How to choose a search-visibility consultant
Before a customer books a treatment, a good clinic tells them what can go wrong, what to ask and how to tell a careful practitioner from a careless one. We think a consultancy owes its clients the same. This page is what we’d want to read before hiring a firm like ours — including the questions we’d want asked of us.
Where engagements go wrong
Most of the disappointment we hear about comes down to a handful of patterns. None of them is about effort. They’re about what was sold, what was measured and what was left unsaid.
- A guarantee was sold. “First page in 90 days.” “We’ll get you into ChatGPT.” Nobody controls a search engine’s ranking or an AI assistant’s answer, and the assistant’s answer to the same question changes from one day to the next. A firm that guarantees an outcome is either not measuring it, or is counting on you not to.
- A general playbook was applied to a regulated business. Reviews, testimonials, before-and-after photos, discount campaigns. These are the everyday tools of general marketing, and for a regulated health service they’re restricted or prohibited. The work looks busy for a few months, then has to come down.
- Rankings were reported instead of what you asked for. A monthly chart of keyword positions is easy to produce and easy to make look good. It says nothing about whether the map result, the AI answer or the enquiry form moved. Ask what the report will contain before you sign.
- AI visibility was a line on the price list, not a measurement.“AI-ready”, “AI SEO”, “GEO included”. If a firm can’t show you the fixed set of questions it will ask ChatGPT and Gemini every month, and how it will score the answers, it isn’t measuring AI visibility. It’s guessing.
- The price had no shape. A single monthly figure with no statement of what’s in scope, who does the work and what’s quoted separately (a site rebuild, legal review, maintenance). Either the scope creeps, or the work quietly shrinks to fit the fee.
- Nobody said what could go wrong. Restructuring a site can drop rankings for a while before it lifts them. A quiet month isn’t a trend. If none of that was said up front, the first bad month becomes a crisis instead of an expected part of the work.
- The term had no door in it. A minimum term is reasonable — this work takes months to show, and nobody should be judged on eight weeks. What isn’t reasonable is a term with no point at which either side can look at the numbers and walk. Ask what happens halfway through, and what you owe if you leave then. If the answer is “the balance of the contract”, you’ve found the risk.
What to ask in the first conversation
These are the questions we’d ask, and how we answer them. Take them to anyone you’re considering, including us.
| Ask this | Why it matters | How MedAd answers |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes our content, who reviews it, and whose name and qualifications appear on the page? | Both a search engine and an AI assistant weigh who’s speaking. Anonymous copy carries less weight than the same words under a named, qualified practitioner. | We draft; your practitioners review and are credited by name. Nothing is published without your written approval. |
| How do the advertising rules for a regulated health service change what you write? | If the answer is vague, the firm will reach for reviews, testimonials and before-and-afters — and you’ll be the one carrying the exposure. | We start from the rules and build authority from qualifications, publications, professional memberships and plain explanations of treatment. For pages that are really advertisements, we recommend having a lawyer review the wording — arranged by us, engaged by you. |
| Do you ask our customers for reviews? | Requesting or managing reviews sits close to the rules on testimonials for AHPRA-regulated practices. | Not for AHPRA-regulated practices. We build map visibility from the parts of a business profile that aren’t affected. |
| How do you measure AI visibility, and how often? | If it isn’t measured against a fixed set of questions, month to month, it can’t be reported. | A fixed question set, run every month against ChatGPT and Gemini, scored on whether you’re named and, separately, whether you’re cited. Revised each quarter. |
| What will the monthly report actually contain? | Rankings alone tell you very little. | Two halves, kept apart: what we did, and what the measurements show. We don’t claim one caused the other. |
| What can you promise? | The honest answer is short. | Nothing about outcomes. We promise the work, the measurement and the report. |
| What’s the total cost, and what’s quoted separately? | The monthly fee is rarely the whole figure. | Review fee, program fee and anything separate (site build, maintenance, legal review), set out before you commit, with the total for the first six months shown as one number. |
| What’s the minimum term, and how do we get out? | A long term with no exit shifts the risk to you. | Twelve months, with a door at six: we re-measure at the mid-point, and if the numbers say the work is not earning its fee, either side can end it there on thirty days’ notice. The term and notice period are set out in the engagement letter. |
| What is your experience in our sector specifically? | General digital experience doesn’t transfer cleanly to a regulated, high-consideration service. | Twenty-two years in aesthetic medicine on the industry side, in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and the last two years measuring AI visibility for aesthetic clinics. |
| What could go wrong? | If the answer is “nothing”, stop. | Read the next page. |
Common questions
- Are you saying every other agency is bad?
- No. Many are careful, and some of the best work in this sector is done in-house or by generalists who take the time to learn the rules. We’re saying the patterns above are common, and that they’re easy to check for in a first conversation.
- What if we already have an agency?
- Then take the questions to them. If the answers are good, keep them; the review we offer can still be useful as an independent measurement, and we’re happy to write it so their team can act on it.
- Do you review other agencies’ work?
- Only as part of a visibility review, where we measure the site as it stands and say what we’d change. We don’t audit contracts or write opinions on other firms.
Then decide whether we fit
The next page is the other half of this one: who we work well with, who we don’t, how long the work takes and what can go wrong.