A chiropractor called me a few months back, forwarding an email from a company that had just landed him on page one of Google. Two things stood out. First, he’d never hired them. Second, the “page one” ranking was for his own practice name, which he already ranked for before they ever touched his site. He’d been sold a screenshot of something that was already true.
That’s not an outlier story. It’s close to the norm in this industry. I’ve spent enough years on both sides of the chiropractic world, first as a practicing DC and now building websites and running SEO for chiropractors, to have heard most of the pitches these companies use. Some of it is outright dishonest. Most of it is just vague enough to sound impressive while meaning almost nothing. Here’s what I see most often, and why it should make you skeptical.
Guaranteed Rankings
No one can guarantee a ranking. Not me, not the company that emailed my client, not anyone. Google’s algorithm isn’t a fixed set of rules that a vendor can promise to satisfy. It changes constantly, it factors in things outside anyone’s control, and it varies by market. A guarantee is either a sign the person doesn’t understand how search actually works, or a sign they’re comfortable telling you what you want to hear.
What I can say honestly is that certain things reliably help: a Google Business Profile that’s fully built out, consistent citations, real reviews, content that actually answers what patients are searching for. None of that guarantees a number one spot. It improves your odds. If someone tells you they can promise the outcome, that’s the moment to ask harder questions, not fewer.
Proprietary Systems
I see this constantly. Some agency has a “proprietary ranking system” or a “signature SEO framework” with a name attached to it, like it’s a secret formula only they possess. It isn’t. Local SEO is built on the same handful of factors for everyone: relevance, proximity, and prominence. There’s no hidden lever these companies are pulling that the rest of the industry doesn’t know about.
The branded framework name is a marketing device, not a technical advantage. It makes a basic service sound proprietary so it’s harder to compare against a competitor’s basic service. If a company can’t explain what they’re actually doing in plain language, without retreating to a trademarked term, that’s worth noticing.
Automated Content
This one has gotten worse as AI tools have become easier to use. A lot of what gets published on chiropractic websites now is generic content run through an AI tool with a find and replace for the practice name and city. It reads like it could belong to any chiropractor anywhere, because it was written for any chiropractor anywhere.
Patients can tell. Google can increasingly tell too. Content that doesn’t reflect anything specific about your practice, your approach, or your patients isn’t doing the job content is supposed to do. It’s filling a page with words so a report can say something was published this month.
The Disappearing Act
This is the pattern I hear about most from chiropractors who’ve been burned before. Things start out fine. There’s an onboarding call, some initial work, maybe a small early win. Then communication slows down. Updates get vaguer. Eventually you’re paying a monthly fee for a company you can’t get on the phone and can’t point to any specific work from in the last quarter.
I understand why this happens on the business side. Managing a large volume of clients with a small team means someone eventually gets less attention than they’re paying for. That’s part of why I keep my own client list small. It’s not a scarcity tactic, it’s a practical limit on how much real attention I can give at once.
What Honest Work Actually Looks Like
None of this means SEO doesn’t work or that every company in this space is running a scam. It means the language you hear should match reality. Real work sounds like: here’s what I’m doing this month, here’s why, here’s what I expect and don’t expect from it. It sounds like someone willing to tell you when something isn’t a good fit, instead of selling you a package regardless.
If you’re evaluating a local SEO strategy for your practice, the questions above are a reasonable filter. Ask what specifically is being done, ask to see it, and be wary of anyone who answers in guarantees or trademarked systems instead of specifics.
The same goes for the website side of this industry. A site built around a real understanding of how chiropractic practices actually run tends to look different from a template with your logo dropped in, and it’s worth knowing the difference before you sign anything.
If you want a second opinion on what you’re currently being told or sold, I offer a free website and SEO review. No pitch attached to it, just an honest look at where things actually stand.
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