Why isn’t my dental website ranking?

“Our website isn’t ranking” covers two situations that look identical from the outside and need opposite responses.

Either Google cannot see the page at all — in which case nothing you publish changes anything until the fault is found, and finding it is usually free — or Google sees it perfectly well and has decided other pages answer the query better, which is slower and harder to put a date on.

A practice that is not indexed does not need more content. One that is indexed but buried deep in the results does not need another technical audit. The checks below run in that order: what you can do yourself, then what needs Search Console, then what needs somebody technical.

Owners who cannot find themselves in Google usually mean the map results, not the blue links — a different system with different rules, which website work will not fix.

Eligibility rules itself out fast. Google states that “To qualify for a Business Profile, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours”, and that a P.O. box or remote mailbox is not eligible. A practice with premises and opening hours clears that easily, so a missing profile is nearly always a verification failure.

Check suspension at account level, not profile level. Google states that “If a merchant’s account is restricted, all Business Profiles associated with that account will be suspended”, and that “The account must be reinstated before any previously removed content can be successfully reinstated or new content added to the profile.” Causes it lists include a pattern of policy violations, restriction of another linked Google account, a determination that the business does not exist at the claimed location, a P.O. Box address, and inactive ownership — which catches profiles set up by somebody who has since left.

Then the listing everyone forgets. Practices in England must confirm their NHS website profile quarterly, by 30 June, 30 September, 31 December and 31 March, covering contact details, opening hours, services and facilities, and whether they are accepting new NHS patients. Miss one and NHSBSA says the local commissioning team’s contract manager may be in touch. England only — and a stale “not accepting new NHS patients” flag undoes a lot of marketing.

Plenty of dental sites are one template with the treatment name swapped: implants, veneers, aligners, whitening — same structure, same reassurance paragraph, same stock photograph. Add a page per surrounding town and you have a pattern Google has named policies for.

Google defines scaled content abuse as when “many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users”, typically unoriginal content of little value. Doorway abuse covers pages built to rank for specific, similar queries that lead users to intermediate pages less useful than the final destination — Google’s own example being “Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.”

The fix is not deletion. It is asking what each page could say that only your practice could say: who performs the treatment, what the assessment involves, what happens when a case is not suitable. That is also most of what the regulator wants on the page anyway.

Which treatment and location phrases deserve a page of their own is the subject of which dental keywords to target, listed by treatment, NHS status and location.

The NHS-or-private split does the same job and divides the audience cleanly. Access to NHS dentistry is a live public issue, and patients arrive already sorting practices into one bucket or the other before they read a word about treatment. Say plainly which you are — the GDC requires the statement in any case, as above, and a practice that leaves the impression it might take NHS patients generates enquiries it cannot convert.

Here is the correction worth making. The GDC’s “Guidance on advertising” does not mention testimonials, before-and-after photographs, reviews, prices or fees anywhere, so the widely repeated claim that the GDC bans patient testimonials is not supported by it. That is a finding about one document, not a licence: testimonials are regulated, by a different body.

Your own website is within the ASA’s remit: since 1 March 2011 the CAP Code has applied to marketing communications on companies’ own websites and other non-paid-for online space under their control, including their own social channels.

• Testimonials. Rule 3.47 requires documentary evidence that a testimonial is genuine plus contact details for the person who gave it; 3.48 that it relates to the product advertised; 3.49 that claims within it do not mislead; 3.50 that you have permission.
• Before-and-after photographs. CAP and the ASA “regard the use of ‘before and after’ photos in the same way” as testimonials, pointing to rules 3.47-3.50 — so a smile gallery needs the same evidence and permission trail.
• Aesthetics alongside dentistry. Prescription-only medicines may not be advertised to the public under rule 12.12, and CAP warns such imagery, “even in isolation without any accompanying claims, is very likely to be seen as an implied ad for a prescription-only product”. Botox is prescription-only.
• Endorsements. Rule 12.18 prohibits health professionals or celebrities endorsing medicines, and 15.6.3 health claims referring to an individual health professional’s recommendation.

Reviews carry a second regime. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, the unfair commercial practices rules apply from 6 April 2025, and banned practice 13 covers fake reviews, reviews that conceal an incentive, and failing to take reasonable steps to prevent either being published. Concealment is the trigger, so incentives must be disclosed.

Google’s policy runs alongside it. Merchants may not offer incentives “such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services – in exchange for posting any review”, and “should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises”; Google’s actions “range from suspending the account privileges to account termination”. What it restricts is incentives, pressure and content-steering — not asking for honest reviews. So the discount-for-a-review card at reception can breach both regimes at once, and the Google half can take your map listing down.

Sometimes everything checks out and the practice still is not visible. That is competing and losing, not broken — a different conversation entirely, and the one my dental SEO services are built for.

Google names exactly three local ranking factors — relevance, distance and popularity — and states plainly: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” Distance being one of the three is the honest answer to why you appear at your own front door and vanish four miles away.

So run it in order: indexed, listed, distinct, compliant, then fast. The first three cost nothing but an afternoon of your own time, which is exactly why they come first.

Send the practice website address and you get a written answer: whether the pages are indexed, what the Business Profile is doing, whether the treatment pages say anything only you could say, and which of the required items are missing. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign. If the honest answer is that the site is fine and simply has not been going long enough, that is what the answer will say.