# What schema markup does a dental practice website need? | DentistDiscoverable

Source: https://dentistdiscoverable.com/blog/dental-practice-schema-markup-guide.html

DentistDiscoverable field guide


**Direct answer:** A Dentist entity with name, address, phone, opening hours, and geo coordinates, plus FAQ markup on question pages and consistent sameAs links. The markup has to match what patients actually see on the page, or it does more harm than good.

## The core entity

### 1. Dentist type

Use the Dentist schema type, a LocalBusiness subtype that search engines and AI systems understand as a dental practice. One canonical entity per location, referenced by ID from every page.

### 2. NAP plus geo

Name, address, and phone exactly as they appear on the site and in listings, plus latitude and longitude. Geo coordinates are the most commonly skipped field and one of the most useful for local matching.

### 3. Opening hours

Structured openingHoursSpecification for every location, including holiday exceptions. Hours are one of the most cited facts in AI answers, so they must be current.

### 4. SameAs links

Link the entity to the practice's profiles: Google Business, review platforms, and social accounts. This is how systems confirm the entity is the same business everywhere.

### 5. Services as offers

List core services like cleanings, implants, and orthodontics as structured entries rather than burying them in paragraph text. It makes service coverage machine-readable.

### 6. Reviews, carefully

Aggregate ratings only from reviews collected on your own site under the guidelines. Third-party review scores pasted into your markup are a fast path to a penalty.

## Match markup to visible content

Every fact in the schema should appear in the visible page content. Markup that claims Saturday hours the site does not list, or services the page never mentions, gets treated as untrustworthy when systems cross-check. The audit version of this rule is simple: if a patient cannot read it on the page, it should not be in the markup.

Test the markup with a validator after every deploy, not just at launch. Template changes, plugin updates, and content edits break structured data silently, and broken markup is often worse than none because it was working when someone last checked.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does schema markup replace a Google Business Profile?

No. The profile and the markup reinforce each other. Keep the facts identical in both places.

### Should every page carry the full Dentist entity?

Reference the canonical entity by ID from every page, but only repeat the full details where relevant. Bloated markup slows validation and invites drift.

### How often should markup be re-checked?

After every site change that touches templates, hours, services, or locations, and on a regular schedule otherwise.

## Get the free audit

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## Frequently asked questions

### Should every review get a response?

Yes, but prioritize detailed responses for reviews that mention specific treatments, since those are the ones AI assistants mine for citations. A brief genuine thank-you still beats silence for simple ratings.

### How quickly should we respond to reviews?

Within a week is fine for citation and ranking purposes. Consistency matters more than speed, so build responding into a weekly routine rather than a sporadic burst.

### What should a review response include to be useful?

Name the treatment, describe the approach in specific terms, and answer the question the next patient is already asking. Specifics get quoted by AI assistants; generic thank-yous give them nothing to cite.

### Can we mention treatments in responses without violating privacy?

Keep responses about the practice, not the patient. Never include protected health information, even if the reviewer disclosed it first. One natural mention of the actual treatment is citable; repeating it reads as spam.