Questions and pricing
Common questions and pricing
If yours is not here, email [email protected] and you will get a straight answer by email.
Money
What does it cost?
One flat monthly fee, quoted in writing after the free ranking check. The quote depends on how many pages the check calls for and how many locations you have, and on nothing else: no percentage of revenue, no per-patient or per-lead fee, no setup fee. Thirty days' notice to stop, from either side. We do not publish a number on this page because the right number for a single-doctor practice with a sound website is not the right number for a three-location practice starting from a logo strip and a four-paragraph services page.
What we will say is how we think about it. IDOC's 2025 benchmarks put the median independent practice at $1.57 million in collections and a 31 percent net; the 2019 ABB and CareCredit metrics put revenue per patient at $484. The fee has to be a small fraction of one month's new patients for the work to make sense, and the quote shows that arithmetic.
Is there a contract?
A one-page agreement that says what we do, what you approve, the fee and the 30-day notice. No minimum term. The agreement also says in writing that your Google Business Profile, your website and every page we write are yours.
Do you charge for the ranking check if we do not hire you?
No. The check is free and yours to keep and use with anyone. If the answer is no, reply "no" and we won't write again.
Time
How long until anything moves?
Each change is on its own clock, and we tell you which. Business Profile edits (categories, services, hours, photos, doctor profiles) can show in the map results within days. New pages take weeks to months: Google has to find them, crawl them (Google's own estimate is a few days to a few weeks), and then decide where they rank, which depends on what is already there. The competitive searches in a town, "eye doctor" and "eye exam near me", take the longest, because other practices are working on them too. A realistic first checkpoint is 90 days, when the profile changes are visible and the first pages are indexed and starting to move. The monthly report names what moved and what did not.
How much of our time does it take?
About 30 minutes a month from one optometrist to review clinical pages, and about 30 minutes from the owner or office manager for approvals, photos and the review routine. The first month is heavier, mostly the photo set and the initial page reviews. We never ask the front desk to do more than send the review request.
When is the busy season, and does it matter when we start?
On Zocdoc's 2024 eye care bookings, January was the busiest month, then October, with Monday and Tuesday the busiest booking days. Those line up with new vision plan benefits in January and with flexible spending accounts running out at year end: the IRS limit was $3,300 for 2025 and is $3,400 for 2026, with a carryover of at most $680 or a grace period of up to two and a half months, never both. Back-to-school is the third season, and a 2026 survey of 1,000 parents found 58 percent had delayed a teenager's eye exam. Because pages take weeks to months to rank, starting in a quiet month puts the practice in place for the next busy one.
Fit
A group or a management company already runs our marketing. Can you work with them?
If the practice is independently owned and a marketing company does its website, we can divide the work: we take the Business Profile, the plan directories and the service pages, they keep the rest, and we put the division in writing so nobody edits the same page twice. If the practice is owned by a corporate group or a private equity platform, we are not a fit, however the marketing is run; we work for independents only, and we check ownership before we start.
What does "one practice per town" mean?
We work with one independent optometry practice in each town, meaning the town or city its patients come from. Two practices that compete for the same patients count as the same town, and we work with only one of them. The work is about which practice comes first on the map and in the web results, and we cannot do that for two practices at once. If we can't take on your town, we tell you straight away.
Who is this for?
Independently owned optometry practices in county seats, small towns and mid-size cities, anywhere in the US: one location or a few, owned by the optometrists who work there, with an optical, a medical eye care focus, or both. We check who owns a practice before we start. Practices owned by a corporate group or a private equity platform are not a fit, and neither is a practice that wants ads, social media or a guaranteed ranking.
Do you have eye care clients we can call?
Not yet. Optometry is new for us. The case study is from another field, and we don't name that business.
We are in a small town with one other practice. Is there enough search to matter?
Often yes, and the check will tell you. The AOA counts optometrists as the only primary eye care provider in more than 5,800 US communities, and 39 percent of US counties have an optometrist but no ophthalmologist. In those places the searches are "eye doctor" and "eye exam near me", and the question is whether they find you, the hospital system's clinic an hour away, or an online contact lens seller. In our October snapshot of 14 towns, one search each, local practice websites held most of the first-page web results for "eye doctor" in 13 of them, and the map pack showed fewer than three rated businesses in 7. Your own town is what the check looks at.
Do you work with practices outside Texas?
Yes. We are based in Austin and work by email and the occasional call, for independent practices anywhere in the US. Your state board has its own advertising rules. We check them before anything with a price or offer goes live; your doctor or counsel decides.
Data and rules
Do you need our patient data?
No. The check and the monthly work use public search results and the practice's own Google and website accounts. We never log in to the practice management system. If a website login can see appointment requests, we use one that cannot; if that isn't possible, we sign a BAA before starting. HIPAA applies if your practice is a covered entity, which a practice that bills plans electronically is.
Who writes the clinical pages, and who is responsible for them?
We draft them. A licensed optometrist at your practice reviews and approves every page about eyes, conditions, lenses or treatment before it goes live. No promises about results: where a product has an FDA-approved indication, the page uses the label's words, and your doctor approves it. The FTC expects health claims to rest on competent and reliable scientific evidence, and your state board polices false or misleading statements. The practice is responsible for what it publishes, which is why the doctor signs off.
What are the review rules?
Three sets. Google's review policy prohibits offering incentives for reviews and prohibits asking only happy customers; it also says merchants should not pressure people to leave reviews while on the premises. The FTC's rule on reviews, 16 CFR Part 465, in force since October 21, 2024, bans fake reviews, reviews bought with a required sentiment, undisclosed insider reviews and review suppression. And HIPAA: a reply that confirms someone is a patient or mentions their care is a disclosure, and the HHS Office for Civil Rights settled with a provider in 2023 over exactly that. Our routine: every patient asked the same way after the visit, no incentive, replies from a template that thanks people without confirming anything. If requests go out by text through a vendor, confirm patient consent and that the vendor signs a BAA.
Can we run a "free eye exam" promotion?
It depends on the state. In Florida the ad needs Statute 456.062's capital-letter statement of the right to refuse to pay, cancel payment or be reimbursed within 72 hours, at no less than 6-point type under rule 64B13-3.009. The Texas Optometry Board's 2024 newsletter says free exam ads are allowed but may need to explain the exam's limits, the cost of extra testing and what happens if no glasses are needed, and that optometrists may not advertise or give away free eyeglasses or contact lenses. California's Business and Professions Code 3102 bars advertising optometric services as free when a purchase is the condition unless the condition is in the same ad. The FTC's "free" guides apply everywhere. Your state board has its own advertising rules. We check them before anything with a price or offer goes live; your doctor or counsel decides.
Scope
What do you not do?
Ads, including Google Ads and Local Services Ads. Social media. Website redesigns beyond the pages search needs. Email marketing. Anything that touches patient records. Guarantees. If you need ads, we will say so in the report; "Optometrist" is an eligible Local Services Ads category with the Google Verified badge, and someone who runs those full time should run yours.
Our website is old. Do we need a new one first?
Usually not. Most of what search needs is pages, titles, speed and a booking link, and those can be added to almost any site. If the site cannot load in under three seconds on a phone or cannot take a new page without a developer, we will say so in the check, and the fix is often smaller than a redesign.
What happens to our accounts if we stop?
Nothing changes hands, because nothing left your name. The Google Business Profile, the website and every page we wrote were always yours. You remove us as a manager and carry on, and the last monthly report tells the next person where everything stands.
Do you guarantee results?
No. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. What we commit to is the work: the pages, the profile, the routine and a report every month that says what moved.
Why optometry, and why independents?
More than 60 percent of adults get their exams at an independent practice (Vision Council, Q4 2025), 77 percent of adults rated in-network status important when choosing a provider (Vision Council, 2024), and in our October snapshot of 14 towns, local practice websites held most of the first-page web results for "eye doctor" in 13 of them. Which practice comes first is decided by search, and search is the only thing we do.
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