Why this matters for dentists
Search moved. A growing share of people now ask an AI assistant to recommend a business, and act on the short list it gives. The list rarely shows ten links any more; it shows a few names. For the sourced figures behind that shift, see our State of AI Search briefing.
The good news: being named is shaped by signals you control. The tips below are the ones that move the needle for dentists, ordered roughly from quickest to most involved.
The questions your a patients ask AI
These are the prompts that decide whether your name comes up. Your audit tests the full set; this is the shape of them.
- Q1best private dentist in [your town]
- Q2Invisalign provider near me
- Q3emergency dentist in [your town] open now
- Q4best dentist for nervous patients in [your town]
- Q5cosmetic dentist near me
- Q6NHS dentist taking new patients in [your town]
6 practical tips
1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
Use the right category, list your treatments, and keep your name, address and phone identical to your website. This is a primary source for local AI recommendations.
2. Add Dentist (LocalBusiness) schema
JSON-LD that tells a machine you are a dental practice, what you offer and where. Without it, the AI is guessing what your site is.
3. Build pages for the treatments people search
A clear 'Invisalign', 'Dental implants' or 'Emergency dentist' page matches how patients ask. Make each one answer the obvious questions.
4. Turn reviews into a system
Ask every happy patient, on the day, with a direct link. Review volume and recency feed the platforms AI cites for 'best dentist near me'.
5. Add FAQ schema to treatment pages
Mark up the real questions (cost, pain, how long, finance) so an assistant can quote your answer directly.
6. Let the AI crawlers in
Check your robots.txt does not block GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot, and that your homepage is readable without JavaScript.
A 10-minute self-check
You do not need us to start. Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask it one of the questions above, with your town. See whether you are named, and who is. Then view your homepage source and search it for "schema" or "application/ld+json" to see if you have structured data. Finally, check your robots.txt does not block GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot. That is most of the picture in ten minutes.
Want us to do the check for you? A free Snapshot shows what AI says about your business, with the evidence. Or see the full picture for dentists on our dentists page.