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Plain English, no pitch

SEO, explained the way
we would explain it to a friend.

You have probably been sold a package with this name on it. Here is what it actually is, what parts matter for a surgical practice, and what you can safely ignore. Nothing on this page requires you to buy anything.

Start here

This is what a patient sees.
Three layers, three different rules.

Pick your specialty and city. Then tap each part of the results page to see what it is and what decides who shows up there.

google.com/search?q=hip replacement los angeles
Ghip replacement los angeles

Sponsored

nationalorthocenter.com

Top Rated Hip Replacement Surgeons | Book Today

Same-week appointments. Most insurance accepted. Call now.

orthonetwork-ads.com

Hip Replacement Near You | Free Consult

Places · Los Angeles

Dr. You, MD · Hip Replacement4.9 ★ (212) · Orthopedic surgeon · Open
Metro Orthopedic Group4.6 ★ (89) · Orthopedic clinic
University Medical Center4.2 ★ (1,040) · Hospital

dryou.com › hip-replacement

Hip Replacement in Los Angeles | Dr. You, MD

What to expect, recovery week by week, and who is a candidate. Fellowship trained, same-day options.

healthgrades.com

Best Hip Replacement Doctors in Los Angeles

hospital.org › orthopedics

Orthopedic Services | Los Angeles

Tap a layer of the results page

The practice marked in green is what a finished setup looks like: in the map, and holding an organic result with its own procedure page. That is the whole goal.

The words

Eight terms you will hear.

Everything in an SEO proposal is one of these. If a line item is not, ask what it is.

SEO
Search engine optimization. It just means making it easy for Google to understand who you are, where you are, and what you treat, so it shows you when someone nearby searches for it.
Google Business Profile
The box with the map, hours, and reviews. For a surgeon this is the single most important thing on the internet and it is free. Most practices have never claimed theirs properly.
The map pack
The three businesses Google shows on the map at the top. Getting in there depends on your Business Profile, your reviews, and whether your website agrees with both about your name and address.
Organic results
The regular blue links below the ads and the map. You cannot pay for these. You earn them with pages that actually answer what was searched.
Keywords
Just the words people type. 'knee replacement encinitas', 'spine surgeon near me'. There is no trick, you need a real page about each thing you want to show up for.
Backlinks
Other sites linking to yours. Your hospital profile, your society listing, a news mention. A few real ones beat a thousand fake ones, and the fake ones can get you removed.
Core Web Vitals
Google's own speed score. Slow sites rank lower and lose the patient before the page loads. This is the part almost every vendor site fails.
Structured data
Hidden labels in the code that tell Google in its own language: this is a physician, this specialty, this address, these hours. We add it to every site.

What actually moves the needle

Six things, in order.
The first two are most of it.

Ranked by how much they matter for a surgeon in a real city. The first four are part of every site we build.

  1. 01

    Claim and finish your Google Business Profile

    Effort: One afternoon

    Impact

    Correct name, specialty category, address, hours, photos of you and the office, a link to the right page. This alone puts most surgeons on the map.

  2. 02

    One page per procedure and condition

    Effort: Part of every build

    Impact

    A page called 'Anterior hip replacement in Los Angeles' will show up for that search. A page called 'Services' will not.

  3. 03

    Ask for reviews the same way every time

    Effort: A habit

    Impact

    A card at checkout with a QR code to your review link. Steady real reviews beat a burst of them, and never buy them.

  4. 04

    Load fast on a phone

    Effort: Built in

    Impact

    Google measures it, patients feel it. Our sites pass Google's speed test out of the box. Most template sites do not.

  5. 05

    Get listed where you already are

    Effort: A week

    Impact

    Hospital profile, Healthgrades, your board and society directories, all with the exact same name, address, and phone. Consistency is what Google trusts.

  6. 06

    Write something real now and then

    Effort: Optional

    Impact

    A plain post about a question patients keep asking you. Once a month is plenty. A hundred AI articles about 'back pain tips' does nothing.

Things to hang up on

Five lines from real proposals.

We have read the contracts surgeons forward us. These come up in almost all of them.

'We submit your site to 500 search engines.'

There are two that matter and they find you on their own. This has been meaningless since about 2005.

'Guaranteed page one rankings.'

Nobody can guarantee this. Google says so. The guarantee is usually for a keyword nobody searches.

'Monthly SEO package, 12 month contract.'

Ask what they do each month. If the answer is a report, you are paying for a report.

'You need to post every week to rank.'

You need a correct Business Profile and a page per procedure. Posting is a distant sixth.

'Our platform is optimized for SEO.'

Run their site through Google's free PageSpeed test. Then run ours.

How long it takes

Honest timelines.

Same weekBusiness Profile fixed, site indexed, structured data live.
Two to six weeksMap pack movement in your city if the profile and reviews are in order.
Two to four monthsProcedure pages start ranking for the specific searches they are written for.
Six months onSteady. Reviews and the odd real post keep it there. There is no ongoing trick after this.

Want us to look at where you show up right now?

Send your practice name and city. We will run the searches your patients run and send back what we see, no charge and no deck.

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