"Fundamentals Still Win" — The Key Local Search Factors Driving Dental Visibility in 2025-2026

🚀 The 2025 Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors Report is here — and Dan & Brian break down exactly what it means for dental practices.

In this episode of The Dental Marketing Mix, Dan and Brian unpack the newest data shaping how dental practices show up in Google’s Map Pack, AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, and everywhere patients are searching online.

You’ll learn why reviews hit their highest influence ever, why the Google Business Profile (GBP) remains the foundation of visibility, how AI platforms interpret review content, and why traffic from LLMs may already be more high-intent than traditional Google users.

If you’re a dentist looking to grow new patient volume, rank higher locally, and stay ahead of massive shifts in AI-driven search, this episode gives you a clear roadmap.

🔍 What Dan & Brian discuss:
• The most important ranking factors in the 2025 Whitespark report
• Why reviews jumped to ~24% influence — the highest ever
• How Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI engines read review context
• The role of behavioral signals like calls, clicks, and direction requests
• Why high-intent AI traffic is already shaping dental growth
• What’s changed from last year — and what hasn’t
• The single biggest action every practice can take today

Check out the full show notes at: https://www.dentalscapes.com/the-key-local-search-factors-driving-dental-visibility-in-2025-2026/

📈 Want a complimentary AI + Google visibility audit?
Get a full breakdown of your practice’s rankings across Google search, Google Maps, and major AI platforms:
👉 https://DentalScapes.com/start

If you found this helpful, subscribe for weekly insights on dental marketing, online visibility, AI search, and practice growth!

#DentalMarketing #LocalSEO #Whitespark #AIO #GoogleBusinessProfile #DentalScapes #TheDentalMarketingMix #DanBrian #DentalSEO #AIOverviews #ChatGPTSearch #GeminiAI #DentistMarketing #GrowYourPractice

Transcript

0:00

All right, and we're back. Welcome back to the dental marketing mix. My name is Dan Brian and I'm joined here today by my co-founder, Brian Craig. How's it going, Brian? Wonderful, wonderful. Ready to dive into it. So today we're really excited because as digital marketing uh guys who are focused on dental marketing, we get excited each year when a company called White Spark uh puts out its local search rankings report. And that is, you know, simply a really uh well regarded publication within the industry that talks a little bit about the factors that influence how your practice gets ranked in local search. And so We're really excited to dig into what's new this year. And this is something that I think uh ought to be paid attention to by any dentist owner who's interested in growing their online visibility. So uh let's just kick it off, Brian. There were some interesting changes this year and some trends that have continued that we've seen previously. What struck you most off the bat in reviewing this year's report? Yeah, I think uh the first thing that struck me is how much didn't change. Now, there were certainly some new things with AI and there were some slight changes, but ah just how much the fundamentals matter really and still continue to matter uh despite what you may hear from all the ads that you might see online. Yeah, absolutely. It's really interesting. And at the core of that, think the Google business profile or what we call the GBP that has remained foundational when it comes to positioning your practice and local search. What can you tell listeners about that specifically? Yeah, so you need to do a couple of things. And they all center around making sure your Google Business Profile is accurate, is constantly updated, and really just does properly reflect your practice to visitors. So this is things like consistent hours, m service details for the different types of services you offer your patients. uh nap consistency, which I know we've beaten to death over the years. Yeah, and that's interesting that that nap consistency that you're talking about that's name address and phone number and actually those citations fell to their lowest level yet this year, which is really interesting because it's something that you know, I think a lot of people put a lot of weight into maybe three, four or five years ago and we're seeing that decline a little bit. One thing that the GBP also does though is serves as a home for your reviews and we've talked about reviews on this show. oh a lot lately, both you and I have. uh But it's interesting because this year, reviews hit their highest level in terms of their influence on local search at about, know, what WhiteSpark, anyway, calculates at about 24 % impact. So how important are reviews to generating visibility for dental practices? they remain one of the most important things that practices can do to really boost their visibility. um So the interesting thing to me out of this report and ah out of other recent industry reports that I've been reading and from what we've seen with our clients is that just a five-star review like without any notes or that just says like this practice is great. does not hold the same value as a review that says, I was looking to get my teeth whitened in Raleigh, and I went to this practice, and they have the best teeth whitening service around. ah Because Google or whether you're talking about Google AI reviews, Chad GPT, perplexity, Gemini, whatever. ah AI takes a look at these reviews and the content of those reviews, which is the new piece. So you don't want to coach too much on reviews, but it is interesting to see that they're pulling detail out now. Yeah, and so Google really values and these AI platforms to that point really value context. And so providing as much of that as possible within the reviews. And I've also heard anecdotally that it's important to include some of those contextual clues in the responses to reviews also. So that's a great way that, yeah, that's a great way that dentists can kind of sneak that context in there if it's not in the original review itself. Another thing following, you know, on the heels of reviews in this report, are what we call on-page signals. What can you share with Dennis out there about that? What are on-page signals and what are some of the things that Google and AI platforms are looking at to assess the credibility and authority of your website? Yes, on page signals, uh it's mainly talking about the structure and content of your website. So at a basic level, things like dedicated service pages for each one of the services you're offering your patients. At a more advanced level, maybe it's specific city and service pages for those services that have search volume. ah depending on the market and depending on the, quite frankly, the marketing budget and capability of the practice can determine how deep into that you go. Yeah, absolutely. Another thing that's interesting about this report, thought, but like you said, so much really hasn't changed. The fundamentals are the same. Even in this new era of AI search, the fundamentals are really important. But one thing that I was struck by was the importance of what they call behavioral signals in this report. talking about how the user actually interacts with your website, and your GBP. Are they making phone calls? Are they scheduling consultations? Are they initiating a chat or filling out a form? These behavioral uh indicators that Google uses to sort of assess the user experience uh and the value that your practice is offering, those are also really important. Yeah, there are a lot of people out there trying to game this right now. And this is uh a particularly interesting topic, trying to game, you know, clicking on directions and engagement with profiles and that type of thing. uh Something interesting I've seen some people recommend, and I haven't personally seen this move the needle, but, you know, maybe if you have a small practice just starting out. Asking people, if it's friends and family or employees or whatever, to go into Google Maps and map their way to the practice on the way into work in the morning. Just interesting ways to try and get engagement on the profile, especially for practices just starting out, can make a little bit of an impact. So yeah, this behavioral signals is particularly fun. Yeah, it's interesting. uh I'm going to put you on the spot here for a second. And you and I have talked about this a lot. What do you think about Google's prominence in all of this? I mean, this report used to be essentially exclusively focused on Google. Now, Spark is taking a look at AI platforms, like you said, chat, GPT, Gemini, Grok, all of those. And we've been doing the same thing at DentalScapes. We're really focused on what we call AIO in addition to traditional SEO. uh But what do you think about all this? mean, obviously we just talked about reviews and how important those are and primarily these platforms are looking at Google reviews. Do you think that Google is as dominant as it was just a year ago? Do you think we're going to see a real fracture of search or what's kind of your take on all of that? That's really an interesting question because I think it depends on if we're looking in the short term or in the long term. I've seen a couple of people trying to rebrand SEO, search engine optimization, trying to rebrand that acronym as search everywhere optimization, talking about where this market's going to be in three to five years. So I think if we're looking at the short term, six to 12 months, Google's going to maintain the lion's share of this market. High 80s, low 90 % of search volume. I think if we're looking three to five years down the road, that's a little bit fuzzier. uh There are going to be multiple platforms. Will it be chat GPT? Maybe. Will it be something like Gemini? Probably more likely. uh So I wouldn't count Google out by by any means over the next couple of years or say like they're going to get their traffic cut in half. uh Because I just don't see that. But it is important to keep an eye on the other platforms uh that are driving traffic. And anecdotally, I've seen some evidence that chat GPT or some of these other engines that are driving traffic, uh maybe higher intent traffic in a lot of cases. So even if they are still a small percentage piece, they might be a larger chunk than that percentage might indicate of new patients. That's really interesting. And I think you're right about that, that they are higher intent uh users typically. And we've seen that actually at DentalScapes in our own analytics. When we look at the percentage of phone calls and leads that are actually qualified and we use a combination of AI and human monitoring to determine that qualification, but we have seen that bear out. uh that traffic from these sources does seem to be already little more qualified. And I think that speaks to, like you were talking about earlier, the fundamentals, the trust that these platforms inherently lend to the end user when they're drawing on reviews and testimonials and things like that. So all very interesting. think it's a brave new world here. Like you said, I agree with you. I don't think Google's going anywhere, especially in the short term. And they're adopting as well. uh overviews, AI mode now, which I expect will roll out to all searches universally, probably within the next six months, who knows. uh But it is a more fragmented market, but I would never bet against a $1 trillion beast, essentially. ah But yeah, really interesting takeaways here. What's the one thing that you would leave Dennis practice owners who are listening today? What would you want to leave them with when it comes to like you the main takeaway here. Obviously a lot hasn't changed from last year, uh but what's something you want to leave them? So there are a lot of technical things here. And what I would encourage practices to do is to focus on those reviews. You can go into the weeds as far as you want on the technical side of things. And that's what we do for our full-time jobs here. ah But I would say rely on your agency and rely on professional. If you're working with an agency, rely on your professionals for the really technical and the weed stuff. Yeah. that um asking people as they check out? Is that a little stand on the front desk? Is that a text message follow up an hour after their appointment? Yes, all of the above. Yeah, that's going to be the thing that moves the needle the most. 100%. I totally agree. And to that point, work on the reviews. For most folks, like you said, they're not going to want to get into the technical nitty gritty, into the weeds here. But if you are concerned about your online visibility and you're listening to this today, uh you know, we're obviously entering a very complex era of online search, and that's exactly what DentalScapes is here to help with. If you are interested in getting a comprehensive and complimentary audit of your online search presence, just go to DentalScapes.com slash start, and we'll get you set up with one of our strategists. We'll run the audit and we'll walk you through how you're positioned in Google and AI search and also put together some customized recommendations for you. But in any case, Thank you so much for joining today, Brian. Thank you all for listening. If you liked what you heard today, please take just two seconds and leave us a rating or a review. Speaking of reviews on Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen to or watch your podcasts, it is the best way to help us reach other dentists out there and practice owners. And we can't thank you enough. So thanks for being with us. We're here every single week. So tune back in next time. review the previous episodes. Like I said, Brian and I really dug into reviews a lot last week and we'll talk soon. Thanks a lot, everyone. Take care.