Nearly every search for a treatment has a place in it: "dermal filler near me", "Botox Manchester", "laser hair removal" and a town. Google answers with a map of three clinics, then a list of websites. Local SEO decides whether yours is one of them.
What Google looks at
Google says it weighs three things for local results. Relevance: does your clinic match what was searched? Distance: how close are you to the person searching? Prominence: how well known and well reviewed is the clinic?
You can't move your clinic closer to anyone. The other two you can work on, and they come down to four things.
The four things that move local rankings
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Your Google Business Profile.
The right main category (an aesthetic or medical clinic, not a beauty salon if that is not what you are), every treatment listed, real photographs of your clinic, accurate opening hours.
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A steady run of new reviews.
Google looks at how many reviews you have, how good they are and how recent. Fifty reviews from three years ago count for less than a few new ones every month.
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Local pages on your website.
One page per treatment, and a page for each area you genuinely treat patients from, each written on its own. Botox, filler and laser searches are where most local competition is.
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The same name, address and phone number everywhere.
Your website, your Google profile, Save Face, Treatwell, Yell and the other listings should all say exactly the same thing. Mismatches make Google less sure you are who you say you are.
What I do, and what you do
Local SEO is part of the website I build and run for £297 a month. Some of it only you can do, because it is your clinic and your Google profile. Here is the split.
I do
- Build your treatment and area pages
- Add the structured data that tells Google where you are
- Check your Google profile against the site at setup and list anything to fix
- Run the review funnel after every appointment
- Give you a business number that stays the same
- Send a monthly report: calls, enquiries, reviews
You do
- Own your Google Business Profile and keep the login
- Add real photographs from the clinic now and then
- Reply to your reviews, in your own words
- Tell me when treatments, hours or prices change
- Keep your Save Face and directory listings current
Botox, filler and laser searches
The treatment searches are where local competition is fiercest, and where a single "treatments" page loses to clinics that give each treatment its own. Each treatment page I build answers what a patient wants to know before she books: what it involves, who does it, what it costs and how to book.
They are written with the advertising rules in mind. Prescription-only medicines such as botulinum toxin can't be promoted to the public in the UK, so the pages describe the consultation and the treatment the way the ASA expects.
Local SEO mistakes I see most
- A Google profile listed as a beauty salon when the clinic does medical aesthetics.
- Area pages copied and pasted with only the town name changed.
- A different phone number on the website, the profile and the directories.
- Bought reviews. Google removes them and can suspend the profile.
- A website that never says which town the clinic is in.
Manchester, Leeds or a market town
It works the same way in a city or a small town. What changes is how many clinics you are up against. I work with clinics anywhere in the UK, remotely; see UK coverage.
Where I learned it
I took CoLaz from one clinic to nine between 2016 and 2022, and I still run its website. Being the clinic Google showed first, town by town, was a large part of it.
For the wider picture, including the on-page work, see aesthetic clinic SEO.
Local SEO: the common questions.
- What is local SEO for an aesthetic clinic?
- It is what decides whether your clinic appears when someone nearby searches for a treatment, such as "Botox near me" or "laser hair removal" and a town. Google answers those searches with a map of three clinics, then websites. Local SEO is the work that gets you into both.
- Is local SEO included in the £297 a month?
- The website side is: treatment and area pages, your details on every page, structured data and the review funnel. Your Google Business Profile stays yours; I check it against the site at setup and tell you what to change.
- Do you manage my Google Business Profile?
- You keep ownership and the login, which is how it should be. I make sure the website and the profile say the same thing, and the review funnel sends happy patients to it for reviews.
- How do reviews help my local ranking?
- Google weighs the number of reviews, the rating and how recent they are. A clinic that gets new reviews every month tends to look more active than one whose last review was a year ago. The review funnel asks every patient, so the reviews keep coming without you remembering to ask.
- Do I need a page for every town near me?
- Only for the areas you genuinely draw patients from, and each one written on its own. Twenty copies of the same page with the town name swapped help nobody and can count against you.
- Can I show in the map if I work from a room in a salon?
- Yes, if patients come to you at that address. Google needs a real address that patients visit. A virtual office or a mailbox address breaks its rules and can get the profile suspended.