We looked at 47 dentist websites in West Michigan and the Chicago area during October 2026. We checked how well they work for search and how accessible they are to people with disabilities. We were able to run accessibility checks on 44 of those sites.
The median search score was 83, which is solid. Only 2 sites scored under 70 for search, and 4 sites reached 90 or above. Most dental practices have done decent work on the search side of things.
Accessibility tells a different story. The median accessibility score was 55. That means half the sites we checked scored below 55. Out of 44 sites, 29 scored under 70 for accessibility.
What does this mean for your practice? A low accessibility score suggests your website may be hard to use for people with vision problems, hearing loss, or motor difficulties. That includes patients who use screen readers, need larger text, or navigate without a mouse. It also means you could face legal risk, since website accessibility is increasingly tied to civil rights law.
Beyond the legal side, this is about patient care. If someone cannot easily read your hours, find your phone number, or fill out a form, they will call a competitor instead.
What to do with this
Here are three quick checks you can do on your phone right now:
- Open your website and try to make the text bigger using your phone settings. Does everything still fit on the screen? Can you still read the navigation?
- Tap through your contact form or appointment request. Can you complete it using only the keyboard that pops up, without needing to scroll sideways or zoom in and out?
- Look at any images that contain important information, like office hours or directions. Is that same information also available as regular text somewhere on the page?
If you would like a hand with your own site, send us a note using the form below.