Industry Focus
Plastic Surgery
Digital Infrastructure
Patients research plastic surgeons for 6-12 months before contacting anyone. RealSelf controls the research journey. At $8,000-$15,000 per procedure, your website doesn't sell services. It sells certainty. We build consultation funnels designed for the longest, highest-stakes decision cycle in consumer healthcare.
Operating Reality
Plastic surgery patient acquisition operates on a timeline and at a price point that breaks every standard marketing playbook. Most practice websites ignore both:
RealSelf has become the Yelp of cosmetic surgery, and like Yelp, the platform benefits RealSelf more than the practices listed on it. Your "Worth It" percentage is the first thing patients see, and it's calculated from reviews you can't remove. RealSelf charges $3,000-10,000/month for premium profile features, displays competing surgeons on your profile page, and ranks above your website for virtually every procedure-related search. The surgeons who win on RealSelf are the ones who treat it as one channel among many, not as their primary patient acquisition strategy.
Before/after galleries are simultaneously your most powerful marketing asset and your biggest compliance liability. State medical boards regulate advertising of surgical outcomes, HIPAA governs patient image consent, and the FTC scrutinizes claims about "typical results." Some practices over-curate galleries to show only perfect outcomes, which creates unrealistic expectations and malpractice exposure. Others under-invest in gallery quality and lose consultations to competitors with better documentation. The surgeons with the best galleries are the ones with standardized photography protocols, systematic consent management, and honest case narratives.
The $8,000-$15,000 average procedure value means patients approach the decision like they approach buying a house, not like buying a product. They research for 6-12 months, compare 5-10 surgeons, read dozens of reviews, and narrow to 2-3 consultations. Your website must function over that entire timeline, being useful at the initial research phase, compelling during the comparison phase, and converting at the decision phase. A single-visit sales page approach designed for $200 purchases does not work for $12,000 surgical decisions.
Google's YMYL algorithm explicitly holds medical procedure content to the highest authority standard. Plastic surgery websites without physician-authored content, proper E-E-A-T signals, institutional affiliations, and medical schema markup are algorithmically suppressed in favor of platforms like RealSelf, Healthgrades, and WebMD. You can't simply "do SEO" for plastic surgery. You need medical content authority that satisfies both patients and Google's quality evaluators.
What we actually fix
Multi-touch consultation funnels match the research timeline. Infrastructure designed for the 6-12 month decision journey, progressively building trust through credentials, education, gallery proof, and conversion opportunities at every stage.
Compliant gallery architecture demonstrates outcomes. Standardized photography, case narratives, proper consent workflows, and state-specific disclaimers that are both legally sound and powerfully persuasive.
Medical authority SEO competes with platforms. Physician-authored procedure content with proper E-E-A-T signals, schema markup, and educational depth that ranks alongside RealSelf and Healthgrades instead of being buried beneath them.
Financing and virtual consultation options lower commitment thresholds. CareCredit integration, payment plan content, and virtual consultation booking that converts patients who need flexibility before committing to an in-person visit.
Systems we build
Each capability applies specifically to plastic surgery operations.
Results across our portfolio
While we build your industry's case study, here's what we deliver across our portfolio.
675+Projects Delivered
+308%Avg Impressions Growth
42 moAvg Client Retention
10xLead Growth
Common questions
Our RealSelf profile drives more consultations than our website. Should we just invest there instead?
RealSelf is a rented channel that displays your competitors alongside your profile and charges premium fees for visibility. A strong RealSelf presence matters, but building your practice's future on a platform you don't control is the same mistake restaurants made with Yelp. We build your own website to rank for the same procedure searches RealSelf ranks for, while using your RealSelf activity to drive traffic back to your site. The goal is owning the patient relationship from first search to consultation booking. Over time, your website captures patients who would have found you through RealSelf and patients who bypass RealSelf entirely.
How do you build before/after galleries that are both compliant and persuasive?
Compliance and persuasion aren't opposites. The most persuasive galleries are well-documented ones. We build galleries with standardized photography (consistent lighting, angles, and backgrounds), case narratives explaining patient goals and surgical approach, proper consent documentation, and state-specific disclaimer language. Organized by procedure with filterable categories so patients can find their exact concern. A rhinoplasty patient wants to see noses similar to theirs, not scroll through 200 mixed-procedure results. Structured galleries convert better AND satisfy every regulatory requirement.
Patients research for months before contacting us. How does a website help with that timeline?
By meeting them at every stage of the research journey. Early-stage patients get educational content that answers "is [procedure] right for me?" and "what does [procedure] recovery look like?" Mid-stage patients get credential presentation, gallery proof, and patient testimonials. Late-stage patients get virtual consultation options, financing information, and direct consultation booking. We build retargeting infrastructure so a patient who visits your rhinoplasty page in January sees your practice again in March when they're closer to deciding. The 6-12 month research cycle works in your favor when your website is the resource they keep returning to.
This works for:
Board-certified surgeons ready to invest in long-term consultation pipeline, not quick-fix leads
Practices with documented outcomes and the photography to prove them
Surgeons whose expertise justifies premium pricing and deserves premium digital presentation
This is not for:
Practices competing primarily on price or promotional discounts
Surgeons without before/after documentation or willingness to invest in proper gallery photography
If consultation generation for $8,000-$15,000 procedures matters to your practice, we should evaluate your current digital infrastructure.