The Problem: Everyone Offers “The Same Thing”
You’re a dentist in South Jakarta. Within a 2km radius, there are 12 other dental clinics. Most of them offer scaling, whitening, braces, and implants — just like you.
When a patient searches “dokter gigi Jakarta Selatan”, Google has to choose 3 clinics from those 12 to put in the Map Pack. The question isn’t whether you’re a good dentist — it’s whether Google knows you’re the best option.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the clinic that wins this search isn’t always the best clinic. It’s the clinic with the best digital signals.
Let’s fix that.
Step 1: Audit Your “Digital Footprint” vs Competitors
Before anything else, search the exact keyword your patients would use:
- “dokter gigi [your area]”
- “klinik gigi terbaik [your area]”
- “dokter gigi anak [your area]”
- “scaling gigi [your area]”
Now honestly answer:
- Are you in the Map Pack (top 3)? If not, you’re invisible to 44% of searchers.
- How many Google Reviews do you have vs the #1 result? If they have 150 and you have 12, that’s your biggest gap.
- Does your website appear on page 1 of organic results? If not, you’re losing the remaining 56% too.
Pro tip: Open an incognito/private browser for this test. Google personalizes results based on your search history.
Step 2: Win the Google Business Profile War
The Map Pack rankings come from your Google Business Profile (GBP) — not your website. Here’s how to optimize it better than every competitor on your street:
Category Selection (Most Clinics Get This Wrong)
| What Most Clinics Do | What You Should Do |
|---|---|
| Primary: “Medical Clinic” | Primary: “Dentist” or “Dental Clinic” |
| No additional categories | Add: “Cosmetic Dentist”, “Pediatric Dentist”, “Orthodontist” |
| Generic description | Keyword-rich description mentioning area + treatments |
Google matches your primary category to search queries. If you’re listed as “Medical Clinic” while your competitor is listed as “Dentist”, they win “dokter gigi” searches automatically.
Services: Be Exhaustive
Add every single treatment as a named service in your GBP:
- Scaling & Polishing
- Teeth Whitening (Bleaching)
- Dental Implants
- Root Canal Treatment
- Orthodontics (Braces & Invisalign)
- Dental Veneers
- Wisdom Tooth Extraction
- Pediatric Dentistry
- Dental Crown & Bridge
- Emergency Dental Care
Each service acts as a keyword signal to Google. When someone searches “pasang behel Jakarta Selatan”, the clinic that has “Orthodontics” as a listed service gets prioritized.
Photos: Quality Beats Quantity (But You Need Both)
Upload at least 20 photos — but not just any photos:
- Clinic exterior (Google uses this for verification and Street View matching)
- Reception area (patients want to know it looks professional)
- Treatment rooms (modern equipment = trust signal)
- Before/after cases (with consent — this is your strongest visual proof)
- Team photos (patients want to see who will treat them)
- Your dental equipment (CBCT scanner, digital impressions = premium positioning)
Clinics with 20+ quality photos get 35% more clicks to their website and 42% more direction requests than clinics with fewer photos (BrightLocal).
Step 3: Win the Review War
Reviews are the single biggest differentiator when multiple clinics compete for the same area.
The Numbers Game
| Your Clinic | Competitor A | Competitor B |
|---|---|---|
| 15 reviews, 4.5★ | 89 reviews, 4.7★ | 200+ reviews, 4.6★ |
| ❌ Loses to both | ⚠️ Decent | ✅ Wins Map Pack |
Competitor B wins — not because they’re rated higher, but because volume + recency signals trust to Google.
How to Get More Reviews (Without Being Annoying)
The trick is timing. Ask for reviews at the peak positive moment:
- Right after treatment — when the patient is relieved and happy
- Use a QR code at the reception desk linking directly to your Google Review page
- Send a WhatsApp follow-up 2 hours after the appointment: “Halo [Nama], terima kasih sudah berkunjung! Jika Anda puas dengan perawatan hari ini, kami sangat menghargai review Anda di Google 🙏 [link]”
- Train your staff — the receptionist should casually mention it during checkout
Respond to EVERY Review
Google confirms that businesses that respond to reviews rank higher in local search (source).
- Positive reviews: Thank them by name, mention the specific treatment (“We’re glad the scaling went smoothly!”)
- Negative reviews: Respond professionally within 24 hours. Never argue. Offer to resolve offline. Future patients will judge you by how you handle criticism, not by one bad review.
Step 4: Build “Neighborhood Authority” on Your Website
Your website needs to scream “I am THE dentist for [your area]” to Google. Here’s how:
Create Location-Specific Content
Don’t just have one generic “About Us” page. Create content that signals your area:
- Title tag: “Dokter Gigi di Kemang, Jakarta Selatan | [Clinic Name]”
- H1: “Klinik Gigi Terpercaya di Kemang”
- Content mentions: neighborhood names, landmarks (“5 menit dari Kemang Village”), public transport access
- Embedded Google Map pointing to your exact location
Treatment Pages with Local Keywords
Instead of one “Services” page, create individual pages:
| Generic (Bad for SEO) | Location-Specific (Good for SEO) |
|---|---|
| “Our Treatments" | "Scaling Gigi di Kemang" |
| "Orthodontics" | "Pasang Behel di Jakarta Selatan" |
| "Teeth Whitening" | "Bleaching Gigi di Kemang, Jaksel” |
Each page targets a long-tail keyword that your competitors probably aren’t targeting. While they fight over “dokter gigi Jakarta Selatan” (extremely competitive), you quietly dominate 20 specific treatment+location queries.
Schema Markup: The Technical Edge
Add Dentist and LocalBusiness Schema markup to your website. This hidden code tells Google exactly:
- Your business type, name, and address
- Opening hours (including lunch breaks)
- Accepted payment methods
- Price ranges for common treatments
- Your aggregate star rating from reviews
Clinics with proper schema markup are eligible for Rich Results — enhanced search listings showing stars, hours, and price ranges directly in Google. Your competitor without schema shows a plain blue link. You show stars and operating hours. Who gets the click?
We cover schema and semantic HTML in depth in our invisible engineering article.
Step 5: The Speed Advantage Your Competitors Can’t Copy
Here’s the secret weapon that’s hardest for competitors to replicate:
Most dental clinic websites in Indonesia are built on WordPress with Elementor and hosted on shared hosting. They score 25-55 on Google Lighthouse.
If your site scores 95-100 (which our Astro + Cloudflare architecture delivers), you have an automatic ranking advantage.
Google uses Core Web Vitals as a tiebreaker between clinics with similar content and reviews. When everything else is equal, the faster site wins.
This isn’t something your competitor can fix by “updating their plugins.” It’s a fundamental architecture advantage — like bringing a sports car to a race while they’re driving a minivan. Read our full tech stack comparison to see exactly how.
Step 6: The Compounding Flywheel
When you execute all 5 steps above, something powerful happens:
Better GBP → More visibility → More patients → More reviews
↑ ↓
More authority ← Better rankings ← More reviews ← Happy patientsThis is a flywheel effect. Each improvement reinforces the others. The clinic that starts first builds momentum that becomes nearly impossible for competitors to catch.
Your competitor who starts 6 months from now will need 6 months just to reach where you are today. By then, you’ll be even further ahead.
Your 30-Day Battle Plan
| Week | Action | Expected Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Optimize GBP (category, services, photos, description) | Immediate visibility improvement |
| Week 2 | Launch review collection system (QR codes, WhatsApp follow-ups) | 10-20 new reviews/month |
| Week 3 | Create 5 treatment-specific pages with local keywords | Long-tail keyword coverage |
| Week 4 | Add schema markup + ensure site speed is 90+ | Technical edge + rich results |
Month 2 onwards: Maintain review velocity, respond to all reviews, publish 1 health education article per week, post GBP updates weekly.
Within 3-6 months, you’ll see measurable movement in the Map Pack. Within 6-12 months, you should be in the top 3 for your primary keywords — even if you started with zero online presence.
The Bottom Line
You can’t control how many clinics open on your street. But you can control how visible you are when a patient reaches for their phone.
The clinics that treat their digital presence as seriously as their clinical skills are the ones filling their appointment books. The rest are wondering why their waiting room is empty while the clinic next door is fully booked.
The difference isn’t the treatments. It’s the signals.
Related Reading
For the full Local SEO foundation, start with our comprehensive Local SEO guide for clinics. To understand why your website’s architecture matters for rankings, read Astro + Cloudflare: The SEO Powerhouse. And if you’re still relying on only Instagram, here’s why your clinic needs a website.
References
- Google: How Local Results Are Ranked
- BrightLocal: Local Consumer Review Survey 2025
- Google: Respond to Reviews
- Schema.org: Dentist Schema
- Search Engine Journal: Local SEO Ranking Factors
- Moz: Local Search Ranking Factors
- Google: Core Web Vitals