Local SEO for clinics: turn nearby searches into booked appointments
A patient with a bad back, a dog that needs a vet tonight, a sight test two years overdue — they all search once, pick from the map, and ring. Medical clinics, physios, chiropractors, optometrists, vets and counsellors all win or lose that call the same way, and we do the work that decides it.
What local SEO means for a clinic
It means appearing when someone nearby searches for what you do — "physio near me", "emergency vet", "eye test", a private GP — and looking like the safe choice when you do. In practice: the right category and specialisms on your Google profile, hours and out-of-hours arrangements stated plainly, reviews arriving steadily from real patients, and replies that never confirm who has been treated.
Where clinics lose the call
Six things we find on nearly every clinic profile we audit. None of them are clinical, and all of them cost appointments.
One listing, six practitioners, no plan
Some of your practitioners have their own Google listings, some do not, and one who left two years ago still outranks the clinic on their own name. Which listings should exist, and what they point at, is a decision — and at most clinics nobody has made it.
The registered name and the trading name disagree
The invoice says one thing, the door says another and the directories say a third. Google reads conflicting names as different businesses, splits your reviews between them, and shows neither version as often as it should.
Out-of-hours is a mystery
For a vet this is the most valuable information on the whole profile: what a panicking owner does at 9pm. If the hours are wrong and nothing states the emergency arrangement, that client rings the practice that said — and remembers who answered.
Asking for a review feels awkward, so nobody does
It is healthcare, and asking at the desk feels wrong — so the profile sits at nine reviews while a competitor who asks properly passes two hundred. The ask does not belong at the desk. It belongs in the follow-up, timed to the end of a course of treatment.
A reply confirmed someone was a patient
The warm, helpful reply — "sorry your appointment ran late, we have flagged it with the team" — has just told the public that the reviewer was treated by you. It is the most common mistake on clinic profiles, and for a counsellor it is the most serious.
The specialisms are nowhere
Sports injuries, vestibular rehab, CBT, couples counselling, paediatric eye care, exotics — every one is a separate search run by someone who needs exactly that. A profile that says only "physiotherapist" or "counsellor" enters none of them.
What we do for a clinic
The same engine as everything else we run, set up for appointment-based care with recalls and courses of treatment.
Categories and specialisms that match the work
The primary category chosen against the searches worth most to you, secondary categories for the rest, and every specialism listed as its own service. For a mixed practice — a clinic with a physio, a counsellor and a private GP under one roof — that structure is what stops Google guessing.
What profile optimisation covers →Hours and out-of-hours, stated plainly
The hours a patient can actually book, the emergency arrangement where one exists, and the bank holidays set in advance. A vet profile that answers "what do I do right now" wins the call; one that leaves it unanswered does not get a second chance at it.
Requests timed to how care actually runs
At the end of a course of treatment, after a recall visit, at the follow-up — the moments a patient is relieved and unhurried. Never mid-treatment, never to someone mid-complaint, and for counselling clients never in a way that links a name to being in therapy.
How the review requests work →Replies that confirm nothing
Every review answered within 24 hours, none of them confirming the reviewer was a patient or referring to any treatment or appointment. Anything clinical, or anything that reads like a complaint, comes to you first and goes through your own procedure rather than a public thread.
How review management runs →One identity across every directory
Registered name and trading name reconciled, directories and register listings carrying the same address and phone, and practitioner listings pointed at the clinic rather than competing with it. This is also where a departed practitioner's stale listings get untangled from yours.
How the citation clean-up runs →The specialism terms tracked, month over month
Not just "clinic near me" — the searches with a patient and a need behind them: emergency vet, sports physio, eye test, private GP, each in your area, tracked from where your patients actually are.
How map pack ranking works →The systems we connect to
Requests fire off the appointment book, so nobody on reception has to remember. These are the ones we see most in UK clinics.
The most common system we meet in physio, chiro and multi-practitioner clinics. Completed appointments are a clean trigger.
Strong in counselling and talking-therapy practices, where the wording and timing of the ask matters most.
Widely used by private practices and small clinics; straightforward to work alongside.
Common in independent vets. Recalls and boosters give a natural, steady review moment.
TM3, Vetstoria, Semble and the optometry practice systems all work too. Where a system cannot be connected we work from a weekly list of completed appointments, and the patient never sees the difference.
How it runs
One call and one handover from the practice manager. Nothing about it touches clinical time.
A 15-minute audit
Your profile as a patient sees it, which listings exist for your address and your practitioners, and who is above you on the searches that matter — emergency and specialism terms as much as "near me". Yours to keep either way.
Profile and listings
Categories, specialisms, hours and out-of-hours arrangement, names reconciled across every directory, and practitioner listings set to support the clinic rather than compete with it.
The recall list first
Recalls and course-end follow-ups are the natural review moments, so requests start there and then run on every completed appointment. The back catalogue is worked in batches — a clinic gaining a hundred reviews in a fortnight looks like exactly what it would be.
One report to the practice manager
New reviews, rating, response time, and from Growth up where you rank on each specialism term and how many calls came from Google. One page, no login.
What we won't publish for a clinic
You are treating people before you are marketing to them, and the profile has to survive that. These are the rules that catch clinics out.
The full policy, and the law behind each rule, is published.
Read the full compliance policy →What it costs
The same two plans as everything else we run. Nothing about running a clinic costs extra; the work is just set up differently.
Proof that reviews come in — cheaply, and with no risk.
- Google Business Profile set up & optimised
- Automated review requests, with photo mechanic
- Every review replied to within 24 hours
- Customer Feedback System
- Monthly report
Where "trust us" becomes "here are the calls you got."
Priced on your market, your ad spend and how fast you want to move.
Foundation covers the profile, the review engine and replies. Growth adds weekly posts, specialism-term rank tracking, call tracking and citation clean-up. Priced per practice, ex VAT — a group prices per site, with one consistent name, address and phone across every listing. No contract — cancel any month. Compare all three plans in full.
Questions we get asked
PermittedCan a clinic ask patients for Google reviews?
Yes. Asking a real patient for an honest review is permitted and normal — what is not permitted is paying for reviews, offering anything in exchange, or filtering out unhappy patients before they reach Google. For health services the ask just has to be made properly: away from the desk, after the appointment, and never in a way that pressures someone mid-treatment.
ConfidentialityHow do you reply to a review without confirming someone is a patient?
By writing every reply as if the reviewer were a stranger. Thank them for the feedback, state the practice's general approach, and give a named person and a phone number to take it further offline — no reference to appointments, treatment, or how long they have been coming. Anything clinical goes to you first. For counselling and mental-health practices we go further: the wording assumes even acknowledging the person could identify them.
VolumeWe are a counselling practice. Hardly any clients will ever review us — is that a problem?
No, and anyone who promises you otherwise has not thought about your clients. People do not publicise being in therapy, and a sparse review count on a therapy profile is normal — prospective clients know it too. What the profile has to do instead is answer the questions a nervous first-time client actually has: your specialisms, how to book, what the first session involves, and where you are. That is very fixable, and it is where we put the effort.
TransparencyWe are a vets. Do we really have to put prices on the profile?
There is no rule forcing it into a Google profile — but the CMA's investigation into the veterinary sector has put pricing transparency at the front of owners' minds, and the practices publishing their consultation and common-treatment fees are the ones getting the trust benefit of it. A profile that hides every price gets the same scepticism a menu-less restaurant does. We recommend publishing the anchor prices; the decision is yours.
StructureShould each of our practitioners have their own Google listing?
Sometimes. Google permits practitioner listings for genuinely public-facing professionals — a named GP or optometrist can qualify — but a listing per therapist to take up more of the map is a policy breach, and stale listings for departed practitioners actively hurt you. The audit maps what exists at your address today, and we agree the structure before touching anything.
Honest answerWe are a one-person practice. Is a monthly plan overkill?
It might be, and we will say so on the call. If your work comes from referrals and you do not want to grow, you need your profile fixed once — categories, hours, specialisms, listings — not a monthly engine. Where the plan earns its fee for a solo practitioner is when you want the diary fuller, want to shift the mix toward better-value work, or have a competitor collecting reviews faster than you. If none of those is true, buy the audit and keep your money.
Related services
Fifteen minutes on your practice
Where you appear for the searches your patients actually run, which listings exist at your address, and the three things we would change first. Free, and yours whether or not you hire us.