Dental SEO glossary: 55 terms explained simply

When you talk SEO with a dentist, the technical words come up fast: title tag, prominence, crawling, structured data. This glossary explains them one by one, in plain English. Each definition also says what the term changes, in practice, for a dental practice. Read it in one go, or come back to it the day a report or a provider uses a word you don't know.

The terms are listed alphabetically by their English name, in letter groups. When the French word is the one you will actually come across, the French term is given in parentheses, because that is the form you will see it in. The rules of the French Dental Council (Ordre national des chirurgiens-dentistes) have their place in the list, alongside Google's vocabulary: on a dentist's website, the two are read together.

The 55 terms at a glance

[404 page](#404-page) · [Advertising (prohibited)](#advertising-prohibited) · [AI crawler](#ai-crawler-oai-searchbot-claudebot-perplexitybot) · [AI Mode](#ai-mode-mode-ia) · [AI Overviews](#ai-overviews-apercus-ia) · [Alt text](#alt-text-balise-alt) · [Assurance Maladie health directory](#assurance-maladie-health-directory-annuaire-sante) · [Authority](#authority) · [Average position](#average-position) · [Backlink](#backlink) · [Breadcrumbs](#breadcrumbs) · [Cache](#cache) · [Canonical URL](#canonical-url) · [Citation](#citation) · [Clicks](#clicks) · [Click-through rate (CTR)](#click-through-rate-ctr) · [Cloudflare](#cloudflare) · [Code of ethics](#code-of-ethics-code-de-deontologie) · [Crawling](#crawling) · [Decree of December 22, 2020](#decree-of-december-22-2020) · [Distance](#distance) · [Doctolib](#doctolib) · [Domain name](#domain-name) · [Duplicate content](#duplicate-content) · [Fee disclosure](#fee-disclosure-honoraires-affiches) · [Generative engine optimization (GEO)](#generative-engine-optimization-geo) · [Google Business Profile](#google-business-profile-fiche-google) · [Health insurance agreement](#health-insurance-agreement-conventionnement) · [HTTPS](#https) · [Impressions](#impressions) · [Indexing](#indexing) · [Information (permitted)](#information-permitted) · [JavaScript](#javascript) · [Local pack](#local-pack) · [Local SEO](#local-seo) · [Long-tail keyword](#long-tail-keyword) · [Meta description](#meta-description) · [Mobile-friendly design](#mobile-friendly-design-responsive) · [NAP consistency](#nap-consistency-name-address-phone) · [Page speed](#page-speed-core-web-vitals) · [Prominence](#prominence) · [Redirect](#redirect) · [Relevance](#relevance) · [Reviews](#reviews) · [Robots.txt](#robots-txt) · [Schema markup](#schema-markup-structured-data) · [Search Console](#search-console) · [Search intent](#search-intent) · [Search query](#search-query) · [SEO](#seo-referencement-naturel) · [Sitemap](#sitemap) · [Testimonials (prohibited)](#testimonials-prohibited) · [Title tag](#title-tag-balise-titre) · [Treatment estimate](#treatment-estimate-devis) · [Treatment page](#treatment-page)

404, A and B

404 page

A 404 page is what you see when an address no longer exists: "page not found." It shows up after a website redesign, when the old addresses were not redirected. Every 404 is a lost patient and a sign of neglect in Google's eyes. Search Console lists them; a redirect to the right page fixes each one.

Advertising (prohibited)

Since the decree of December 22, 2020, the code no longer contains a general ban on advertising. What remains prohibited, provision by provision: practicing the profession as a business (R.4127-215); obtaining priority placement in search results in exchange for payment or by any other means, which targets paid ads first and foremost (R.4127-217 II); third-party testimonials and comparisons between dentists (R.4127-215-1); advertising that benefits a third party or a commercial company (R.4127-225); and discounts or other benefits (R.4127-221). Organic SEO is not on that list: it makes accurate information visible, without buying anything.

AI crawler (OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot)

An AI crawler is the program an AI sends out to read websites. Each one has a name: OAI-SearchBot for search in ChatGPT (not GPTBot), ClaudeBot for Claude, PerplexityBot for Perplexity. If your site blocks them, the AI cannot cite you. OpenAI describes its crawlers in its documentation. See also our guide how ChatGPT chooses a dentist.

AI Mode (Mode IA)

AI Mode is a Google tab, live in France since July 22, 2026, where the entire search happens as a conversation with an AI. The patient asks a question, narrows it down, follows up. The answers cite websites. A practice whose pages clearly answer these questions has a place there; a vague website does not show up.

AI Overviews (Aperçus IA)

Since July 22, 2026, Google in France has displayed an AI-written answer above the list of websites. That is the AI Overview. It cites a few sources, with a link. For a question like "how long does it take to place an implant," the patient reads this overview before anything else. We cover this change in detail in our guide to Google's AI Overviews.

Alt text (balise alt)

Alt text is the sentence that describes an image in the page's code. Google and AI tools do not see the photo: they read this text. "Treatment room at the practice, rue de la République" tells them something; "IMG_4521" tells them nothing. It also helps visually impaired patients, whose screen reader reads it aloud.

Assurance Maladie health directory (annuaire santé)

This is the official directory of healthcare professionals, run by French national health insurance (Assurance Maladie). It shows your address, whether you are contracted with the national health insurance system (conventionnement) and some of your fees. Search engines and AI tools treat it as a trusted source. Check that what it shows matches your website and your Google Business Profile word for word: a different address there sows doubt.

Authority

Authority is the trust Google and AI tools place in your website. It comes from the age of the domain name, quality backlinks, consistent information and precise writing. A site that describes its treatments in exact terms, signed by an identified dentist, gains authority. It cannot be bought.

Average position

Average position, in Search Console, is your site's average rank in the results for a given query. The smaller the number, the higher you are. It moves every day and varies with the searcher's location. Look at it by query and by page, never as a single overall number.

Backlink

A backlink is a link placed on another website that points to yours: the Dental Council directory, a dental school, a patient association, the town hall. Google sees it as a recommendation. Quality matters more than quantity. On the other hand, a "website by" link to a company has no place on a dentist's site (article R.4127-225).

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are the small line at the top of a page that shows where you are: "Home › Treatments › Dental implant." They help patients find their way and help Google understand how your pages are organized. They can also replace the raw URL in search results.

Letter C

Cache

The cache is a copy of a page kept in memory, by the patient's browser or by the server, to display it faster the next time. The downside: after an update, the old version can stay visible for a few hours. If your new opening hours are not showing, the cache is often what needs clearing.

Canonical URL

The canonical URL is the address you designate as the reference version of a page when that page exists at several addresses (with or without "www," for example). Without this signal, Google may see two identical pages and hesitate between them. One address per page is cleaner.

Citation

In local SEO, a citation is a mention of your practice on another website, with its name, address and phone number: the health directory, PagesJaunes (the French Yellow Pages), the Dental Council website, Doctolib (France's leading online booking platform). Search engines compare these mentions with one another. The more numerous and identical they are, the more real and well located your practice looks to them.

Clicks

In Search Console, a click is counted every time someone clicks through to your site from a Google result. Look at clicks page by page: a treatment page that gets clicks is working for you; a page that gets none deserves to be rewritten or better linked.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate is the share of impressions that turn into a click. It measures how appealing your result is, not its rank. A precise title, a description that answers the question and readable breadcrumbs push it up. Compare it across your treatment pages: the lowest one tells you where to rewrite the title first.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a service that sits in front of many websites to protect them and speed them up. Since July 2025, it has blocked AI crawlers by default. A practice website running through Cloudflare can therefore be invisible to ChatGPT or Perplexity without anyone having wanted it. The setting can be checked and opened up in a few clicks.

Code of ethics (code de déontologie)

The code of ethics for dentists is the part of the French Public Health Code that sets out your duties, including the rules on communication. It has allowed information since the decree of December 22, 2020, and keeps specific prohibitions: no running the practice as a business, no bought placement, no third-party testimonials, no advertising for a third party. Every page of your website should be readable by a Dental Council board member without a single objection. The full text is available on the Dental Council website.

Crawling

Crawling is a bot's visit to your website, page after page, following links. Google crawls before it indexes. A slow site, a broken link or an overly strict robots.txt file slows this visit down. A clear menu, a sitemap and pages linked to one another make it easier. Without crawling, a brand-new treatment page does not exist for anyone.

From D to F

Decree of December 22, 2020

Decree no. 2020-1658 of December 22, 2020 rewrote the communication rules for dentists. Since then, you can present your skills, your background, your practice conditions and your fees to the public, including on a website. Advertising remains prohibited. This is the text that makes dental SEO both possible and regulated. It is available on Légifrance.

Distance

Distance is one of Google's three official criteria for the map. Google measures the gap between where the search is made (or the city typed) and your address. You cannot change it, but you can make it precise: an exact address on your profile, the neighborhood named on your website, and pages about the nearby towns you genuinely serve.

Doctolib

Doctolib is both a directory of practitioners and an appointment-booking tool, used by a majority of practices. Its page in your name often ranks above your own website on Google. That is not inevitable: we explain what to do in the guide Doctolib outranks my website.

Domain name

The domain name is your website's address, for example cabinet-du-parc.fr. It belongs to you for as long as you renew it, and it carries your site's history in Google's eyes. Changing domain names resets part of the counters to zero. Keep it in your name, not your provider's, and never let it expire.

Duplicate content

Content is duplicated when the same text appears on several pages or several websites. It is common among dentists: an "implant" page copied from a manufacturer, for example. Google does not penalize it, but it keeps only one version, and rarely yours. Text written for your practice is the only fix.

Fee disclosure (honoraires affichés)

The code of ethics requires you to provide information on your fees and payment methods (article R.4127-240 II). The order (arrêté) of May 30, 2018 requires you to display the consultation fee, at least five common procedures and at least five prosthetic or orthodontic procedures. The Dental Council recommends listing five to ten procedures on the website. Patients search for these figures, and a page that gives them answers before the others.

From G to I

Generative engine optimization (GEO)

Generative engine optimization (GEO), "référencement dans les IA" in French, is the work that gets your practice cited in the answers of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews. It relies on clear pages, schema markup and consistent contact details. It is measured as the percentage of answers in which you are cited, never as a ranking. Our method is described on the AI search page.

Google Business Profile (fiche Google)

Your Google Business Profile is the panel that appears on the map and to the right of the results when someone types your name: address, hours, phone number, photos, reviews, treatments. It is free and you manage it yourself. It is what gets you into the local pack. We describe what a complete profile contains on the Google Business Profile for dentists page.

Health insurance agreement (conventionnement)

A contracted practice (conventionné) has signed up to the agreement between dentists and French national health insurance. That agreement sets the fees for covered routine care and regulates fees for prosthetics. The term matters for SEO: patients search for it, the health directory displays it, and your website must say the same thing, in plain words.

HTTPS

HTTPS is the secure version of a website's address, recognizable by the padlock in the browser. Exchanges between the patient and the site are encrypted. Google favors HTTPS sites, and browsers show a warning on the others. For a practice that receives appointment requests through a form, it is the bare minimum.

Impressions

In Search Console, an impression is counted every time your site appears on a Google results page, with or without a click. Many impressions and few clicks point to a page that is visible but not appealing: the title or the description needs rework. Few impressions point to a page that ranks poorly or not at all.

Indexing

Indexing is when a page enters Google's index, its huge library. A crawled page is not necessarily indexed: Google may judge it too thin, duplicated or blocked. Only an indexed page can appear in the results. Search Console tells you, page by page, what is indexed and what is not, and why.

Information (permitted)

Since the decree of December 22, 2020, informing is allowed: your skills, your background, your practice conditions, your fees, how a treatment works. Information must remain fair and honest, with no comparison with other dentists and no encouragement of unnecessary treatment (article R.4127-215-1). All of our work fits inside this box. The details are in the guide what the Dental Council allows on a dentist website.

From J to M

JavaScript

JavaScript is the language of the scripts that animate a page or, sometimes, build it entirely after it loads. Google can read these pages, with a delay. The crawlers from OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity do not read JavaScript: a site whose text only appears through a script is invisible to them. The content must be in the page's code from the start.

Local pack

The local pack is the block of three practices shown under the map in Google results, with the rating, the address and the call button. It captures most of the attention on a search like "dentist Villeurbanne." You get into it through your Google Business Profile, which is judged on relevance, distance and prominence.

Local SEO

Local SEO is the part of SEO that targets location-based searches: "dentist Annecy," "implant near me." It plays out on the map and in the local pack more than in the list of websites. Its levers: your Google Business Profile, NAP consistency, citations, and pages that name your neighborhood and the nearby towns.

Long-tail keyword

A long-tail keyword is a long, specific search typed by few people, but by people who have made up their minds: "ceramic dental veneers Lyon 6e estimate." Each one carries little weight, but together they add up to a lot. For a practice, these queries are easier to win than the single word "dentist," and they bring in patients who know what they want.

Meta description

The meta description is the short gray text under the blue title in Google results. It does not affect ranking, but it often decides the click. A good description says in one or two sentences what the page offers: "How an implant is placed at our practice, recovery, fees."

Mobile-friendly design (responsive)

A mobile-friendly website can be read without zooming or scrolling sideways: the text wraps, the buttons stay large, the phone number dials with one tap. Google judges the mobile version of a page first, because that is where patients search. A site designed for desktop only loses rankings and calls.

From N to R

NAP consistency (name, address, phone)

NAP stands for name, address, phone. The rule: all three must be written exactly the same way everywhere, on your website, your Google Business Profile, the health directory, Doctolib and the Dental Council website. "12 rue Pasteur" here and "12, r. Pasteur" there is already a difference for a machine. This consistency carries weight on the map and in AI search.

Page speed (Core Web Vitals)

Core Web Vitals are Google's measurements of the experience a page provides: how long the main content takes to appear, how quickly the page responds to taps, how stable the layout is. A slow site is abandoned before it is even read, especially on a phone. Lighter photos, lean code and good hosting solve most cases.

Prominence

Prominence is Google's third official criterion for the map: is your practice well known? Google measures it with what it finds on the web: citations, backlinks, reviews, mentions in the local press, and your website's SEO. A practice that is described well everywhere, with the same contact details, looks more prominent than one that stays silent.

Redirect

A redirect automatically sends the visitor from an old address to the new one. It is needed with every redesign, renamed page or change of domain name. Without it, links placed elsewhere lead to a 404 page and the page's history is lost. With it, Google transfers the value of the old address to the new one.

Relevance

Relevance is the first of Google's three official criteria for the map: does your profile match what the person is searching for? You work on it through your profile's category, the treatments listed, the description and the website linked to the profile. Google describes these criteria in its official help page on local ranking.

Reviews

Reviews are the ratings and comments left by patients, mostly on your Google Business Profile. No text prohibits receiving them, but in 2025 the Dental Council asked for them to be removed for dentists. Our line: we never organize review collection, and we respond to reviews neutrally, or not at all, without ever confirming that someone is a patient of the practice.

Robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a small text file placed at the root of the site that tells bots what they may read. One badly written line is enough to block the whole site from Google or from AI tools, with no visible error message. It is one of the first things we check in an audit: it is often inherited from a previous provider.

Letter S

Schema markup (structured data)

Schema markup is an invisible data card, added to the code, that describes the practice to machines: name, address, hours, dentists, treatments. It helps Google and AI tools understand the page, with no direct effect on ranking. Since May 7, 2026, Google no longer shows FAQ rich results, but the markup describing the practice is still useful.

Search Console

Search Console is Google's free tool that shows you how Google sees your site: queries, impressions, clicks, average position, indexed pages, errors. It is the only source that comes from Google itself. Every practice should have access to it in its own name, not only through its provider.

Search intent

Search intent is what the person really wants when they type a query. "Dental implant pain" is looking for reassurance, "dental implant Lyon" is looking for a practice, "implant price" is looking for a ballpark figure. A page that answers the exact intent is preferred over a page that repeats the keyword. Every treatment page has to pick one intent.

Search query

A query is what someone types or dictates into Google: a word, a question, a whole sentence. Search Console shows you the queries that made your site appear. Read them: they tell you which words your patients use to look for you, and those are the words, not the jargon, that belong on your pages.

SEO (référencement naturel)

SEO (search engine optimization), "référencement naturel" in French, covers everything that makes your site appear in Google's results without paying anything: the text, the structure, the speed, the links, the Google Business Profile. For a dentist, it is the primary lever for visibility, since article R.4127-217 II prohibits buying a priority position in the results. We explain it end to end on the dental SEO page.

Sitemap

The sitemap is a file that lists every address on your site, with the date each page was last updated. It is meant for bots, not for patients. You submit it in Search Console, and Google uses it to make sure nothing is missed. A treatment page added to the sitemap is crawled faster than a page the bot has to discover on its own.

Letter T

Testimonials (prohibited)

A testimonial is a third party speaking about you: a patient describing their implant, a colleague recommending you. The code of ethics prohibits testimonials in your communication (article R.4127-215-1), even anonymous, even genuine. The same rule binds us: no dentist gives a testimonial for DeveloppIA. What you can do is describe a treatment, in the first person.

Title tag (balise titre)

The title tag is the page title as Google displays it in blue in its results. It states the page's topic in a few words, with the city: "Dental implants in Lyon 6e, Cabinet du Parc." It is the first text a patient reads before clicking.

Treatment estimate (devis)

The treatment estimate is the written document that details a treatment and its cost before it starts, mandatory for prosthetics and orthodontics. On the website, explaining when and how an estimate is provided answers a real patient question, without posting a price for an implant. It is information, which is allowed, and AI tools like these precise answers.

Treatment page

A treatment page is a whole page devoted to a single procedure: implant, veneers, crown, clear aligners. It answers the patient's questions in the order they ask them: how it works, number of visits, recovery, fees. It is the basic building block of a practice's SEO. We explain how we build them on the dental practice website page.