Before comparing vendors, decide which locations and services need attention and what a successful enquiry looks like for your practice. This might include calls, appointment requests, directions, or visits to a specific service page. Agree on which events can be measured, who owns the data, and how the team will distinguish a genuine patient enquiry from spam or an unrelated call.

Ask providers to connect their proposed work to these goals. A list of rankings or monthly activity is not enough on its own. The practice should understand what will change on the website or business profiles and how progress will be reviewed.

Medical practice content needs careful review because inaccurate or exaggerated claims can mislead readers. Ask who drafts and verifies service descriptions, clinician bios, credentials, and health-related statements. Confirm that the practice has a named reviewer with authority to approve content, and that revisions are made when services or operating details change.

A responsible provider should distinguish general SEO work from clinical review. It should not invent credentials, patient outcomes, testimonials, or before-and-after results. Ask how privacy-sensitive information is handled and ensure the vendor does not request patient details that are unnecessary for marketing work.

• What would you audit first for our locations, profiles, and website?
• How will each location page be useful and distinct rather than a city-name copy?
• Who verifies provider details, services, and clinical claims before publication?
• What reporting will we receive, and how are calls or appointment actions counted?
• How do you handle access, ownership, and transfer of business profiles and analytics?
• What work is excluded, and which tasks require our team’s approval?
• How will you explain a drop or a change in local visibility?

Ask for a sample report with sensitive client details removed. Useful reporting should identify the locations and pages covered, work completed, changes in visibility, meaningful actions, and open issues. It should explain the reporting period and measurement method. If call tracking is used, ask whether the practice’s primary phone number remains visible and how missed or repeat calls are handled in reporting.

Be cautious of guarantees about first-place rankings, exact patient volume, or a fixed timeline. Search visibility depends on many factors outside a vendor’s direct control. A provider can commit to deliverables and communicate clearly, but should explain uncertainty and show how it will adapt to observed results.

• Guaranteed rankings or patient leads presented without conditions or evidence.
• Large batches of near-identical location pages with little location-specific value.
• Unclear ownership of profiles, website access, analytics, or content.
• Medical claims published without a clear practice review step.
• Reports centered on vanity metrics with no explanation of enquiries or actions.
• Requests for patient data that the marketing work does not need.