Dental website checklist: what every UK practice site needs

This dental website checklist covers what a UK practice website must include, what patients look for before they book, and what Google needs to rank it. The first part is not optional: the General Dental Council sets out information every practice website must show. Work through each section and tick off what you have. Anything missing is either a compliance gap or a lost patient.

Part 1: what the GDC requires on every practice website

The GDC's guidance on advertising says that if you are responsible for a dental practice website, you must make sure it displays:

The same guidance says you must update the website regularly so it accurately reflects the people at the practice and the services offered, and you must not show information comparing the skills or qualifications of one dental professional with another.

It also says that advertising and practice publicity must make clear whether the practice is NHS, mixed or wholly private. Put that on the homepage, not buried on the fees page.

For every clinician named on the site

Anyone mentioned on the website as a dental professional providing care must have shown alongside their name:

• their professional qualification and the country it comes from
• their GDC registration number

That applies to hygienists, therapists and other dental care professionals as well as dentists. When someone joins or leaves, the team page needs updating that week.

Titles and specialist claims

The GDC is specific here. Only dentists on a GDC specialist list can call themselves a specialist or use titles such as orthodontist, periodontist or endodontist. A dentist who is not on a list may say "special interest in", "experienced in" or "practice limited to". The GDC's advertising checklist adds that "specialist" should not be used for areas with no specialist list at all, and gives implantology as an example. So "implant specialist" should not be used.

Do not list memberships, fellowships or honorary degrees in abbreviated form after a name, because the GDC says patients may mistake them for qualifications. If dentists use "Dr", the ASA's advice on the Dr title recommends making clear it is a courtesy title and that a general medical qualification is not held.

Part 2: prices and treatment information

The GDC's Standards for the Dental Team, standard 2.4.2, says you must give clear information on prices in your practice literature and on your websites, and that patients should not have to ask for it. Standard 2.4.3 adds that you should tell patients whether treatment is guaranteed, in what circumstances and for how long.

• A fees page with private prices, or "from" prices where a fixed figure is not possible, and a clear note of what is included.
• NHS charges if you provide NHS care, set out by band for the nation you are in.
• Finance options, if you offer them, described accurately.
• Guarantee terms, if you offer any.

Treatment pages should explain what is involved and who it suits without promising outcomes. The GDC says claims must be backed up with facts and must avoid creating unjustified expectations about results.

Part 3: privacy, cookies and accessibility

• Privacy notice. If your website collects personal data, through a contact form, a booking form or analytics, UK GDPR requires you to tell people what you collect and why. The ICO's guide to the right to be informed lists what the notice must cover.
• Cookie information and controls. Some cookies, such as advertising cookies, need consent. Since the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, some analytics can run without consent if strict conditions are met, including an easy way to object. Check what your banner does against current ICO guidance.
• Forms. Contact forms should ask only for what you need. Do not invite patients to type their medical history into a general enquiry form.
• Accessibility. Practices have duties under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the recognised standard for websites. At a minimum: readable text sizes, enough colour contrast, descriptive link text, and alt text on images.
• Physical access information. Step-free access, parking and ground-floor surgeries are exactly what some patients need to know before booking.

A note on CQC

Many healthcare providers must show their CQC rating on their website. Dental practices are different. The CQC says it does not give ratings to primary dental providers, because they are exempt from its legal duty to rate. Its regulation 20A guidance applies only where a provider has received a rating. So do not display a rating badge you have not been given. Linking to your CQC inspection report is fine if you want to.

Part 4: the pages patients look for

Beyond compliance, a practice website exists to turn a visitor into a booked appointment. Check you have:

1. A homepage that says, in the first screen on a phone, what you are, where you are, whether you take NHS or private patients, and how to book.
2. A new patients page covering whether you are accepting new patients, what a first visit involves and what it costs.
3. One page per main treatment, such as check-ups, hygiene, implants, Invisalign or other aligners, whitening, composite bonding, veneers, dentures and children's dentistry, each with its own price or "from" price.
4. An emergency page with what to do in and out of hours. A patient in pain needs this page to answer them quickly.
5. A fees page, covered above.
6. A team page with photos, qualifications and GDC numbers.
7. A contact page with the address, a map, opening hours, phone, email and parking.
8. A complaints page, covered above.

On every page

• A tap-to-call phone number at the top on mobile.
• A clear booking button, whether that opens online booking or a form.
• Opening hours that match your Google Business Profile exactly.

Part 5: dental website SEO checklist

SEO for dental websites starts with the basics below. None of them guarantees a ranking, but missing any of them makes ranking harder.

• A unique title and description on every page. The title should name the treatment and the town, such as "Dental implants in [town]".
• One page per treatment you want to be found for. A single "services" page listing everything rarely ranks for any of them.
• Your name, address and phone number written in the page text, matching your Google Business Profile.
• Local business structured data. Google's local business guide says it can tell Google about your hours and more, and advises using the most specific business type possible. Google also says structured data does not guarantee any feature will appear.
• Google Search Console set up and verified, owned by the practice.
• A fast, mobile-friendly site. Test it with Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile.
• No "noindex" left on live pages from when the site was built.

Our guide to SEO for dental practices explains how these fit together, and local SEO for dentists covers the map results.

Part 6: reviews, photos and testimonials

• Testimonials must be genuine. CAP Code rule 3.47, in the ASA's misleading advertising section, says marketers must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial is genuine and hold contact details for the person who gave it. Your own website counts as marketing under the CAP Code.
• Reviews must not be shown misleadingly. Rule 3.46 says consumer reviews must not be published in a misleading way. Showing only five-star reviews while implying they are typical is a risk. The CMA's short guide on publishing consumer reviews explains the legal duties under consumer law.
• Before and after photos must be genuine and representative. The ASA's dental advice says marketers must hold signed and dated proof.
• No review stars in your own structured data. Google's review snippet guidelines say pages using local business structured data are not eligible for star ratings when the business controls the reviews about itself. Some review widgets add this markup, so check yours.
• Prescription-only medicines. If you offer facial aesthetics, the ASA says Botox cannot be advertised to the public. Advertise consultations instead.

Part 7: dental website design and hosting

If you are commissioning a new site or reviewing dental website design proposals, check these before signing:

• You own the domain name, registered in the practice's name, with login details held by the practice.
• You own the content and photos and can take them with you if you change supplier.
• You are an owner on Google Search Console and an administrator on Google Analytics, not just a viewer.
• Hosting is UK or European and backed up, with a named person to call if the site goes down.
• Redirects are planned from every old page address to its new one before a rebuild goes live, so you do not lose the rankings the old site earned.
• You can edit prices, hours and team details yourself without paying for each change.

The best dental websites in the UK are not the most elaborate. They are the ones where a patient on a phone can see within seconds where you are, what you charge and how to book, and where every GDC requirement is quietly in place in the footer.

The quick checklist

To see how your site and listing compare with the practices around you, the free search audit needs no email.