There’s no question about it: Google Business Profiles are the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to local SEO these days. Even if your patients initially find your practice through other means, they likely use Google to locate your website, address, phone number, or office hours. Google is ubiquitous, and with its 86.6 percent market share of desktop searches, it’s virtually a monopoly, which means you either play by Google’s rules or you don’t play at all.
If that sounds ominous, it wasn’t meant to—there are a lot of reasons to love Google Business Profiles. For dental practices, Google Business Profiles put all of your most vital information at your patients’ fingertips, it allows you to share relevant business updates, and it lets you interact with patients via reviews. Here’s why your Google Business Profile is so important for local businesses like yours.
The link between local search and google business profile
There’s a simple and obvious answer as to why Google Business Profiles are important: Google owns it. Google is not a public service or utility; it is a business and as such, it prioritizes the businesses that are using its products and services. In other words, a business that has an active, optimized, and complete Google Business Profile is more likely to perform well in local Google searches, and outperform competitors that do not understand and utilize this platform.
This, of course, isn’t just to reward businesses that take the time to optimize their Google listings. It’s also because by having an active Google Business Profile, it helps Google better understand your dental practice and the services you offer. This, in turn, allows Google to deliver search results to its users that are tailored to their queries and location.
Dental practices that have detailed information in their profiles are more likely to surface in Google Maps for specific queries, and more likely to come out ahead in desktop search results as well. Improvements in rankings in Google Maps and Google search can occur even without any changes to your practice’s website. Just optimizing your Google profile is enough to make a difference.
Managing your google business profile
Knowing this, it’s a good idea to start being proactive with your Google profile if you aren’t already. Here are some steps you can take to optimize your dental practice’s presence in Google’s local results:
- Make sure all relevant fields are filled out.
- Check your address, phone number, and office hours for accuracy.
- When your office hours or other information changes, update it on Google as soon as possible.
- Respond to patient reviews on Google, whether good or bad.
- Share updates about your business.
- Answer questions asked by searchers.
- Add photos, announcements, blogs etc to the “posting” section on a weekly basis.
The more active you are with your Google profile, the more Google will reward you on its other platforms.
If you don’t have time to spend on Google Business Profile, Dentalfone can help. To discuss our Google Business Profile management services, schedule a meeting with Dentalfone SEO.