Orthodontists
Local SEO for orthodontists.
Clear aligner companies spent a decade teaching adults that they choose their own orthodontic provider. They do now. A practice built entirely on dentist referrals has no way to reach them and no way to grow when a referring dentist retires.
- 18 to 24 mo
- of scheduled revenue from a single case in active treatment
- ~80%
- of annual collections, what orthodontic practices sell for
- Adults
- now research and select a provider without a dentist involved
- Two audiences
- parents and adults, searching in completely different language
How patients started arriving on their own
The referral relationship did not disappear. It stopped being the only route into a practice.
Then
Referral only
The general dentist decided who saw an orthodontist and when. A practice grew by maintaining a handful of referral relationships and had no direct channel to a patient.
The shift
Direct to consumer
Mail order aligner brands spent enormous sums teaching adults that orthodontics is a consumer choice. That advertising benefited the whole category and left orthodontists without a page to compete on.
Now
Patients choose
Adults research invisible braces and clear aligners themselves, compare professional treatment against at home kits, and book a consultation directly. Whoever answers those searches wins the case.
Why a small number of cases justifies this
We have not published a national average case fee, because it varies too widely by market and treatment to be useful to you.
| Your average case fee | your number | |
|---|---|---|
| Active treatment period | 18 to 24 months | |
| Three additional cases a month | fee x 3 | recurring monthly |
| Over a year | fee x 36 | |
| Practice valuation impact | ~80% of collections | it compounds into the exit |
Three cases a month is a modest ranking improvement and a material change in the value of the practice.
Because orthodontic practices sell for roughly eighty percent of annual collections, additional cases do not only produce revenue this year, they raise what the practice is worth when you sell it. Very few marketing investments in healthcare have that second effect, and almost no orthodontists factor it in.
Bring your average case fee and your current consultation to start conversion rate to a call, and the arithmetic becomes specific in about five minutes.
The work that fills a consultation diary
Separate adult and paediatric pages
A parent searching braces for kids and an adult searching invisible braces are different people with different anxieties and different objections. Most orthodontic sites are written entirely for the parent and lose the adult case, which is usually the higher fee.
Treatment type coverage
Clear aligners, ceramic braces, lingual, early interceptive treatment, surgical orthodontics and retainers. Each is a distinct search with real volume and far thinner competition than orthodontist near me.
The at home aligner comparison, answered
High volume searches comparing mail order kits with professional treatment are currently answered mostly by the aligner companies themselves. An honest clinical comparison is one of the most effective pages an orthodontist can publish and almost nobody has one.
Cost and payment plan transparency
The first thing both audiences search and the thing most practices refuse to address. A starting price and a payment plan explanation converts consultations. Requiring a phone call to learn anything sends the patient to a competitor or to a mail order box.
Google Business Profile built for a long commitment
Correct category, treatments listed individually, consultation booking connected, and photographs of the actual practice and clinicians. Patients are choosing who they will see every six weeks for two years.
Before and after results, handled properly
Real treated cases with appropriate consent do more conversion work than any description. They also answer the only question a patient actually has, which is whether you can fix a case like theirs.
Two audiences, four searches, one page for all of it in most practices
| Search type | What they type | Where their head is at | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult treatment | invisible braces near me, clear aligners adult, discreet orthodontics | Self referring, often self conscious, higher fee cases. | Highest |
| Comparison | at home aligners vs orthodontist, are mail order aligners safe | High volume and currently answered by the aligner companies. | Highest |
| Cost | how much do braces cost, orthodontic payment plans | First search for both audiences. Most practices refuse to answer it. | High |
| Paediatric | braces for kids, when should a child see an orthodontist | Parent comparing two or three practices, often on referral. | High |
The first 90 days on an orthodontic practice
- Days 1 to 30
Audit and foundations
Profile and citation audit, treatments entered individually, catchment ranking measured, and an assessment of whether an adult self referring patient is currently spoken to at all.
- Days 31 to 60
Adult and treatment coverage
Adult treatment pages built, aligner comparison content created, cost and payment plan information surfaced, consultation booking shortened.
- Days 61 to 90
Authority and proof
Citations, local links, profile posting, before and after cases published with consent, review routine installed.
- Ongoing
Balance the two channels
Referral relationships protected while direct patient acquisition grows, coverage extended treatment by treatment, positions re measured monthly.
Local SEO for orthodontists, answered
General dentists refer to us. Why would we market to patients directly?
Because clear aligner companies spent a decade teaching consumers that they can choose their own orthodontic provider, and consumers listened. Adults in particular now research and select an orthodontist without any dentist involved. Referrals remain valuable and you should protect them, but a practice that depends entirely on them is exposed to the retirement or sale of a handful of referring dentists, and has no way to grow on demand.
Should we be competing with the direct to consumer aligner brands?
Not on price, and not on convenience. Compete on the thing they cannot offer, which is a clinician physically examining a case and taking responsibility for the outcome. Searches comparing at home aligners with professional treatment are high volume and largely unanswered by orthodontists, which leaves the aligner companies writing the comparison unopposed. That is a page worth having.
How valuable is one new case?
You know your own case fee, and it varies too much by market and treatment type for a published average to help you. What is worth knowing is the structural point: orthodontic practices sell for roughly eighty percent of annual collections, which is high for healthcare and reflects how long a patient stays in active treatment. A case is not a transaction, it is eighteen to twenty four months of scheduled revenue.
Do parents and adult patients search differently?
Completely differently, and most orthodontic sites are built only for the first. A parent searches braces for kids, cost and payment plans, and is comparing two or three practices. An adult searches invisible braces, clear aligners and adult orthodontics, is often embarrassed, and is comparing you against a mail order box. Those need separate pages and separate language.
How long does this take to work?
Treatment specific and suburb level terms typically move within three to six months. The head term in a metro with several established practices takes longer. Because a single case represents so much revenue, the arithmetic usually clears well before the head term does, which is why we start with the specific searches rather than the obvious one.
Adults are choosing their own orthodontist. Can they find you?
We will measure where you rank for adult and paediatric treatment searches across your catchment, check whether your site answers the aligner comparison, and show you what the gap is worth in cases.