By Fahim, Upadated April 10, 2025 in Dentists Marketing Compnay
Let’s face it—having a beautiful dental website doesn’t mean much if no one nearby can find it.
If you’re a dentist trying to grow your local practice, and you’re wondering how to show up when someone searches “dentist near me” or “Invisalign in [Your City]”—you’re in the right place.
In this article, I’m going to walk you through exactly what Local SEO for dentists is, why it’s critical for your clinic’s growth, and what simple changes you can make to get more visibility right where your patients live.
Let’s dive right in.
Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is how your dental clinic shows up when someone in your area searches for dental services—especially on Google Maps and the local pack (that top 3 results area right below the map on Google).
Here’s a scenario:
Let’s say someone in your city wakes up with a toothache. They pull out their phone and search for:
“emergency dentist near me”
If your clinic isn’t showing up in those top 3 map results, you just lost a potential patient.
That’s what Local SEO fixes. It helps you:
And the best part? Once it’s set up right, it keeps working for you without running ads.
If you skip everything else, don’t skip this step. Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the #1 most important tool for local SEO.
Here’s what you need to do:
If you haven’t already, go to Google Business and create your profile. If one already exists for your practice, make sure you claim it.
This is the basic info Google and patients look at:
Yes, people actually look at these. Add:
Don’t just write “general dentistry.” List out everything you offer, like:
The more specific, the better.
You want to show up for what people are actually searching for—in your area.
So instead of trying to rank for “best dentist” globally (which is pointless), target localized keywords like:
To find these, use free tools like:
Then, sprinkle these local keywords throughout your:
If your clinic serves more than one city or neighborhood, you need a page for each area.
Why? Because Google wants to serve hyper-local results.
So instead of just one generic services page, you should create:
Each of these pages should include:
Pro Tip: Use your homepage layout as a template to keep everything professional and consistent.
Reviews matter more than you think—for both patients and Google.
Ask every happy patient to leave you a review. Make it easy:
Avoid fake reviews. They’re easy to spot and can actually hurt your ranking.
The more real, positive reviews you get—especially ones that mention your services and city—the better you’ll rank.
It’s any online mention of your clinic with your name, address, and phone number (NAP).
You want consistent citations on:
Use a free checker like Moz Local to see where your business is listed.
You also want links from reputable sites pointing to your website. A few ways to get them:
Let’s be real—writing unique pages for every service and location combo is a lot.
Here’s a smart move: use ChatGPT or an AI writer to lightly rewrite your homepage or service copy, inserting the right service and city each time.
Example Prompt:
“Rewrite the following dental service content to target the keyword ‘Invisalign in Long Beach, CA’. Include the keyword in the H1, subheadings, and body text. Make it locally relevant.”
Then just review, tweak, and publish.
Schema markup (aka structured data) is code that helps search engines better understand your website’s content.
Think of it like giving Google extra clues about your clinic—your location, your hours, your services, and your reviews—so they can present it in search results more accurately.
For dentists, the most important types of schema to use are:
Here’s a simple example for a dental clinic:
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Dentist”,
“name”: “BrightSmile Dental Care”,
“image”: “https://example.com/logo.png”,
“address”: {
“@type”: “PostalAddress”,
“streetAddress”: “123 Main St”,
“addressLocality”: “Long Beach”,
“addressRegion”: “CA”,
“postalCode”: “90802”,
“addressCountry”: “US”
},
“telephone”: “(123) 456-7890”,
“url”: “https://brightsmiledental.com”
}
Here’s something most dental clinics overlook:
The majority of patients search for dentists from their mobile phones—often while they’re in pain or in a hurry.
So if your site loads slowly or doesn’t look right on a phone, that’s a problem.
Even better: Add a “Click to Call” button at the top of your homepage.
There’s a saying in digital marketing:
“What gets measured gets improved.”
If you’re not tracking your SEO performance, you’re just guessing.
If you’re not sure where to start, Google Business Profile Insights is a great beginner-friendly option.
Here are some easy wins that don’t take much time but make a big impact:
If you use online appointment software (like Zocdoc, NexHealth, or LocalMed), add the booking link directly to your Google Business Profile. It’ll increase bookings without people ever going to your site.
If patients are searching your name (e.g. “Dr. Robert Jackson Dentist Long Beach”), you want your name listed on your site, your GBP, and your metadata.
You don’t need to keyword-stuff, but adding phrases like:
“Our dental clinic is conveniently located in downtown Long Beach, just minutes from Belmont Shore.”
…helps connect the dots for Google and people.
Adding phrases like:
“We’re across from the Long Beach Public Library”
…can make it easier for patients to find you and boost local relevance.
If you’re serious about attracting more local patients, Local SEO should be part of your clinic’s growth strategy. The good news is you don’t need to be a tech wizard to make it work.
Just follow the steps:
SEO focuses on improving your website’s visibility in general searches.
Local SEO focuses specifically on ranking for nearby searches (usually with geographic intent like “near me” or “in [city]”).
You’ll often see early results in 30–60 days if your Google Business Profile is fully optimized. More competitive areas can take longer (3–6 months).
Yes! With location-specific pages and strategic use of your GBP, you can show up in search results for surrounding areas—as long as you can reasonably serve patients there.
Not necessarily. If you follow this guide and stay consistent, you can do a lot on your own. But if you want faster results or don’t have the time, an agency specializing in dental SEO can be worth it.
If you’re a dentist or dental clinic owner and want help applying any of these strategies, feel free to ask below. Or, if you’d like a done-for-you local SEO strategy tailored to your practice, contact us directly and we’ll guide you every step of the way.
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