How to optimize your Google directory listing
Digital marketing for your dental practice takes many forms, from your social media presence to SEO optimization of your website, blogging, e-newsletters, paid ads and more.
if you haven’t taken the time to optimize your Google My Business listing, you could be missing out on an easy strategy for driving new patients to your practice.
A few quick and easy tests
It’s possible that your practice is already optimized for local searches on Google. It should only take you a few minutes to find out.
Pull up Google.com and run the following queries:
- Your practice name address
- Where is your practice name?
- How do I get to your practice name?
- Dentists in your city
- Your city dentists
Then, click on the map for each query to make sure your practice is listed and check the placement of your listing against competitors in your area.
Once you find your listing, click on the title. Then, check that the following items are all filled in for your practice:
- Your address
- A valid link to your website
- Opening hours
- Phone number
- Exterior and interior photos for your practice
- Several positive patient reviews
If everything looks great and you’re listed towards the top for dentists in your area, you should be good to go–but if you’re not satisfied with what you find, here’s how you go about fixing it.
Sign up for Google My Business for your dental practice
Most of the optimization process takes place through the Google My Business tool. If you have already claimed your dental practice’s Google My Business page, you can simply log into the tool and flesh out your listing to be more robust.
If you have yet to claim your practice, click on the link that says, “Own this business?” and follow the instructions to complete all the information needed to optimize your page.
Improve reviews and ranking
There’s only one surefire way to get happy patients to write a review for your Google listing. Ask them! You can ask them in person when they’re sitting in your chair and train frontend staff to ask them while they’re sitting in the waiting room. Post links on your social media sites and add a link to your e-newsletter.
