Your work deserves more than a grid.
You've built a following on bonding, aligner, and whitening cases. But when a patient, practice, or course provider searches your name, Instagram isn't what convinces them. In five minutes, you'll know whether your online presence is closing the work your grid opens.
The signs you've outgrown the grid:
- Your best cases live on Instagram, buried under everything you've posted since.
- Patients DM to ask things a site would answer: what you offer, where you practise, what it costs.
- Googling your own name brings up your practice's website, or nothing at all.
- Your CV, courses, and brand partnerships live in a PDF you last touched when you needed it.
- Your treatments have changed and the only record is a highlights reel.
- Referrals and course invitations go to colleagues who are easier to find.
If three or more of these apply, your reputation is working harder than your online presence. The good news: this is fixable.
Patients follow the grid. They book the dentist they can verify.
Instagram is a brilliant top of funnel and a terrible bottom of one. It shows the work but can't hold your CV, your treatments, your values, or your testimonials in a form anyone can navigate. And it ranks for nothing: when someone searches your name, the algorithm isn't in the room, your website is. If you don't have one, the practice's site answers for you.
- in your bio is all Instagram gives you. Where it points decides what happens after the double-tap.
- One link
- is the search that matters. Patients, practices, labs, and course providers all run it. Whatever comes back does the closing.
- Your name
- of your grid ranks on Google. Every case you post builds an audience on a platform that can't be searched by the people checking you out.
- Zero
Three gaps compound. The grid buries your best cases under your newest ones. The DM answers questions one patient at a time, and only the patients who ask. And Google, where every serious check happens, has nothing of yours to show. None of these feel urgent while followers grow, but together they mean the reputation you're building converts at a fraction of what it should. Posting more doesn't close any of the three.
This is the real reason a big grid doesn't become a full private list, and why posting more won't fix it.
- A grid, a link-in-bio page, and a PDF CV.
- Best cases buried under newest posts.
- Questions answered one DM at a time.
- Your name on Google returns the practice's site, not yours.
- Brand partnerships and courses scattered across bios and stories.
- The algorithm decides who sees your work.
- One portfolio site under your own name.
- Cases presented with context: the brief, the treatment, the result.
- Treatments, prices, and locations answered before anyone has to ask.
- Ranked for your name, and found by people who never saw the grid.
- CV, courses, and partnerships in one place you update yourself.
- The site compounds over time instead of scrolling away.
What a dentist's portfolio site should be doing.
Cases presented properly
Before and afters with the context a grid can't give: the brief, the treatment, the result. Organised by treatment, not by posting date, so your best bonding case is never buried under last week's story.
Ranked under your own name
When a patient, practice, or course provider searches your name, your site comes back first, not just the practice you work at. Structured data for you as a practitioner and for the treatments you want to be known for.
A portfolio you update between patients
Cases, treatments, testimonials, brand partnerships, values. The editor is shaped around the things dentists change, with short walkthrough videos covering every action. No developer, no waiting.
A CV that opens doors
Courses taken and taught, publications, partnerships, and where you practise, in one credible link. The thing you send when a lab, a practice, or a course provider asks who you are, and the thing they find when they don't ask.
Dr Deesha Chudasama
Cosmetic and family dentist · drdeeshadental.com
Dr Deesha Chudasama is a cosmetic and family dentist in Ystrad Mynach, building her name on bonding, veneer, and aligner work. drdeeshadental.com puts that work under her own name: her cases, her training, and her reviews in one place a patient, practice, or lab can navigate, instead of a grid that buries her best case a week after she posts it.
Cases are organised by treatment rather than posting date, each with the before, the after, and the detail that closes the decision (one visit, ninety minutes, no anaesthetic), so her best composite bonding is never lost under last week's story. A career timeline doubles as her CV, her patient reviews are gathered onto the page instead of stranded on a listing, and she updates all of it herself through a custom editor, no developer, no waiting.
Before working with the SMF team, I was quite sceptical about investing in a website. I had always assumed that new patients were primarily attracted through Instagram, as that's where I personally saw most dental marketing. The team completely broadened my perspective. They showed me that a professionally designed website is far more than just an online presence. While social media is excellent for attracting footfall, a website is what truly showcases your practice, builds trust, and converts interest into new patients. It significantly increases visibility, builds credibility, and gives potential patients the confidence to take the next step and actually book an appointment.
I now appreciate how powerful a website can be for both my own visibility as a dentist and for the growth of the practice by making high-quality dentistry more accessible and visible to the local community.
Dr Deesha ChudasamaCosmetic and family dentist- Not the practice's
- Her name
- Not by posting date
- By treatment
- Cases, CV, and reviews
- Self-serve
If Deesha's site is the shape you had in mind, you don't need the rest of the page. Send us your Instagram and we'll tell you honestly what a site would add. No charge, no obligation, and you own everything we build.
How to judge anyone offering to build your portfolio site.
- A link-in-bio page or portfolio template dressed up as a website.
- Built on WordPress with a stack of third-party plugins.
- No structured data for you or the treatments you're known for.
- SEO sold separately, as a monthly retainer add-on.
- You don't own the code, content, or domain: your reputation on rented land.
- They can't show you a clinician's site they built and still maintain.
- Custom code, fast, and a website editor designed for non-technical use.
- Ranking for your name discussed as a delivery goal, with monthly reporting.
- Case galleries you control yourself, so consent changes take effect immediately.
- Stripe checkout for consultation deposits and one-off fees.
- You own the code, content, and domain on day one.
- A live clinician's site they'll let you contact directly to ask what working with them is like.
How your project will go.
Nothing moves forward without your sign-off. Fixed scope, no lock-in, and the site is yours.
- 01
Free discovery call
We learn the shape of your week: practice days, private lists, the treatments you want more of, the courses you teach or take. No charge, no obligation.
- 02
Onboarding & planning
We map your cases, your content, and how payments should work. You see the plan before anything gets built.
- 03
Design
Full page designs you sign off before we touch any code.
- 04
Build
Frontend, website editor, payments, and SEO, built and tested.
- 05
Testing & launch
Cross-device testing, accessibility checks, then live on your domain.
- 06
Ongoing care
Hosting, monitoring, SEO, and small changes handled, so the site doesn't drift again.
Three ways to work with us.
A credible personal site you manage yourself. The starting point for most dentists.
- Custom design and build
- Website editor for cases, treatments, CV, testimonials
- On-page SEO built around your name
- Mobile and desktop optimised
For dentists taking consultation deposits or one-off fees alongside the portfolio.
- Everything in Portfolio
- Stripe checkout for deposits and one-off fees
- Case gallery admin with rich media
- Brand partnership and testimonial management
For dentists who teach, with course pages and delegate sign-ups at the heart of the site.
- Everything in Portfolio + Payments
- Dynamic course templates
- Stripe checkout with delegate pricing
- Speaker and review management
- Built for you, not a templateCustom design and code, matched to the work you do, with structured data and on-page SEO for your name included rather than sold back to you as extras.
- You own everythingCode, content, domain. No lock-in. Cancel any care plan, the site stays yours. Move practices and it moves with you.
Pick how much of the day-to-day you want us to handle after launch. Swappable at any time.
We hand you the website editor and the keys. You update cases and content yourself. We keep hosting, security, and the site itself running quietly in the background.
- Hosting and uptime monitoring
- Security patches and updates
- Email support, 2 business day response
You drive content; we keep the engine running. Monthly check-in, SEO review, small changes handled by us.
- Everything in You manage it
- 5 developer hours per month
- Monthly SEO and performance report
- Priority support, 1 business day response
You get back to dentistry. We publish your cases, keep the CV current, run SEO, and send a monthly performance report.
- Everything in Managed with our support
- Content updates handled end to end
- Active SEO work, not just monitoring
- Quarterly strategy review
What you're choosing between, side by side.
| Link-in-bio / template | Freelance dev | Traditional agency | SMF Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | Low | Medium | Very high | Medium |
| Monthly cost | Low | Variable | Very high | Defined care plan |
| Ranks for your name | Rarely | Sometimes | Yes, sold separately | Included |
| Case galleries you control | Squares in a grid | Hand-rolled or none | Custom, complex | Designed for dentists |
| Stripe payments (deposits / courses) | No | Sometimes | Custom-quoted | Included |
| You own the code | No (lock-in) | Usually | Sometimes | Yes |
| Ongoing care plan | None | None | Heavy retainer | Optional |
| Time-to-launch | Self-serve | Variable | 4-6 months | 3-8 weeks |
| Who builds it | You | One freelancer | Agency team you won't meet | The three of us |
Deliberately excluded: appointment diaries and patient data. We don't sell those, so we don't compare on them.
Meet Saajan, Madu and Finn.
Three founders, one team. The same people who scope your project also design it, build it, and pick up the phone when something needs deciding.
Saajan Patel
Founder, product and deliveryRuns your project from kickoff to launch day. Always knows where everything stands, warns you before a date moves, and is the one you'll speak to when something needs deciding.
Say hello
Madu Gadzama
Founder, design and strategyDecides how the site looks, reads and converts. Expect a lot of questions about your customers on the discovery call: the design and the words grow out of the answers.
Say hello
Finn Formica
Founder, engineering and SEOCares about the parts nobody sees: clean code, pages that load before you notice, markup a search engine reads perfectly. That's also what gets the work found, so he runs our SEO and GEO.
Say hello
The things people ask us before getting in touch.
The practice site sells the practice, and it stays behind when you move on. Your portfolio site is yours: it follows you between practices, holds your cases and CV in one place, and ranks for your name rather than the practice's. If you're building a reputation you intend to keep, it shouldn't live on someone else's domain.
Yes, with the consent you already hold for showing them on Instagram. The gallery is fully under your control through the editor, so if a patient withdraws consent you remove the case in minutes, not through a support ticket. Consent itself stays your clinical responsibility; we make acting on it immediate.
We don't build anything that puts you the wrong side of GDC guidance. Factual treatment information, genuine testimonials, and honest case presentation, yes. Misleading claims or pestering patients for reviews, no.
Stripe checkout for consultation deposits, one-off fees, and course places if you teach. Patients pay through your branded checkout, you see who paid for what in one dashboard, and reconciliation is automatic. We handle the Stripe wiring; you keep the merchant relationship.
Three to eight weeks depending on scope. Expect about an hour of your time a week, mostly in review. We schedule calls around your practice days.
Yes. If you can post a case to Instagram, you can publish one to your site. The editor is built around the things you update, with short walkthrough videos so you're confident from day one.
You do, once the project is paid in full. Code, content, and domain. We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, nothing more.
Most clients move onto a care plan so the site stays maintained, monitored, and ranking. You're never left to figure out hosting on your own.
The dentists we talk to have usually done the hard part already: the work is good and people can see it. What's missing is the asset that converts attention into a private list, a site under your own name that presents the cases properly, answers the questions before the DM, and shows up when someone checks you out. If you've read this far and something resonated, send us your Instagram and we'll tell you honestly what a site would add.
Finn FormicaFounder, engineering and SEOSend us your Instagram or a question.
Fill in the form and we'll reply within one working day with something useful, either way. No charge, no obligation. We work around your practice days.