Nobody travels far for a dentist. Patients want a practice near home or work, somewhere convenient for check-ups and easy to reach in an emergency. That makes dental inherently local.
When someone searches for a dentist, Google knows this. Local results dominate — the map pack, location-specific organic results, "near me" interpretations. If your practice isn't visible in local search for your area, you're invisible to patients actively looking for a dentist.
Dental searches follow predictable patterns:
General searches — "Dentist near me," "dental practice [town]," "NHS dentist [area]." Patients looking for a regular dentist, often new to the area or unhappy with their current practice.
Emergency searches — "Emergency dentist [location]," "dentist open Saturday," "tooth pain [town]." Urgent, high-intent, often willing to pay private fees. These patients need help now.
Treatment searches — "Invisalign [city]," "dental implants [area]," "teeth whitening [town]." Patients researching specific treatments, often higher value, comparing options.
Each search type represents a different patient with different intent. Local SEO captures all three — but requires different approaches for each.
Google Business Profile Optimisation — Your GBP is often the first thing patients see. Services offered, opening hours, photos of your practice, posts about treatments. A complete, optimised profile that builds confidence before they visit your website.
Local Keyword Targeting — Mapping services to locations. "Dentist [town]." "Dental implants [city]." "Emergency dentist [area]." Building pages that capture specific local searches, not just hoping your homepage ranks for everything.
Review Generation and Management — Dental patients read reviews carefully. They're anxious about dentistry, worried about pain, uncertain about costs. A strong review profile overcomes fear and builds the trust needed to book.
Citation Consistency — Your practice name, address, and phone number across dental directories, NHS listings, local business directories. Consistency signals legitimacy to Google and prevents patient confusion.
Local Content — Content that demonstrates local presence. Community involvement, local team profiles, area-specific information. Signals that you're part of the community, not just targeting postcodes.
For most local dental searches, three practices appear in the map pack above organic results. Those three positions capture the majority of clicks.
Patients scanning for a dentist see three options. They might check reviews, glance at distance, look at photos. Then they choose — usually from those three.
Position four means scrolling. Most patients don't. If you're not in the map pack for your key searches, you're losing patients to competitors who are.
We focus on map pack visibility because that's where dental patients make decisions.
Dental groups face local SEO challenges that single practices don't.
Each practice needs its own local presence:
But the brand needs consistency. A patient researching your Manchester practice should see the same quality, values, and professionalism as one looking at Leeds.
We build infrastructure for dental groups:
General "dentist [location]" searches matter. But treatment-specific searches often represent higher-value patients.
"Dental implants Manchester" — A patient considering a £2,000+ treatment."Invisalign Leeds" — Someone ready to invest in cosmetic improvement."Sedation dentist Sheffield" — An anxious patient willing to pay for comfort.
These searches deserve dedicated attention. Landing pages for key treatments in key locations. Content that ranks for specific service + location combinations.
We help you identify which treatment searches have volume in your areas and build visibility systematically.
Dental anxiety is real. Many patients are nervous about visiting the dentist, worried about pain, uncertain about what to expect. Reviews directly address these fears.
When a potential patient reads "I was really nervous but the team put me at ease" or "completely painless, wish I'd come sooner" — that's more persuasive than anything you could write on your website.
But dental practices often struggle with reviews:
We build review generation systems that work:
Many practices offer both NHS and private services. Local SEO needs to address both audiences — but they search differently and want different things.
NHS patients search for availability: "NHS dentist accepting patients [area]." They want to know you're taking on NHS patients and what they can access.
Private patients search for quality and specific treatments: "Best dentist [town]," "cosmetic dentist [city]." They're comparing options and willing to pay for excellence.
We help you build visibility for both without confusing either audience.
Emergency dental searches are high-intent and immediate. Someone with tooth pain at 9pm isn't browsing — they need help now.
"Emergency dentist [location]" searches spike evenings and weekends. If you offer emergency appointments, this visibility is valuable. If you don't, you can still capture these patients for follow-up care.
We optimise for emergency visibility where relevant:
Dental practices who want more new patient enquiries. Multi-practice groups needing consistent visibility across locations. Practices in competitive areas not appearing in map results. Dentists offering high-value treatments who want patients searching for those services specifically.