Healthcare marketing for medical practices
Finding a doctor starts the way finding anything nearby does: a search for "GP near me" or "paediatrician Durbanville", a look at the Maps pack and the reviews, then a call to the practice that's close and open. Our medical marketing work is aimed at that moment, through your Google profile, your website and the searches for your field in your area.
Every practitioner registered with the HPCSA works under its ethical rules, and rule 3 sets what an advert may say. Everything we write for a practice follows it. No page, ad or post goes live until it's been checked against rule 3. Dentists have their own page: marketing for dental practices.
53,773 medical practitioners held active HPCSA registration in March 2024, up from 51,579 in April 2023 (HPCSA Annual Report 2023/24).
How patients choose a practice
Medical searches name a field and a place, or just say "near me": "doctor open now", "gynaecologist near me", "dermatologist Claremont". Google answers with a Maps pack, and a patient can phone a practice straight from it without ever opening the website.
What patients check before they phone
- Whether you take their medical aid, or what a consultation costs if you don't.
- Your hours, and whether you're open right now.
- Where you are and how to find the entrance.
- Reviews on Google, and how the practice answers them.
- The doctor's qualifications and HPCSA registration.
AI assistants get asked for a GP or specialist nearby too, and what they say comes from what's published about you. An out-of-date Google profile or an old address on a directory turns up there as well. We check what they say about your practice as part of our AI search work.
What we do for medical practices
Google Business Profile for each practitioner and location
The right category for your field, hours that match the front desk's, medical aid details and photos that help patients find the entrance. Replies to reviews never confirm that someone is a patient.
Service pages in plain language
A page for each thing patients search for, checked against rule 3: no claims of superior skill, no guarantees, and nothing that could cause a reader "unwarranted anxiety".
A fast mobile website
Hours, medical aids, a map and a call or booking button at the top of every page, on a website that loads quickly on a mobile connection.
Call and booking tracking
Tracked numbers on the website and Google profile, and booking-form logging. It records which page or ad produced the call or booking, not why the patient is coming in.
HPCSA rule 3: what a practice may say
The HPCSA's Ethical Rules of Conduct (as amended, checked October 2026) apply to every registered practitioner. Rule 3 covers advertising, and it's short enough to quote in full.
Rule 3(1): "A practitioner shall be allowed to advertise his or her services or permit, sanction or acquiesce to such advertisement: Provided that the advertisement is not unprofessional, untruthful, deceptive or misleading or causes consumers unwarranted anxiety that they may be suffering from any health condition."
Rule 3(2): "A practitioner shall not canvass or tout or allow canvassing or touting to be done for patients on his or her behalf."
The rules define touting as conduct that draws attention, in speech, print or electronic media, "to one's offers, guarantees or material benefits that do not fall in the categories of professional services or items, but are linked to the rendering of a professional service or designed to entice the public to the professional practice". Canvassing is "direct contact with prospective clients", in speech, in print or electronically, that draws attention to "one's personal qualities, superior knowledge, quality of service, professional guarantees or best practice" to secure their custom.
The HPCSA's social media guidelines (Booklet 16, March 2025) give two examples. Touting: "advertising airconditioned rooms for patients' enjoyment while waiting for their consultations". Canvassing: "a health practitioner declaring on social media or posting patient reviews that state he or she is 'the best health practitioner in the country'".
What that means for your marketing
- We don't use gifts, vouchers or prize draws to bring patients in.
- Words like "best", "leading" and "top" stay out, and so do promises about outcomes.
- Symptom lists that end in "you may have" stay out too, because frightening someone into booking is the "unwarranted anxiety" that rule 3(1) forbids.
- We don't cold-call or send unsolicited messages to people who aren't your patients.
This is how we read the rules, and it isn't legal advice. Before a campaign you're unsure of runs, check it with the HPCSA or your professional body.
A report with no patient details in it
New-patient enquiries by source, on one page.
New-patient calls and bookings
From Google Maps, organic search and AI referrals, split by location if you have more than one.
Cost per new-patient enquiry
Our fee plus any ad spend, divided by the enquiries, month on month.
Reviews and replies
How many new Google reviews came in, the average rating, and which ones have had a reply.
Rule 3 changes
Any page or ad we changed or took down because of the rules, and why.
Our prices are on the site
Seven of the twelve South African agencies that rank most often on Google don't publish a pricing page. We'd rather you knew before we speak.
12 agencies checked across 19 searches, September 2026.
We're not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our prices. Contracts run for three months minimum, then month to month.
Where to start
You can start with one of these and add another once the first is paying its way.
Rankings on Google and Google Maps for the searches your customers type. Technical fixes, service pages that answer the question, and links from sites people in your industry read.
SEO in Cape TownFrom R7,500 a month
SEO pricingGetting your business named when someone asks AI assistants who to use, from ChatGPT and Gemini to Google's AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude. We track what they say about you, then fix the pages and listings they draw on.
Fast sites built to turn a visit into a call or a form. The domain, the site and the logins are in your name.
Web design in Cape TownFrom R14,500
Website pricingPosts and a small ad budget on up to two of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, measured on the leads and sales they bring in.
A rule 3 check before anything new
Step Month 1: Tracking and a rule 3 check
We set up call and booking tracking, count last month's new-patient enquiries for a baseline, and check your current site, profile and ads against rule 3, so anything risky comes down first.
Step Month 2: Service pages and practitioner profiles
Service pages are written or rewritten to rule 3, the site fixes from the audit go in, and each practitioner and location gets a complete Google profile.
Step Month 3: Directories and AI answers
We correct your practice details on the directories AI assistants draw on, then check what they say about you. From then on, the report shows new-patient calls and bookings by source, and what each one cost.
What practices ask about advertising
Yes. HPCSA rule 3(1) allows a practitioner to advertise, provided the advert is not unprofessional, untruthful, deceptive or misleading and doesn't cause unwarranted anxiety about a health condition. Rule 3(2) bans canvassing and touting.
Rule 3 doesn't mention reviews. The HPCSA's social media guidelines (Booklet 16, March 2025) do: posting patient reviews that call a practitioner the best is their example of canvassing. If you ask patients for reviews, the request is the same short message to every patient, nothing is offered in return, and we don't repost reviews on your website or social pages.
Yes. Booklet 16 says a practitioner using social media must comply with the HPCSA rules on advertising practice, even on a personal or anonymous blog. No page, ad or post goes live until it's been checked against rule 3.
SEO starts at R7,500 a month and websites at R14,500. We're not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our prices. For a practice with one location, we'd start with SEO and its Google profile and look at social media after the first few months.
Check how patients find your practice
Give us your website and we'll check how you show up for your field in your area on Google and Maps, with a quick AI check of 5 prompts in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Gemini. We'll also flag anything rule 3 could catch and tell you what we'd fix first.