The exam books the day. The optical pays for it.
SEOD builds Bay Area optometry marketing that leads with booking the exam, because the dispensary margin only exists if someone sits in the chair first.
- 16 years operating
- $54M+ P&L operated
- 128 verified 5-star reviews
15 min. No sales pitch. Direct founder access.
Three things deciding Bay Area optometry practices in 2026.
The optical is the margin, and it is under omnichannel pressure.
Dispensary revenue commonly represents 50 to 65% of collections at profitable practices, with eyewear gross margins in the 50 to 70% range. Patients now browse online before they walk in, which means your frame story has to start before the exam, not at the display case.
Medical optometry is where the growth actually is.
Industry trend reporting for 2026 points to myopia management, dry eye care, and medical optometry as the strongest expansion areas. Those are searched by name, by patients who already know what they want, and most practice websites do not have a page for either.
AI answers are absorbing the discovery click.
A randomized field study found Google’s AI Overviews cut outbound organic clicks by 39.8% and raised zero-click searches by 34.5%. Someone asking an AI engine about dry eye treatment nearby gets a short answer built from practices that published real detail about it.
The Sprint is built for this environment. Not the 2019 optical playbook.
Built by an operator who knows where the margin hides.
Eric ran $54M+ in F&B P&L across BCD Tofu House, Gen Korean Barbecue, Sake2Me Sushi, and Obaba Fresh. Sixteen years in businesses where the headline item gets people in the door and something else entirely pays the rent.
An optometry practice runs that structure exactly. Exam volume is cover count, the thing that fills the day. Frame and lens retail is the wine list attach, where the actual margin lives, riding on a base service priced near commodity. And a membership or vision plan is the repeat-customer LTV multiplier, turning an annual transaction into a relationship.
You get an operator who understands that discounting the exam to fill the optical is a real strategy, not a mistake. Not an agency that markets frames to people who have not booked.
The Operator Sprint, tuned for optometry practices.
$750 setup + $250/mo × 6 months · $2,250 total · Cancel anytime after month 6
- Onsite kickoff at your practice. 90 minutes with Eric, including how an exam request gets handled and where insurance questions stall the booking.
- Google Business Profile deep optimization leading with “book an eye exam” rather than a frame gallery, because booking is the action that starts everything.
- 48 GBP posts across the 6-month Sprint, split between exam intent, medical services, and new frame arrivals in that priority order.
- Service pages for dry eye and myopia management, the two fastest-growing searches in the category and the two most Bay Area practices have never built.
- Insurance verification page, stating the plans you take plainly, since that question ends more first calls than price does.
- Exam-to-optical handoff review, looking at whether your booking flow and reminders set up the dispensary conversation or leave it to chance.
- AI-answer optimization so your practice surfaces when someone asks an AI engine about eye exams or dry eye treatment in your city.
- Monthly dashboard showing GBP impressions, calls, exam bookings, and which service pages are actually producing.
- Monthly 15-minute operator call with Eric. He reads your numbers and tells you which service line deserves the next push.
- Text Eric directly at 707-718-3579. 4-hour response window, 9am to 9pm PT.
15 min. No sales pitch. Direct founder access.
What we don’t do for optometry practices.
No EHR or practice management setup.
RevolutionEHR, Crystal PM, and their peers own records and scheduling. We read reporting for the dashboard and stay out of the clinical system.
No insurance billing or credentialing.
Panel participation and claims are their own discipline with their own specialists. We will publish which plans you take, we will not manage the relationship.
No clinical or outcome claims.
We do not write copy promising vision outcomes or comparative clinical results. That is a board exposure with your license attached.
No frame buying or inventory strategy.
Which lines you carry and at what margin is your business and your rep relationships. We help you sell what you have chosen.
The tools we actually run for optometry practices.
Not a logo wall. These are the systems we log into on your behalf during the Sprint.
Google Business Profile Manager
Exam booking as the primary action, plus services, photos, and posts.
Google Ads
“Eye exam near me” and named-condition capture when paid is in scope.
Meta Business Manager
Local radius targeting for exam season and school-year timing.
RevolutionEHR or Crystal PM exports
Read-only. Exam volume and capture rate reporting feeds the dashboard.
Review platforms
Google first, since it is checked before booking a healthcare appointment.
Email and SMS recall tools
Annual exam recall, the most reliable booking source a practice owns.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude
Tracked monthly for how often your practice gets cited in AI answers.
What this looks like in practice.
A typical optometry client sees weekly GBP impressions rise 2 to 3x within 30 days of Sprint kickoff. The change that usually matters more is dry eye and myopia pages beginning to produce their own bookings, because those patients search by condition and arrive already knowing they want the service.
These are the patterns we build toward, not a promise. Actual outcomes vary by city competition, your insurance mix, and whether your schedule has exam capacity to absorb bookings. We publish named client results only with the client's permission and real numbers attached.
Sprint vs the two alternatives you're weighing.
Most Bay Area practice owners weigh an eyecare-specialist agency, a part-time marketing coordinator, or the Sprint. Here is the honest comparison.
| SEOD Operator Sprint | Eyecare-specialist agency retainer | In-house marketing coordinator | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost over 6 months | $2,250 total | $12,000 to $30,000 | $24,000 to $36,000 (part-time salary plus burden) |
| Leads with exam booking | Yes, by design | Usually | Depends on the hire |
| Dry eye and myopia pages | Included | Often an add-on | If they know to build them |
| Insurance verification page | Included | Sometimes | If you brief them |
| Bay Area onsite | Yes, 90 min with Eric | Rare | Yes, they work at your practice |
| AI-answer optimization | Baked in | Sometimes | Rare |
| Who you actually talk to | Eric, by text, 4-hour window | An account manager | Your employee |
| Commitment | 6-month bundle, cancel anytime after | 12-month contract is common | Ongoing employment |
Agency range reflects published eyecare retainers. Coordinator cost assumes a $40K to $60K Bay Area part-time salary plus roughly 25% burden, prorated to 6 months. If you want someone merchandising the optical floor daily, hire the coordinator.
Questions Bay Area optometry practices owners ask.
Should we market frames or exams?
Exams, almost always. The optical margin only exists after someone sits in the chair, and frame-led marketing attracts price shoppers who compare you to online retailers. Lead with booking, then let the dispensary do its job in person where you win.
Can you help with dry eye and myopia management?
Those are the two pages we most often find missing and they are the fastest-growing searches in the category. Patients search by condition, arrive informed, and convert at a much higher rate than generic exam traffic.
How do we compete with online eyewear?
Not on frame price. You compete on the exam, the fit, the medical services online retailers cannot provide, and the fact that a bad prescription is expensive. The marketing should sell the visit, not the product.
Do you handle insurance questions on the site?
We publish the plans you accept plainly, because that question ends more first calls than anything else. We do not manage credentialing or claims.
Will you write clinical content?
We draft patient education and your doctors review it before it publishes. We do not make treatment claims or comparative clinical assertions.
Do you guarantee exam bookings?
No. Anyone guaranteeing appointment volume is buying it with your ad spend or inventing it. We commit to the deliverables on this page, on the timeline on this page, logged so you can verify.
Our exam schedule is full three weeks out. Is this right?
Then the better conversation is capture rate and service mix rather than more bookings. Raising optical capture and adding medical services grows revenue without adding chairs, and Eric will point you there instead of selling the Sprint.
Three ways to start.
Not ready yet? Start with the free 3-Point Visibility Audit. 48 hours. No sales call. Get the audit →