What to put on a dental practice website: the twelve things a patient looks for before calling

Patients don't read your website, they look for something on it

A patient lands on your website with a specific question. They typed a treatment and a town into Google, they saw your practice on the map, or an artificial intelligence (AI) tool cited it. 59.8% of French people look for health information online (Eurostat, 2025). This patient does not read your site from start to finish. They look for one piece of information, then another, in an order of their own. If they find it, they move on to the next. If they don't, they close the page and open the website of the practice down the street.

Our dental practice website page explains what a site must contain to be found on Google and cited by AI tools. This article takes the opposite point of view: the patient's, once they have arrived. Here are the twelve things they look for, in the order they look for them. For each one: why they look for it, where to put it, and the mistake we see most often.

The twelve things, in the patient's order

1. The treatment they want. The patient has a missing tooth, a broken tooth, a smile that bothers them. They want to know whether you provide this treatment, how it works and how many visits it takes. Where: one page per treatment, with its own address, linked from the menu. The mistake: a single "Our treatments" page that lists twenty procedures in one line each. It answers nobody and ranks for nothing.
2. The address and how to get there. They want to know whether they can get to you easily: the neighborhood, parking, the bus or subway stop, the floor, the elevator, wheelchair access. Where: a "Getting here" page, and the address at the bottom of every page, with a map. The mistake: the address written inside an image, which neither the patient on their phone nor Google can copy.
3. Opening hours. They want to know whether the practice is open on Saturday, early in the morning or late in the evening, and whether it is closed this week. Where: on every page, next to the phone number, with exceptional closures. The mistake: hours that differ between the website, the Google Business Profile and Doctolib, France's leading online booking platform. The patient no longer knows what to believe, and neither does Google.
4. Booking an appointment. They want to call or book right away. Where: the phone number at the top of every page, tappable on mobile, and right next to it a link to book online, through Doctolib or a simple form. The mistake: the phone number hidden at the bottom of the "Contact" page, and a ten-field form that nobody fills in.
5. Fees. They want a ballpark figure before calling, especially for an implant or veneers. It is also a legal requirement: article R.4127-240 of the French Public Health Code requires dentists to provide information on the fees they charge and the payment methods they accept. Where: a "Fees" page written as text, dated, linked from every treatment page. The mistake: the "Prices" page that says "please contact us." Our article on fees on a dental practice website details what to show and how.
6. The dentist. They want to know who will treat them: background, degrees, training, the languages they speak. Where: one page per dentist, with a recent photo and their exact name. The mistake: a title that the French Dental Council (Ordre national des chirurgiens-dentistes) does not recognize. Only three specialties exist: dentofacial orthopedics (orthodontics), oral surgery and oral medicine. For anything else, write "trained in" or "practice focused on."
7. The team. They want to know who answers the phone, who welcomes them, who assists chairside. A team with names makes the practice feel less impersonal. Where: an "Our team" page, with first names and roles. The mistake: stock photos, with lab coats that look too new and smiles that are not yours. Patients spot them immediately.
8. The premises. They want to see where they will be walking in: the reception area, the waiting room, the dental chair, the equipment. Where: a few real photos, taken in your practice, on the home page and on a "The practice" page. The mistake: no photos at all, or photos so dark and so small that they worry patients more than they reassure them.
9. What happens at a first visit. They want to know what is going to happen: the exam, the X-ray, the treatment estimate, the first treatment. They are anxious, and saying so on the page will not offend them. Where: a "Your first visit" page, or a paragraph on each treatment page. The mistake: saying nothing, and leaving the patient to imagine the worst.
10. Emergencies. They are in pain, right now. They want to know whether you see emergencies, at which number, and what to do at night or on a Sunday. Where: a "Dental emergency" page, with the steps to follow and the number to call outside your opening hours. The mistake: the word "emergency" appears nowhere on the site, even though the patient in pain is often the one looking for a new practice.
11. Health insurance status and reimbursements. They want to know whether you are contracted with French national health insurance (Assurance Maladie), what it reimburses, what their supplemental health insurance (mutuelle) may cover, and whether you offer the 100% Santé scheme. Where: on the "Fees" page, in a few lines, with a link to the page on dental care reimbursements on ameli.fr. The mistake: stating an out-of-pocket amount. You don't know their supplemental insurance, so point them to the source.
12. Legal notice and data protection. Patients rarely look for them, but their absence gets noticed, and the law requires them on every professional website. Where: a "Legal notice" (mentions légales) page with the dentist's name, their Dental Council registration number and the website's hosting provider, plus a page on personal data, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), if you have a form. The mistake: a page copied from another website, with another practice's name still in it.

The page-by-page checklist

The rules: information yes, advertising no

Everything above is information. Decree no. 2020-1658 of December 22, 2020 allows it. What it still prohibits is specific: buying a priority placement in search results (R.4127-217 II) and advertising for a third party (R.4127-225). Article R.4127-215-1 draws the line: communication must be fair and honest, with no third-party testimonials, no comparison with other dentists and no encouragement of unnecessary treatment. On your website, that means: no patient reviews, even sincere ones, no "the only practice in town to offer," and no before-and-after photos, which the Dental Council considers misleading.

These rules take nothing away from the twelve things. Your background, your fees, your premises and the way you work are enough to reassure patients, because they are true and verifiable. The guide what the Dental Council allows on a dentist website goes through every page, with the rule that applies to each one.

The ten-minute test with a friend or relative

You cannot judge your own website: you already know what it contains, and where. Ask a friend or relative who does not know the practice. Give them a phone, not a computer: that is how most patients arrive. Start a timer and read them this scenario: "You have a broken tooth and you are looking for a dentist in this town." Then ask them the questions, one at a time.

• Find the treatment you need and tell me in one sentence how it works.
• Find where to park, or the nearest stop.
• Find out whether the practice is open on Saturday morning.
• Find the phone number and go through the motion of calling. Then find the link to book online.
• Find a ballpark figure for a crown.
• Find out who will treat you and where they trained.
• Find out what to do if you are in pain on a Sunday.
• Find out whether the practice is contracted with national health insurance.

For each question, note whether they found the answer, how long it took, and the word they said out loud while searching. That word is often the one you should write on your page. A friend who hesitates, goes back, or types into the search bar is showing you exactly what an unknown patient does before giving up. You don't need a tool or a provider for this test. One person, one phone, ten minutes.

What this test reveals most often

Three things come up again and again. The phone number is not tappable, and your friend copies it by hand. The hours on the website are not the ones on the Google Business Profile, and your friend asks which ones are right. The words "emergency" and "fees" appear nowhere on the site, and your friend gives up. None of these fixes requires rebuilding the website. They require one work session, and one person at the practice who is in charge of it.

Once the twelve things are in place, the next question is whether Google and AI tools read them as well as your friend did. That is the job of dental SEO, and it starts with the page patients see even before your website: your Google Business Profile.

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