Compare the full commitment, not only the monthly fee
Ask each supplier for the setup fee, monthly fee, minimum term, notice period and any additional implementation costs. Confirm whether quoted figures include VAT, paid advertising, software, photography and work by your current website provider. A list of recommendations and an implemented improvement are different purchases.
Illustrative comparison: Quote A costs £700 a month for six months, plus £600 setup. Its known commitment is £4,800 before any excluded work or tax. Quote B costs £1,000 a month for six months with no setup fee, a known commitment of £6,000 on the same basis. Neither is automatically better value. If A excludes the website changes your practice needs, ask for those costs before comparing.
Keep the calculation in a simple table with one row per cost and a final total over the same period. Where a cost is unknown, write unknown and ask who will confirm it. Do not fill the gap with an optimistic estimate.
Ask what the first stage will deliver
Name the treatments and locations the practice wants to support, then ask why they are the right starting point. A proposal should identify the existing pages to improve, any genuinely missing information and the practical problem each change is meant to solve.
For a single practice, an initial plan might fix an enquiry route, clarify an important treatment page and correct location information. For a group, it might first separate services and booking routes by branch. These are examples of scope, not standard packages or promises of results.
Ask who writes, who implements and who checks the finished result. If your developer or clinical team must contribute, include their time and availability in the plan.
Make review and ownership part of the quote
Treatment information needs appropriate review by the responsible professionals. Ask how clinical claims, practitioner details, availability and prices will be checked before publication and maintained afterwards. A general doctor-led or healthcare-specialist label is not a substitute for a named review arrangement.
Confirm that the practice retains access to its website, Business Profile and measurement accounts. Ask what happens to content, reports, licences and unfinished work when the agreement ends. Record exclusions and handover arrangements in writing.
Decide what evidence would justify continuing
Agree the work to be completed and how the supplier will explain its effect. Relevant search visibility can show whether useful pages are being discovered, while aggregate calls, forms and suitable appointment enquiries help connect the work to the practice.
Use a realistic baseline and consistent reporting periods. Search improvement takes time and cannot be guaranteed. Ask the supplier to distinguish completed work, observed changes and an unproven explanation of why the numbers moved.
Be cautious when the main deliverable is a fixed number of articles, links or keywords without a connection to your services. Publishing more pages does not by itself demonstrate that patients can make a better decision.
Send the same questions to every shortlisted supplier
- Which treatments and locations come first, and what evidence supports that choice?
- What specific changes will be implemented, by whom, and what is excluded?
- What will the full commitment cost over the same period?
- Who reviews treatment claims and confirms practical service details?
- How will relevant enquiries be distinguished from unrelated contacts?
- What access, ownership and handover arrangements apply if we stop?
Sources and further reading
Choose a useful next step
Bring the current website, priority treatments and any existing proposal to a conversation about scope. A useful recommendation starts with the practice's situation.
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