Orthodontics is a referral business being slowly replaced by a search business, and practices feel that transition as a widening gap between chair capacity and new starts. The patient who once arrived on a general dentist's recommendation now checks three practices online first, compares clear aligner pricing, reads reviews and books with whoever answers the enquiry fastest. That makes the website a consultation funnel rather than a brochure. This page describes what the search work actually consists of for a practice, what the advertising rules require of the photographs and testimonials that do most of the persuading, and how to judge a provider before a retainer starts.
Case starts are the number, not traffic
An orthodontic practice has one scarce resource, which is chair time, and one economic measure, which is started cases at an acceptable margin. Traffic, rankings and even consultation bookings are intermediate numbers that can all rise while starts stay flat, and they frequently do when a campaign attracts price shoppers or patients outside a sensible travel radius. Insist that reporting runs to consultations booked, consultations attended and cases started, with the last two coming from your practice management system rather than from the agency's dashboard. This also disciplines the targeting: a practice that measures starts quickly discovers which treatment pages and which suburbs produce patients who actually sit down, and stops paying for the ones that produce enquiries and nothing else.
What the pages need to say
Prospective patients arrive with a small, consistent list of questions and a website that answers them converts far better than one that ranks slightly higher. How much does treatment cost, in a range with the variables explained. How long will it take. What are the differences between clear aligners and fixed braces for my case. Do you take my insurance, and what financing exists. Can I see results from patients who looked like me. Each of those deserves a real page, written for the parent or the adult patient deciding, rather than a paragraph on a services list. The location layer matters too, since orthodontics involves repeated visits and travel distance is a genuine constraint: an accurate business listing, consistent contact details and structured data stating your address and hours, which Google publishes guidance for, are foundational rather than optional.
Before and after photographs, testimonials and the rules
The assets that persuade hardest are the ones most closely regulated. FTC guidance on health related advertising expects claims to be truthful and substantiated, and its endorsement guidance requires testimonials to reflect honest experiences, with material connections between a patient and the practice disclosed. In 2024 the Commission announced a final rule aimed at fake reviews and testimonials. Practically, that means before and after images must be of your own patients, unretouched in any way that changes the result, and accompanied by written authorisation. Patient information is also protected health information, so a signed authorisation covering marketing use is required before publication, not after. Ask any agency who obtains those consents and where they are stored, because when this goes wrong the practice is the party in front of the board.
Choosing a provider without buying a template
Three questions filter most of the field. What is your smallest engagement, which disqualifies faster than anything else. How many other orthodontic or dental practices do you serve within my catchment, since local search is zero sum inside a radius and two clients in one suburb means the agency is competing with itself. And who writes the clinical content, and who reviews it, because treatment descriptions written by a generalist copywriter without clinical review are both a marketing weakness and a compliance risk. Practices comparing digital marketing and SEO services often decide on price and portfolio and skip these three, then spend a year discovering the answers the expensive way.
Questions people ask about seo for orthodontics
How long before an orthodontic practice sees new starts from search?
Consultation bookings can move within a few months if the site previously answered none of the practical questions, because that improvement is conversion rather than competition. Ranking gains in a contested metro take longer. Google's starter guide notes some changes take effect in hours and others in months. Because a started case follows a consultation by weeks, judge the programme on a rolling six month view rather than month to month.
Should we publish treatment pricing?
A range with the variables explained usually beats silence. Patients compare three practices and the ones that told them something stay on the list. Publishing also filters out enquiries you would not have converted, which protects front desk time. Any published price must be accurate and any qualifying conditions clear, since advertised prices carry the same truth in advertising obligations as any other claim.
Can we use before and after photos in advertising?
Yes, with your own patients, with written authorisation covering marketing use obtained before publication, and without editing that alters the outcome shown. FTC guidance expects health related claims to be truthful and substantiated and testimonials to reflect honest experience. Stock imagery presented as your results is the version that causes problems, and it is more common in agency supplied templates than practices expect.
Is a dental specialist agency worth the premium?
It depends on what the premium buys. A specialist that understands treatment taxonomy, consent handling and front desk conversion saves months of education and real compliance risk. A specialist that serves three practices in your catchment is working against you regardless of expertise. Ask for the conflict policy first and the case studies second, then verify a named example yourself.