"Beyond the Stars" - Leveraging Google Reviews to Power AI Search and SEO (feat. Brian Craig)

Google reviews are no longer just “nice to have”—they’re one of the biggest ranking factors for dental practices AND a major driver of AI search visibility. In this episode of The Dental Domination Podcast from DentalScapes, Dan Brian sits down with co-founder Brian Craig to break down exactly how dentists can systematically generate more reviews, respond effectively, and leverage them to dominate local SEO, AIO (artificial intelligence optimization), and patient growth.

✅ Why Google reviews matter for SEO and AI search
 ✅ How to create a system to ask every patient, every time
 ✅ What makes a detailed review “gold” for rankings
 ✅ Best practices for responding to positive and negative reviews
 ✅ How to repurpose reviews on your website to boost conversions
 ✅ A 30-day action plan to start seeing results

If you’re a general dentist, pediatric dentist, or orthodontist looking to attract more patients, rank higher in Google Maps, and get surfaced in AI-powered search, this episode is packed with practical strategies you can start using right away.

Check out the full show notes for more information. 

🚀 Ready to scale your practice with smarter reviews, SEO, and AIO?
 Schedule your free strategy call with DentalScapes today!

Transcript

0:00

All right, welcome back to the Dental Domination Podcast. My name is Dan Brian I'm the co-founder of Dentalscapes and I'm joined here today by my other co-founder, Brian Craig. uh And we are here today to dive into something that I think all dental practice owners out there can relate to. And that is Google reviews. And not only their importance from a reputation standpoint and, you know, generating visibility for your practice and demonstrating credibility. You know, converting those folks who might be on the edge in terms of whether or not to become a new patient, but also their impact when it comes to SEO and increasingly AIO or artificial intelligence optimization. These tools, these platforms are really taking into account practices, reviews when it comes to positioning them in search engine results and AI overviews and that sort of thing. Is that right, Brian? Yes, yeah, absolutely. Even as the search world is changing with AI overview and Google's AI mode and everything, um Google Business Profiles and GBP reviews specifically are just as important as ever. Yeah, and we call these reviews uh one of the many quote unquote ranking factors that these search engines actually use in determining where to place your practice on the search engine results page or in the case of AI tools like chat GPT uh or Claude where to where to place you in terms of the sources that they're referencing within their answers because we all know AI is changing the game of search and they're often resolving users questions before they even need to go. visit a website. So it is absolutely critical that your practice get placed in those cited sources within the AI search results as well. So uh to that point, Brian, what can a practice do or be doing proactively to get more Google reviews and in turn boost their overall average rating as well as the number that they've accumulated? You know what, you may be looking for a really complex response, but I say keep it simple on this. It's to ask in a systematic way. ah So, you know, a lot of practices will kind of second guess the review process. They'll be like, okay, this person at the front desk, were they really happy? Did they say something that makes me think they might not leave us a five-star review and uh try and pick and choose who they ask for reviews? But what we've seen happen over and over again in a situation like that is what ends up happening is no review requests go out and then your practice doesn't get reviews and it kind of snowballs from there. So the primary recommendation I would have is to automate this process of asking for reviews after appointments via some sort of system. And so those systems, you know, to that point, what kind of systems are you talking about specifically? Yeah, so there are a number out there that you've probably heard of if you're a practice listening here. ah There's Weave, there's Practice by Numbers, there's uh RN Platform Dental. ah Any of these uh marketing automation type platforms will do automated review requests ah post-appointment to patients. Yeah, absolutely. And so that could just be as simple as, you know, adjusting a few settings on your end. There's also some really creative ideas that we've seen practices use and actually recommend practices that we work with use to generate, you know, an immediate influx of new reviews. And one of those is contests. uh One of the ways that we've seen practices effectively generate more five-star Google reviews is by offering, Giveaway of maybe a getty cooler. We've seen that particular giveaway be really effective So, you know anyone that leaves you a review five star or not You don't want to be unethical and only incentivize five star reviews, but at the same time anyone that leaves a review You know you enter them into a contest for a giveaway of a particular item And really we've seen really great response rates with that at the practices that we've helped. So there are a lot of different options now Getting the review though is really only the first part of the equation. The second part is what do you do with that review afterwards? And so first and foremost, I wanna talk about replying to reviews. What are some of the best practices that you often advise clients on in terms of how to reply, whether it's a positive or a negative review? Yeah, so positive reviews are pretty straightforward. know, somebody says, uh you know, the teeth whitening service I got was awesome at Dr. So and So's. ah You know, you want to reply. Well, let me take a step back. Keywords and reviews ah are pretty valuable. So you want to encourage patients to leave a detailed review about what they had done. ah And then to a lesser point, we've seen the same thing in responses be pretty effective. So, John, we're so glad you were pleased with your teeth whitening services here in Raleigh, ah whatever. And AI picks those type of things up. And you'll often see it surface, whether it's in the map pack ah or like an AI responses. People say, this practice is great for teeth whitening. you know, it's been extracted from reviews. uh So that's on the positive side, you know, pretty straightforward. On the negative side, it takes a little more of a careful hand. uh You want to answer negative reviews in a way that uh tells prospective patients that you do take it seriously. If it's a legitimate negative review, it's not ordinary and you are working to resolve it. ah You don't want to attack the reviewer. You don't want to put anything that would violate HIPAA, obviously. And the one thing to keep in mind that I usually recommend to our clients is realize that you're not answering the person who left the review. Yeah. answering it for the future prospective patients that are going to read that one-star review and read your response to it to see if it's professional or if it's vindictive or whatever. Yeah, absolutely. And if there is a, you know, complicated, uh, topic that comes up or there's something that needs to be resolved probably best in most cases to direct that conversation offline wherever possible. But like you said, I mean, the, real goal here, you know, obviously you want to provide excellent client service and you want to resolve that, that topic to the best uh of your ability, but also just making sure that you're communicating to other potential patients. Like you said, hey, know, our practice takes this kind of thing very seriously. We're all about ensuring the best possible patient experience. And so that is a great way to communicate that through the reviews. And I'm glad that you mentioned that about the keywords because I think a lot of times, you know, uh we're just satisfied with a five-star review of any kind. you know, Certainly not to discourage a simple five-star rating. That's great as well But if you can take the time your front desk when they're asking for the review or before they send out that automated request You know, let people know, know, hey the best possible compliment You can give us is a five-star review and it would really really help us if you're willing to provide a little bit of detail It's something that helps us stand out online and I think most of the time people understand that and are willing to help you all out. So uh That's great Now, as far as what happens once you get the reviews, obviously we've been talking about these reviews as ranking factors that can influence your position in search or in these AI generated overviews or, you know, platforms like chat GPT, their sourced citations, but there are some things that you can leverage reviews for after the fact as well in order to boost your quote unquote social proof as well. so That includes things that you can do to integrate reviews in the website. Do you have recommendations that you advise practices on when it comes to integrating reviews on their website as well? Yeah, on the website, I like to see a couple of things. The first thing that you want to do is have reviews on the homepage because you want that social proof right there upfront. ah Whether that's, you you select three and it just rotates through those three or even better, like it's a dynamic carousel of some type that's always pulling the latest five star reviews. ah The second thing that I like to see on most practices websites is a dedicated uh reviews or testimonials or success stories or whatever you want to call it. um And that can be dependent on the types of services you offer as well. You if you're a high end practice that's just doing like implants, for example, that page might look a little different than than uh more of a volume general dental practice. Yeah, absolutely. Now when we talk about reviews, going back to this idea of reviews as a ranking factor, do we know at all what percent of the, to get a little bit technical, what percent of the search engine results may be influenced by reviews? Like, like how important is that as a ranking factor in search? So with the caveat that Google does not come out and say, hey, it's X percent of the ranking factor. It's something that people in the digital marketing industry obviously try to try to deduce on their own. And the industry studies that we have seen place that weighting somewhere around 25 percent. I think I've seen it at 22 some places, seen it at 27 at others. But either way, significant ranking factor. And fair to say it's only getting more important, I imagine. Yeah. Awesome. Well, what would you say to a dentist owner who's listening in today or a practice manager and they don't have a, you know, developed workflow right now in place for consistently generating five-star Google reviews? Is there something that you would say they can, you know, uh, immediately take from this episode and implement on their end to start generating those? Yeah, for sure. So don't try to do it all at once. If you have one of these systems in place already, that's great. It's pretty easy to turn on these automated reviews in something like Weave or a similar platform. But the easiest first step is just to have your front desk start asking for a review whenever somebody is checking out. Really, just really simple and then down the road, If you do end up putting one of these systems in place where you can automate the requests, maybe you get one of those little NFC stands that have a plastic stand that has a QR code on it that somebody can scan there at the front desk. It's just a nonverbal reminder. Hey, we love reviews. There are lot of little steps you can take there to gradually getting to that engine that's consistently generating reviews for your practice. Yeah, and the other thing I would say is, you know, if you're a dentist listening to this show specifically, there are some things that you can do to sort of prime the pump, if you will, for your front desk to make that final ask for the review. And you can mention it at the end of treatment, you know, say, hey, you know, I really appreciate the opportunity to serve you the best possible compliment you can give us as a five star review on Google. You know, our front desk may be asking you for that here in a few minutes. there are things you can do to kind of set the stage. And I totally get, and we understand that most dentists don't go to dental school to ask for reviews or uh become salesmen or women in any way, or form. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't be taking steps on your end right now to sort of set the stage to make your front desk team a little bit more successful in getting those reviews ultimately. And at the end of the day, It's the businesses that consistently ask for their, these reviews and get them that are going to be more successful online, especially in this increasingly AI driven search environment. So absolutely. Brian, before we close out here today, is there anything else that you would want to leave dentist owners or practice administrators with before we, before we close up? Yeah, excuse me, my goodness. I would just say that there are a lot of different platforms out there that try to incentivize reviews or something along those lines. Do things the right way. Get reviews organically. These services out there that... Say, you know, we'll get you a hundred five-star reviews on on Fiverr or whatever um Don't try to game the system because it can really bite you down the road uh And and doing it the right way uh Just just pays off really well for your practice in the long run Wise words, wise words. Well, thank you so much for joining the show today. As always, Brian, thank you all for listening. I really appreciate it. If you found what you heard today interesting, please take a moment and leave. Speaking of reviews, a five star review on either Apple podcasts or Spotify or YouTube, wherever you listen to these shows, it is the best possible way for us to reach other dentists and practice managers out there and help as many people as we possibly can. So again, thank you so much, Brian. Thank you all for tuning in and until next time. We'll see you. We'll see you later.