Local SEO for dentists: a practical plan for US and UK practices

Where dental patients find you

Searches like “dentist near me”, “emergency dentist”, “Invisalign [town]” and, in the UK, “NHS dentist near me” show a map with three practices above the regular results. Which three depends on how relevant your profile is to the search, how close you are and how well known your practice is, including its reviews.

Only 38.8% of UK practices and 43.5% of US practices reply to almost every review. The figures come from established, well-reviewed practices, so smaller practices may reply even less.

Step 1: Categories, profile details and practitioners

1. Primary category: “Dentist” for a general practice, or the most specific true option, such as cosmetic dentist, pediatric dentist or orthodontist, if that's what the practice mainly is.
2. Additional categories: emergency dental service only if you really offer same-day emergency appointments; dental clinic or a specialty only where it's true. Up to nine in total.
3. Services: every treatment you want found: check-ups, hygiene, implants, clear aligners, whitening, root canal, children's dentistry, sedation. Plain descriptions, no outcome promises.
4. Hours, holiday hours, a booking link and accessibility attributes. Wrong hours send patients to a locked door, and that ends up in reviews.
5. UK practices: say clearly in your description whether you take new NHS patients, private patients or both, and update it when that changes.
6. Individual dentists: Google's guidelines allow practitioners their own profiles in some cases. Decide on a policy, keep the practice profile as the main one, and handle departures quickly.

Step 2: A page for every treatment and every location

Patients searching for a treatment want a page about that treatment, not a list on your homepage. Give each main treatment its own page and link your Google profile to the page for that location.

Step 3: The listings patients and Google check

The same practice name, address and phone everywhere matters more than the number of listings. Our guide to Bing Places and Apple Business covers the two most often missed.

Step 4: Get patient reviews without breaking privacy rules

• Send a short text or email after the appointment, the same day, with your direct review link. Don't mention the treatment in the message.
• Ask every patient the same way. Google bans asking only happy patients and offering anything in return; the FTC's rule in the US and the DMCC Act in the UK ban fake and incentivised reviews.
• Don't press patients to review in the chair or at the desk. A small QR sign at reception that people can use if they want to is fine.
• Never write or edit a review for a patient, and don't ask staff to collect a quota.

Make your link with the Google review link generator and print it as a review QR code.

Step 5: Reply to every review without confirming they're a patient

A public reply that confirms someone is your patient or mentions their care discloses health information. In 2022 the US Department of Health and Human Services settled with a dental practice over details it put in review replies, and in the UK, health data is special category data under UK GDPR. Thank the reviewer, invite them to get in touch, and say nothing about their visit, even if they mentioned it first.

We cover eight situations, from fake-looking reviews to billing complaints, in dentist review examples and reply templates. The reply generator below has a confidential mode that keeps drafts general. The same privacy rules apply on Facebook and Instagram; our guide to dental social media marketing covers what you can share in the US, UK and Australia.

Step 6: Photos, posts and tracking

• Photos of the outside (so people find the door), reception, treatment rooms, equipment and the team. Patients only with written consent.
• Posts for new clinicians, longer hours or a new treatment. They help patients decide; tests haven't shown them moving rankings.
• Track bookings from Google with a UTM-tagged website link (UTM builder) and call tracking (how).

Common mistakes

• Choosing “Dental clinic” or a broad category when a more specific one is true.
• Asking only patients who seem happy, or asking at the chair.
• Replying with treatment details, even to defend the practice.
• One “Services” page listing everything instead of a page per treatment.
• Letting reviews stop for weeks at a time during busy periods.

A 12-week local SEO plan for a dental practice

Flexi Local's done-for-you plans for dental practices handle the profile, listings, privacy-safe review requests and replies, and treatment pages, in the US and UK. The Reviews software plan sends your link after each appointment and drafts privacy-safe replies for you to approve, with a 14-day free trial: card needed, cancel before day 14 and you pay nothing. See plans and prices or get a free audit of your practice.