Patients Search at 2am. The Clinic They Find Is the One They Book.
Ketamine clinic SEO is getting your practice found when someone nearby searches for infusion, Spravato, or a clinic that can see them this week, and making sure the page they land on can be booked.
That's it. The rest of this page is the playbook.
Updated August 2026 · Sources cited at the bottom of the pageI'm Shane. 25 years health, 12+ years SEO. Health Promotion first, tracking online health marketing since 2014. I write this as the operator, not as a junior account dropping "ketamine" into a med-spa template.
Ketamine is not a med-spa keyword problem
Most agencies treat this like a wellness brand with a harder word on the door. They recycle the facial / peptide / cash-pay hormone template, then wonder why the page gets ignored or the ad account gets flagged.
This is a Schedule III problem, a compounding problem, a local clinic problem, and an outcome-claim problem. Get any one wrong and the ranking work is wasted, because the page itself is the liability.
I also run peptide clinic and longevity work. Different rules, different pages. They do not live on this URL.
Schedule III is not Schedule I (why a /psilocybin-seo/ URL is the wrong door)
Ketamine is a Schedule III controlled substance. DEA lists it as a Schedule III example. Schedule I is the federal bucket with no currently accepted medical use. Psilocybin sits there. Ketamine does not.
That is why this page is leaving /psilocybin-seo/ketamine-clinics/. A ketamine clinic is not a psilocybin service center. Different regulator, different product, different search intent. Parking this under psilocybin SEO taught Google the wrong parent. The 301 is an implement step, not this draft. I do not sell one "psychedelic SEO" bucket.
DEA's ketamine fact sheet is the version I use before I write a line: Schedule III, accepted medical use as an anesthetic, and FDA approval of esketamine in March 2019 for treatment-resistant depression. Spravato, the nasal spray, and the certified doctor's office or clinic conditions come from the FDA label. That is not a licence to market compounded IV, IM, or troches as if they were Spravato.
Spravato vs compounded IV vs IM vs troches — four search intents, four pages
Patients do not search "ketamine" and mean one thing.
Spravato is esketamine nasal spray. The current FDA label indicates it for treatment-resistant depression in adults, and for depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder and acute suicidal ideation or behavior, under the labelled conditions and limitations. A Spravato page has to read like a Spravato page.
Compounded IV is a different product. Compounded drugs are not FDA-approved. FDA does not review their safety, effectiveness, or quality before they are marketed. An IV page that borrows Spravato's labelled indications is copy I will not write.
IM is a third intent. Troches and other compounded oral forms are a fourth. FDA's compounding risk alerts specifically call out compounded ketamine products, including oral formulations, for psychiatric disorders. If that is what you dispense, the page says so.
Four intents. Four pages. One treatments dump with four bullets ranks for none of them.
What patients actually type (therapy near me, treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, Spravato, infusion)
The money queries are ugly and specific. Ketamine clinic near me. Ketamine infusion therapy in [city]. Spravato clinic near me. Treatment-resistant depression clinic. Ketamine for PTSD. Does insurance cover Spravato.
Two patterns. Local and urgent (near me, this week) is won in the map pack and on a city-and-visit page with a real booking path. That is local SEO for ketamine clinics in practice. Condition-led (treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, labelled Spravato indications) is a condition page that refuses to invent outcomes, then sends the reader to the matching treatment.
I build the list from your last ninety days of enquiries and from autocomplete in your city. If a query never shows up in the phone log, it is not a priority page.
The rules that get clinics banned or ignored
Ranking is the easy half. The half that gets clinics in trouble is the sentence someone wrote because it converted. I source this from the live FDA, FTC, and DEA pages. If I cannot footnote a regulatory claim, I cut it.
FDA compounded-ketamine safety communications (source the live FDA page, not a blog)
FDA's compounding risk alerts list two ketamine communications I actually use.
10 October 2023: FDA warns patients and health care providers about potential risks associated with compounded ketamine products, including oral formulations, for the treatment of psychiatric disorders.
16 February 2022: FDA alerts health care professionals of potential risks associated with compounded ketamine nasal spray.
FDA's compounding explainer is the line I will not let a copywriter dance around. Compounded drugs are not FDA-approved. If you use a compounded formulation, the site says so in plain words. I will write the disclosure. I will not write the dodge.
FTC outcome-claim risk — no "cured my depression" testimonials
FTC's health-products guidance covers clinic sites, social, and testimonial widgets. You may not make a claim through a patient story that you could not make directly. "Cured my depression in three infusions" is an efficacy claim. Anecdotes are not substantiation.
A testimonial that shows results more dramatic than a typical patient can expect is likely deceptive. "Results not typical" does not fix it. For off-label or compounded use, most clinic sites cannot fill the evidence hole.
I do not write "cured my depression" or "I got my life back in two sessions." Patient voice, if you use it, stays on the visit and the staff. Not the disease result.
What I will not write (refuse any claim the clinic's FDA status cannot back)
I will not write that compounded ketamine is FDA-approved. I will not write Spravato's labelled indications onto an IV, IM, or troche page. I will not write that ketamine is a cure or a guaranteed response. I will not write insurance coverage as a promise. I will not write for an unlicensed seller or a "research chemical" shop.
I will not recommend a claim the FDA status cannot back. That is the live positioning on this work, and it is why a generalist who also sells pool cleaning should not write your H1.
What ranking in this niche actually takes
The unbranded results for this query are mostly blogs and directory how-tos. The one full service page I keep seeing also sells law firms, pool cleaning, and CBD. That is the opening.
What ranking takes is the right page for the right intent, a Google Business Profile that looks like a clinic, schema on the clinic site that matches the entity, and an honest answer when someone asks an assistant who to see tonight.
Condition pages vs treatment pages vs location pages
Three page types. Most clinic sites have one, and it is a homepage paragraph.
Condition pages answer the diagnosis: treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, the labelled Spravato indications, written as labelled. Treatment pages answer the visit: Spravato, IV, IM, troches. Location pages answer the city you actually operate in, with four honest sentences about that place. Do not clone Denver and call it Phoenix.
Google enforces scaled content abuse. Thin city clones are how clinic groups get hurt. Internal links do the rest: condition to treatment, treatment to location. That is the service work, not a content calendar.
Google Business Profile categories and the local pack
For a local clinic, the map pack still beats the blue links. The 2am search happens on a phone.
Primary category has to match the licensed service, not the vibe. I set it from Google's live category picker for that location. I will not invent a category string in this draft. Do not pick Medical spa or Wellness center as a dodge. Do not hide multi-location under one profile.
Name, address, and phone match the site, the door, and every directory you already sit in. Hours are the hours a human answers. Photos of your rooms and your chair. Every review gets a reply. I will not ghost-write a five-star that claims a disease outcome. Service area is the cities you will actually accept.
Schema that belongs on the clinic site (Physician / MedicalBusiness) — not fluff on this agency page
Schema on this PropeloSEO URL is not the job. Physician and MedicalBusiness markup belong on the clinic site. I implement it there: provider names that match the licence, practice name that matches the door, address and hours that match the Google Business Profile.
Schema helps a machine read a true page. It does not make ChatGPT recommend you, and it does not go on this URL.
Named vs cited: ChatGPT / Claude / Perplexity / Gemini (homepage thesis, ketamine prompts)
Being named is not the same as being found. The body of an assistant's answer names clinics. The footnotes cite sources. You can be the source a model read and still not be the clinic it named.
I scanned 30 clinics in July. AI named them in 7 answers out of 10. It linked their website in 2. Those were mixed clinics, not this niche.
I run ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini on ketamine prompts, not a generic block recycled from a peptide page. You see the answers word for word.
The deeper version lives on AI search optimization and getting cited by LLMs. If you only want the scan, that is the $197 AI Visibility Audit.
What I build in the first 90 days
I start with the map, the treatment pages for the products you actually offer, and a copy pass that removes every claim your FDA status cannot back. Rankings take 8 to 12 weeks. Three months minimum, then cancel any time.
Deep Dive Audit ($1,497) — full map before a retainer
The Deep Dive Audit is $1,497, one time. Trust signals, crawl, money pages read against what you are licensed to offer, four-engine check on the questions your patients ask, 90-day roadmap. Delivered in 14 days, with a live walkthrough.
10+ actionable findings or the audit is free.
Start an Authority Retainer within 30 days and the $1,497 comes off the first month. Right first buy if you are not sure whether the site is a ranking problem or a compliance problem.
Growth Retainer ($2,000/mo) — 2 pages + 8 to 10 title rewrites, shipped
The Growth Retainer is $2,000 a month. Two new or fully optimized pages. 8 to 10 title and meta rewrites. Internal links pointed at the money URLs. A monthly AI citation grid. You approve before anything goes live.
Three measurable improvements ship every month or that month is free. For most infusion and Spravato practices, this is the retainer.
Authority Retainer ($4,997/mo) — only if they need citation assets + off-site; "I only take 3 Authority clients at a time"
The Authority Retainer is $4,997 a month. Growth, plus citation assets and off-site placements.
I only take 3 Authority clients at a time.
I put a clinic on it when the on-site pages are already clean and the gap is off-site. If that is not your problem, stay on Growth.
Start with the map, or go straight to the retainer.
Deep Dive Audit, $1,497What generic agencies get wrong here
The live mistake is still an outcome-claim testimonial sitting on a compounded, off-label page.
The rest of the pattern is predictable. Recycled med-spa modules. Unsourced outcome claims. One "psychedelic" bucket that dumps ketamine next to psilocybin SEO. No Spravato / IV split. No named-versus-cited check. An llms.txt file sold as AI visibility. I do not sell llms.txt as a bonus.
And they will write for anyone. Law firms on Monday, pool cleaning on Tuesday, CBD on Wednesday, your infusion chair on Thursday. I came up through health. That background is on About.
When a patient asks ChatGPT who to see tonight
This is not the ChatGPT block from a peptide or hormone page. I run ketamine-specific prompts, with your city filled in, across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.
"Who should I see tonight for ketamine treatment in [city]?"
"Spravato clinic in [city] that can see me this week."
"Is compounded ketamine the same as Spravato, and who offers which in [city]?"
"Ketamine infusion clinic in [city] for treatment-resistant depression that takes insurance."
"Ketamine clinic near me for PTSD, in-clinic only, not a telehealth site."
Then I score named versus cited, whether the link hits your site or a directory, whether Spravato and compounded IV stayed separate, and whether the model invented an outcome claim on your behalf.
That scan is the $197 AI Visibility Audit, and it is also inside the Deep Dive. There is a free AI check if you want the short version first. I am not selling an LLM citation package on this URL.
Want the scan for your city before a retainer?
AI Visibility Audit, $197Questions clinic owners ask first
Is ketamine clinic SEO different from regular medical SEO?
Yes. You still need the local-clinic basics. On top of that you have Schedule III, compounding disclosures, a Spravato-versus-racemic split, and FTC risk on any patient story that implies a typical disease result. Regular medical SEO that ignores those four will rank you into a complaint.
Can you run Google Ads for a ketamine clinic, or is organic the real channel?
Organic is the channel I build. I am not an ads retainer. Google's healthcare and medicines policy restricts some healthcare entirely, and limits other categories to certified advertisers in certain locations. It restricts prescription-drug terms, online prescribing and telemedicine, and speculative or experimental medical treatments. I will not invent an approval rate for ketamine ads, and I will not write ad copy your FDA status cannot back. Ads are faster and they stop when you stop paying.
Spravato vs compounded ketamine — do those need different pages?
Yes. Spravato is labelled esketamine at a certified site. Compounded ketamine is not FDA-approved, and FDA has already published risk alerts on compounded ketamine products, including oral forms, for psychiatric disorders. One URL trying to rank for both will either confuse Google or put a labelled claim on a product that cannot carry it.
Will you write patient outcome testimonials?
No. I will not write "cured my depression" or any testimonial that implies a typical disease outcome you cannot substantiate. FTC treats that implied claim as if you made it yourself.
Do you work with unlicensed or "research chemical" ketamine sellers?
No. Licensed clinics and certified Spravato sites only.
What does the first 90 days cost?
Deep Dive Audit, $1,497, if you want the map first. Growth Retainer, $2,000 a month, for 2 new or fully optimized pages and 8 to 10 title and meta rewrites. Authority Retainer, $4,997 a month, only if you need citation assets and off-site, and only if I have a slot. I only take 3 Authority clients at a time. Three months minimum on a retainer, then cancel any time.
Where these claims come from
Only URLs I actually used. If I could not footnote a regulatory line, I cut it.
- DEA, Drug Scheduling — ketamine listed as Schedule III. https://www.dea.gov/drug-information/drug-scheduling
- DEA Diversion Control, Ketamine fact sheet — Schedule III; anesthetic use; FDA approval of esketamine in March 2019 for TRD. Does not name Spravato, nasal spray, or certified-site conditions. https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/ketamine.pdf
- FDA, Understanding the Risks of Compounded Drugs — compounded drugs are not FDA-approved. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/understanding-risks-compounded-drugs
- FDA, Compounding Risk Alerts — 10 Oct 2023 compounded ketamine (including oral) for psychiatric disorders; 16 Feb 2022 compounded ketamine nasal spray. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/compounding-risk-alerts
- FDA, SPRAVATO (esketamine) label, 2025 — TRD; MDD with acute suicidal ideation or behavior; limitations of use; nasal spray; certified-site conditions. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2025/211243s016lbl.pdf
- FTC, Health Products Compliance Guidance — testimonials cannot carry a claim you could not make directly; anecdotes are not substantiation. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/health-products-compliance-guidance
- FTC, Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking
- Google Ads Help, Healthcare and medicines. https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/176031
- Google Search Essentials, Spam policies — scaled content abuse. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies
- PropeloSEO homepage — "I scanned 30 clinics in July. AI named them in 7 answers out of 10. It linked their website in 2." Mixed clinics, not this niche. https://propeloseo.com/
- PropeloSEO About — 25 years health / 12+ years SEO; Health Promotion; tracking since 2014; Propelo SEO LLC, Wyoming, formed April 2026. https://propeloseo.com/about/
- Live prices and the Deep Dive "10+ findings or free" guarantee: /deep-dive-audit/, /growth-retainer/, /authority-retainer/.
Same shop, regulated market, not this molecule: a psilocybin recovery where 31 blog canonicals pointed at the homepage, 116 keywords dropped, and the blog came back at 8,850% click growth. Not a ketamine case study.
Another brand, in one of Google's most restricted niches, 9 weeks in: 20 pages up, 2,650 extra clicks, top page +2,933%. Name withheld. Not confirmed as ketamine, and this page does not imply it is.
Ready to see who ranks for your city at 2am?
Tell me the city and whether you run Spravato, compounded infusion, or both. I will look at who owns the map pack and who the assistants name, and I will tell you honestly whether you can beat them.
The form behind those priced offers is contact.
Propelo SEO LLC, Wyoming, formed April 2026.