO for dentists cost?
On average, local SEO for dentists costs $100 to $3,000 per month. How much local search engine optimization costs depends on a few factors, including the number of locations, whether the strategy includes traditional SEO optimizations, and whether it’s managed in-house or outsourced.
How do I measure my practice’s local rankings?
Dentists can measure their practice’s local rankings or local search performance by:
- Using URL parameters on local listings
- Using a rank tracking tool like Google Search Console or SEO.com
- Using a local listing platform’s analytics, like Google Business Profile.
While it’s helpful to track rankings for localized terms, like ‘pediatric dentist Brooklyn ny,’ it’s important to understand that several user-specific factors affect local search rankings, like the user’s current location and past interactions, which can make local rank tracking ineffective.
That’s why it’s worth expanding to lead tracking. With lead tracking, practices can understand the number — and quality — of leads coming in via local search efforts. This approach, however, requires marketing automation software to link marketing and patient acquisition data.
Platforms like Marketing Cloud FX are some of the most affordable for dental practices.
What are the best tools for local dental SEO?
Some of the best tools for local dental SEO include:
- Google Analytics for tracking website analytics.
- Google Search Console for tracking organic impressions, clicks, and rankings.
- Moz Local for managing local listings.
If partnering with a dental marketing agency, expect them to have access to more advanced platforms (which are often outside the budget for practices managing their local SEO efforts in-house) for optimizing and tracking your performance.
What are the most effective local SEO strategies for dental practices?
The most effective local SEO strategies for dental practices include:
- Local listing optimization (including Google Business Profile)
- Localized content
Review management
Learn more about these strategies (and others) below:
1. Optimization of local listings
What it is: Yelp, Healthgrades, Bing Places, and Google Business Profile are examples of local listings. The majority of local listings, which can be cards in localized search results or regular listings in search results, feature a dentistry center’s offerings, testimonials, and business hours.
Why it matters: Local listings are important for dental offices’ local SEO since they show up in branded and localized search results. To increase your visibility, some listings, such as Google Business Profile, also show up at the top of these search results.
How to begin: Create or claim a local listing for your practice on Yelp, Bing Places, Google Business Profile, and other comparable websites. Your name, address, phone number, website, and company hours should then be added or updated. If at all possible, provide images to highlight your work, team, and location.
2. Google Business Profile
What it is: One of the most often used local listings is the Google Business Profile. These listings, which can be seen in Google Maps and Search, show up for specific queries like “dentist for TMJ Queens NY” or “emergency dentist near me.”
Why it matters: Due to its ranking in Google Search, a Google Business Profile is an essential local listing. These listings, which show users the practice’s ratings, services, hours, and location, are displayed at the top of localized search results.
How to get started: Like other local listings, claim or create your Google Business Profile. Then, add essential information about your practice, like its name, address, phone number, and business hours. Next, optimize it — add services or products, FAQs, relevant categories, and more.
4. Website optimization
What it is: A website is an online version of your company’s physical location. Dental offices can answer frequently asked patient questions, describe services or products, offer useful information, and even facilitate online scheduling, payments, and more with a dedicated website.
Why it matters: Since local listings (like Google Business Profile) will direct users seeking more information to a website, a website is crucial to local SEO for dental practices. Additionally, it provides a platform for conventional SEO.
How to get started: Use a website builder or professional web design agency to create your site. Build essential pages, like a homepage, contact page, and about page, and consider expanding with SEO-optimized pages for targeting localized search terms.
4. Localized content
What it is: Localized content is website content that targets localized search terms relevant to a dental practice. For example, a pediatric dental practice based in Brooklyn, NY, could create localized content on its site that targets keywords like ‘brooklyn, ny pediatric dentist.’
Why it matters: When it comes to local SEO for dentists, localized content increases a practice’s visibility in search results. A Google result, for example, could contain a local 3-pack of Google Business Profiles, plus relevant localized content, giving practices two touchpoints with users.
How to get started: Discover potential search terms to target using a keyword research tool like SEO.com. Then, use the search results for those terms to create relevant content for your website. Optimize this content with SEO best practices, like including the target keyword in your title tag.
Schema markup
What it is: Schema markup gives search engines more context about a URL. For example, dental practices can use LocalBusiness markup to help search engines understand the practice’s location, services, and more, which can improve local search rankings.
Why it matters: Local SEO for dentists depends on being understood by search engines. With schema markup, dental practices can provide search engines like Google and Bing with additional information that improves their existing rankings.
How to get started: Use free online tools or website plugins, like Yoast SEO, to generate relevant schema markup. In most cases, LocalBusiness markup offers the most value to dental practices, though, Product and Service markup can also help on product or service pages.
6. Review management
What it is: Review management focuses on attracting new reviews and managing existing ones across platforms, from Google Business Profile to Facebook, to build trust and confidence with future patients.
Why it matters: Without trust signals like reviews, people can (and will) hesitate about using a specific dental practice. So, it’s important to attract reviews from patients that share what makes going to your practice worth it.
How to get started: Use office signage, business cards, and more to invite patients to leave a review online. For the best results, avoid incentivizing reviews (which goes against Google Business Profile’s guidelines). Remember to respond to reviews, both good and bad, too.
Online scheduling and/or contact form optimization
What it is: With online scheduling or contact forms, dental practices make life convenient for future or existing patients while also complying with healthcare standards. However, design and user experience choices can impact patient acquisition or conversion rates.
Why it matters: A poor user experience when scheduling an online appointment or completing a contact form can result in lower patient acquisition rates, which hurts the practice’s goal of using local dental SEO to grow.
How to get started: Use software like Microsoft Clarity (which will hide sensitive user data) to understand how people use a form or scheduling tool now. You can also ask a family member or friend to test the experience to discover issues — and fix them with the help of a developer.
Online scheduling and/or contact form optimization
What it is: With online scheduling or contact forms, dental practices make life convenient for future or existing patients while also complying with healthcare standards. However, design and user experience choices can impact patient acquisition or conversion rates.
Why it matters: A poor user experience when scheduling an online appointment or completing a contact form can result in lower patient acquisition rates, which hurts the practice’s goal of using local dental SEO to grow.
How to get started: Use software like Microsoft Clarity (which will hide sensitive user data) to understand how people use a form or scheduling tool now. You can also ask a family member or friend to test the experience to discover issues — and fix them with the help of a developer.
How do I get started with local SEO dental marketing?
- Understand the goal, or what the practice wants to accomplish with local search
- Develop a realistic budget for developing, managing, and maintaining local SEO
- Determine the metricsto measure, like rankings, views, or appointments
- Outline responsibilities, like who will manage local listings or content creation
- Create measurable goals, like getting X appointments for the quarter.
- Set up the tech, like Google Analytics 4, for measuring performance
Outsourcing local SEO for dentists
Learn how to outsource local SEO for dentists below:
When should I outsource my dental practice’s local SEO marketing?
- You aren’t familiar enough with local SEO
- You don’t have the time to practice local SEO
- You aren’t seeing the expected results from local SEO
- You want to scale performance across multiple locations
With professional help, whether via an agency, contractor, or freelancer, your practice can improve its visibility in relevant search results — and attract new patients, giving you the fuel to grow your dental center.
How much do local SEO services for dentists cost?
Local SEO services for dentists cost $100 – $1,500 per month. Costs depend on several factors, from the number of locations optimized and managed to the local SEO service provider’s location. For the most accurate numbers, request a quote.
How do I choose a dental SEO company?
When choosing a dental SEO company, consider the following tips:
- Does the agency work with your competitors?
- What metrics does the agency use to measure success?
- Does the agency have case studies to share?
- How do clients rate their experience, from support to results to strategy?
- Is the agency willing to share pricing and deliverables before signing?
Grow your practice with local dental SEO pros
Congrats! You’ve learned how to use local search to attract more patients to your practice.
If you’re looking for professional help getting started with local SEO, though, Thrivedigital can help. With thousands of hours of experience (and more than 24 million qualified leads generated), we’re a trusted partner for dental practices worldwide.
Browse our local SEO plans now or contact us online for a custom proposal!