Whatever dental SEO costs you, each invoice line should leave work you can see on your site or in your own Google accounts. The fee should come back as new patients your front desk logs from search. I don't quote a market price here, because the ranges in agency guides are the agencies' own estimates.
Quick answer
- Ask what each line of the proposal delivers every month.
- Open Search Console and your Business Profile today and see who holds owner access.
- Refuse a ranking guarantee and any line that buys links without saying how they are tagged.
- Agree up front who keeps the content, logins and data if you cancel.
- Set a break-even number of new patients from search, and read it at 3 and 6 months.
What each kind of SEO fee should leave you
A proposal can mix the four fee types below.
| Billed as | You should receive | Where you can check | Red flag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A plain list of that month's work | Search Console; Business Profile Performance | Rankings only, no clicks or calls |
| One-time audit or setup | The findings, plus fixes made on your site | Your site itself | Findings you can't act on without buying more |
| Content by the page | The text, with ownership stated | The pages live on your domain | Text kept on the vendor's platform |
| Link package | Each link, where it sits, and its tag | The linking pages themselves | Nobody will name the sites |
A retainer keeps billing, so it deserves the hardest questions. Ask what changes on your site or profile across the first three months. If the answer is "ongoing optimization", ask for an example from last month.
A ranking promise is not a deliverable either. Google's page on hiring an SEO says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."
What your own accounts can and can't tell you
Three sources are enough to judge a retainer, and each counts something different.
- Search Console (Google's free report on your site in search), Performance report: clicks and impressions (how often your site appeared in results) by search term. Google may not track some queries made a very small number of times, so the list is never complete.
- Business Profile, Performance: Calls is the number of times a customer clicked the call button on your profile. It is not answered calls or new patients. The same page says the data includes actions from Google Ads, so ads running that month lift the count too.
- Your practice software: the only place where a caller becomes a patient. Ask the front desk to log how each new patient found you.
The Business Profile guide for doctors shows how to tag the profile's links for analytics.
Break-even for one practice
Divide the monthly fee by what a new patient is worth after costs. That is how many extra patients from search the retainer must bring each month to pay for itself.
Use your own figures, and count only patients the front desk logged with a search source. If the 3-month read is flat and the vendor can't name a change that was made, ask why before month 4 renews. A wider view of the spend is in the dental marketing budget post.
Rules that cost more than a bad month
Three shortcuts turn a cheap SEO fee into a real risk, and a vendor may take them without telling you. Google's hiring page is plain about whose problem that is: "you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire."
Bought links. Google's spam policies name "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam. Paid links are allowed when each link's code labels it "sponsored" or "nofollow". Sites that break the policy may rank lower or not appear at all.
Keywords in your business name. The Business Profile guidelines say the name should reflect your real-world name, and unnecessary information in it could result in suspension of the profile. Their examples rule out service and location words added to the real name, so "Smith Dental | Best Implants Midtown" is the pattern to refuse.
Bought or fake reviews. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews, 16 CFR Part 465, bars a business from writing or selling fake reviews, or buying ones it knew or should have known were fake. It also bars paying for reviews that express a particular sentiment, and groundless legal threats, physical threats or intimidation used to stop a review or get it removed. The rule has applied since October 21, 2024.
In Canada, the Competition Bureau says the law prohibits the unauthorized use or the distortion of tests and testimonials (section 74.02 of the Competition Act).
Asking real patients for honest reviews is different; my dental SEO post covers how. I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice.
Owner access stays with the practice
The practice should own Search Console, the Business Profile and the domain; the vendor is a guest.
Google's page on hiring an SEO also says that if an SEO offers to audit your site, grant read access to Search Console and not write access at that stage. An owner request in week one asks for far more.
If every verified owner is removed, everyone else, including delegated owners (people added without a token of their own), loses access after a grace period. So make the practice's own login a verified owner, not just one the agency added.
On the Business Profile, managers have mostly the same access as owners but can't add or remove users or remove the profile, and only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership. A new owner or manager also waits 7 days before they can remove other owners or managers, transfer primary ownership, or delete the profile.
So add the practice's own owner login now. One added on the day you cancel can't remove the agency for a week.
An access check with your own logins
- On your phone, open the Google Maps app and tap Business at the bottom right. Next to Performance, tap See more, pick a time period, tap Apply and note Calls.
- On a computer, go to your Business Profile and select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access. Write down who is Primary owner, Owner and Manager.
- In Search Console, open Settings, then Users and permissions (only owners see this page). Your own row should say Owner and Verified; Owner without Verified means a delegated owner.
- Remove any email address from a vendor you no longer use. Then click Unused ownership tokens; each one shows how to take it off your site.
Questions for the proposal
- Ask who owns the text, the pages and the reports if you cancel, and in what form you get them.
- Confirm the vendor will work with read access to Search Console, and that your own login stays a verified owner.
- Ask for the shortest term and what ends it early.
- Agree which of your own numbers will judge it at month 3 and month 6.
Sources checked on 2026-10-26.
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Frequently asked questions
Does an SEO company need owner access to my Search Console?
Not to start. Google's page on hiring an SEO says that if one offers an audit, grant read access to Search Console and not write access at that stage. An owner can add and remove other users, so keep that role for the practice's own login.
Is it safe to pay for backlinks as part of a dental SEO package?
Google's spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. Sites that break them may rank lower or drop out of results, and human review can lead to a manual action. A paid link is fine when it carries a sponsored or nofollow tag, so ask what exactly is being bought.
Should my SEO agency be named as the owner of my Business Profile?
No. Keep a practice login as primary owner and give the agency manager access. A manager has mostly the same access as an owner, but can't add or remove users or remove the profile. Only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership.
What happens to the work if I cancel my SEO contract?
That's set by the contract, not by Google, so ask before you agree. The three things to name are who owns the pages and text written for you, whether access you granted is removed on the last day, and whether the site and tracking stay on accounts in the practice's name.
Do I need an SEO company for dental SEO at all?
Not always. Google's page on whether you need an SEO says to ask for examples, the results expected and the timeframe, and how success is measured. If a provider can't answer those plainly, the fee has no yardstick.
Written by
Marketing Analytics & Conversion Tracking Engineer, US and Canada, run remotely
- Media buyer on Google Ads and Meta Ads from October 2023 to September 2025, nearly $700K in spend.
- Set up patient conversion tracking for a New York medical practice (anonymized).
- Upwork Top Rated Plus, 5.0 from 20 reviews.