SEO proposals for dental practices: questions, ownership and reporting
What to ask before signing a dental SEO proposal, which accounts to keep in the practice's name and what level of access to grant, and what a useful monthly SEO report contains.
An SEO proposal should tell you what will be done, by whom, how you will know it is working, and what you keep if you stop. Many say little about the last two. Use these questions with every proposal, then compare the answers in the proposal checklist.
Questions to ask
Google suggests asking an SEO for examples of previous work, whether they follow its search guidelines, what results to expect and in what timeframe, how they measure success, and whether they will share every change they make to your site with the reasoning behind it [1]. For a dental practice, I would add:
- What will you do in the first month, and what will I be able to see at the end of it?
- How many treatment or location pages will you write each month, and who checks them against GDC guidance?
- Where will links come from? Will any be paid for or exchanged?
- What will you change on my Business Profile, and will anything affect the practice name or address?
- How will you connect search visibility to calls, forms and booked patients?
- What is the price, with and without VAT, the minimum term and the notice period?
The question about links matters most. Google treats buying or selling links for ranking purposes as spam, including paying in goods or services [3]. A clear answer about where links come from is worth more than a promised number of them.
Access: what to grant, and when
If an SEO offers an audit before you sign, Google's advice is to give read access to Search Console only, not write access, at that stage [1]. Once you have signed:
- Search Console: the practice stays a verified owner. Owners can add and remove users, and a property must always have at least one verified owner [4]. Add the agency as a user.
- Business Profile: a profile can have several owners but only one primary owner, plus managers [2]. The practice should be primary owner; the agency should be a manager.
- Website: give the agency its own login, never share yours, so access can be removed cleanly.
What a monthly report should contain
| Section | What it shows | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Work done | Every change made to the site and profile this month, with links | You can check it happened |
| Search visibility | Search Console impressions and clicks for treatment and location searches, against the same period before | Seasonality is allowed for |
| Business Profile | Calls, website visits and direction requests | Local search often ends in a call, not a visit |
| Enquiries | Organic enquiries, then how many booked, attended and started treatment | The only line that pays for the work |
| Next month | The planned work and the reason for it | Priorities stay visible |
Rankings for chosen keywords can sit alongside these, but on their own they are easy to flatter. If a report never mentions enquiries, ask why.
If you leave
Agree in writing, before you sign, that when the contract ends:
- the agency's user and manager access is removed, and yours is untouched;
- all pages, content and images created for you stay yours;
- you receive the last twelve months of reports and the list of changes made;
- any links built on sites the agency controls are either kept live or listed so you know what will change.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, Manage your Business Profile owners and managers. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- Search Console Help, Managing owners, users, and permissions. Accessed 1 November 2026.