Dr. Michael Pawlus
Periodontist · Sarasota
ICOI Fellow, ICOI Diplomate · AAP member
Home / Methodology
How doctors are ranked
Every practice is scored the same way from public records, checked October 2, 2026. The weights below are the whole formula.
Weights
Points by signal
Each signal has a cap. A practice's score is the sum.
Reviews
30Google review count, log scale, full points at 500+ (25) · Google rating, 4.0 = 0 to 5.0 = full (5)
Source: Google Business Profile
Visibility
30Visibility Score for the search basket per market: "dental implants", "implant dentist", "implant dentistry", "implant dentist near me", "periodontist", each searched from every Florida city ("implant dentist in my city"); organic + map pack, normalized 0–100 to the market leader. Basket: SEARCH_KEYWORDS. Inbound links fold in here once a backlinks source is enabled.
Source: DataForSEO SERP
Associations
10member of AAID, AAP, ICOI, Academy of Osseointegration (2 each, cap 6) · Florida society membership (2 each, cap 4)
Source: association directories
Leadership + teaching
15officer or board of a scored association (8) · lectured at an implant or perio meeting 2024–2026 (7)
Source: association leadership pages, meeting faculty pages
Work shown
10dental implant page (3) · implant before + after gallery that loads (5) · implant video (2)
Source: practice-site check
Recognition
5implant papers in PubMed (3) · listed on an implant or materials company doctor locator (2)
Source: PubMed, company locators
Who is scored
- Florida practice with its own practice website.
- One of the three doctor types (SPEC "The three doctor types"): periodontist, implant dentist,
general dentist performing implants.
- Places implants: a dental implant page on the practice site, or implant ads.
Only systematic sources score
A source scores only when it is checked the same way for every doctor in the market. Facts found while researching one doctor (a CV, a dossier pass) show on that dossier and add no points.
Featured doctors
Featured doctors (clients) sit in a labeled Featured slot above the ranked list. Their own score and rank show as computed. Featured never changes a score.
Editorial adjustment
adds points (plus or minus) to a computed score. The methodology page states that the editors can adjust scores.
Disclaimer
Scores come from public records on the date shown. Nothing here is a medical recommendation. Doctors can correct a record by contacting the site.
The ranked list
Florida implant doctors by region, county and city, scored with these weights.
Change log
Changes to the method
Every change to the weights or the inputs is dated here.
- 2026-10-03 search keywords (Steve: "all on 4 dental implants" is too narrow a search to list). Search basket: Reviews + Visibility scored for every practice
that passes the litmus. Visibility = Google Maps ranks from the discovery run only (position weight 1 = 1.0, 2 =.6, 3 =.4, 4-20 =.2 down to.01, >20 = 0), normalized to the county leader = 30. Organic ranks not pulled yet. The other four signals = 0 until their passes run.
- 2026-10-02 v0 full run. Each search credits one office per website: the office nearest the
searched city, in that city's county (stops chains copying one rank to every office). - Associations: any national or international implant-related association listing 2 each (cap 6), Florida society listing 2 each (cap 4). Leadership: officer or board 8. Teaching: 0 (meeting faculty pages blocked or give no location). - Work shown: dental implant page on the practice site = 3. Gallery and video not checked yet. - Recognition: implant or digital company locator (Nobel Biocare, ZimVie, BioHorizons, Planmeca, Neocis) = 2. Laser locators (Biolase, Solea, Fotona) show as listings, no points. PubMed not run. - Duplicate Google listings for one office merge into the listing with the most reviews.
- 2026-10-02 QC. County ranks and the county-leader
normalization are computed without them. A duplicate's Maps visibility and membership points fold into the listing it duplicates.
- 2026-10-02 QC second pass (Steve): every listing without its own website out; root canal, pediatric and
orthodontic practices out; general dentists need implant evidence (implant page, implant credential or locator, implant search ads, or a top-10 implant keyword rank). 1,295 listings removed, 5,190 offices scored.
Featured
Featured doctor
Featured doctors advertise with the publisher. Featured placement does not change a score or a rank. Disclosure