The Clinic Marketing Podcast - Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

Should You Really DIY Your Clinic’s SEO? | Ep.133

• Darcy Sullivan • Episode 133

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SEO is one of the most powerful ways to attract new patients to your clinic—but here’s the big question: should you handle it yourself or hire experts to do it for you?

In this episode, we dive deep into the debate between DIY SEO vs. working with professionals, breaking down the pros, cons, and even a middle-ground option that gives you expert guidance without the overwhelm.

You’ll learn:

  • Why SEO is essential for clinics that want to be found on Google, Google Maps, and even AI-driven searches
  • The biggest advantages (and hidden pitfalls) of going the DIY SEO route
  • When it makes sense to call in SEO experts to save you time, stress, and costly mistakes
  • How hybrid options—like toolkits and “done with you” programs—help you stay hands-on with the right roadmap
  • A clear decision framework to figure out which path is best for your clinic’s time, budget, and goals

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re better off rolling up your sleeves or passing the SEO work to someone else, this episode will give you the clarity you need to make the smartest choice for your clinic.

Send in your questions. ❤ We'd love to hear from you!

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📞Book a discovery call - Book a discovery call with Propel to see how smart SEO and website design can help your clinic get found online.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to this episode of the Clinic Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design. And this is your go-to show for local SEO and digital marketing tips to help you grow your clinic. Today we're tackling a question I hear all the time. Should you DIY your SEO plan? Or is it better to work with experts like our team at Propel? If you're wondering how to get your clinic to the top of Google without wasting time or money, this episode is for you. We'll break down the pros and cons of DIY SEO, when it makes sense to go it alone, and when you might want to partner with a company like Propel, especially if you don't have a team to help. Let's get started. Before we get into DIY versus going with an expert for SEO, let's talk about why SEO matters. SEO, search engine optimization, is your ticket to getting found by patients searching for terms like chiropractor in your city or acupuncturist for migraines. I mean, did you know that 68% of online experiences start with a search engine and Google processes over 8.5 billion searches a day? Listen, your patients are out there looking for you. But if your website isn't ranking, if you can't be found on AI searches or in Google Maps, you're simply invisible. SEO drives long-term organic traffic, meaning patients find you without you paying for every single click like you would do with ads. In fact, studies show SEO delivers 5.66 times better ROI than paid strategies. But here's the catch: SEO can feel overwhelming, especially if you're a busy clinic owner wearing a million hats. So should you roll up your sleeves and do it yourself or hand it off to the experts? Let's break it down. Let's start with a DIY SEO. This is when you or someone on your team takes charge of everything completely in order to optimize your website to rank higher in Google. Here are the biggest pros and cons of going this route. Pro, cost saving. You're not paying agency fees, which can be important, especially if you're just getting started or if you have zero budget. Control, you have the final say over everything. Learning opportunity. Yeah, you could master a new skill, or your team member could master a new skill, which could help them later in life. You've got flexibility, you can go at your own pace, tweak things as you go. But there are a bunch of cons as well. There's a time commitment. SEO isn't a one-and-done task. It takes time to do the research, create the content, and track your progress. There's a learning curve. Without proper direction, SEO can seem complex, but it doesn't have to. With consistent algorithm changes, you need direction in order to figure out what actions you should take. And with a million people out there trying to give you direction online, sometimes you can feel like you're drinking water from a fire hydrant. You risk mistakes. I've seen this all the time when clinics dive in where they put somebody in charge of SEO, and that person goes and watches a couple random YouTube videos and they take action. They spend time taking action and it's the wrong action. There's nothing sadder than taking the wrong action. You also might have resource constraints. Maybe you don't have a team or time to juggle. DIY can work if you're tech savvy, if you have time to learn, and can commit to consistency. This leads us to other options. You have options like working with a local SEO expert like Propel. Working with a team like ours is ideal if you have a lack of time, team, or expertise to tackle SEO yourself. And here's why partnering with experts makes sense. You get their expertise. They're on top of knowing all the latest changes with Google, like AI-driven algorithms, so you don't have to. You save time because you're handing things off. You can customize the strategy to make sure it works for your clinic, and you know that you're going to get proven results. The cons come in when you consider the cost, because yes, there is a cost to working with professionals. And sometimes you lose a little bit of control because they're putting all of the actions into place. But if you're overwhelmed, if you don't have a team, or if you want faster results, working with a local SEO company like Propel is a no-brainer. We take the guesswork out of SEO, delivering a strategy that gets your clinic found by the right new patients. But here's the thing: we talked about two options. There's also a third option, which is the middle ground. These are done with you services and accessing our DIY SEO program called Ready Set Rank. That's right. There's a middle ground. If you want to DIY, but you need a roadmap, our Ready Set Rank Complete SEO toolkit for clinics is designed for you. It's a step-by-step program that gives you the tools to optimize your website without the overwhelm. Now, I'm not going into a big sales pitch on this because you can visit our website. You can check out the Ready Set Ring program. You can check out our done with you services, our done for you services, and again, our ready set ring program, which is a toolkit that is perfect for you or your team if you or your team have time to put into SEO and just want the right direction so that you're not just going online Googling or God forbid, going to Chat GPT and asking it to do it for you. So how do you decide what's right for you? Well, if you want to go it all on your own, then DIY it. If you want DIY with specific directions, then I would check out Ready Set Rank. If you're too busy, have a lack of team, or just want faster hands-off results, visit propellyourcompany.com and book a discovery call. Well, I hope you're ready to take action. And if you're leaning towards DIY, start small. Give it a try on your own. And if you feel like you need a system, then be sure to check out Ready Set Rank. If DIY feels overwhelming, again, you can reach out to us and book a discovery call, and we can talk to you about all the options we offer and create a custom plan that not only fits you, but fits your budget. All right. That's it for today's episode of the Clinic Marketing Podcast.

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Darcy Sullivan

Host