You've probably noticed it. The practice two suburbs over always seems busy. Their car park is full. They're hiring. Meanwhile, you're looking at empty chairs and wondering what they're doing differently.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: when a patient searches for a dentist nearby, Google decides who they see first. And Google doesn't pick randomly. It uses a specific set of factors to rank practices in order of relevance and trustworthiness.
If you don't understand these factors, you're not just invisible. You're invisible and you don't know why. That's the worst kind of marketing problem because you can't fix what you can't see.
Let's look at the five factors Google actually uses to decide which dentist shows up first. Once you understand them, you'll see exactly where your practice is leaking new patients.
Factor 1: Google Business Profile Completeness
Your Google Business Profile is your digital shopfront. It's what patients see when they search for dentists in their area. And here's the thing: Google needs to trust that you're a real business before it shows you to patients.
Most dentists set up their profile once and never touch it again. They've got their name, address, and phone number. Maybe some photos from when they opened. That's it.
But Google doesn't see that as trustworthy. It sees it as abandoned. An incomplete profile signals uncertainty, and Google won't risk sending patients to a practice it's not sure about.
The data is stark: practices with complete Google profiles get 7x more clicks than those with incomplete ones. Seven times. That means for every patient enquiry you get, a practice with a fully optimised profile is getting seven.
Complete means: accurate business categories, full list of services, regular posts, photos of your actual practice and team, appointment links, Q&A section filled out, and every field Google offers actually populated. Most profiles we audit are missing at least half of this.
Factor 2: Review Quantity and Quality
Reviews are social proof. When a patient is deciding between three dentists on Google Maps, they're going to click on the one with the most five-star reviews. It's human nature.
But here's what most dentists don't realise: it's not just about convincing patients. Google uses reviews as a ranking signal. More reviews, especially recent ones, tell Google that this is an active, trusted practice that patients actually use.
The benchmark matters. Dental practices with 100 or more Google reviews get 3x more clicks than those with fewer. Three times the enquiries, just from having a consistent review collection system in place.
And it's not just quantity. Google looks at recency, response rate, and sentiment. A practice with 200 reviews from three years ago that never responds looks worse than a practice with 80 reviews, mostly from the last six months, with thoughtful owner responses on each one.
If you're not actively asking patients for reviews and responding to every single one, you're handing patients to your competitors.
Factor 3: Website Relevance and Speed
Your website does more than look pretty. Google uses it to verify that your practice actually does what it claims, serves the areas it claims, and provides a good user experience. A slow, outdated website is a ranking killer.
Here's the brutal reality: 53% of mobile users will leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. More than half, gone, before they even see your homepage. And most dental websites we audit load in 6-8 seconds.
But it's not just speed. Google looks at whether your website content matches your Google Business Profile. Do you have pages for each service you offer? Do you mention the suburbs you serve? Is your name, address, and phone number consistent everywhere?
A website that was built five years ago and never updated sends a signal to Google: this practice isn't keeping up. That might not be true at all, but Google doesn't know that. It can only go by what it sees.
Factor 4: Local Citations and NAP Consistency
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. It sounds simple, but inconsistency here confuses Google in ways you wouldn't expect.
Google cross-references your business information across hundreds of directories, review sites, and databases. If your practice is listed as "Smith Dental" on Google, "Smith Dental Practice" on Yellow Pages, and "Dr Smith's Dental Surgery" on HealthEngine, Google sees three different businesses. It can't trust any of them.
This is one of those invisible problems. You don't see it. You'd never think to check. But Google is quietly penalising your rankings because somewhere, years ago, someone listed your practice with a slightly different name or an old phone number.
The fix requires auditing every citation and correcting inconsistencies one by one. Tedious, but the practices that do it see real ranking improvements because Google finally trusts that they are who they say they are.
Factor 5: Geographic Relevance
Google is, at its core, trying to answer a question: which dentist should I show this person, right now, based on where they are? Geographic relevance is about proving to Google that you serve the areas where patients are searching.
This is where many practices fall short without realising it. Your practice address puts you on the map, but what about the surrounding suburbs? If you're in Paddington but you also want patients from Woollahra, Bondi Junction, and Darlinghurst, you need to signal that to Google.
Without specific suburb pages, local content, and geographic signals throughout your online presence, you're only visible to people searching in your immediate area. Everyone a few suburbs over sees your competitor instead.
This is particularly frustrating because you might have patients driving 20 minutes to see you. You know they're willing to travel. But Google doesn't know that, so it never shows you to them in the first place.
Where Does Your Practice Stand?
These five factors work together. A practice that's strong on all five dominates local search. A practice that's weak on even two or three becomes invisible, no matter how good the clinical care is.
The frustrating part is that you can't see this from the inside. You don't know how complete your Google profile actually is. You don't know how your review velocity compares to competitors. You don't know how fast your website loads on mobile or which citations are wrong.
You just know something's not working. Chairs are empty that shouldn't be. The practice down the road keeps hiring while you're watching costs.
If you're not sure how your practice stacks up on these five factors, don't guess. Run a free Visibility Check. In about 2 minutes, you'll see exactly where patients are finding you, where you're invisible, and how many new patient enquiries are likely going to other dentists instead of you.
Because the practice down the road isn't doing anything magical. They've just figured out how to show up where patients are looking.