Dental Marketing Guy Blog

Dentistry SEO Specialist Justin Morgan shows how to get new patients from search engines like Google and Bing. This SEO blog consists of two parts: 1. Interviews with industry experts on how you can grow your practice. 2. Short educational videos.

Blog By:
DentalMarketingGuy

                                        
• 10% of Americans move every year.
                                        
• Patients are losing jobs and insurance. 80+% of adults who lack health insurance also lack dental insurance.
                                        
• 12% of patients lost their dental insurance in 2025.
                                        
• People are cutting back on discretionary spending including dental work. 

"Dental practices are continuing to experience a “fiscal squeeze” brought on by rising prices and lower demand for care, according to an update from the ADA Health Policy Institute on the state of the dental economy for the third quarter of 2025."

What this means for your practice is that you need to market more than you have in the past to make up for patients that move away or cut back on spending. Read on to find out what to focus on for the best return on investment (ROI). 

What Type of Marketing to Invest In

If you want immediate results, advertising provides them. However, if you want to focus on what brings the highest ROI, the answer found by the researchers who created the infographic below is search engine optimization (SEO). 

With SEO, you invest over time and results grow and persist. Strategy is key. You want to work with an agency with experience with dental practices. All dentists will want to rank for "dentist in your town" and "dentist in your city, state".  

Beyond that, think about what services you wish to be known for and optimize your website accordingly. For example, do you provide emergency services? If yes, are they only for existing patients or also for new patients? If you do, create a landing page specifically for emergency services in your location. 

SEO Optimize Your Content for Specialties

What do you specialize in? I don't mean only specialties such as orthodontists, pediatric dentists, or periodontists. What do you offer that attracts patients from surrounding areas? 

Here are some examples of dental specialties to get you thinking about what services to feature: 

Dr. Charissa Chin at Life Advanced Integrated Dentistry in Alexandria, VA is known for her TMJ/TMD Treatments and also for Full Mouth Reconstruction. Her patients come from surrounding areas and even adjacent states including Maryland. 

Think about which of your services cause patients to travel past dozens of other dentists specifically to see you. Optimize your landing page for each of these services. 

How Is Your Practice Different from Your Competitors?

Another way to stand out is to find something you do that most of your competition does not. For example, perhaps like Dr. Richard Salm at Smiles for Miles Dentistry, you're known for your pediatric dentistry. 

Is that obvious from what is on your website? Did you mention it on your Google Business Profile? Have you done any PR or interviews to get your name out? 

Are You Including Your Location on Services Pages?

Having your location near your specialty on services landing pages helps you rank for "specialty near me". For example, Dr. Tim Crouch showed up second in a map pack for "sedation dentistry Statesville NC". 

Even though that phrase is not on that service page, his location is mentioned twice on it. Consider optimizing your service pages to include your location and possibly additional locations near you. 

Do You and Your Practice Appear in AI Mentions? 

When Dr. Chin's specialty landing pages were SEO-optimized, both her name and practice name started appearing in extensive AI Mentions: 


The reason that is important is that these mentions sound more like recommendations to many searchers. So when they appear, new patients are more likely to book immediately instead of doing more research. 

Search for your name and dental practice name and see what ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, and other AI platforms say about you, if anything. 

Not showing up? Consider having a content team like mine at Dental Marketing Guy optimize content for you. Content optimization is part of our Dental SEO Services offering. 

Dental Marketing and SEO Infographic