15 Key Strategies to Boost SEO for Dentists and Rank #1 On Google

The internet is a vast and ever-growing digital space filled with billions of websites. Search engines like Google help organize all that information so people can find what they’re looking for, fast.

Benefits of Local SEO For Dentists?

How Do Search Engines Rank Dental Websites?

The goal of a search engine is to show a relevant set of search results as quickly as possible. The better a search engine does to provide a consumer with what they want, the more likely the consumer will use the search engine again. 

Your dental practice can show up at the top of the page in Local Service or Google ads. You can show up in the local map results. And, you can also be found in the organic results below the Google map.

Dental SEO strategies improve the rankings on the Google map and the organic results. Optimizing Local Service Ads and Google Ads is called Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEM is a different method of digital marketing distinct from SEO for dentists.

Your dental website rankings will increase or decrease in the SERP depending on the factors discussed in this post.

Got all that? Good. Phew! We’re ready to dive into the top tried-and-true strategies that we use to help our clients rank on SERPs while providing value to patients. We regularly update this list so you can stay up-to-date on the latest in technology and SEO trends.

Let’s dive in.

Technical SEO contributes 30-40% of your SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings. It optimizes certain website features to ensure your site is quickly and easily accessible by search engine crawlers. A faster-loading website that’s clear to these crawlers tends to rank better.

Search engines like Google aim to offer users the top search results. If your website loads slowly, causing visitors to leave quickly (bounce), it’s less likely to be considered a top result.

A technically optimized website should:

1. Load quickly.
2. Be easily accessible to search engines.
3. Include a robots.txt file.
4. Be free of dead links.
5. Avoid duplicate content.
6. Be SSL/HTTPS secure.
7. Incorporate structured data.
8. Feature a site map.

It’s okay if you’re unfamiliar with these aspects. Unless you have a keen interest in this area, consider seeking expertise. To assess your website’s technical health, contact your web development team or conduct a technical website audit through available online tools. 

Pro Tip:

Structured data (also known as schema markup) helps search engines better understand your website’s content. For dentists, this means using the right schema types—like LocalBusiness, Dentist, Review, and FAQ—to enhance your listings in search results.

Rich snippets (like star ratings or FAQs under your search listing) can increase visibility and click-through rates. Tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or plugins such as Rank Math make it easier to implement schema on your dental website.

2) Improve Page Speed Load Times

We’re piggy-backing on #1 because this is extremely important. If a website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of the visitors will abandon the site. When this happens, Google recognizes that the user experience is suffering and your website rankings will be penalized.

If you have not checked your website load speed yet, you can do so with Google’s Page Speed insight or you can run a test with this tool.

Google loves fast-loading pages, and modern image formats help speed things up. While WebP is great for compressing images without sacrificing quality, AVIF is an even newer format that delivers even smaller file sizes at high quality.

Whenever possible, convert your PNGs and JPEGs to WebP or AVIF. You can use online converters or optimize during upload using tools like ShortPixel or plugins like WP Rocket.

Google’s algorithms—and especially AI-driven overviews—prioritize intent-matching over old-school keyword repetition. If your page answers the underlying question a searcher has, it will perform better than one packed with exact-match phrases.

What to do:

• Write content that helps patients solve a problem or make a decision.
• Use natural language. Pretend you’re answering a patient’s question face-to-face.
• Structure your page to quickly surface answers near the top (think: summaries, FAQs, bulleted lists).

Google is rewarding quality over quantity—and relevance over repetition.

4) But Choose the Correct Keywords for Dental SEO

AI aside, keywords remain a critical step in SEO for dentists. One of the first steps in an effective strategy is to identify the services you want to emphasize. Optimizing for major keywords is one strategy to help Google associate your website with the search terms and keywords that matter to you and your patients. Popular keywords for dentists include:

• Dentist in [your area]
• [Your area] dentists
• Best dentists in [your area]
• Dentists near [your area]
• Emergency dentist [your area]

Another strategy is optimizing for long-tail keywords, which are more specific and usually longer than commonly searched words. Long-tail keywords get less traffic, but they are generally easier to optimize for and tend to bring in patients with more specific intent.

An example of long-tail keywords would be:

• dentist that accepts medical insurance
• dental implants for seniors
• best teeth whitening products dentist approved
• all on four dental implants near me
• family dental office near me

If you’re unfamiliar with choosing keywords, you can use this keyword generator from ahrefs. You can also use Google’s Keyword Planner Tool. Both are great tools for search engine optimization research.

What to do:

• Create in-depth, well-structured content with expert tone and trustworthy sources.
• Use H2s and bullet points to break up long pages.
• Target long-tail, question-based search terms that patients might ask.
• Ensure your content is fresh and frequently updated—AI prioritizes recency and relevance.

GEO doesn’t replace SEO; it enhances it. Think of this as the next generation of visibility.

AI aside, keywords remain a critical step in SEO for dentists. One of the first steps in an effective strategy is to identify the services you want to emphasize. Optimizing for major keywords is one strategy to help Google associate your website with the search terms and keywords that matter to you and your patients. Popular keywords for dentists include:

• Dentist in [your area]
• [Your area] dentists
• Best dentists in [your area]
• Dentists near [your area]
• Emergency dentist [your area]

Another strategy is optimizing for long-tail keywords, which are more specific and usually longer than commonly searched words. Long-tail keywords get less traffic, but they are generally easier to optimize for and tend to bring in patients with more specific intent.

An example of long-tail keywords would be:

• dentist that accepts medical insurance
• dental implants for seniors
• best teeth whitening products dentist approved
• all on four dental implants near me
• family dental office near me

If you’re unfamiliar with choosing keywords, you can use this keyword generator from ahrefs. You can also use Google’s Keyword Planner Tool. Both are great tools for search engine optimization research.

Your dental practice Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free business listing provided by Google. It allows you to manage how your practice information appears across Google products, such as Google Maps and Search and is the first step in optimizing and ranking higher on the Google map.

Think of it as your virtual storefront. When potential patients search for a dentist near them, they often look at the Google map. Your Google Business Profile will showcase crucial details like location, operating hours, contact details, reviews, and practice photos.

Why Is This Critical for Ranking Success?

1. Visibility: Patients often turn to Google Maps to find nearby dental offices. An optimized GBP ensures you appear in these local searches.
2. Trust: Reviews, ratings, and accurate information build trust. New patients are likelier to choose a dentist with positive reviews and transparent details.
3. Engagement: GBP allows you to post updates, photos, products, offers, or events, enabling you to engage with potential and existing patients effectively.
4. Insights: Understand how patients find your practice and where they come from with GBP’s built-in analytics.

How To Claim Your Google Business Profile

Search for Your Business: Go to Google and search for the name of your practice. If you’re logged into a Google account that is the listing’s owner or manager, you’ll see editing capabilities at the top of the search results. See the image below for how My Social Practice’s listing looks like in search when logged into an account that is a manager of the listing.

Verify That Your Listing Has Been Claimed: If you don’t see the editing panel in search one reason could be that your listing has not been claimed. To check if your listing has been claimed you’ll find a “Claim This Business” link on the right hand side of the search results in the knowledge panel. Click on that link and you’ll either be prompted to claim the listing or you’ll see a partial email of the Google account that is the owner.

7) Update Your Google Business Profile

Once you’ve claimed your profile you can update the listing with tons of great information that will help the listing to rank higher.

The first thing to do is make sure that your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone) are correct. We prefer to use the USPS address in GBP listings. You can check your USPS address HERE.

8) Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Now that you’re claimed and checked your NAP information it’s time to start optimizing your Google Business Profile. Here are some of the steps you’ll want to check off as you begin:

1. Primary category: If you’re a dentist don’t use “Dental Clinic” use “Dentist.”
2. Secondary category: Choose a secondary category is you offer the services, but don’t load up lots of categories. We recommend 2-3 unless your a full service practice.
3. Add all the services you offer in the services section.
4. Use up all twenty of the location slots.
5. Start posting at least twice a month and link to your website.
6. Add a scheduling link, if you have one.
7. Update accepted insurances.
8. Add products if you offer them.
9. Add at least 50 images and continue to add images much like you would to your social media accounts.

Pro-Tip:

In 2025, weekly updates are the new baseline for Google Business Profile posts. Google favors active listings, and regular posts improve visibility and engagement. Share practice updates, promotions, patient success stories, or educational tips. Think of your GBP like a social media profile—it’s another way to stay relevant in search and build trust with future patients.

Blogs have become more critical than ever as an SEO for dentists’ strategy. When the blog content on your site is valuable and engaging, your potential patients view your practice as a trusted source. Google recognizes this, and it’s an indication that you’re creating useful content. The best dental SEO services always leverage blog posts.

If your site doesn’t have a blog, add one! Adding a blog is simple, and anyone in dental website design can do it in a few minutes. The next step is to create custom and original content as often as possible. Make sure that your dental blog posts are long enough to provide value and something worth saying!

Patients looking for a dentist online will use geo-locators and services in their search phrases. When you optimize your website for keywords, you’ll want to use those geo-locators, giving Google an easy way to connect your website and the search phrase of the patient.

If you don’t include city, state, and service information in your dental copywriting, your SEO will be lacking. Make sure that your dental SEO strategy includes keyword planning.

You want to have original content through your whole site. It’s recommended that you build your website on a simple design solution like WordPress and use the Yoast or Rank Math plugins.

Additionally, AI-powered tools like Surfer SEO, MarketMuse, and Clearscope are making it easier than ever to create high-performing content.

These platforms analyze top-ranking pages and give you real-time suggestions on how to improve your copy, structure, and keyword strategy. Consider using one of these tools to boost your blog writing and outperform competitors in your area.

They give suggestions on length of content, linking structure, keyword density, metadata and other important factors that will improve your the SEO for your dental practice.

If you’re the type of dentist or marketing manager that doesn’t have time to write new dental practice content, then you’ll want to hire a dental SEO company to help you out with your copywriting and SEO.

11) Create Local Inbound Links

An external link or ‘inbound link’ is a link to your website from another website. An excellent example of this would be a link from a local business directory or an article about oral health in an online periodical that links to your website.

According to dental SEO experts, inbound links are the most powerful source of ranking power for your dental SEO marketing.

How does Google know that your dental practice is a better option than another dental practice? They don’t have someone on the ground in your community evaluating dental practices. Inbound links are a straightforward way for Google to measure the quality and relevance of your dental practice. A company with an excellent reputation that locals enjoy will have more people talking and linking to them online.

The value of an inbound link is measured by the quality of the website that it is coming from. Suppose the website is established, reputable, has lots of traffic, and also has lots of links itself. In that case, Google will see this as a reputable link. A great way to think about inbound links is that they’re similar to votes of confidence. Google is assessing the trustworthiness of your website through the types of inbound links you have.

On the other hand, if the website linking to you has only been online for a few days and doesn’t have any traffic or links, it is a weak link. Weak links can be spam and damage your rankings. It would be best if you were careful in which links you acquire.

You’ve probably been approached by your dental SEO company or another dental marketing organization with this comment, ‘You need to create more dental citations’. Well, what in the world is a dental citation?

The most useful search engine optimization SEO strategies should always include citation creation and clean-up, (AKA directory creation and clean-up). Citations create inbound links to your dental websiteand help it be be viewed as a reliable source.

So, what’s the difference between a citation, directory listing, and a local listing? All directory listings and local listings are citations but not all citations are directory and local listings. So when someone says you need more citations, one way to get more is to submit your practice information to directories.

For example, Healthgrades is a great listing to have, but it’s not a local listing. Healthgrades would be considered a national directory listing. On the other hand the, ‘Miami-Dade County Business Directory’ or ‘The Nephi Utah Onion Festival Directory’, (yes that’s a real thing) would be local listings.

Citations can be corrupted with bad information. There are a lot of reasons that a citation would be incorrect but we’re not going to get into that in this article. What you do want to do is check your current citations and make sure they have the correct name, address, and phone information. This is also known as your NAP information.

Internal links (to and from pages within your website) help search engines crawl your site, understand your content hierarchy, and distribute ranking authority. But there’s more to it than just connecting pages.

Use descriptive anchor text that includes relevant keywords naturally. Ensure every service page and blog post links to other key pages (especially your homepage and contact page). Maintain a shallow site structure—important pages should be reachable within two to three clicks from your homepage.

Some dental SEO experts call the above example a pyramid linking structure. There are different linking structures and some experts favor one over another. The most important part of this is making sure that all pages on your website are linking to and from and that there is a structure that helps Google see which pages are most valuable.

Smart speakers and mobile voice assistants have changed how patients search. Instead of typing “pediatric dentist Salt Lake,” they’re asking full questions like, “Who’s the best kids’ dentist open on Saturdays near me?”

How to adapt your content:

• Incorporate natural-sounding questions and answers.
• Add conversational FAQs to service and location pages.
• Include references to local landmarks or neighborhoods to match spoken queries.

Remember: if your content doesn’t sound like a real person would say it, it’s time to rewrite it.

Google has fully transitioned to mobile-first indexing meaning your mobile version is your primary version in Google’s eyes. If your mobile site is missing content, loads slowly, or has clunky navigation, it can hurt your rankings.

Make sure your mobile experience includes:

• Fast loading times (check your Core Web Vitals scores)
• Readable font sizes
• Clickable buttons
• No hidden or missing content

Most dental website builders now offer mobile-optimized themes, but always test your site across different devices.

15) Post Consistently to Social Media

While Google has stated that social media signals (likes, shares, comments) aren’t a direct ranking factor, they do help your SEO efforts in other important ways.

Engaging posts get shared, increase brand visibility, and can drive traffic and backlinks—all of which can boost your SEO. Plus, a strong social presence builds credibility and helps convert website visitors into patients.

So yes, social media helps your SEO—but think of it as the amplifier, not the engine.

Think about it this way. Below is a super lame dental post. I blurred the practice information for fear of embarrassing them. The one on the left is the post. In the middle is how much engagement it received: zip. On the right is how many more people saw the post because of the engagement on it. Another big goose egg.

This is a great example of a completely ineffective social media marketing post, and it provided zero in SEO for dentists benefit.

Search engines will take into account the engagement as a measurement of the quality of content from the social media channel.

Now take a look at the image above. It’s a great example of a post that received a ton of engagement. Notice the 75 social media comments, the 29 engagements, and 1 share.

What you don’t see in the stats in that image is the total number of impressions, which is how many times the image was seen. It was seen over 2,000 times!