The private dental sector in the UK is absolutely booming right now. I’ve got friends and family constantly moaning about how they can’t get an NHS dental appointment for love nor money. It’s no wonder we’re seeing so many dentists jumping ship from the NHS to open their own private practices. The opportunity is massive.
I’ve worked with dental practices all over the UK over the years – from swanky London clinics to smaller family practices in Birmingham and across the Midlands. Interestingly, every marketing agency I’ve ever worked at has had at least a handful of dental clients on their books. It’s just one of those sectors that’s always been a staple.
Whenever I take on a new dental client, the first thing I do is check out what their local competition is up to online. And you know what? I’m usually pretty surprised by how basic most dental websites are. Most have just a few service pages, a dated design from about 2015, and maybe a blog with some generic monthly posts about flossing or something. They’re really not bringing their A-game to SEO.
This creates a massive opportunity if you’re willing to invest a bit in doing things properly. But the landscape is changing fast. Patients aren’t just Googling “dentist near me” anymore. They’re watching treatment videos on YouTube, asking for recommendations in local Facebook groups, checking out Instagram for before and after shots, and reading reviews everywhere. Your digital strategy needs to reflect this reality.
In this guide, I’ll share what I’ve learned from years of helping dental practices across the UK get more patients through better SEO. Nothing theoretical – just practical stuff that actually works.
Think about the last time you needed to find a new dentist. Did you just Google “dentist near me” and call the first one that came up? Course you didn’t.
The journey is way more complex now. You probably started with a Google search, sure. But then you would have looked at the map results, checked out some reviews, visited a few websites, maybe looked at their Facebook page, and possibly asked friends or local Facebook groups for recommendations before making a decision.
That’s a lot of different touchpoints before you’d even consider picking up the phone. And at each one of these stages, practices have a chance to either impress you or lose you to a competitor.
Pretty much everyone uses the internet to find local businesses these days. For healthcare specifically, about 80% of people use search engines to find providers. And for dentists, over 70% of patients check them out online before booking.
What kills me is seeing dental practices putting all their eggs in one basket. They might have a decent website, but their Google Business Profile is a ghost town, they’ve got two photos from 2018, they never respond to reviews, and they’re completely invisible on social media. Meanwhile, patients are bouncing between all these platforms trying to decide where to book.
For dental SEO, everything comes down to location. Unlike a company selling products nationwide, you need patients who actually live or work near your practice. Most people won’t travel more than 15-20 minutes for a check-up.
That’s why local searches dominate:
These searches trigger that map pack at the top of Google with three business listings. Getting your practice into this map pack is absolute gold. It’s what most people look at first, especially on mobile.
While ranking for “dentist near me” is great, the most valuable searches are often treatment-specific. Someone looking for “dental implant cost UK” or “Invisalign dentist London” has already identified what they need and is looking for who can provide it.
These people are much further along in their decision-making process and often represent your highest-value potential patients.
I worked with a practice in the West Midlands last year that was desperate for more implant patients. Their website mentioned implants in passing but had no real information about it. We built out detailed content covering the procedure, recovery, costs, financing options, and their particular approach. Within three months, their implant consultations jumped by 40%. For a treatment worth thousands per patient, that’s serious money.
Not everyone searching is in the same headspace. Some are just starting their journey, while others are ready to book. I like to group dental searches into a few buckets:
Some people are searching because they’ve got a problem. “Bleeding gums when brushing” or “constant toothache” or “chipped front tooth fix”. They might not even know what treatment they need yet.
Others know exactly what treatment they want and are researching options. “Invisalign vs traditional braces” or “dental implant procedure steps” or “teeth whitening methods”.
Then you’ve got people actively looking for a dentist to do a specific treatment. “Best cosmetic dentist Birmingham” or “affordable dental implants Manchester” or “same-day emergency dentist London”.
Your existing patients search differently too. They’re looking up opening hours, contact details, or aftercare advice.
By creating content for each of these different mindsets, you can capture potential patients at every stage of their journey.
For dental practices, local SEO isn’t just nice to have – it’s absolutely essential. It’s the foundation of your entire digital marketing strategy. Let’s break down what actually matters.
Your Google Business Profile (what used to be called Google My Business) is often the first thing potential patients see. It shows up in Maps and in that local pack at the top of search results.
It amazes me how many dental practices have claimed their profile but then just left it half-baked. It’s like opening a practice but not putting up a sign. Madness.
Getting this right is pretty straightforward but makes a huge difference:
Your name, address, and phone number need to be exactly the same everywhere online. Even tiny differences like “Street” vs “St” can confuse Google. Keep your opening hours updated, especially if they change for holidays.
Make sure you’ve picked the right categories. Your main one should be “Dentist” (or something more specific like “Orthodontist” if that’s your focus). Then add relevant secondary categories based on what you actually offer.
Google lets you list specific services now too – add every single one you provide. It helps you show up for more searches.
Photos make a massive difference. Add loads of recent, good quality ones. Show the outside of your practice (helps people find you), your waiting area, treatment rooms, your team, and equipment. Before and after shots are brilliant too if patients have consented.
Last year I worked with a Leeds practice with a really basic profile – outdated info, two ancient photos, no services listed. After sorting it out properly, they saw website clicks from their listing jump by 35% in just a couple of months. That’s a lot of potential new patients from a few hours of work.
Reviews are absolutely crucial in dentistry. Be honest, would you choose a dentist with three middling reviews or one with fifty glowing ones?
Reviews don’t just influence potential patients, though. Google uses them as a ranking factor too. The quantity, quality, and how recent they are all affect where you show up in local search results.
Most practices I work with start with hardly any reviews. They’re providing great care but never actually ask patients to leave feedback. Such a wasted opportunity.
Here’s what works: ask happy patients for reviews at the right moment – usually just after you’ve completed their treatment successfully. Make it dead easy by texting or emailing them a direct link. Train your reception staff to mention it during checkout. And always, always respond to reviews, good or bad.
A London practice I worked with last year started sending a simple text the day after treatment with a link to their Google profile. Within three months, they went from a dozen reviews to over 60, and their average rating shot up from 4.2 to 4.8 stars. Their visibility in local searches improved dramatically as a result.
Here’s something most dentists don’t realise: Google checks if your practice details are consistent across the web. If your address is written slightly differently on different websites, or your phone number is wrong on some listings, it sends confusing signals.
You need to make sure your name, address and phone number are exactly the same everywhere your practice is listed online – on your website, on Google, on Facebook, on dental directories, literally everywhere.
The big ones for dentists in the UK are the NHS Website (if you offer any NHS services), dental directories like Dentaly and ToothPick, healthcare sites like Doctify, general directories like Yell, and industry bodies like the BDA.
It’s boring work checking all these, but it makes a real difference. It’s like making sure the foundations of your house are solid before worrying about what colour to paint the walls.
Got more than one practice location? Each one needs its own dedicated page on your website. And not just a generic template with the address changed.
These pages need specific details about each practice – the dentists who work there, treatments offered at that location, parking information, local testimonials, the works.
I helped a group with three Midlands practices recently. They’d lumped all locations onto one rubbish generic page. We created proper individual pages for each, and new patient enquiries at one location jumped by over 40% in just four months. The others saw similar improvements. Proper local pages really work.
The content on most dental websites is, frankly, rubbish. I see so many with barely any information about treatments, generic blog posts nobody would ever read, and nothing that actually shows why someone should choose them over the practice down the road.
Your service pages shouldn’t just say “we offer dental implants” and leave it at that. They need to give potential patients everything they’re looking for.
For each major treatment, create a page that really digs into it. Explain what it is in normal human language, who’s a good candidate, how you specifically approach it (your methods or technology), what patients can expect during and after, and crucially – some indication of cost.
Being upfront about pricing makes a massive difference. So many dental websites avoid mentioning money, forcing people to call for information. But patients researching treatments want to know if they can afford you before picking up the phone.
A London practice I work with added rough price ranges to their implant page last year. Their consultation requests jumped by nearly 30%, and the leads were better qualified too. People knew what to expect cost-wise before enquiring.
One of my biggest pet peeves is dental websites that just claim expertise without showing it. They’ll have a line like “our experienced dentists provide exceptional care” and think that’s enough. It’s not.
Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) are super important for healthcare sites. You need to actively demonstrate these qualities, not just claim them.
Create proper profiles for each dentist that go beyond just “Dr Smith qualified in 2005.” Include their special interests, additional training, professional memberships, and what they’re particularly passionate about. Add a decent photo where patients can actually see their face clearly.
When talking about treatments, explain your specific approach and why you’ve chosen certain techniques or materials over others. Show case studies (anonymised, obviously) with real results. If there’s relevant research or guidelines, mention them.
Make sure your trust signals are clearly visible: GDC registration numbers, any accreditations or awards, and transparent policies.
The difference between claiming expertise and actually demonstrating it is enormous, both for search rankings and for convincing patients to choose you.
The blogs on most dental websites are tragic. Generic monthly posts with titles like “The Importance of Flossing” that nobody would ever search for or read. What a waste of time.
Your blog should address real questions that patients actually ask. Focus on topics people genuinely search for, showcase your practice’s unique approach, and include local elements where relevant.
Topics that tend to perform well include:
Quality beats quantity every time. One practice I worked with ditched their schedule of four generic blog posts a month and instead committed to just one properly researched, dentist-reviewed article. Their organic traffic increased by over 60% within six months because they were creating content people actually wanted to read.
I know technical SEO isn’t the most thrilling topic, but it really does matter. Think of it like the plumbing in your practice – you only notice it when something’s not working.
People have zero patience for slow websites these days. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, they’ll just hit the back button and try somewhere else. This is especially true on mobile, where most dental searches happen.
The most common speed killers I see on dental websites are massive, unoptimised images. Those before-and-after shots and team photos are often uploaded straight from a professional camera without being properly sized for the web.
Other culprits include too many plugins, cheap hosting, and not using browser caching.
Google now directly uses page speed as a ranking factor through their Core Web Vitals metrics. It measures loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability – all of which affect both your rankings and whether patients stick around long enough to book.
One Leeds practice I worked with managed to get their site loading speed from over 6 seconds down to under 3. Their bounce rate (people leaving immediately) dropped by 17% and the number of pages people viewed per visit jumped by 23%. In other words, more potential patients actually stuck around long enough to learn about the practice.
More than 60% of dental searches happen on mobile now. Your website absolutely must work brilliantly on phones and tablets.
This isn’t just about having a responsive design that doesn’t look broken on mobile. You need to check that buttons are easy to tap (not tiny or squashed together), forms work properly on touchscreens, text is readable without zooming, phone numbers are click-to-call, and maps function correctly.
I saw a practice lose tons of potential patients because their booking form was almost impossible to use on mobile. After fixing it, mobile form submissions went up by over a third.
There’s a technical thing called schema markup – it’s basically extra code that helps search engines understand the context of your content better. For dental practices, it can help you get those enhanced search results like star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, and info cards.
It sounds complicated, but the results can be dramatic. A Manchester practice added review schema to show their 4.8-star rating directly in search results. Their click-through rate increased by 26% – meaning far more people chose to click on their listing instead of competitors.
Traditional SEO focuses on Google, but patients use loads of different platforms now to research dentists. Your strategy needs to reflect this.
Video content has become incredibly important for dental practices. Many procedures are visual by nature, and patients want to see what they’re getting into before booking.
Create videos explaining treatments, giving practice tours, sharing patient testimonials (with consent), introducing your team, and showing before and after results. Put these on your website but also on YouTube with proper titles and descriptions.
Remember that YouTube is actually the second biggest search engine in the world. Loads of patients specifically search there for dental treatments. One orthodontic practice I worked with created a simple series of Invisalign videos – what to expect, how to clean your aligners, and patient experiences. They ranked well on YouTube and also helped boost their Google rankings for Invisalign terms.
While Google Reviews should be your main focus, patients check multiple review sources. Keep an eye on and respond to reviews across platforms like Facebook, Trustpilot, Doctify, and industry sites.
Having consistently good reviews across different platforms builds trust and gives potential patients confidence wherever they happen to be looking.
For dental practices, local community involvement directly impacts both visibility and getting new patients. Join local Facebook groups (but don’t spam them!), get involved with local business networks, support community events, and create content about local dental issues.
A small-town practice I worked with created content addressing the closure of the local NHS dental service and provided information about alternatives. The content ranked almost instantly and brought in loads of traffic from concerned locals looking for options.
I see so many dental practices obsessing over keyword rankings without connecting them to actual business results. Rankings are meaningless if they don’t bring in patients.
To really understand if your SEO is working, track metrics that connect directly to patient acquisition and revenue:
Yes, traffic matters. Keep an eye on your organic search visitors, local rankings, and Google Business Profile interactions (website clicks, calls, direction requests).
But conversions matter more. Track contact form submissions, phone calls from organic visitors, online appointment bookings, and enquiries about specific treatments.
Most important are the business metrics: actual new patient appointments from organic search, treatment acceptance rates from SEO-generated leads, revenue from patients acquired through search, and overall return on investment.
The key is connecting online metrics to actual patient data. This usually requires linking your website analytics to your practice management system.
Patients rarely take a direct path from search to booking. They might find you through Google, check reviews, visit your website, look at competitors, come back via a direct search, watch a video, and finally call days later.
This makes it tricky to know exactly which channel deserves credit for new patients. I recommend using call tracking for organic search visitors, asking how people found you on contact forms, training reception staff to record how new patients discovered the practice, and regularly looking at this data for patterns.
One practice discovered that while paid ads brought in more initial enquiries, patients who came through organic search had a much higher treatment acceptance rate and lifetime value. This led them to shift budget from expensive Google Ads to more sustainable SEO efforts.
Based on my experience with dental practices across the UK, here’s a step-by-step plan to improve your results:
Before changing anything, understand your current position:
Check your rankings for important dental terms in your location. Is your Google Business Profile complete and accurate? How many reviews do you have and what’s your average rating? Test how your website performs on mobile and desktop. Look at your content – is it actually helpful and relevant?
This often gives the quickest wins:
Make sure all your information is spot on. Add every service you offer. Upload plenty of good photos. Start systematically asking for reviews. Use Google Posts regularly for updates and offers.
Get the foundations right:
Speed up your website and make it work perfectly on mobile. Ensure your practice details are exactly the same everywhere online. Add proper schema markup. Create or improve location pages if you have multiple practices. Get listed on all relevant directories.
Develop content that showcases your expertise and answers patient questions:
Beef up your service pages with comprehensive information. Create detailed profiles for each dentist. Start a blog strategy targeting questions patients actually ask. Add at least some price information. Include genuine patient testimonials and case studies.
Diversify where patients can find you:
Set up a YouTube channel with helpful videos. Get involved with local community groups. Consider creating content for other platforms where your ideal patients spend time. Make sure your brand is consistent across all these channels.
Measure metrics that connect to business results:
Set up proper goal tracking in Google Analytics. Use call tracking for organic search visitors. Create systems for connecting online leads to patient records. Get regular reports focused on patient acquisition, not just rankings.
The growth of private dentistry in the UK is creating a genuine opportunity for practices willing to invest in proper digital marketing. With NHS appointments so hard to come by, more patients are considering private options, but they’re researching carefully before committing.
I’ve seen this firsthand working with practices all over the UK. Patients are willing to pay for private dental care, but they expect to find good information online to help them decide. They want evidence of your expertise, clarity about costs, genuine patient experiences, and something that tells them why you’re special.
The practices that win in this competitive landscape will be the ones that go beyond basic SEO to create genuinely helpful, trust-building experiences across multiple platforms. They’ll show their expertise rather than just claiming it, give patients the information they’re actually searching for, and make it easy to take the next step.
If you’re ready to attract more private dental patients through strategic SEO, we can help create a customised plan based on your practice’s specific needs, location, and goals. We’ll use my experience working with dental practices across the UK to build an approach that increases both your visibility and patient trust.
Monday to Friday: 9AM – 6PM
We Typically Respond Within 24 hours
Request a Free Quote
Company No. 15980245
