Dental
They just moved here, or their old dentist stopped taking their insurance.
Choosing a dentist is a trust decision made almost entirely on a phone, by somebody who has never met you.
What you are up against
Directories and DSOs occupy the results a patient sees first.
Insurance directories, review aggregators and multi-location groups with real marketing budgets sit above independent practices for the obvious searches. What they cannot replicate is a single practice with a named dentist, current reviews and answers written by somebody who actually treats patients.
The arithmetic
What one more is worth.
$1,800
a typical patient over time
Cleanings, the work that follows, and the family that often comes with them. One additional patient a month clears a retainer comfortably.
How search works here
Three things specific to dental practices.
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Insurance is the first filter, not the second
A great many searches start with the plan rather than the practice. Listing the insurance you take, in text rather than a PDF, answers the question that decides whether you get considered at all.
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Reviews carry more weight here than almost anywhere
Somebody is deciding who to let near their child with a drill. Volume, recency and the way you answer criticism all get read closely.
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Procedures are separate searches
Implants, invisible aligners, emergency extraction and a routine cleaning are different intents at wildly different values. A general dentistry page competes for the cheapest of them.
Work it out
How many jobs would it have to bring in?
Set what one is worth to you, pick what you would actually buy, and it tells you the number the spend has to beat.
Where I would start
In this order, and for this reason.
- Profile, photos and reviews, because the decision is a trust decision
- Insurance and new-patient information stated plainly in text
- A page per high-value procedure rather than one services list
- Reviews on a system, since they are the strongest signal you control
Which rung that starts on depends on your market rather than your trade. Profile work runs $250/mo, and Local SEO starts at $500/mo. The full ladder is published.
Questions
The ones dental practices ask.
Do I need this if I am already busy?
It depends whether you are busy with the work you want. Practices that rank well for high-value procedures fill differently from practices that rank for "dentist near me", and the difference shows up in production per chair rather than in how full the calendar looks.
How much does patient acquisition cost compare?
Against paid patient acquisition, search compounds and stays yours. Against direct mail, it reaches somebody at the moment they are actually looking. Neither is a reason to stop what already works, only a reason to own the channel you are currently renting.
Free audit
Start with where you stand.
Your site's performance, your Google Business Profile, and whether AI can find you. It runs automatically and lands in your inbox in about three minutes.
You get the findings whether or not you hire me, and it is what decides which of the steps above is worth doing first.