Google Search Console is a free Google tool that shows which searches bring up your dental practice website, which pages people click and which pages Google has trouble indexing. A 30-minute monthly review of its Performance, Page indexing and Core Web Vitals reports gives you real search data to act on. When that data leads you to rewrite a page, keep the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) advertising rules in mind: patients search for "best dentist", but your website cannot call you the best.
Many dental marketing decisions are made on instinct or on an agency's monthly report. Yet Google already reports, for free, what patients typed before they found your site and whether they clicked. As of October 2026, Search Console remains Google's own view of how your practice appears in Google Search, and it is easy to never log in.
Are you sure your new-patient pages are even being shown on Google? This guide covers how to set up Search Console, the four reports worth checking, a monthly routine, and the compliance checks that apply when you act on the data in Ontario.
What is Google Search Console?
Google describes Search Console as a free service that helps you monitor, maintain and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results. You do not need to sign up to appear in Google, but the tool helps you understand how Google sees your site. According to Google, Search Console lets you:
- confirm that Google can find and crawl your site
- fix indexing problems and request re-indexing of new or updated content
- see search traffic data: how often your site appears, which queries show it and how often searchers click
- receive alerts when Google finds indexing, spam or other issues
- see which sites link to yours
Google's own help page addresses business owners directly: even if you will not use Search Console yourself, you should be aware of it. For a practice owner, that means knowing it exists, owning the account, and knowing what to ask whoever manages your website.
How to set up Search Console for your practice website
Setup means proving to Google that you own the site, a step called verification. Google offers several methods, including uploading an HTML file, adding an HTML tag, using an existing Google Analytics or Tag Manager setup, or verifying through your domain name provider.
The domain name provider method is the only way to verify a Domain property. Google notes that Domain properties include data for all protocol (http and https) and subdomain variations of your site, so "www" and non-"www" versions are covered together. If your website runs on a hosting platform such as WordPress, Shopify or Wix, Google's help pages point you to that platform's recommended method.
Pro Tip: Verify the property under a Google account that the practice owns, not your web developer's personal account. Google allows multiple people to verify ownership of the same property, and recommends adding more than one verification method in case one fails. Consider giving your agency user access rather than making them the owner.
Which Search Console reports matter for a dental practice?
1. The Performance report
This is where most of the value sits. Google defines its four metrics as follows:
- Clicks: the number of times a user clicked your site from Google Search results.
- Impressions: how many times your site appeared in Search results.
- CTR (click-through rate): clicks divided by impressions.
- Average position: the average position of the topmost result from your site.
The default view covers the past three months. You can group the data by Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance and Dates, and filter by search type (web, image, video or news).
Three limits to keep in mind, all from Google's documentation:
- Anonymized queries. Some queries are left out of the table to protect user privacy, though they still count in the chart totals unless you apply a query filter.
- Row limits. The table shows a maximum of 1,000 rows, so rare long-tail queries can be missing.
- Personalized results. A query in your report may not show your site when you search it yourself, because results depend on the time, place, device and recent history of the person searching. Checking your ranking from the front desk computer is not a reliable test.
2. The Page indexing report
This report shows the Google indexing status of every URL Google knows about on your site, with reasons for any pages that are not indexed. Google cautions that "not indexed" is not necessarily bad. Duplicate or redirected pages are often meant to stay out. What you want to catch is an important page, such as your emergency appointments page or a new location page for your Vaughan office, sitting in the not-indexed list.
3. The URL Inspection tool
Paste any page address into the inspection bar to see Google's indexed version of that page, run a live test of whether it can be indexed, and request that Google crawl it. Use it after you publish or significantly rewrite a page.
4. The Core Web Vitals report
This report groups your pages as Poor, Need improvement or Good using real-world usage data on three metrics: LCP, INP and CLS. Google assigns each group of similar pages the status of its worst-performing metric. If your booking page is rated Poor, that is a conversation to have with your developer.
There is also a Sitemaps report. Google notes that if you use a hosting service such as Squarespace or Wix, it probably manages your sitemap for you, so many practices can skip this one.
How to turn search data into better pages
Google's own suggested uses of the Performance report fit a dental website well.
Find pages that appear but do not get clicked
Google suggests sorting pages by CTR from lowest to highest. A low CTR can mean that searchers see your page but do not think it answers their question. Google's advice is to update the page's title and description to better represent the content, or adjust the content to match the queries that show it. Your page about implant consultations might be showing up for "how long do dental implants last" with almost no clicks, which suggests the title and description do not answer that question.
Separate branded from non-branded searches
The branded and non-branded filter splits searches that include your practice name from those that do not. Google notes that non-branded traffic can indicate new audience growth, which is the number a new-patient strategy is meant to move. The filter has data from March 11, 2025 onward, is not available for sites with a low number of impressions, and Google says some queries may be classified incorrectly.
Group similar searches
Patients phrase the same need many ways: "emergency dentist", "dentist open Saturday", "tooth pain dentist Scarborough". Google's regex filter lets you match several similar queries at once, so you can see the combined demand behind a service instead of judging each phrase alone.
Measure changes against a baseline
Google cautions that it is hard to prove a page change caused an improvement in Search performance, because shifts in user sentiment, news events or improvements to a competing site can also move results. Its suggested approach is to use the comparison feature to check whether the change lines up in timing with your edits, compared with similar past periods. Google also recommends focusing more on trends in impressions and clicks than on average position alone.
Why do RCDSO rules matter when you act on search data?
Search Console tells you what patients type. It does not tell you what an Ontario dentist is allowed to publish. The RCDSO's Advertising Guidelines treat professional advertising as any material related to a dental practice that is published or used, whether by the office directly or by someone on its behalf. In practice, that would cover your page titles, meta descriptions and service pages. The RCDSO says you must personally control all printed and electronic material about your practice, and its definition covers material published on your behalf, so that includes what an agency writes.
When you rewrite a page based on search data, check it against the RCDSO's prohibited content. The guidelines rule out, among other things:
- statements indicating superiority or uniqueness
- superlative or comparative terms such as "state of the art" or "cutting edge"
- statements that suggest an expectation of favourable results or appeal to the public's fears
- testimonials, or statements that can only be verified by someone's personal feelings or views
- incentive programs, including giveaways, contests, draws or free products or services
- references to your continuing education or memberships in associations, societies or academies
This is where search data can lead you astray. Your Performance report may show plenty of impressions for "best dentist in Etobicoke" or "painless root canal Toronto". Writing a title that repeats those words would put a superiority claim or an expectation of favourable results on your page. A compliant title describes what you offer and where: "Root Canal Treatment in Etobicoke | [Practice Name]", with the page itself stating whether the treating dentist is a general practitioner or a specialist.
Two more RCDSO requirements apply to service pages. If a page refers to an area of dental practice, a procedure or a treatment, it must clearly disclose whether you are registered as a general practitioner or a specialist, and in which specialty. And if you publish a fee, the RCDSO says it must be clearly stated, unless otherwise specified, is treated as the maximum fee inclusive of all services including laboratory costs, and applies to all patients whether or not they have dental insurance.
Pro Tip: Keep a one-page checklist of the RCDSO prohibited items next to your monthly Search Console review, and require your agency to tick it off before any title or description goes live. When a wording choice feels like a grey area, contact the RCDSO's Practice Advisory Service before publishing.
A monthly Search Console routine for your practice
- Week one of each month: open the Performance report, compare the most recent month with the previous period, and note any page whose clicks dropped noticeably.
- Find two pages to improve: sort pages by CTR and pick two important service pages with plenty of impressions but few clicks.
- Read the queries: click each page and open the Queries tab to see what patients searched before they saw it.
- Rewrite plainly: update the title and description so they describe the service and location accurately, then run the RCDSO checklist.
- Request a recrawl: use URL Inspection on each updated page.
- Check indexing and Core Web Vitals: confirm no key page has dropped out of the index and no page group has turned Poor.
Done consistently, this turns a free Google report into a steady process for making your website answer the questions patients in Toronto, Markham and Brampton are actually asking. More practice-growth guides are on the EBIKO Dental blog.
Does your practice review its Search Console data, or is it still sitting with whoever built the website? Share how your team handles it.
Sources
- Google Search Console Help: About Search Console, Verify your site ownership, Performance report: overview, common tasks, dimensions, filtering and comparison, data discrepancies
- Google Search Console Help: Page indexing report, URL Inspection tool, Core Web Vitals report, Sitemaps report
- RCDSO, Advertising Guidelines
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is Google Search Console free for dental practices?
Yes. Google describes Search Console as a free service that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search. You need a Google account and must verify that you own the website.
Q: What is the difference between Search Console and Google Analytics?
Search Console reports how your site performs in Google Search itself: impressions, clicks, the queries that showed your site, and indexing problems. Google's help pages describe using it alongside other Google tools such as Analytics, and an existing Google Analytics tracking code is one of the supported ways to verify site ownership.
Q: Can I use "best dentist" in my page title if patients search for it?
Not in Ontario. The RCDSO Advertising Guidelines prohibit statements indicating superiority and superlative or comparative terms. Describe the service and location accurately instead, and remember the dentist must personally control all material published about the practice, including what an agency writes.