Original research ยท October 2026
SEO Engine Boost Orthodontic Homepage Report 2026: what 30 practices tell patients, and what they leave out
We checked the homepages of 30 orthodontic practices, three in each of the 10 most populous US cities. 80% offer a free consultation. Only 17% show any treatment cost.
- Collected October 2026
- 10 largest US cities
- 11 elements checked per homepage
Headline numbers (n = 30)
- Show no treatment cost83%
- Offer a free consultation80%
- Use Orthodontist markup1 of 30
- Mention the age-7 check-up13%
83%
of homepages show no treatment cost (25 of 30)
80%
advertise a free consultation (24 of 30)
1 of 30
use the Orthodontist business markup search engines read
13%
mention the age-7 orthodontic check-up (4 of 30)
At a glance
What the homepages showed
Each bar is the share of the 30 homepages where the element appeared in visible text or page markup.
Free consultation on 80% of homepages, a cost figure on 17%
Share of 30 orthodontic practice homepages showing each element, October 2026
- Booking or appointment request link100% (30)
- Tap-to-call phone link97% (29)
- Reviews or testimonials mentioned83% (25)
- Free consultation offered80% (24)
- Financing or insurance mentioned73% (22)
- Adult patients mentioned70% (21)
- Virtual consult or smile scan33% (10)
- Live chat or text widget17% (5)
- Any treatment cost figure17% (5)
- Age-7 check-up mentioned13% (4)
- Orthodontist business markup3% (1)
Findings
Five findings, with the numbers behind them
1. 83% say nothing about what treatment costs
Only 5 of 30 homepages show any cost figure: 2 give a full-treatment price range and 3 give a monthly payment. Another 3 show a discount such as "$500 off" with no base price, which we did not count as a cost. The other 22 show no dollar figure.
Meanwhile 24 of 30 (80%) promise a free consultation. Patients are invited in, but not told the number they most often ask about first.
2. Only 1 in 30 tells search engines it is an orthodontist
schema.org has a specific Orthodontist business type. Only 1 homepage used it. 11 marked themselves as a general Dentist, 3 used a generic business or medical type, and 15 had no business-type markup at all.
3. Only 13% mention the age-7 check-up
The American Association of Orthodontists advises a first orthodontic check by age 7. Only 4 of 30 homepages mention it. It may appear on inner pages, which this study did not check.
4. A third offer a virtual consultation or smile scan
10 of 30 (33%) mention a virtual consult, online consultation or remote smile scan. With no earlier baseline, this is a snapshot, not a trend.
5. 70% speak to adult patients
21 of 30 homepages mention adults, supporting the shift toward adult orthodontics and clear aligners. A text match does not measure how prominent the message is.
Methodology
How the study was done
| Step | What we did |
|---|---|
| Cities | The 10 most populous US cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas and Jacksonville |
| Sampling | A web search per city for orthodontic practices offering braces, Invisalign and free consultations; the first three orthodontic-practice sites located in that city were kept |
| Exclusions | General dental offices, directories, listicles, sites in another city or state, sites that did not load and sites behind a bot check were replaced with the next result |
| Check | Each homepage was loaded in a browser and the same script recorded visible-text matches and schema.org business types |
| Cost figure | A full-treatment price, price range or monthly payment. Discounts without a base price were not counted |
| Dates | Collected October 2026; published October 17, 2026 |
Limits: homepage only; text matching can miss images or unusual wording; 30 sites is a small sample, and search-based sampling favours practices that already rank well. The figures describe this sample, not all US orthodontists. No practice is named; results are reported in aggregate only.
FAQ
Questions about the study
Can I use these numbers in an article?
Yes. Please cite "SEO Engine Boost, Orthodontic Homepage Report 2026" and link to this page. The data is shared under CC BY 4.0.
Which practices were included?
We do not name individual practices. The study reports aggregate figures only, so no single practice is singled out.
Is this representative of all US orthodontists?
No. It is a snapshot of 30 homepages found through search in 10 large cities. Treat the figures as descriptive of this sample.
Can I get the underlying data?
Journalists and researchers can request the anonymised spreadsheet by emailing info@seoengineboost.com.
Who ran the study?
SEO Engine Boost ran the study, collected the data and wrote this report.
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