SEO for Dentists
Nobody searches for a dental practice. They search for implants, Invisalign, an emergency appointment or whether anyone locally is taking NHS patients. We get you found for each of them.
Dental search splits two ways and most practice websites handle neither properly. NHS searches come from people who need a dentist and cannot find one taking patients. Private and cosmetic searches come from people researching a specific treatment over weeks. Different people, different needs, different pages. We build both, within the GDC guidelines.
NHS and private are two different websites
This is the single biggest structural issue on dental sites and it is worth understanding before anything else. These are not two versions of the same patient. They arrive from different searches, want different things and convert in completely different ways.
- Enormous volume and rising frustration
- Wants to know one thing: are you taking patients
- Decides in minutes rather than weeks
- Often ringing several practices in a row
- Becomes a private patient later if treated well
- Lower volume, far higher value per patient
- Researches a specific treatment over weeks
- Compares practices carefully on credibility
- Reads your clinician profiles before enquiring
- Where treatment pages earn their keep
Most practice sites blur the two, which serves neither. Separating them is usually the highest-return structural change available. Set out fully in NHS vs private dental SEO.
A page for every treatment you want to grow
A single treatments page listing everything cannot rank for any of it. Each of these is a separate search made by a separate person with a separate budget, so each gets its own page written for that patient.
Dental implants
The highest value treatment plan most practices offer. Patients research these for months and compare practices carefully before they ever pick up the phone.
See the guide → High value and volumeInvisalign
Rare combination of strong search volume and a high value treatment plan. Also one of the most competitive terms in dentistry.
See the guide → Highest intentEmergency dentist
Enormous volume and the sharpest intent in the sector. Somebody searching this is in pain and will ring whoever appears first with availability.
See the guide → Premium cosmeticSmile makeovers
The premium end of cosmetic work. Fewer searches, substantial treatment plans and a patient choosing entirely on credibility and evidence.
See the guide → CosmeticVeneers
A distinct cosmetic search with its own patient. Usually researched alongside bonding and whitening rather than in isolation.
See the guide → Growing fastComposite bonding
A strong growth area with a younger patient base and far less established competition than implants or Invisalign.
See the guide → Entry treatmentTeeth whitening
Often the first private treatment a patient buys, which makes it the front door to everything else you offer.
See the guide → Distinct audienceChildren's dentistry
A completely different searcher, usually a parent, with different concerns entirely. Wins the whole family rather than one patient.
See the guide →Also worth its own page: the nervous patient page, which is a genuine distinct search and one of the strongest conversion drivers in dentistry.
How many people search for a dentist near you
These are real monthly search numbers for dental terms across the UK, among the highest of any local sector we work in. Every one is somebody who needs a dentist. The only question is which practice comes up first.
Figures are rounded monthly UK search volumes for generic dental searches in each area. National chains, individual named practices and General Dental Council registration searches are all excluded, so these show genuine patient demand. Want your own town pulled? We will do it free.
Searches you are not showing up for yet
Worth noting one figure on its own: 9,900 people a month search for NHS dentists taking new patients. That is a very large number of people actively looking for a practice with capacity. Most sites never answer the question.
Dental marketing has rules. We work inside them.
Dentistry is regulated. The GDC sets out what a practice can and cannot say in its marketing. An agency that treats your website like a plumbing website will cheerfully publish claims and imagery that create a problem with your regulator rather than a bad month. This is not a caveat we add at the end. It shapes how the whole site gets built.
Claims stay factual
We describe treatments you offer and the experience your clinicians hold. We do not make clinical claims, promise outcomes or suggest what is suitable for any individual, because that is your job and not a marketing decision.
Before and after handled properly
Powerful evidence when used correctly and a regulatory problem when it is not. There are GDC rules governing this imagery and we build those pages within them.
Testimonials within the guidelines
Patient feedback is genuine trust content and it is also governed. We use it in the ways the guidelines allow rather than treating it as free marketing copy.
Clinical sign-off routed to you
Anything touching clinical accuracy comes back to you before it goes live. You are the clinician. We are not, so we will never publish as though we are.
More detail in GDC registration and compliance and how SEO works for regulated healthcare.
What is included
You do not need to buy SEO, a website person, a maps person and a social person separately. It is all one job to us, on one monthly fee. Tap through to see what each part does for a practice.
Local SEO
The core of it. A page for each treatment you want to grow, your NHS and private offering separated properly and a structure Google can follow, so you turn up for implants in your town rather than for nothing in particular.
Google Maps
The map pack sits above the normal results and for emergency and near me searches it is very often where the call comes from. We set up and work your Google Business Profile properly, including opening hours and whether you are accepting patients.
Treatment pages
Written for the patient rather than the clinician. What the treatment involves, what to expect, how long it takes and what it costs, in plain English and within the guidelines. These are the pages that both rank and convert.
Your clinicians
The most underused asset in dental SEO. Real profiles with real qualifications, GDC numbers, special interests and photographs. Dentistry is a high-trust decision and Google weighs demonstrable expertise heavily in health content.
Website management
Your site looked after rather than left alone. New treatment pages built as your offering grows, fee guides kept current and booking made obvious rather than buried behind a form.
AI optimisation
Patients now ask AI assistants for a dentist taking new patients or which practice does a particular treatment locally. We structure your content so those tools can read your practice and surface it accurately.
Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
Two posts a week on each, kept within the guidelines. Cosmetic dentistry performs strongly on Instagram, which is exactly where the before-and-after rules matter most.
Four steps, then we keep going
We learn the practice
Which treatments you want to grow, where you sit on the NHS and private balance and which searches in your area are winnable.
We separate NHS and private
The structural fix first, so both audiences find what they came for instead of landing on a page that serves neither.
We build the treatment pages
A page per treatment, clinician profiles built properly and your Google Business Profile sorted. Everything checked against the guidelines.
We keep at it
An update every three weeks and a full audit every quarter, with anything clinical routed back to you for sign-off.
What would it take to cover the fee
Drag the sliders using your own treatment plan values. In dentistry a single high-value plan often covers a year of fees on its own. This is a rough illustration to think with, not a promise of results.
Illustration only. Real results depend on your area, your competition and your treatment mix. We do not guarantee figures or patient numbers.
Three ways practices approach this
Corporate dental groups
- Central marketing teams and real budget
- Years of content across dozens of sites
- Templated location pages with little local substance
- Beatable on named clinicians and genuine local presence
A generic marketing agency
- Treats a dental site like any other site
- Publishes claims that create regulatory risk
- Misses the NHS and private split entirely
- You carry the consequence, not them
Treatment-led SEO with us
- A page per treatment you want to grow
- NHS and private handled as separate audiences
- Built within the GDC guidelines throughout
- Clinical accuracy signed off by you
More on the first of those in competing with corporate dental groups.
One clear monthly fee
No setup fee and nothing billed separately, including when you add a treatment and need a new page building.
- One practice location
- A page per treatment
- NHS and private separated properly
- Local SEO and Google Maps
- Website management and AI optimisation
- Quarterly audits and monthly reporting
- Everything in Local SEO
- Multiple locations covered
- More competitive cosmetic terms
- Wider content programme
- For growing practices
- Everything in Growth
- National reach
- For multi-site dental groups
- Full cosmetic and specialist targeting
- Priority support
Worth comparing against what local SEO typically costs before you decide.
Be the practice they find first.
We get you found for the treatments you want to grow, handle the NHS and private split properly and keep every word inside the GDC guidelines. One plan. One fee.
Everything included in your plan:
One clear retainer. No setup fee.
