"What's the ROI?" is the right question to ask any marketing partner. The wrong answer is the one that's full of vanity metrics. Here's how we calculate ROI on local SEO and why we report it the way we do.
The numbers that actually matter
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Local pack ranking by priority term. Tracked weekly across a 5x5 grid centered on your practice. We don't report "average rank" — we show the actual position at each grid point so you can see where you dominate and where you don't. A move from position 4 to position 2 across your 25 grid points is worth more than a move from 12 to 11, and the math reflects that.
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GBP profile views. Google reports total views per month and breaks them out by search vs maps surface. We compare month-over-month and against the same month a year ago (because healthcare has seasonality and "up vs last month" can hide a "down vs last year").
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GBP engagement actions. Calls, direction requests, website clicks, message inquiries — directly out of GBP Insights. These are the highest-intent signals.
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Phone calls attributed to GBP. With CallRail integrated, we tag inbound calls by source. The calls that came from GBP are tracked separately from calls that came from organic search, paid ads, or direct.
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Form submissions attributed to local search. Same idea, tagged via UTM and referrer.
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Reviews added in the period. Both new reviews and our response cadence on existing ones.
The ROI calculation
The honest version:
Patient inquiries from GBP+local in the period
÷ Effort cost of MapsPRO ($300/month)
× Average revenue per new patient relationship
× Conversion rate from inquiry to patient
= ROI
For most {{vertical}} practices that take a new patient relationship through more than one visit, the math hits 5-10x return inside 6 months and 20-40x return inside 18 months as the rankings compound and patient lifetime extends.
What we don't count
- "Impressions" — they don't pay your rent
- Vanity rank screenshots from one keyword on one day from one device
- Brand-search lifts (people Googling "{{practice_name}}" specifically) — those would have happened anyway from word of mouth
- Citation count milestones — useful as a leading indicator, not a result
What we report each month
A three-page written report. Page 1: the trend chart and the headline number for the month. Page 2: the specific moves we made and what they connected to in the metrics. Page 3: what we're recommending next and why. The data tables go in the appendix for anyone who wants to verify.
The honest caveats
- Local SEO compounds. The first 90 days are mostly foundation-laying; the visible movement comes in months 4-9.
- Local SEO is contested. If a national brand opens a new location across the street from your practice, they have an automatic reset on freshness signals you can't match.
- We can't promise specific rankings. Anyone who does is lying to you.
What we can promise: monthly review attention, weekly profile maintenance, written reports that reflect the real state of your search position, and an honest conversation any time the ROI math isn't bearing out.