What 1,353 dental listings on Google and 145 practice websites show about getting found in 2026
We read Google’s local results for “dentist” in 118 US towns and audited 145 dental practice websites by hand. Here is what separates the practices patients find first — with every number, its sample size and the date we measured it.
On Google Maps, review count — not star rating — separates the top three
We searched Google for “dentist” plus the town name in 118 towns and recorded the first page of local results (1,353 practices, Sep 24 – Oct 2, 2026). The median dental listing has 111 reviews and a 4.8 rating. Ratings are bunched at the top: 59% of listings sit at 4.8 or above, and only 11% fall below 4.0. A great rating is what patients expect, not what makes them choose.
Review volume is where the gap is. In the 64 towns where Google showed at least ten practices, the first three results had a median of 380 reviews, against 79 for positions 4–20 — 4.8 times more. The first result alone had a median of 574.
Reviews are not the whole story. In 52% of towns the practice with the most reviews was not in the top three. Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence (How Google determines local ranking) — a complete, accurate listing and a website that confirms it matter alongside the review count.
The Google listing is the new front door — and it is often half-built
A quarter of dental practices on Google give patients no way to reach their website from the listing. Very few use the booking button Google offers, and paid placements in local results are rare — the first page is still won organically.
What the websites of the practices ranking around them have
For 112 practices that sat near our audited practices in Google’s results, we opened their websites and checked what a patient can do there.
What we find when we audit a dental practice’s website
Every audit is done by hand: we open the site on a phone and a desktop, click the buttons, read the Google listing, and check every claim before it goes in the report. Across 145 dental practices audited between Aug 30 – Oct 2, 2026, these are the problems we found and verified most often.
Share of the 145 audited practices where the problem was found. An audit reports the problems that matter most, not every one, so these are minimums. We choose practices to audit because their online presence shows gaps, so read these as what typically goes wrong — not as an average for all dentists.
Measured on the websites of practices we audited
Speed is rarely the problem. The median homepage loaded on a phone connection in 1.4 seconds (0.9 MB); 19% took longer than three seconds (n = 62). The practices that lose patients online mostly lose them on trust and on the path to booking, not on load time.
A 10-minute check you can run on your own practice
- Search “dentist” + your town from your phone. Note the review counts of the top three — that is your target, not a star rating.
- Tap your own listing’s website button. It should open your homepage, over https, with no warning.
- Compare the listing with your site: phone number, opening hours, address. They must say the same thing.
- Find your reviews on your own website without scrolling past the first screen or two. If a patient can’t see them, they don’t count there.
- Try to book the way a new patient would — on a phone, from the homepage. Count the taps and note anything that doesn’t work.
- Tap the phone number on your homepage. It should start a call.
- Look at the footer: an old copyright year or template text tells patients nobody is minding the site.
Want this checked for your practice?
We’ll audit your Google listing and website the same way — by hand, with every finding verified — and send you the report. Free, no commitment.
How we collected this data
- Google local results. Query “dentist <town> <state>”, Places tab, first page (up to 20 results), recorded in a real browser between Sep 24 – Oct 2, 2026: 1,353 unique practices in 118 towns, each town counted once. Positions are the order Google showed; results for a person standing in the town may differ. Position comparisons use the 64 towns with at least ten results.
- Practice website audits. 145 US dental practices audited between Aug 30 – Oct 2, 2026. These are practices we reviewed as potential clients — mostly small independent practices — not a random sample of all dentists. Automated checks (reviews, links, contrast, speed, ads) cover the subset measured with our tools; each figure shows its own sample size.
- Neighbouring practices. 112 websites of practices listed near the audited ones, opened and checked for booking, forms, tap-to-call, analytics and Google reviews.
- Ads. Google Ads Transparency Center by domain and Meta Ad Library; ads counted only when they lead to the practice’s own domain.
- We never publish the names of practices we audit. Every figure here is an aggregate.
Questions we get about this data
How many Google reviews does a dental practice need to rank in the top 3?
In our sample of 64 US towns, the top three dental results had a median of 380 reviews, versus 79 for positions 4–20. The useful target is the review count of the top three in your own town.
Does a higher star rating help a dentist rank on Google Maps?
Ratings are bunched at the top: 59% of 1,353 dental listings we recorded are rated 4.8 or higher, so a high rating rarely sets a practice apart. Review volume, relevance and distance matter more.
What percentage of dental practices don't show reviews on their website?
47% of the 94 dental practice websites we measured showed none of their reviews anywhere on the site.