When practice owners check how they’re doing on Google, most of them look for one thing: their website’s blue link. Where is it, and is it moving up.
That’s a reasonable thing to look at. It’s just not what a patient sees first. On most dental searches now, the first blue link is the fourth or fifth thing on the page. Everything above it is what Google calls a search feature, and on a phone it can easily fill the whole screen.
What is a SERP?
SERP stands for search engine results page. It’s the page Google shows after you type something in. For a long time it was mostly ten blue links. Today it’s a stack of different blocks, and the mix changes depending on what was searched, where, and on what device.
What are SERP features?
SERP features are everything on the results page that isn’t a plain website link. The AI summary at the top, the map with three practices, the “People also ask” questions, image rows, videos, Reddit threads, ads. Google keeps an illustrated list of the most common ones in its Visual Elements gallery, which is worth a look if you’ve ever wondered what something on the page is called.
The reason they matter is simple. Each one takes space above the regular results, and each one pulls from a different place. Some come from your website. Some come from your Google Business Profile. Some you pay for. And some come from places you don’t control at all.
What we found on 10 real dental searches
Rather than describe a typical results page, we pulled real ones. On October 21, 2026 we ran 10 common dental and orthodontic searches as a phone in Frisco, Texas would see them, and recorded every block on the page in the order it appeared.
From our own data
Which features showed up on each search
Mobile, Frisco, TX. 21 October 2026. Top 20 results per search.
| Search | AI Overview |
Map pack |
People also ask |
Images / video |
Forums | Products | First blue link was item # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| orthodontist near me | ● | ● | 5 | ||||
| orthodontist frisco tx | ● | ● | 4 | ||||
| dentist near me | ● | ● | 6 | ||||
| emergency dentist | ● | ● | ● | ● | 5 | ||
| braces cost | ● | ● | ● | ● | 5 | ||
| clear aligners | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 4 | |
| invisalign vs braces | ● | ● | ● | 6 | |||
| how long do braces take | ● | ● | 2 | ||||
| dental implants cost | ● | ● | ● | 2 | |||
| palatal expander | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 |
“First blue link was item #” counts every block on the page in order, so 5 means four features came before the first regular website result. Ads rotate by auction and were not counted, except one sponsored map listing on “dentist near me.”
Same 10 searches
How often each feature appeared
Out of 10 searches. Also seen once each: a knowledge panel style topic list, a “What people are saying” block, and related searches.
A few things stood out.
Every single search had “People also ask.” Seven of ten had an AI Overview. And the three that didn’t were the three most obviously local ones: “orthodontist near me,” “orthodontist frisco tx,” and “dentist near me.” On those, Google leads with the map instead.
The map pack also showed up on searches you might not think of as local. “Braces cost” had one. So did “clear aligners,” and our own West Frisco office was in it. Nobody typed “near me.” Google decided the person probably wanted a practice nearby anyway.
The first regular website result was, on average, the fourth thing on the page. On the two “near me” searches it was fifth and sixth. That’s the blue link most rank reports are measuring.
The SERP features you’ll see on dental searches
Here’s what each one is, where Google gets it, and what it means for a practice.
AI Overview
The AI-written summary at the top of the page, with a few source links beside or under it. It showed up on every question-type search in our set: cost, timing, comparisons, appliances. It did not show up on “near me” searches.
Google is fairly plain about how to get cited. Its guidance on AI features says a page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and that there’s no special markup required. In other words, the same pages that do well in regular search are the ones it pulls from. A clear, direct answer near the top of the page helps.
The map pack
The map with three practices under it. It comes from Google Business Profiles, not websites, and the order changes depending on where the phone is. We wrote a separate piece on what the map pack is and how to read a map grid, so I won’t repeat it here.
People also ask
The expandable list of related questions. Each answer is pulled from a web page, with a link. It appeared on all 10 searches, which makes it the most common feature on dental searches by a wide margin in our sample.
This is one of the more reachable ones for a practice website. If a page answers a real question in a sentence or two, right under a heading that asks it, Google can lift that answer.
Local Services Ads and regular ads
Two different paid placements. Regular Google Ads are the “Sponsored” text results. Local Services Ads are the boxed listings with a verification badge, and for dentists you pay per lead rather than per click. Google’s Local Services Ads overview covers how they’re built and what the badge means.
Neither has anything to do with organic ranking. If you’re trying to decide how much to put into ads and where, that’s the problem AdCompass was built for.
Images and video
Rows of pictures or videos pulled from pages that host them. They showed up on searches where seeing something helps: palatal expanders, clear aligners, emergencies. Your own photos and videos, on your own pages, with real descriptions, are what make you eligible.
Discussions and forums
Mostly Reddit. “Invisalign vs braces” had a forum block, and a Reddit thread ranked third among the regular results. “Dental implants cost” had one too. You can’t optimize your way into someone else’s Reddit thread, but it’s useful to know that’s where some patients are reading before they call you.
Popular products
Shopping-style results. They showed up on “clear aligners” and “palatal expander,” which means a parent researching either one may see a product grid before any orthodontist.
People also search for and related searches
Lists of other searches. They don’t send traffic to anyone directly, but they’re a decent free list of what patients search next, and a good source of topics for your site.
Reviews and “What people are saying”
Review stars live inside the map pack, and “dentist near me” also had a block of what people were saying. Your star rating, review count, and replies show up in more places than just your profile. That’s part of why we built Google review replies for dental practices.
Which SERP features can a practice actually influence?
Where each one comes from
What feeds each feature, and what you control
Most of what a practice can earn comes from two places: the website and the Google Business Profile. That’s not a new idea, but it’s a useful filter. If someone is selling you a tactic that doesn’t improve one of those two, it’s fair to ask what it’s actually changing.
One feature that’s gone: FAQ rich results
For years, a common dental SEO move was adding FAQ schema so your listing got expandable questions under it. Google cut that back to government and health sites in 2023, and as of May 7, 2026 it stopped showing FAQ rich results entirely. It says so at the top of its FAQ structured data page.
The FAQ content on your pages is still useful. Patients read it, and it’s the kind of thing People also ask and AI Overviews pull from. The markup just doesn’t buy you extra space anymore. If a monthly report still lists it as a win, that line is out of date.
How to check your own SERPs
Searching from your office tells you very little. Google knows where your phone is, and you’re standing next to your own building. Incognito doesn’t fix that.
What helps is checking a handful of searches your patients actually type, from where your patients actually are, and writing down which features show up and who is in them. Questions like “how much do braces cost” and appliance names are just as worth checking as “orthodontist near me.”
That’s what the WGO SEO Tool does for the map, from 25 points around your office, along with your regular rankings and whether AI search mentions you. The first map is free. If you’d rather have someone handle the website side, that’s our SEO and website service.
Data note: SERPs were pulled on 21 October 2026 for a mobile device in Frisco, TX, top 20 results per search. Results change by location, device, and day, so treat these as one snapshot rather than a rule.