Patients search for symptoms, conditions and clinics constantly, and most of that demand goes to whoever appears in the map pack or the AI answer. Very few practices have done the work to be there.
I run search programs for practices directly, so a senior specialist does the work rather than an account manager relaying it. Every recommendation is judged on patient enquiries, not rankings.
Agencies sell condition-page packages written by generalist writers, which is both a compliance risk and exactly what Google discounts in health content. Meanwhile the practice's own profile and booking experience are neglected.
Health content is held to the strictest standard Google applies, advertising is regulated for practitioners, and patients choose on trust above everything. Service values also vary enormously between a standard consult and a procedure.
Focus on the services that carry genuine value for the practice, get the local and profile fundamentals right, and build content that is clinically accurate, properly attributed and compliant.
Patients follow a predictable path from symptom to booking. Coverage is built at each point, in Google and in the AI tools now answering these questions.
Someone works out what their symptom might mean and whether to see a doctor. This is now heavily AI-mediated, with assistants answering before any site is visited.
“why does my [symptom] hurt”, “do I need a referral for [specialist]”
They shortlist clinics or practitioners. Specialisation, credentials, reviews, availability and whether an AI tool names you decide who makes the list.
“best [specialty] clinic [suburb]”, “[practitioner name]”
One practice gets the booking. How easy it is to book, how clearly you explain the service and how credible the clinic feels convert the enquiry.
“doctor near me open now”, “book [service] [suburb]”
Scope follows your business, your market and your service mix. These are the components a program draws on.
Working out which services and patient types carry the most value for the practice, then building coverage around those first.
Pages that genuinely explain the service and who provides it, with visible credentials, because Google and AI models both assess who stands behind health content.
The highest-leverage piece for most clinics: complete, accurate, actively managed profiles for every location and practitioner.
Speed, mobile experience and a booking path that doesn't lose people, since most patient searches happen on a phone.
Structured data and consistent, corroborated facts so AI tools name your practice when someone describes their situation and location.
Content written to health advertising requirements and signed off clinically before publishing, plus credibility built on sources beyond your own site.
A business doesn't run on traffic. It runs on the work that gets won and what that work is worth.
LeadSight, my own attribution software, ties enquiries and closed work back to the channel that produced them, so your monthly report shows what SEO returned in dollars rather than which keywords moved.
How LeadSight works →I keep my client list small, and medical SEO works best where there are specific services worth competing for.
Where the service is specific, the value is real, and specificity is an advantage in both search and AI answers.
Where location pages, practitioner profiles and consistent data across profiles need someone senior thinking about structure.
Where patients pay directly, compare options and choose on trust rather than referral alone.
Everything is written to stay inside the applicable advertising requirements for regulated health services, and nothing publishes without clinical sign-off. In practice the rules rarely limit good SEO, because what they prohibit — testimonials about clinical outcomes, misleading claims — is also what Google penalises.
Yes, more strictly than almost any other category. Google treats it as YMYL: content that can affect someone's health, so visible practitioner credentials, clinical accuracy and verifiable practice credibility all matter far more than in other industries.
On-shore specialist copywriters brief me on nothing — it's the other way around: I brief and project manage them, then a nominated practitioner reviews and signs off before anything publishes. Accuracy is non-negotiable here, both ethically and for how the content performs.
No. Thin condition pages produced at volume are exactly what Google discounts in health content, and they're a compliance risk. A smaller set of genuinely useful, properly reviewed pages on the services you want to grow performs far better.
No. I keep my client list deliberately small and won't take on a directly competing practice in the same catchment and specialty.
Local and profile work often moves within weeks. Service-level visibility takes two to three months to compound. Dense metro areas take longer, and I'll tell you what's realistic before you commit.
Send your domain through and I’ll review your site, your competition and your AI visibility before we speak. No obligation, and a straight answer on whether it’s worth the spend.