SEO and AI search for private clinics
SEO for private clinics, inside the advertising rules
Patients compare clinics on Google, in Maps and, more and more, in ChatGPT before they book a consultation. We work on the treatment pages, practitioner pages, Business Profile and reviews they find, check each page against the CAP Code, and count the consultations that come in.
Rules read on 9 November 2026
Every page checked against the CAP Code
- 12.12
- No prescription-only medicine named
- 3.44 to 3.48
- Reviews and testimonials that are real
- 12.25
- Nothing aimed at under-18s
- CQC 20A
- Your rating shown, if you have one
This is not legal advice. Your clinical lead signs off every page before it goes live.
What do patients search before they book a clinic?
Clinic SEO is the work that gets a private clinic found, and chosen, at each step a patient takes before booking: the concern they type, the treatment they read about, the clinic and practitioner they check, and the reviews they compare. In the UK each of those pages also counts as an advert, so it has to pass the CAP Code.
We sort your searches into four stages and give each one a page that answers it.
| Stage | What people type | What they want to know | The page that should answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concern | lines around my eyes, hair loss in women, knee pain after running | What's causing it, and what can be done | A concern page that explains the options |
| Treatment | laser hair removal cost, how long does lip filler last | Price, how it feels, recovery, risks | One page per treatment |
| Clinic | aesthetics clinic near me, private GP [town] | Who is close, open and well reviewed | Your Business Profile and location page |
| Trust | [clinic name] reviews, [practitioner name] | Is this person qualified, and do patients rate them | Practitioner pages and your reviews |
Most patients move through these stages over days or weeks, and many come back to the same clinic two or three times before they book. The pages work as a set.
What do the advertising rules change about clinic SEO?
A clinic website, its Business Profile and its social pages all count as advertising. The rules below apply to all of it, including the parts SEO work touches: page titles, image alt text, schema, review replies and the price list.
| What the rule says | Source, and when we read it | What it changes on your site |
|---|---|---|
| Prescription-only medicines can't be advertised to the public. | CAP Code rule 12.12; Human Medicines Regulations 2012, regulation 284. Read 9 Nov 2026. | No prescription-only medicine named in titles, headings, alt text, schema, ads or on your homepage. Pages promote the consultation, in the ASA's words "a consultation for the treatment of lines and wrinkles". |
| Indirect references count too. | ASA advice on botulinum toxin (Botox) products, 29 Oct 2025; CAP enforcement notice, 2019. | Nicknames, "facial freezing" wording, and offers that apply only to one injectable can all read as naming the medicine. Non-prescription injectables can be called "cosmetic fillers" or "injectable fillers". |
| Before and after photos are treated as claims. | ASA advice on before and after photos, 5 Jun 2025. | Only for treatments that aren't prescription-only, with signed and dated consent, no retouching, and captions that don't promise the same result. |
| Reviews must be real, and shown fairly. | CAP Code rules 3.44 to 3.48; CMA fake reviews guidance, 4 Apr 2025, under the DMCC Act 2024. | No paid or swapped reviews, incentives made clear, negative reviews not hidden, and testimonials that never mention a prescription-only medicine. |
| Claims need evidence before they go live. | CAP Code rule 3.7, and rules 12.7 and 12.9. | No "guaranteed results", "pain-free" or "permanent" unless you hold the evidence. Words like "cure" and "rejuvenation" are generally not accepted. |
| Cosmetic ads must not be aimed at under-18s. | CAP Code rule 12.25. | Offers and images aren't pitched at teenagers, and ads aren't placed where most of the audience is under 18. |
| Practitioners must be described accurately. | GMC Good medical practice 2024, paras 82 and 90; NMC Code 21.4; GDC guidance on advertising; GCC guidance on titles. | Names, roles and register numbers shown. "Specialist" only for a dentist on a GDC specialist list. A chiropractor using "Dr" says Doctor of Chiropractic. |
| A CQC rating must be shown online. | CQC Regulation 20A, page updated 25 Nov 2025. | If your clinic in England has a CQC rating, your website shows it with its date and a link to the CQC page. |
This is not legal advice. It's how we read each rule when we write pages, checked against the source on the date shown. Your clinical lead signs off every page, and the CAP Copy Advice team offers free advice before you publish if a page is borderline.
Of the first 13 results Google showed for "aesthetic clinic seo" on 9 November 2026, five suggested a prescription-only medicine as a page name, keyword or Business Profile service. Copying what ranks can put a clinic on the wrong side of rule 12.12.
Treatment, practitioner and location pages
These are the pages that bring consultations, and on many clinic sites they are the thinnest. We rebuild them around what a patient wants to know before they book.
Treatment pages
One page per treatment or concern, saying who it suits, what happens at the consultation, recovery, risks and a price range, with the reviewer's name and the date it was checked.
Practitioner pages
Each practitioner's name, role, register and number, linked to the public register, with their training and the treatments they carry out at your clinic.
Location pages
Only for places where you have a clinic. Each one needs facts only that site has: the rooms, the parking, the practitioners there and their days.
Worked example, on a fictional clinic
FictionalClinic A is made up. It offers consultations for lines and wrinkles, cosmetic fillers and laser hair removal from one site in Exeter. Here is how we would take its main treatment page from a draft that fails to one that passes the rules and the fact test.
| Part of the page | Draft that fails | Version that passes | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page title | Consultation for lines and wrinkles in Exeter | The ASA has read "line relaxing" wording as naming a prescription-only medicine (Skinboost, 2012), and a price makes it an offer. | |
| Opening line | What happens at a consultation, and the options a practitioner may suggest | Outcome claims need evidence (CAP 3.7 and 12.9). The consultation is what is offered. | |
| Photos | The treatment room and the practitioner, plus before and after photos for laser hair removal only, with signed consent | Before and after images of a prescription-only treatment are very likely an implied ad. | |
| Testimonial | A review about the consultation and the care, with the patient's written permission | Testimonials must not refer to a prescription-only medicine, and must be genuine (CAP 3.47). | |
| Who carries it out | Dr Sam Rivers (fictional), GMC number, and a link to the register | Doctors must be honest about qualifications (GMC para 82), and patients can check the register. | |
| Fact test | Swap "Exeter" for "Bath" and every line still reads as true | Opening days, parking on Clinic A's street, and which practitioner works there on which day | A page with no local facts reads as a copy of every other clinic's page. |
The passing version is also the one a patient can act on. It tells them what will happen at the consultation, who they will see and how to get there.
Your Google Business Profile and reviews
For "clinic near me" searches, the map results come before the normal ones. Each clinic site needs its own place there, and the same rules apply to it as to your website.
A profile per clinic
The right main category for the service most patients book, accurate hours, and service names checked against the advertising rules, with your treatment page as the link.
Reviews that keep coming
The same simple request after every appointment, so the picture is fair. No paid, swapped or filtered reviews. Your review policy published on the site.
Replies that keep confidences
A reply to every review that never confirms the person was treated, since that can breach patient confidentiality (GMC Good medical practice, para 88).
We also check how you appear on Google Maps across your area at the hours you are open, so you can see where the clinic shows and where it drops away.
AI search
Will ChatGPT and Google's AI name your clinic?
Ask an AI tool for a clinic in your town and it names two or three. It takes those names from pages it can read: your site, your reviews, directories and local press. A clinic with clear treatment pages and named, registered practitioners gives it more to work with.
We agree a fixed list of questions with you for your treatments and towns. Each month we ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI the same questions, save the answers, and count how often you are named and which sites were used instead. We also check your site doesn't block the crawlers these tools use.
Example questions, for one clinic area
- Which clinic in [town] does laser hair removal?
- Who is a good private GP in [town]?
- Where can I get a consultation for lines and wrinkles in [town]?
For a UK executive search firm we work with, ChatGPT was the largest single source of enquiry forms on its website in October 2026.
Booked consultations, not clicks
A form or a call doesn't tell you where the patient came from, or whether they booked. So we track each enquiry by its source and follow it as far as your own records allow.
01
Every enquiry, by source
Forms, calls and online bookings recorded against Google, Maps, AI tools, ads or Instagram, so you can see what search brings.
02
Calls by treatment page
Many patients phone. Call tracking on the treatment pages shows which calls came from search, and for which treatment.
03
Booked and attended
Each month your team gives us the counts of consultations booked and attended. Counts only: we never need patient names or notes.
Your first 90 days, and what we won't do
Month 1
Audit, tracking by source, Business Profiles put right, every live page checked against the rules, and a first AI check as the baseline.
Month 2
Treatment and practitioner pages rebuilt and signed off by your clinical lead, with a review request running after every appointment.
Month 3
Concern and location pages that pass the fact test, a second AI check, and a review of what moved.
What we won't do
- Name a prescription-only medicine on a page, profile or ad
- Promise rankings, consultations or AI mentions
- Buy reviews or links, or hide the bad reviews
- Publish a before and after photo without signed consent
- Build pages for towns where you have no clinic
- Put anything live that your clinical lead hasn't signed off
Results from other local service businesses
We don't have a clinic result we can publish yet. The results below come from other local service businesses. The closest to a clinic is the refrigeration firm: a local service business whose clicks came from guides answering the exact problems its customers search for, which is close to how a concern page works.
UK refrigeration repair firm · past client
Google clicks went from zero to 50 to 60 a month after a site rebuild and new guides, between March and October 2026, with no paid links.
UK executive search firm
Clicks from Google rose from 282 a week in June 2026 to 593 a week in October. That month, ChatGPT was its largest single source of enquiry forms.
UK property firm
Its rebuilt valuation page was cited in Google's AI Overview for its main valuation searches within a month, and was still cited on 9 November 2026.
From each client's own Search Console and Analytics. Client names are withheld.
See all case studiesWhat it costs, and how long it takes
Most single-site clinics fit our Starter plan at £740 a month or Growth at £1,470. Groups with three to five sites usually fit Multi-location at £2,450. An audit is £480, credited against your first month. You pay month to month, can stop with 30 days' notice, and no VAT is charged.
Business Profile and page fixes can show within weeks. Positions usually take a few months to settle, and every town and treatment is different, so we review what has moved at month 3.
See the plansWho this is for
- Self-pay clinics with room in the diary for more consultations
- Aesthetics, skin and laser, private GP, menopause, physio and similar clinics
- Clinics with a clinical lead who can check each new page
- Groups of up to five sites, each with its own profile
It's probably not a fit if your diary is already full, if most patients come through insurers, or if you want pages that name a prescription-only medicine.
FAQ
Questions clinic owners ask
The questions we answer most on calls. Anything else, ask us directly.
How much does SEO for clinics cost?
Our plans start at £740 a month, with Growth at £1,470 and Multi-location at £2,450 for three to five sites. An audit is £480, credited against your first month. There's no minimum term: you can stop with 30 days' notice.
How long before we see more consultations?
Business Profile and page fixes can show within weeks. New pages usually take a few months to settle in Google, and every town and treatment is different. We review what has moved at month 3, using your own booking counts.
Can our website mention Botox?
Not as something you advertise. It's a prescription-only medicine, so CAP Code rule 12.12 applies. The ASA accepts pages that promote "a consultation for the treatment of lines and wrinkles", with balanced, factual information on inner pages, presented only as a possible outcome of that consultation.
Can we use before and after photos?
For treatments that aren't prescription-only, yes, with signed and dated consent, no retouching, and captions that don't promise the same result. For prescription-only treatments the ASA says to avoid them altogether.
Do our practitioners have to be named on the site?
Dental professionals named on a website must show their GDC number and qualification. For doctors, nurses and other practitioners, a name and register number is what patients look for, and what AI tools can check against the public registers.
Will ChatGPT recommend our clinic?
Nobody can promise that. What we can do is give it clear facts to read, on your site and on the sites it cites, and check every month how often it names you.
How should we ask for reviews?
Ask every patient the same way after their appointment, by text or email, and don't offer anything in return. Don't pick only the happy patients. If you show reviews on your own site, the CMA's guidance from April 2025 expects you to publish a review policy and take steps against fake ones.
Do we need a page for every treatment?
For the treatments you most want to grow, yes. One page per treatment or concern lets each answer its own searches. Prescription-only treatments are covered through a consultation page.
Should we have pages for nearby towns?
Only where you have a clinic, or something true to say about patients from that town. A page with the town name swapped in and nothing else tends to be ignored by Google.
Who writes the pages, and who signs them off?
We write them from a short call with your practitioners. Your clinical lead checks every page for accuracy before it goes live, and nothing is published without that sign-off.
Do you need access to patient records?
No. We only need counts of consultations booked and attended each month. We never need names, notes or anything that identifies a patient.
Most of our patients find us on Instagram. Why does Google matter?
Many of them still search your clinic name, the practitioner or the treatment before they book. What they find there either backs up what they saw on Instagram or sends them to another clinic. Search sits alongside the rest of your aesthetics clinic marketing, and the tracking shows what each channel brings.
Do we need a new website?
Usually not. The audit shows what we can change on your current site and what needs your web developer or booking system supplier. If a rebuild is the better option, we'll say so and why.
We have more than one clinic. Is that one plan?
Yes. Multi-location covers up to five sites, each with its own Business Profile, location page and AI checks.
See which clinics AI names in your town
The free check shows which clinics ChatGPT and Google's AI name today. Or talk it through with Robin.