NEW Local SEO Tips for Dentists

[ElizabethRule]

Sterling Sky has a guide on local SEO for dentists that’s due for an update, and I’d love to get feedback from other local SEOs on what’s working best right now for dentist, both onsite for organic search and Google Maps (Google Business Profile).

Currently, my approach for GBP is pretty straight forward:

• Use Dentist as the primary category (unless they have a specific niche we want to hyper focus on - like pediatric)
• Fill in all 9 secondary categories
• Check off all predefined services
• Add custom services when relevant (the more niche, the better!)

I usually skip extras like posts and Q&A, since they tend to get little to no engagement or conversions.

On the onsite side, we focus on building unique service pages for each treatment, plus supporting blog content. I haven’t seen service area pages perform well for dentists, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone has different results.

I also prioritize making it easy for users to book an appointment. I LOVE when dentists have booking buttons directly on their GBPs, though it’s not very common in my experience. Does anyone have a recommended online appointment scheduler for dentist that integrates smoothly with GBP?

For those of you working with dental practices, what strategies have you found most effective? Are there specific tactics that consistently move the needle, or pitfalls you’d suggest avoiding? I’d love to hear your insights and experiences!

 

[JS Girard]

Our clients up in Quebec have some weird limitations. The Quebec licensing board for dentists recognize nine specialties and absolutely nothing else. Dentists are completely forbidden to advertise themselves as "specialists" or "experts" in any other dental field (so you better not use the "pediatric dentist" if you are not legally recognized as such!), even when that specialty is not otherwise covered by any of the recognized ones.

We literally tried to consult with them about how a client of ours which specialises in TMJ disorders could write about it and the incredibly unhelpful and convoluted PR/legal slop we got in response boiled down to "don't". very frustrating experience.