Prepare Your Dental Marketing Strategy for 2026
The way patients find, compare, and book dental care is changing fast. Looking ahead to 2026, three things are changing the game: AI-powered search and content, hyper-local discovery, and short, trust-building social videos. For dentists and practice managers, that means generic marketing doesn’t cut it anymore, the real winners are practices using smart, local-first strategies with automation done right.
SEO
1) Prioritise local, service-specific pages
Take a look at your existing service pages and make sure each key treatment is properly explained. Add clear, patient-friendly details about what’s involved, answer the questions people ask most, and feature a few real patient stories or testimonials. These well-built pages help Google understand your local relevance and improve your chances of showing up in the map rankings.
2) Featured snippets & AI overviews
Add a short Q&A section to each service page. Use a simple format: put the question in a heading (H2), give a quick 40–55 word answer, then add a bit more detail below. Focus on the questions patients ask most, like “How much does it cost?”, “How long will it take?”, “Is it painful?”, and “Who is it for?” This mix of quick answers and extra info helps your pages show up in AI-powered search results.
3) Reviews
Ask every new patient to leave a Google review within a day or two of their visit. Make it super easy by sending a direct link via SMS or email. Try to encourage mentions of the treatment and your location, it helps boost your local search visibility.
4) Technical health: speed, Core Web Vitals, schema
Do a quick site audit using a tool like Lighthouse and fix any speed and layout issues. Add structured data for things like LocalBusiness, Dentist, Services, FAQs, and Reviews. Using service-specific schema also helps AI tools understand your content and show it in search results.
5) Consolidate competing pages
If you have several pages all targeting the same keyword (like “Invisalign”), combine them into a single, strong page. This prevents your own pages from competing with each other in search results.
AI
1) Use AI for research and first drafts, then humanise
Use AI to help draft FAQs, meta descriptions, and simple blog outlines. Then tweak the content to match your local style, add real patient photos (with their permission), and make sure everything is clinically accurate. Avoid publishing AI-generated text exactly as it comes, always review and adjust first.
2) Automate appointment triage & patient communication
Add a chatbot to take care of enquiries and bookings outside of office hours. It can capture booking requests and answer common patient questions. Our ReceptionPal system already does this. Get in touch with your account manager to find out more.
3) Use AI to create micro-content
Take a patient story or treatment highlight, pop it into an AI tool, and generate 5 short social captions, 3 quick video scripts (30–45 seconds), and a 100 word blog summary. It’s an easy way to create lots of content without spending hours.
4) Optimise for “Generative Engine Optimisation” (GEO)
Don’t just focus on Google, make your content easy for AI to use. Use structured FAQs, clear facts, and short, snappy answers that chatbots and voice assistants can quote directly. This helps boost the chances of your practice being recommended.
Social Media
1) Short-form video is essential
Aim to post 2–3 short videos per week using the same simple structure each time:
-
Hook (first 3 seconds): Grab attention
“Worried about veneers?” -
Show (next 10 seconds): Show the treatment or a before and after
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Explain (next 10 seconds): Share one helpful tip patients care about
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Call to action (final 2–3 seconds):
“Message us to book” or “Link in bio”
You don’t need highly polished videos. Regular, simple videos work better than occasional perfect ones.
2) Use video for FAQs
Take your SEO FAQ answers and turn them into 30–60 second video clips. Pin them on your profiles and even use them as ads. People trust hearing a real person explain things like cost, pain, and recovery time.
3) User-generated content + patient journeys
With the patient’s permission, share short clips of their journey, on the day, during progress, or the final reveal. These work really well because they show real experiences, not just ads.
4) Track social attribution
Use UTM links, dedicated landing pages, and simple booking funnels to track how many appointments come from social media.
If you would like to improve your online visibility and attract more patients, we can help! Get in touch today on 01202 677277.
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