You run a private clinic or medical centre in Westlands, Kilimani or Karen. Your doctors are respected and your equipment is good, but most new patients still arrive through word of mouth and the occasional insurer referral. A provider has offered to make your clinic far more visible online, on a 12-month contract. It sounds promising, the figure is not small, and you have no easy way of telling whether this provider will deliver.
Twelve months is a real commitment. It is also roughly the time it takes to build a strong presence. So the right move is not to refuse the commitment but to ask sharp questions before you sign. Here are the ones that matter for a clinic, and the answers that should reassure or worry you.
Why a clinic should be more demanding than a shop
Nobody chooses a clinic the way they choose a café. Patients look for a paediatrician open on a Sunday evening, a maternity unit for a first baby, a specialist their GP has referred them to, a clinic that accepts their insurance cover. They compare, read and check. Many now ask an AI assistant before deciding. Often the person searching is not even the patient: it is a son in the UK organising care for a parent in Nairobi, an expatriate family new to the city, or an HR manager choosing a clinic for staff.
In that setting, a badly handled online presence does more harm than none at all. Sloppy medical information, promises of results or a pushy sales tone damage the trust a healthcare provider takes years to build. Your provider needs to understand that before you sign anything.
The 7 questions to ask
1. What exactly are you committing to deliver?
Reassuring: a clear list of what will go live and by when, with a stated remedy if it does not.
Worrying: a promise of position ('you'll be top of Google') or a number of new patients. Nobody controls what Google or an AI assistant decides. A serious provider commits to what it controls: its own work and transparent measurement.
2. Where will I see the results?
Reassuring: in your own Search Console, Google's free tool, registered to your clinic and still yours if you ever change provider.
Worrying: only in a proprietary dashboard, or in screenshots sent now and then. If you cannot check for yourself, you are relying on the provider's good faith.
3. How often will I get a report?
Reassuring: a dated report on a fixed schedule, stating what was done and what moved.
Worrying: 'we can catch up whenever you like'. Without a rhythm, months slip by and nobody is accountable.
4. What happens at three months?
Reassuring: a measured review on a fixed date, showing the trajectory and any adjustments.
Worrying: no milestone before the contract ends, which means you could discover in month twelve that nothing worked. Our guide on why visibility work runs on 12 months explains what a provider should guarantee in return for that commitment.
5. How many other Nairobi clinics do you work with?
Reassuring: a small, stated limit, with a distinct positioning for each clinic.
Worrying: 'as many as want us'. A provider doing the same work for every clinic in town cannot honestly defend your place against the one down the road.
6. How will you handle medical information?
Reassuring: accurate wording, reviewed by your clinical team, with no promises of cures, respecting medical ethics and patient confidentiality.
Worrying: generic copy recycled from one country to the next, or a promotional tone your doctors would wince at.
7. What happens if you miss your commitments?
Reassuring: a written rule that is simple and automatic.
Worrying: vague answers or 'we'll work something out'. For a broader checklist, see our guide to questions to ask before signing a visibility contract.
Weighing the commitment against patient value
Before signing, set the cost against what a patient is worth to your clinic over a year. A satisfied patient returns for consultations, follow-ups, tests and check-ups, and brings family members along. Work out that figure from your own records, then ask how many extra patients a year would cover the investment. For most clinics the answer is a reassuringly small number. The calculator on the Traffic Engine page does the arithmetic for you, and our guide on what it costs a clinic to be invisible sets out the reasoning in full.
How Traffic Engine answers these questions
Traffic Engine is Kolonell's service for making your clinic visible when patients search for your specialties in Nairobi, on Google and in the answers of AI assistants. Here is how it answers the seven questions:
- Everything your plan includes goes live on schedule; if it does not, the following month is free.
- You follow results in your own Search Console and receive a dated report every week.
- A measured review takes place at three months.
- Each sector has 3 standard seats per area, each with its own positioning. Momentum Exclusive and Flood Exclusive reserve the whole vertical as long as no standard seat has been signed.
- Kolonell guarantees publication and measurement, not the decisions of Google or an AI assistant.
It starts with a Visibility Audit at $750, with the report delivered within 48 business hours, fully deducted from the $1,650 one-time setup if you go ahead within 30 days. Monthly plans run from Presence at $1,200 to Flood at $3,850. Kolonell applied the approach to its own website first, and the curves are published on the offer page. See the offer and check whether a healthcare seat is still open.
Before you sign, whoever you choose
Print these seven questions and put them, word for word, to every provider you meet. Insist on written answers in the contract or an annex. Before those meetings, check where your clinic stands with the free website score: you will know your starting point and judge every promise more clearly.