Dental Website SEO Benchmark: South Dakota (2026)
Based on 119 audited dental websites in South Dakota, from 164 attempted domains. Cohort dps-37-v1.
Browse the South Dakota practice directorySouth Dakota practices scored a median of 76, 1 point below the national median of 77. The largest difference versus the national cohort (n=50,405) was privacy-policy link not detected: 48.74% of 119 South Dakota sites, 6.65 percentage points higher than the national rate. South Dakota's strongest other relative result was limited useful content, with the observed gap 5.22 percentage points below the national rate.
76
Median score
−1.00 vs national median 77
74.20
Mean score
+0.07 vs national mean 74.13
119
Websites checked
Nationwide: 50,405 websites checked
72.56%
Auditable rate
+1.89 pp vs national 70.67% (50,405 of 71,323); state base 119 of 164
Score distribution
Grade distribution
Percentages use all 119 audited South Dakota domains as the base.
A
2.52%
3 of 119
B
37.82%
45 of 119
C
30.25%
36 of 119
D
22.69%
27 of 119
F
6.72%
8 of 119
Category detail
Average category scores
Each average uses the same 119-domain audited base. Local SEO is shown only as a labelled detail because three inputs were not evaluated in this cohort.
61.74
Website fundamentals
Average across 119 websites
67.31
AI visibility
Average across 119 websites
69.34
Patient trust
Average across 119 websites
98.03
Local SEO
Partial; upward-biased
Largest absolute difference first
Metric rates versus the national cohort
“Not detected” means a signal was absent from the homepage and up to two linked pages in this bounded crawl; it does not prove the signal is absent everywhere on the site. Every percentage below shows its observation base.
| Metric | South Dakota rate | National rate | Difference vs national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy-policy link not detectedPatient journey | 48.74%58 of 119 | 42.09%50,405 websites | +6.65 pp |
| Service or treatment structured data not detectedStructured data | 97.48%116 of 119 | 91.90%50,405 websites | +5.58 pp |
| Clear booking action not detectedPatient journey | 47.90%57 of 119 | 42.35%50,405 websites | +5.55 pp |
| XML sitemap not detectedWebsite fundamentals | 30.25%36 of 119 | 24.75%50,405 websites | +5.50 pp |
| Emergency-services page not detectedPatient journey | 63.87%76 of 119 | 58.40%50,405 websites | +5.47 pp |
| Limited useful contentWebsite fundamentals | 26.89%32 of 119 | 32.11%50,405 websites | −5.22 pp |
| BreadcrumbList structured data not detectedStructured data | 58.82%70 of 119 | 63.60%50,405 websites | −4.78 pp |
| AggregateRating structured data not detectedStructured data | 95.80%114 of 119 | 91.06%50,405 websites | +4.74 pp |
| Missing meta descriptionsWebsite fundamentals | 37.82%45 of 119 | 33.36%50,405 websites | +4.46 pp |
| Images missing alternative textWebsite fundamentals | 78.15%93 of 119 | 74.25%50,405 websites | +3.90 pp |
| Contact or inquiry form not detectedPatient journey | 72.27%86 of 119 | 68.70%50,405 websites | +3.57 pp |
| DNS failureCrawl accessibility | 7.93%13 of 164 | 10.68%71,323 websites | −2.75 pp |
| Missing canonical tagsWebsite fundamentals | 23.53%28 of 119 | 26.14%50,405 websites | −2.61 pp |
| FAQPage structured data not detectedStructured data | 97.48%116 of 119 | 95.57%50,405 websites | +1.91 pp |
| Other crawl failureCrawl accessibility | 2.44%4 of 164 | 4.22%71,323 websites | −1.78 pp |
| Unclear H1 structureWebsite fundamentals | 52.10%62 of 119 | 53.80%50,405 websites | −1.70 pp |
| Other HTTP errorCrawl accessibility | 3.05%5 of 164 | 1.73%71,323 websites | +1.32 pp |
| HTTP 403 responseCrawl accessibility | 9.15%15 of 164 | 8.09%71,323 websites | +1.06 pp |
| Invalid responseCrawl accessibility | 1.22%2 of 164 | 0.38%71,323 websites | +0.84 pp |
| Dentist or LocalBusiness structured data not detectedStructured data | 39.50%47 of 119 | 38.72%50,405 websites | +0.78 pp |
| robots.txt restrictionCrawl accessibility | 3.05%5 of 164 | 3.82%71,323 websites | −0.77 pp |
| TimeoutCrawl accessibility | 0.61%1 of 164 | 0.40%71,323 websites | +0.21 pp |
| Insurance or payment page not detectedPatient journey | 51.26%61 of 119 | 51.40%50,405 websites | −0.14 pp |
| FAQ page not detectedPatient journey | 65.55%78 of 119 | 65.47%50,405 websites | +0.08 pp |
Largest audited city-state samples
Top South Dakota markets in the cohort
Markets are ordered by audited-domain count. Each row gives its own base; these are descriptive cohort cuts, not city rankings.
| Market | Audited domains | Median score |
|---|---|---|
| Rapid City, SD | 29 | 78 |
| Sioux Falls, SD | 28 | 79.50 |
| Aberdeen, SD | 8 | 74.50 |
| Brookings, SD | 5 | 81 |
| Huron, SD | 4 | 74 |
| Madison, SD | 4 | 64.50 |
| Pierre, SD | 4 | 68 |
| Watertown, SD | 4 | 82.50 |
| Yankton, SD | 3 | 87 |
| Chamberlain, SD | 2 | 69 |
Common questions
Dental SEO and website questions for South Dakota
- How do South Dakota dental practice websites score?
- Across 119 audited South Dakota dental websites, the median DentalPresence Score is 76 out of 100 — 1 point below the national median of 77. The score summarizes 37 deterministic website and SEO checks.
- What do South Dakota dental websites most often get wrong?
- The most widespread gaps observed in the South Dakota cohort are: “Service or treatment structured data not detected” (97% of audited sites); “FAQPage structured data not detected” (97% of audited sites); “AggregateRating structured data not detected” (96% of audited sites). “Not detected” is a bounded-crawl observation, not proof a signal is absent everywhere on a site.
- How can I compare my dental practice website with the South Dakota average?
- Run a free DentalPresence score: it audits a practice website against the same 37 checks behind every figure on this page and returns a prioritized list of what to fix first. No card is required.
Methodology and limitations
What this study measures—and what it does not
Cohort. The completed production run covered 109,408 matched practice-location candidates across 71,323 normalized domains. Website-level findings use one deterministic representative candidate for each of the 50,405 successfully crawled domains, avoiding duplicate-domain weighting.
Collection window. Public pages were crawled on 2–3 August 2026 using methodology dps-37-v1. The bounded HTTP crawler inspected robots.txt, sitemap signals, the homepage, and up to two linked internal pages. Browser rendering was not used for this index run.
Scoring. The DentalPresence Score averages four deterministic category scores. Three Local SEO inputs—Google Business Profile, cross-directory NAP consistency, and service coverage—were not evaluated in this open-data backfill, so the Local SEO average is partial and upward-biased.
Detection limits. A signal not detected in three pages may exist elsewhere, be injected only after JavaScript rendering, or use markup the parser did not recognize. The high “orphan page” result was excluded from headline recommendations because a bounded crawl cannot establish sitewide orphan status reliably.
Sampling. This is a large matched open-place cohort, not a probability sample of every U.S. dental office. It should not be used to estimate national market share or infer the quality of any individual practice.
No causal claims. The study did not use rankings, traffic, conversions, clinical data, credentials, safety records, or patient outcomes. A failed check is an observable website signal, not proof of lost revenue or poor care.
Use the benchmark
Score a dental website against the same framework
The state benchmark describes a cohort, not an individual practice. Run a free score to inspect the public website signals detected for one practice.