Your dental practice exists. But can your future patients actually find you?

Google's Local Pack is the block of 3 results that appears at the top of search results when a patient searches for "dentist Plateau" or "emergency dentist Montreal". These 3 results capture up to 75 % of all clicks (BrightLocal 2024). If your practice is not in that block, you are invisible to the majority of patients searching right now. Google selects practices for the Local Pack based on relevance, proximity and prominence — three dimensions we optimize concretely for your clinic. Appearing in this block is worth considerably more than having a beautiful website with no visibility.

For practices starting from a low baseline, the first ranking improvements are typically visible within 4 to 8 weeks after Google Business Profile optimization. Reaching a stable top-3 position in a competitive neighbourhood like Plateau or Rosemont generally takes 3 to 6 months of sustained work. Results depend on competition levels in your neighbourhood, your volume of recent reviews, and the quality of your Schema markup. Our audit will give you an honest estimate for your specific situation.

Being on Google Maps is only the first step of a much longer optimization journey. A well-optimized Google Business Profile includes precise categories (Dentist + Orthodontist if applicable), a complete list of services (whitening, implants, emergency care), recent professional photos, weekly posts, and — most importantly — a steady stream of recent reviews with responses. The majority of practices we audit have their profile filled in at less than 40 %, which directly penalizes their Local Pack ranking.

Google does not favour practice size as such, but group dental organizations often have more resources to generate reviews and maintain multiple location listings. A solo practitioner can outrank a group clinic by optimizing their Google Business Profile more effectively, accumulating more recent reviews, and maintaining better NAP consistency across directories. We work equally well with solo practitioners and multi-provider groups — the method adapts to your structure.

Our method rests on three ethical pillars that comply with Google's guidelines and the Ordre des dentistes du Quebec standards. First, automated post-visit follow-up by email or SMS with a direct link to your Google listing. Second, training your front-desk staff to naturally mention reviews to satisfied patients — without pressure or selective targeting. Third, systematically responding to existing reviews to demonstrate engagement and improve your conversion rate. Over 6 months, our clients have gone from a small number of reviews to 80 or more.

Never ignore it, and never respond emotionally. Respond within 24 to 48 hours with a professional, empathetic reply: thank the patient for their feedback, express regret that the experience did not meet your standards, and invite them to contact you directly to resolve the matter. A negative review paired with an excellent response often inspires more trust than a perfect record with no critical feedback. We provide response templates tailored to your practice and professional communication guidelines.

There is no magic threshold, but our analysis of Quebec markets shows that in an average Montreal neighbourhood, practices in the top 3 typically have between 50 and 150 reviews with a rating between 4.6 and 5.0. The recency of reviews matters as much as the total volume: a practice with 200 reviews whose most recent dates back 6 months will be disadvantaged compared to a competitor with 60 reviews, 10 of which were posted in the last month. Our system maintains a steady flow of new reviews without additional effort on your part.

Yes, and it is happening with increasing frequency. When a patient asks ChatGPT "which is the best dentist for dental anxiety in Montreal", the AI draws its answers from structured data, blog articles, directory mentions and Schema.org markup. Practices with complete Schema Dentist markup, rich descriptions and consistent web mentions are cited considerably more often in these responses. The vast majority of dental practices in Quebec have not yet taken advantage of this opportunity.

Schema Dentist is a JSON-LD markup standard based on Schema.org that describes your practice in a way that search engines and AI systems can understand. It includes the establishment type (Dentist), your specialties, hours, exact address, languages spoken, appointment booking URL and aggregate rating. It is installed in your website's HTML and is invisible to visitors. Our audits consistently reveal that a significant majority of Quebec dental websites either lack this markup entirely or have it incorrectly implemented.

Yes, without exception. Law 25 (Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector) applies to any website that collects personal information from Quebec residents — which includes your contact forms, appointment booking forms, and analytics cookies. Your obligations include: an accessible privacy policy, a cookie consent banner, a process for handling access and correction requests, and designating a person responsible for the protection of personal information. Our audit verifies your compliance across all of these requirements; for the official interpretation of the law, refer to the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (CAI).

Yes. Google Business Profile allows you to add a "Book an appointment" button directly on your listing, linked to your practice management software (Clinicmaster, Dentech, or a simple link to your contact form). Practices that activate this feature see a meaningful increase in clicks on their listing. It is one of the first elements we configure when optimizing your Google Business Profile as part of a mandate.

The free audit is a complete diagnostic of your current situation: we analyze your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your Schema markup, your mobile performance and your Law 25 compliance. You receive a personalized PDF report with an overall score, a visual radar across 5 dimensions, and 3 priorities ranked by business impact. The paid mandate is the execution: we implement corrections, create neighbourhood pages, automate your review requests, and maintain your optimizations over time. The audit is free so you can make a fully informed decision.

Not necessarily. The considerable majority of local SEO improvements do not require a complete website rebuild. Google Business Profile optimization, reviews, Schema Dentist markup and NAP citations can all be addressed independently. That said, if your site is not mobile-friendly, loads in more than 4 seconds, or has no dedicated pages by service or neighbourhood, a partial or full rebuild becomes worthwhile. Our audit will tell you exactly what is priority for your specific return on investment.

Local SEO is not a one-time project — it is ongoing maintenance. Google updates its algorithms regularly, your competitors are improving their presence each month, and new patients look for recent reviews rather than reviews from 2 years ago. We recommend a minimum monthly cadence: Google Business Profile posts, responses to new reviews, hours updates for holidays and vacations, and ranking position analysis. Practices that sustain their optimizations consistently dominate their local market over the long term.

NEXTIWEB is a full-service web agency specializing in local SEO and digital visibility for service businesses in Quebec. We serve multiple industries, but we have developed optimization protocols specific to dental practices: professional regulatory requirements, seasonal patterns in dental care demand, the most searched local keywords by Montreal neighbourhood, and clinical communication constraints. This translates into faster, more relevant results than you would get working with a generalist agency with no dental-specific expertise.