“How much does local SEO cost?” is one of the first questions practice owners ask, and quotes for what sounds like the same service can be very far apart. The price on its own tells you little. What matters is what the work includes, what you could do yourself for free, and what you should never pay for at all.
This guide does not quote market prices, because we have no reliable source for them and every practice’s scope is different. Instead it explains what you are paying for, so you can compare quotes on substance. Where Google has said something directly, we link to it.
What is free
- Your Google Business Profile. Google offers the Business Profile for free. Claiming it, verifying it and keeping it accurate costs nothing but time.
- Appearing in search. Google says it never accepts money to include or rank sites in its search results, that it costs nothing to appear in organic results, and that advertising with Google has no effect on your organic presence.
- Local ranking. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
- Google’s own tools and guides. Search Console and the SEO Starter Guide are free. Google says that if you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself.
So when you pay for local SEO, you are paying for someone’s time, skill and consistency, not for access to Google. That is a good thing to keep in mind when someone implies otherwise.
How Google decides local results
Google says local results are mainly based on three factors. Knowing them tells you what money can and cannot change.
Relevance
How well your profile matches the search. Complete, detailed business information, the right categories and real service pages help here. This is where most SEO work goes.
Distance
How far you are from the person searching. No one can change where your office is, so be wary of promises to rank across a whole metro area from one location.
Prominence
How well known the practice is. Google says this includes how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help.
What you are actually paying for
Local SEO for a practice is a bundle of separate jobs. A useful quote names each one, says whether it is one-time or ongoing, and says who does it.
- Audit and foundation (usually one-time): checking your Business Profile, categories, duplicate listings, site pages and technical setup, then fixing what is wrong.
- Business Profile upkeep (ongoing): hours, holiday hours, services, photos, posts, and watching for edits by the public or by Google.
- Service and location pages (per page): real writing for each service and location you want to be found for. This is often the largest part of the work, and the part most worth paying for.
- Citations (mostly one-time, then checks): your name, address and phone consistent across health directories, insurer directories and data aggregators.
- Review process (setup, then running): a request every patient gets the same way, and reply templates that protect privacy. See our patient review guide.
- Technical work (as needed): speed, mobile layout, indexing, redirects and structured data.
- Tracking and reporting (ongoing): calls, direction requests and bookings that came from search, reported in plain words.
What drives the price up or down
- Locations and providers. Each location needs its own profile, page and citations; provider profiles add more.
- Services you want to grow. More services means more pages to write and keep current.
- Where you start. Duplicate or suspended listings, a slow or hard-to-edit site, or years of inconsistent citations take more work to fix.
- Who writes. Copy you write and the agency edits costs less than copy written from interviews with your team. Health pages also need a clinician to review them.
- Your market. A specialty with many practices in a dense area usually needs more pages and more patience than one with few nearby competitors.
What never to pay for
Some of what is sold as SEO is useless, and some of it can get a practice removed from Google. Google’s guidance on hiring an SEO and its spam policies are direct about these:
- Guaranteed rankings. Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and to beware of SEOs that claim a “special relationship” with Google or offer “priority submit”.
- Bought links. Buying or selling links for ranking purposes is link spam under Google’s spam policies. Google also says you should never have to link to your SEO.
- Dozens of near-identical city pages. Google lists pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page as an example of doorway abuse. A real location page for a real office is fine; a page for every nearby town where you have no office usually is not.
- Mass-produced content. Google defines scaled content abuse as many pages generated mainly to manipulate rankings rather than help people, however they are made.
- Fake or incentivized reviews. These break Google’s Maps policy and the FTC’s review rule.
- Unsolicited offers. Google says to be wary of SEO firms that email you out of the blue.
Google also points out that you are responsible for the actions of any company you hire. If an SEO creates deceptive content for you, it is your site that can be removed.
Questions to ask before you sign
Google suggests interviewing any SEO you consider. These questions combine its list with the ones that matter for a practice:
- What exactly is included?Ask for each job above, one-time or ongoing, and how many pages per month or quarter.
- Will you show me every change?Google suggests asking whether the SEO will share all changes and explain the reasoning behind them.
- Do you follow Google Search Essentials?And do they cite Google’s own documentation when they recommend something?
- What results do you expect, by when, and how will you measure them?Calls and bookings from search are more useful than rankings for a single keyword.
- Who owns what?You should stay the owner of your Business Profile, website, domain and content, with the agency added as a manager you can remove.
- Will you touch patient information?Local SEO normally does not need any. If tracking or review tools would handle patient details, ask how.
- What happens if we stop?Pages, listings and accounts should stay with you, with nothing held back.
Doing it yourself, or hiring
If you have one location, a decent website and someone on your team with a few hours a month, you can cover a lot yourself: an accurate Business Profile, a review request every patient gets, and a page for each main service. Our Business Profile guide and website checklist are written for that. Hiring tends to make sense when you have several locations or providers, a site that is hard to change, a listing problem you cannot untangle, or simply no one with the time to keep it going.
How we approach it
Our local SEO for practices starts with an audit, fixes the foundation, then builds service and location pages in the order that matters most to your practice. We quote after a practice review, once we know your locations, services and where you are starting from, and we say in writing what is included. You stay the owner of your profile and site. We do not guarantee rankings, buy links or write reviews.
Frequently asked questions
How much does local SEO cost for a doctor or dentist?
It depends on the number of locations and providers, the services you want to grow, the state of your listing and site, and who writes the pages. Compare quotes on what they include, one-time versus ongoing, rather than on the monthly figure alone.
Is Google Business Profile free?
Yes. Google offers the Business Profile for free. What you may pay for is someone’s time to set it up correctly and keep it accurate.
Can we pay Google to rank higher in the map?
No. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and that advertising has no effect on organic results. Ads are a separate, paid placement.
Should an SEO guarantee results?
No. Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. A good SEO gives realistic expectations, explains how they will measure progress, and shows you the work.
Should the agency own our Google Business Profile?
No. Keep ownership yourself and add the agency as a manager. That way you can remove access at any time without losing your listing or reviews.