Did You Know Schema Can Boost Your Dental Practice Marketing?
Having an online presence is essential for any business, including dental practices. However, simply having a website isn’t enough to get your dental office marketing noticed. You need to optimize your website for search engines and help patients find you when they’re looking for a local dentist. This is where schema markup comes in.
Call (858) 333-8950 to meet with the digital marketing team at Now Media Group, a top dental SEO agency based in San Diego, CA. We’re here to help dental practices nationwide master digital dental marketing and SEO for dentists!
What Is Schema Markup?
Schema markup, also known as structured data markup, is code you add to your website that helps search engines understand your content. Schema provides additional information — or context — about your pages in a format that search engines can easily parse. You can implement different schema types to highlight specific information about your business.
For dental practices, some of the most useful schema include:
- Local Business Schema: Provides details like your dental practice name, address, phone number, and opening hours. It helps customers find your contact info.
- FAQ Schema: This lets you markup questions and answers to common patient queries. Improves visibility for featured FAQs.
- Service Schema: Highlights the dental services you provide, like checkups, cleanings, braces, etc. This makes it clear what you offer patients.
Adding schema markup to your site provides rich snippets in search — those informative snippets that show a business name, address, images, star rating, etc. in the search results. Rich snippets can boost click-through rates by over 30 percent.
Benefits of Schema Markup for Dental Practices
Increased Local Dental SEO
Local SEO is crucial for driving new patients to your practice. Local business schema makes your NAP (name, address, and phone number) abundantly clear to search engines. It can help you rank higher in local pack results, map listings, and knowledge panels. Patients searching for a neighborhood dentist are more likely to find you and choose your practice.
When paired with proper local citations, schema improves your local dental SEO to attract more patients in your geographic area. Make sure your NAP is consistent across directories like Google My Business, Apple Maps, and Bing Places for Business. Then reinforce it with the local business schema.
Enhanced Visibility for FAQs
Many potential patients browse dentist websites looking for answers to common questions like:
- Do you accept my insurance?
- How much do veneers cost?
- Can I schedule an appointment online?
Adding FAQ schema highlights this content to search engines, helping featured FAQs gain visibility in search results. Patients can easily find the information they need without digging through your site.
If you notice patients repeatedly asking the same questions, turn those queries into an FAQ page optimized with schema markup. Make sure to incorporate relevant keywords so the content is easy to find. FAQ schema enables your practice to better inform patients while improving your SEO.
Showcase Your Services
Service schema precisely defines the procedures, treatments, and areas of care offered by your practice. It tells search engines you provide services like: 
- Teeth cleanings
- Cavity fillings
- Root canals
- Orthodontics
- TMJ treatment
- Sleep apnea solutions
- Cosmetic dentistry
Adding this markup makes your service offerings crystal clear to prospective patients. Dental service schema also improves accessibility for voice search queries like “find a dentist who does crowns near me.”
Drive More Calls and Form Submissions
Rich results enabled by schema can lead to a higher click-through rate on your site. Once patients arrive, clearly highlighted information can prompt more calls, contact form submissions, and online appointment requests.
When your address, phone number, and scheduling links are front and center, patients can easily reach out to your practice. Make the most of the schema’s visibility to connect with more prospective patients.
Steps to Implement Schema
Adding schema to your dental website involves just a few key steps:
- Install Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper browser extension to detect schema errors.
- Determine the types of schema that best fit your practice — like local business, FAQ, and service schema.
- Add JSON-LD or microdata markup to relevant web pages.
- Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate your schema and check for warnings.
- Fix any issues and revalidate until the markup passes testing.
- Monitor analytics and search performance to see if schema improves visibility and conversions. Tweak as needed.
- Stay on top of schema best practices as algorithms evolve. Keep your markup updated for maximum impact.
Schema isn’t difficult to implement once you know the essentials. There are WordPress plugins that add schema automatically or generate the necessary code. For DIY markup, it just takes a bit of copy-pasting schema examples and customizing the details for your practice.
Discover How Schema Can Boost Your Business Today!
With both local and organic search visibility becoming more technical, schema markup is invaluable for dental practices today. By adding structured data to your website, you can gain an edge over competitors in search results. Help patients find you and learn what services you provide. Schema could very well be the difference between a busy practice and an empty waiting room!
Call (858) 333-8950 to schedule your consultation with our SEO specialists at Now Media Group. Our full-service digital marketing agency can help you create new patients and retain old ones by optimizing your digital presence.