General

Google My Business Practitioner Listings – Should your Doctors, Specialists or Therapists have their own listing?

 

It’s a scary thought – an individual practitioner at your medical clinic appearing higher on Google than your actual practice or clinic listing. Individual doctor listings… has it happened to you?

This is something we’ve come across on a few occasions and there’s different ways to approach it. Before we outline some common medical practitioner listing issues and their solutions, let’s take a look at what practitioner listings are, when they are allowed and how you and your practitioners can make the most of them.

What is a practitioner listing?

A practitioner listing refers to a public facing professional e.g. a doctor, specialist, therapist, dentist being allowed their own listing separate from the clinic or practice they work for. Practitioner listings appear similar to other Google My Business listings, although they focus on the individual, rather than the location they work at.

According to Google:

An individual practitioner is a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents are all individual practitioners. Listings for practitioners may include title or degree certification (e.g. Dr., MD, JD, Esq., CFA).

As I mentioned above, many practices initially view individual doctor listings as a threat, however if you have an open mind these can be of benefit to your practice and your practitioners.

When are individual specialist or doctor listings allowed?

Here’s some checks to help decide whether a practitioner listing is allowed:

Does the practitioner have a direct relationship with patients / customers?

Do patients ‘book in’ with that specific practitioner? Are practitioners contactable during opening hours? Nurses, support staff and reception team wouldn’t be applicable here.

Do they have operating hours that can vary from the usual hours of the practice?

Perhaps the practitioner only works Monday – Thursday but the clinic is open Monday to Saturday.

Is there a business category in Google My Business that fits what they do? 

Let’s say the clinic’s primary category is a Medical Clinic, and the practitioner only works with children, therefore they claim the category ‘Paediatrician’.

 

Solo Practitioner listings

If you’re a solo practitioner, Google’s recommendation is you have 1 listing that combines the practice name and practitioner name. For example, the name in Google My Business would be something like..

General Medical Sydney: Jack Smith.

Interestingly, it’s not (currently) in violation of GMB guidelines to have a separate listing for the practice and practitioner. An instance where you might like to apply this to your business is if you operate across more than 1 main category. An example here might be a Specialist who is a Gynaecologist and Obstetrician.  Or an Orthopaedic Surgeon who specialises as a Hand Surgeon. There’s potential opportunities to broaden your visibility depending on what you do and the available categories in GMB.

 

Multi-Practitioner Listings

Let’s say your practice has many practitioners and Google has spontaneously created some individual specialist or doctor listings.

The important step here is taking ownership of these listings and setting them up in a way that they don’t compete with your practice listing.

Google says:

The title of the listing for the practitioner should include only the name of the practitioner, and shouldn’t include the name of the organization.

A strategy here could be similar to the solo practitioner example above, where you could focus different practitioners on different categories that are relevant to their areas of expertise or special interests. Bear in mind here that each GMB listing you have should link to a different page on your website though. You don’t want all your practitioner listings linking to your practice home page.

If you have multi-practitioners that work at multiple locations, this article by Whitespark has detailed info that will help.

 

What happens when practitioners leave?

A potential frustration that can arise is having medical practitioner or doctor listings for practitioners who no longer work at your practice.  Keep in mind that the GMB listing belongs to the practitioner – not the practice.

If a practitioner leaves your practice, their GMB profile goes with them too. So your practice may lose the enquiries that were coming through related to the main category on the practitioner’s GMB profile.

Here’s what you can do if you have access to the listing:

• Mark the listing as closed – but risk patients thinking your business is closed too (not recommended)
• Update the listing with the practitioner’s new location

If you don’t have access to the listing or have any other troubles, you’ve got 2 options:

1. Find the listing on Google maps and submit a change as a user
2. Prepare some proof of the practitioners new location e.g. a screenshot from their new practice website and contact Google My Business to inform them

 

What happens if a practitioner retires – or passes away?

If a practitioner retires or is deceased, here’s what you can do.  The best option here is to contact GMB support and ask them to remove the listing.

It may be detrimental to the practice to mark the listing as closed in case patients mistake the business being closed too, so avoid doing that.

 

I hope this information has been helpful and has shed some light on a topic that I know many practices struggle with. Here’s some tips for you too:

 

Top Tip 1: Any time you contact GMB Support, have your proof ready e.g. screenshots or links.  This helps Google to understand why you want to make updates and confirms you’re telling the truth.

Top Tip 2: Visit our Ultimate Guide to Google My Business to find out how to more easily get in touch with GMB Support.

Top Tip 3: If you’re really stumped? Book a 15-minute chat with us and we’ll see if we’re able to help with your practitioner listing troubles.

An important element of your medical clinic’s online reputation is review management.

And an essential part of review management is Google reviews – part of Google My Business. Google My Business is a free tool that helps you attract and engage patients searching online for your clinic or a service related to the treatments your clinic offers. Reviews on Google My Business appear next to your business listing on Google Search and Google Maps and can help your practice to stand out from your competitors.

When patients are looking for a health practitioner, the majority read online reviews to help them make an informed decision. In fact according to online booking software provider HotDoc, it was found that it was found that 54% of Australian patients check a clinic’s Google reviews prior to choosing them. Not only that, 77% were more likely to book with a clinic with 4-5 stars.

So, how do you get more 5-star reviews on Google, especially when you’re in the healthcare industry and subject to some very strict laws?

Let’s delve in.

 

1. Provide the 5-star experience

To get positive reviews on Google, you need to provide a positive patient experience. What makes a patient (or any customer) want to share a 5-star review about your business? A five-star experience of course!

A 5-star experience means going above and beyond so patients are more inclined to ‘sing your praises’ publicly. This can mean offering a ‘wow’ experience or cultivating a following of loyal, satisfied patients who have a good rapport with practitioners.

Here’s some suggestions from patients that contribute to a positive clinic experience:

• Patients feel ‘listened to’
• Practitioners are caring and compassionate
• Appointment run on time – or estimated waiting times are given
• Use of technology to make life easier (not more difficult)
• Convenient opening hours (perhaps offering early morning, weekend and/or evening options)
• Simple online booking process
• Clean, modern and welcoming clinic
• Easy access / parking

There is some debate around whether going above and beyond is enough these days. In some industries, being ‘delighted’ by the customer experience is becoming the norm and no longer something special, in fact customers expect it.

According to models expert Simon Bowen, to truly serve your customer and be deserving of being chosen (and raved about) your customers need to feel a level of safety with you, that you’ve got their back so to speak. Definitely something to consider.

So… once you’ve got your patient experience on point, it’s time to set the scene – and make the ask.

You need a verified Google My Business account to get Google reviews. If you don’t have one, learn more in our article the Ultimate guide to Google My Business.

2. Ask for Google reviews

While reviews in healthcare are a taboo topic and many healthcare professionals are reluctant to even discuss review acquisition, reviews have a place when done right. It comes down to choosing an approach that feels comfortable (perhaps after a discussion with your legal advisor).

AHPRA states “reviews (i.e. feedback about healthcare experiences that does not refer to clinical aspects of care) in advertising are allowed”. 

You can read more in AHPRA’s testimonial tools here. To achieve more Google reviews for your healthcare practice, ask your patients to review their experience – but to keep things simple, don’t reproduce any of those reviews on your website.

AHPRA’s tool indicates you are allowed to use reviews that don’t relate to clinical services, e.g. reviews that talk about things like: 

– Friendliness of your reception team
– Ease of parking
– Cleanliness and atmosphere of your waiting room
– On-time appointments

Here’s an example of an ‘allowed’ review:

 

The tool is also very clear that you are not allowed to use reviews in your advertising that relate to the clinical experience, e.g: 

– Their symptoms or reason for their appointment
– The diagnosis or treatment
– The outcome of the treatment
– The skills or experience of the treating practitioner

Here’s examples of reviews that are prohibited under National Law:

 

With your Google My Business profile, you can’t actually control the content of reviews that you receive.
The key here, is never to reply to a review that discusses clinical aspects. Alternatively, you could use a standard review reply to every review, that neither confirms or denies the reviewer is a patient, but politely explains that due to privacy and national medical board regulations, you cannot reply or invite discussion in a public forum.

How to make the review request? 

It’s time to think about your method for collecting reviews. There are many different methods available to request reviews, from comprehensive paid tools to sending an email, SMS or in person. Your team should work out a process that feels comfortable while also being easily repeatable so you have your reviews coming in on tap. If you are a HotDoc customer, you could look into HotDoc Reviews. There’s some great case studies of practices who have already benefitted from this brilliant feature.

 

3. Reply to Google reviews

Replies to reviews are considered an extension of your brand and are an indication to patients reading your reviews that you listen to patient feedback.

How you handle negative reviews in particular is very important.

Key points to remember when addressing a negative review:

• Keep your response short and succinct
• Stay calm and polite
• Keep emotion out of the equation
• Respond promptly
• Invite them to resolve the problem offline by getting in touch with you via phone or email, provide the contact info to make it easy
• Never confirm their identity or the treatment they had
• Don’t pick out specific points in their complaint and write a detailed defence argument

RACGP weighs in on this topic and suggests if you think a review raises a legitimate point and it’s worthwhile addressing it, then it could be useful to respond.  It’s important for all practitioners to avoid responding to reviews that discuss clinical issues though, to ensure you don’t unintentionally breach Privacy Law or National Law.

Also, let’s be honest about the fact that there are some cases when a negative review does not warrant any response at all. Only your team can decide the legitimate complaints vs those that are not worth your time and effort.

But let’s remember the key principals here that differentiate healthcare businesses from most other industries – you cannot confirm by your reply:

• the identity of your reviewers
• whether or not they actually attended your practice
• or any specifics about their appointment.

Key Takeaway

Your Google reviews star rating (and overall vibe of the comments) are a critical component when it comes to the success of your clinic. Despite the many laws around the use of reviews in healthcare advertising, they do have an important role in your online marketing. The key is keeping it simple, educating your patients and adhering to AHPRA regulations.

 

Action Step

Before embarking on a review campaign, seek advice from your legal advisor. While the above is our interpretation of the AHPRA regulations based on the testimonial tool and examples of advertising that has and has not complied with the National Law, this information is for guidance only and does not replace independent legal advice. Every clinic has a different comfort level when it comes to how they interpret the guidelines. You need to find an approach that works for you.

 

Sources:

https://www.healthcareit.com.au/article/survey-reveals-what-patients-really-want-doctors

https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/becoming-ideal-doctor-what-do-your-patients-really-want

https://practices.hotdoc.com.au/blog/consulting-room-patient-experience/improve-the-consulting-room-patient-experience

If you’re a healthcare or medical professional, your website is often the first place a patient will go to learn about your business. Do your know what your patients expect from your website?

Let’s be clear, patients visit your website because they’re on a journey to find a solution to their healthcare needs.

In our digital age, looking online for answers is a prominent aspect of our lives and having a healthcare website that meets the needs of your patients is critical to ensuring you stay relevant amongst your competition.

Your website is a big factor of influence in a patient’s decision on whether to choose you.

Here’s a little insight into what patients not only want, but expect, from your medical website.

1. Do you have the solution to my problem?

Whether patients are looking for information about a particular health condition, a specific treatment they’ve heard of or are trying to find a health practitioner with unique expertise, your website should have the answer.

Unless you’ve clearly outlined who you help, how you help and what’s in it for them, you’re probably missing out on many new patients who could be the perfect fit for your clinic.

Providing solutions that uncover how you can help your patients in form of comprehensive information about the range of services you provide and your treatment processes helps patients to feel you understand their problems.

Does your website show patients you can address their concerns?

2. How will I benefit?

It’s important to clearly outline the benefits of choosing your practice. Show your patients how they will benefit from booking an appointment with your team, rather than the clinic down the road.

Here’s some ideas:

• Do you have a unique philosophy that sets you apart?
• Do you have easy access to parking?
• Are there other Allied Health professionals on site?
• If you’re a medical centre, are you located near a pharmacy or pathology collection centre?

Ways you help your patients to save time, make their life easier, or provide them with value can be considered a benefit.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

As a healthcare professional, helping others comes naturally to you. Have you ever thought about how you can help patients before they’ve even step foot in your clinic? Your website can be an amazing resource for patients. Whether it’s writing detailed information about the services you offer or the process for a particular treatment, when you use your website as a helping tool, you can more easily build rapport with patients and stand out from the competition. #medicalmarketing #getlocallyconnected

A post shared by Healthcare + Medical Marketing (@getlocallyconnected) on May 24, 2020 at 9:05pm PDT

 

3. Can i trust you?

Does your website help patients feel a sense of trust in your practice? Appearing approachable and sincere in your communications goes a long way when it comes to helping patients believe you are trustworthy. After all, they are trusting you with their most important asset, their health.

• Are there images of your team and importantly, do you look approachable?
• Is there info about individual practitioners?
• Have you provided information about the clinic owners and their mission / philosophies / expertise?
• Have you included logos of relevant accreditations and industry associations you belong to?

Something else to consider is your online reputation. What do your reviews say about you?

While encouraging reviews in a healthcare setting can be problematic due to AHPRA and National Board regulations, most practices will get a 1-star review at some point in time. The most important element of a 1 star review is the business response, and that can help you either attract or repel new patients.

How do you respond to negative reviews about your clinic?

4. Which practitioner is best suited to my current health concern?

While it might feel like you’re being judged, the fact is some patients will make a decision about which practitioner or doctor they want to see based on the photos and information on your website. The most important thing here is ensuring you have adequate information about your team to help patients select the right person for their needs, if they prefer.

Many patients are looking for a doctor or health practitioner with specific experience. In fact, practitioner pages are often the next most viewed page on a healthcare website after the home page. Making sure your individual practitioner pages include special interests, previous experience, cross-modalities and other relevant information not only helps patients start the rapport building process via your website, it can also be helpful for search engine optimisation, so more patients can find your website in the first place.

5. How much will it cost?

Most patients want to know upfront what their costs will be. Some things to consider and include – if appropriate – on your website:

Are there concession rates for:

• Children?
• Concession card holders?
• DVA card holders?

How do you handle payment for:

• Work Injuries / Workcover?
• Motor Vehicle Accidents?
• Private Health funds?
• Do you have HICAPS facilities?

Other considerations:

• Are you an NDIS provider?
• How long are your consultations?
• Is there a fee for no-shows?

Having this information clearly on your website can help alleviate payment anxiety for patients as they can find out ahead of time what the costs may be in seeking treatment and rebates they may be eligible for.

Here’s an example of clear fee information:

6. Where are you located?

A separate contact page with detailed location information is a must.

Your contact page should clearly display your address and other contact information, a Google map, and photos of your location and parking accessibility so it’s really easy for people to find you in real life.

An embedded Google map allows patients to click on the map to open the Google Maps app on their phone and enter their address or use their current location to get directions to your practice. It’s something so simple that can be a big help. Just make sure the info on your Google My Business profile is correct – otherwise you might send patients to the wrong location. More on Google My Business here. 

Including clear information about the parking and transport options is essential. Make it as easy as possible for people to find you and get to your clinic.

 

7. How do I contact you and book?

Do you make it easy for patients to make a booking?

Whether patients have to phone your office/reception to book an appointment or you’ve integrated your website with an online bookings provider, the key is making it simple.

Just like purchasing an item from an online shop, your booking button is like clicking the ‘BUY’ button. It needs to stand out from everything else, and what comes after the button is clicked needs to be quick and easy.

Your booking or phone number buttons should be clear and easily clickable no matter where a patient is viewing your website – on a computer, tablet device or mobile phone.  These buttons should be visible on every single page too.

Key Takeaway

Whether you’ve got a simple website or the fanciest healthcare website around, these 7 areas need to be covered to ensure patients are getting what they need from your site. Remembering that patients primarily visit your website to solve a problem, can help you to include the right information and positively influence patients to choose your practice. Getting your website in top shape is a critical step in improving your presence online and ensuring your healthcare practice can evolve and thrive into the future.

Easy Action Step:

Ask your reception team to put on their ‘patients hat’ and assess your website against the 7 areas above. What improvements can you make based on their findings?

 

Communication and technology are the key to evolving your healthcare practice in these unusual times.  There’s some simple things you can do to evolve now, that will help your medical practice thrive later when we are on the other side of this crisis.

 

1. Take Stock of your Marketing

Do an audit of your marketing. Nothing too detailed, just a birds eye view of what’s going on. What’s working and sending you new patients – and what isn’t? Cutting marketing can cut the lifeblood of your practice. But cutting marketing that’s not working is worthwhile for sure.

If you’re already working with a marketing agency or have a trusted consultant, give them a call. You initially brought them onboard to help you make sound marketing decisions to build your business and they can help you now, too. If they’re a good egg and truly have your best interests at heart they’ll help you scale the correct things back, if anything, and advise you of what to focus on, even if it potentially affects their own bottom line.

Do you have enough of an online presence? Can people find you online? While you’re probably aware of the many wondrous benefits of a well-functioning, easily findable, informative, mobile friendly AND secure website, it is definitely the time to make sure your website is working for you.  Your online presence matters. Every new patient counts.

 

2. Take Control of your Messaging

Right now, I suggest to press the STOP button on your regular, automated, run-of-the-mill marketing. Realign your messaging, taking current happenings into account. Make sure the communications coming out of your business are relevant for today. 

Here’s some thoughts:

• Check & update your social media posts if you schedule these ahead of time
• You can ‘pin’ a facebook post at the top of your profile if there is a specific COVID-19 message you want everyone to see
• Check & update your automated email campaigns
• Check & update your Google Ads campaigns
• Update your Google My Business profile to reflect operational changes and make use of the special COVID-19 post feature
• Update your website messaging

By taking control of the messaging and communications coming out of your business, you’re showing patients you care, letting them know you’re aligned with what’s important to them and you’re staying across current events.

 

3.  Take Charge of your Patients

Lead your patients. Communicate proactively. Let them know how you plan to operate during this time. Patients will expect changes and the best thing you can do is keep your long-term and new patients in-the-know.  Send the SMS’s. Write the emails. Reach out and connect, maintain the trust you’ve built over time.

Let them know:

• What are the specific telehealth options you have in place?
• Will contact response times be delayed and by how much?
• What specific social distancing measures are in place?
• Are you reducing the number of patients you allow inside your waiting room?
• What are the other precautions are you taking?

By taking the lead you’ll be helping your patients feel more at ease.

 

4. Take Action with Technology

Online Bookings

In 2020, your practice can’t afford not to have online bookings. Patients prefer online bookings because it allows them to choose a convenient appointment time at the exact moment they’re ready to book the appointment rather than fitting in with your opening hours. In fact according to HotDoc, 1 in 2 online bookings are made after hours. Additionally, patients get frustrated at having to wait on hold and fit in with select appointment windows over the phone with your team. If you’ve been contemplating integrating an online booking program with your website, the time is now.

Automated Appointment Reminders

Automated reminders are an effective method for reducing no shows at your practice. With online booking software like Hotdoc, utilising an in-built reminders feature prompts patients to confirm or cancel their appointment and to reschedule when appropriate.  Along with a range of other features like new patient registration forms and pre-qualifying forms for care plans, booking automation software can improve the patient experience and reduce pressure on your admin team, saving you time and money.

Telehealth

Telehealth appointments have become the key to medical centres and healthcare practices surviving the Coronavirus. While telehealth has become a necessity for many practices as a means of survival, it’s likely to prove itself as technology that will help healthcare practices thrive once we are through this period.

Virtual appointments and virtual care may indeed become a preference for many patients and practitioners in clinically appropriate situations post-COVID-19 too.  Embracing telehealth is likely to become an essential component of practice success in the very near future.

We help healthcare practices with Google My Business and Local SEO and we also build beautiful, high performing websites. Let us know if we can help you.

 

EVERY MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE PRACTICE SHOULD HAVE A GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING.

If you’re a local clinic it is impossible to ignore Google My Business (GMB).

More and more search queries are being answered directly in the search results without clicking on a single website.

Since it started in 2014, Google My Business has evolved from a fairly simple ‘verification and listing of your business, to a local business powerhouse.

Some local search experts have made the call “Google is your new home page”, and for many healthcare businesses GMB is becoming or has already become, on a par with their website as a key online presence when it comes to attracting new patients.

I’ve put together this guide to help you understand how to:

• Optimise your GMB listing
• Take control of your branded search results, and ultimately
• Attract more patients

The key takeaway here is to get your Google My Business profile happening… because this is where it’s at in 2020!

Make sure you’re taking advantage of GMB to show up and be the leader in your local area – and taking advantage of the continued growth in online so you can evolve and thrive.

How your website ‘talks’ to Google My Business

While it might seem like having an optimised GMB Profile could diminish the need for a website, that is definitely not the case.

Your website is still the primary source Google uses to get information about your business.

So it’s essential your website is aligned with your GMB data.

Google looks for information from a variety of sources to determine what it believes to be the correct information about a business.

And it’s not only your business name, address and phone number (which I’ll cover later), it’s also your services and other info that supports the information you add to your GMB listing.

Don’t have a GMB listing?

Here’s how to get a Google My Business listing. (If you already have a listing, skip ahead)

If you’re not sure if you have a listing, start by completing some general searches.

Unless you’re a brand new business, you may have a listing you don’t even know about.

It could be there set up and ready to ‘claim’ as your own. So do the checks.

First up, do a search of your “business name” + “city” to see if you can get a Google My Business profile to show up.

What we’re looking for when we do this search is information about a business on the right hand side of the search results, or at the top of the search results on mobile.

No listing?

Try a search in Google Maps to be sure. If your business has ever had a different business name, address or phone number, it’s worthwhile trying a search using the address and / or phone number too.

Still no go?

Try going to the Google My Business website click on ‘Manage Now’ and type in the business name to see if anything shows up.

 

If after doing these checks no info shows up in the local Knowledge panel or maps listings, it’s time to sign up and create a new listing.

Follow the steps Google provides you with to create the listing and verify the information. A postcard is the most common verification option but phone verification and email verification are becoming more popular too (and easier!).

Google says Postcards take 6 days but some clients have waited up to a month or longer and we’ve had to order 2 or even 3 postcards before we receive the thing in the mail. Frustrating but worth the wait.

If your postcard doesn’t turn up after an attempt or two, it can be speedier to get in touch with GMB support and they may do a video verification with you.

Once your listing is verified, your GMB listing is live and ready to rock n roll.

Claim/Verify a Listing

Let’s say you search for your business and *surprise!* you do have a listing. But you don’t own the listing. In fact, no-one owns the listing. Guess what, you now get to claim ownership of that listing.

It does seem strange that a listing can be created for your business without you triggering it. But it happens. (And you’ll probably find Google spontaneously creates listings for individual health practitioners at your clinic too).

The most important thing to do now is (a) claim ownership (b) take control of your information and business data (c) optimise your listing so you can show up in the search results!

Here’s an example of a listing that looks unclaimed:

Get onto claiming your listing pronto, because an unverified listing means less access to features. (Click on ‘Own this business’ to see if the listing has already been claimed)

No verification means no responding to reviews and no Google Posts.

 

Yikes. Someone else owns my listing!

Uh oh. Someone else has taken charge and verified your listing? You’ll need to follow the instructions here.

Suggest an Edit

All Google My Business listings have the option to ‘Suggest an Edit’. This universal feature is available to anyone who wants to suggest a change to information about a business. But you have to be logged into a Google account.

As the profile owner, you *should* be notified of changes, so you can go in and fix any incorrect updates made to your listing, but in all honesty this doesn’t always happen.

The best thing you can do is regularly keep an eye on your listing and check your emails for notifications.

Crowd sourced features

Has Google ever asked you questions about locations you’ve visited? This feature encourages people to answer auto-generated questions about a business to help Google provide the most accurate information. This feature is cool if people are providing the right answers but may become painful if not.

Sometimes you’ll get a popup asking if you’ll answer questions about a place. Otherwise you can answer questions by clicking on the listing yourself. (In May 2020 this feature appears to be disabled, although it may be back soon).

 

MAXIMISE YOUR LISTING!!

Now we get down to the fun stuff. If you REALLY want to make the most of your GMB listing, be sure to fill out every bit of info possible.

Business Name

Your business name should be entered exactly as it is in the ‘real world’.

Whatever your practice is known as. That’s the name you use on GMB.

Yes, people do add city names, but you’re not meant to. Unless your official business name includes the town or city, I suggest not to tack it on the end.

If you’ve read any of my other blogs on Local SEO citations, you’ll have heard me bang on about NAP (name, address, phone number) consistency. Once you add a city name to the end of your biz name on Google My Business, that consistency is out the window.

Some SEO folks may tell you to add extra keywords in your Google My Business business name too.

Do it at your own peril. (I’ll never recommend it.)

Google has upped the ante on account suspensions and I’ve helped businesses get un-suspended (and witnessed the negative impact it has on their revenue) so I wouldn’t recommend anything that is against Google Guidelines.

Address

Can clients or patients visit your business at a physical location? If yes, like most healthcare businesses then you publish your address on GMB.

Service Area Businesses

If you operate from a home clinic and want to keep the address private, and you serve clients in a particular geographic region, you’ll want to choose a service area business.

It’s said that no matter how big a service area you choose, you’ll really only benefit from a service area located within 30km of your location.

Phone Numbers

Enter in your phone number and use the main number for your business. It should be the same number you use on your website and other places your business listed.

If you have a business mobile include it here too. You can also add 1300 or 1800 numbers and even call tracking numbers.

Website

If you have one business location, usually you’ll add your home page into the ‘Website’ field. But if you have more locations, it’s generally recommended to create separate location landing pages.

In this instance, you’ll want to create separate GMB profiles, too. It’s not just a matter of copying the same information over and updating the location though. Each location landing page must have unique information and include information relevant to the business category and the location.

More than 1 business location requires a specific strategy which is more detailed than I will cover in this blog post.

Google My Business also offers a free website builder if you don’t have one.

Categories

The categories you choose are incredibly important and directly impact what searches your business comes up for.

Your primary category should accurately explain what your business ‘is’.

Secondary categories are additional categories that can be used to your advantage and it’s worthwhile adding those that are a good match to your services.

Services pages on your website help communicate to patients that you can help solve their health concerns – more on that here: 7 things patients want from your healthcare website

The most useful trick here is to look at your competitors’ categories.

Hours

Hours are a super handy feature. Add in your normal business hours (double check your website says the same hours, too).

GMB has a feature that allows you to enter ‘special hours’ so you can enter in advance, days where your hours may differ from the norm. Think Christmas, public holidays and that kind of thing.

‘Business name’ + opening hours is a popular search query and to avoid people turning up at your clinic when you’re closed (and annoying your patients in the process) be sure to keep these up to date.

Appointment URL

Appointment URL is another helpful feature for users so I’d suggest to make use of this, even though in many cases the link will not go to your own website.

For example, a medical centre may use third party booking software such as hotdoc. In this case you’d put the direct hotdoc appointment link here. You can instead link to your website contact page or a calendar page if you take online bookings via a calendar app.

Services

Most healthcare GMB profiles should have ‘Services’ in the GMB dashboard. You can go through and add your service offerings (grouped into categories) and add up to 1000 words per service, as well as pricing. These now self-populate based on your GMB categories but you can add others too.

Currently the ‘Services’ information only shows up when people search on their mobile device (not desktop unfortunately).

If you’re lucky enough to have this option, use it for sure.

Attributes

Attributes are a bit of a funny one because you can only add specific attributes that appear under your ‘Attributes’ heading. You can’t force attributes to show on your profile. And they vary greatly between businesses.

 

Attributes may also called ‘Accessibility’ on some listings.

Some examples include:

• Wheelchair accessible
• LGTBQ friendly
• Child friendly
• Pet friendly
• Unisex toilets
• Payment options

Be sure to check on your Attributes at least once a month to see if there’s any new options.

Business Description

The business description field disappeared for a while and now it’s back, yippee.

Check it out here on the Knowledge Panel:

Google My Business Photos

Photos are the optimal method to increase engagement with your listing and allow clients to get a feel for your business. This can help to increase engagement with your calls to action whether that be to click through to your website, call you or get directions from Google Maps.

Image categories:

• Identity – Logo and Cover image
• Your team
• At work
• Interior
• Exterior
• Any image that showcases your business

Your patients can add images too. This is brilliant as they can offer a unique perspective of your business and help boost your photo count in the process.

The 360 Virtual Tour

If you’ve got a 360 tab in the photos section you may have ignored it to this point. But it’s a pretty cool feature. (If you’re a service-area only business, you won’t have the option – there’s no location to photograph, is there!)

Whether or not a 360 tour is of value to your business, really comes down to what kind of business you have.

If your practice / clinic / waiting room is aesthetically pleasing and something you want to show off, then a 360 view could bring you more patients.

360 tours are brilliant for businesses where the aesthetics, atmosphere, layout and design form part of the experience.

Google My Business has an approved 360 photographer program and you’ll need to source an approved photographer in your local area. There is a way you can DIY these images but if you’re not tech savvy go to the pros.

Videos

GMB offers an option to add a short video to your listing:

• Up to 30 seconds
• File size: Up to 100 MB.
• Resolution: 720p or higher.

Some client have had success adding videos longer than 30 seconds.

Need ideas for videos?

• Outline your mission or unique philosophies
• Share an interview with a doctor
• Cover FAQs from patients
• Describe what to expect when visiting your location
• Show patients interacting with you

Advanced Information (for multi-locations and Google Ads)

Store Code

Multi-location businesses can utilise store codes to identify unique GMB locations and keep them organised. You control how you want the code to appear.

Label

Labels allow you to sync your GMB listing to a Google Ads campaign if you’re incorporating local ads into your marketing mix. You may have heard your Google Ads Consultant mention ‘location extensions’ and labels help to organise these particularly for multi-location businesses.

Google Ads Location Extensions Phone

Proper tracking methods help to check the ROI of money you’re investing in Google Ads. By adding a call tracking number in this field, you will have conversion data for how many users are clicking to call from your ads, and this helps you to measure how successful your ads campaigns really are.

GOOGLE POSTS

Now that you know how to make your GMB listing fully optimised, it’s time to make use of additional features that will enhance your branded results. Enter Google Posts!

Google Posts are an easy way to share content and promote services, specials and events. Google Posts are visible in both the search results and in Google maps.

When used effectively, Google Posts can increase traffic to your website, boost engagement with your audience and in turn increase your bookings and appointments.

There’s 4 types of post you can use:

What’s New: You could use this type of post to share an update about your business, for example a new team member, new service offering, an industry update or a new blog post.

Events: This post type is ideal to promote an event you’re supporting or hosting. All events require a title, start & end dates, and time.

Offers: Like events, offers require titles, start & end dates, and time-frame and the “View offer” CTA is automatically added to the post. Use this to share promotions.

Products: Use this post type to promote your product range (or services). Only the first 20 or so words will show up so even though you can add 300 words, it’s the first sentence or 2 that counts.

 

More on Posts

• You can have up to 10 live posts at once
• They are published in a scrolling carousel
• Posts expire in 7 days which means they stop showing on the front of your GMB Profile but can still be viewed if people click onto your profile.
• Every post should have an image or video.
• You can add a Call to Action on every single post type, like ‘Learn More’ or ‘Book’
• You can also add special code to the links on your posts to track which ones deliver traffic to your website.

Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers are an important part of your GMB profile.

If you are not monitoring these and responding as a business, you should be. This feature is ‘crowd sourced’ which means anyone can ask a question or submit an answer. You can answer questions even if they already have an answer, so be ready to provide answers that work in your favour.

This feature does show up in your branded Knowledge Panel. Questions can be “liked” and this can move older, more helpful questions to the top. You need to have a verified listing to respond as the business owner.

You can adjust your GMB settings to receive email alerts about Q&A’s. Be sure to turn this on to regain some control over this feature.

You can report inappropriate questions and you can also ask your own questions from another account that’s not tied to the business.

Messaging

Messaging is a feature that allows people to message or text you directly from your Google My Business listing in the search results.

Whether you want to use this feature is totally up to you. If you have the time and ability to respond immediately to a message, then this could be a great feature for you but if not, then it’s best not to activate.

There is a high expectation of a fast response time from clients who message. It’s particularly convenient for patients who prefer to text a question rather than pick up the phone and chat. Oh, and you need to install the GMB app to use this feature too.

REVIEWS

Reviews play an incredibly crucial role in local business visibility and can help improve your online presence. It’s a way to differentiate your business if you’re exceptional at what you do and have a 5-star or 4.5+ star rating.

• Reviews are brilliant for social proof of your business operations and provide insights for patients comparing your business with others
• 84% of patients will look at your reviews before they’ll commit to booking an appointment with you
• Your reviews are showcased in your branded Knowledge Panel
• Businesses with reviews instantly stand out thanks to the stars (and obviously the higher the better)
• Reviews from other third-party sites can also feature in your knowledge panel e.g. TrueLocal

 

Ethics around Reviews

As reviews become more and more important to businesses, it’s worthwhile noting a few of the guidelines. Google has been clamping down on fake reviews, Facebook has changed how it presents reviews and Yelp is notorious for filtering and removing reviews. Best to do it the right way.

Oh, and of course the tight regulations around reviews by AHPRA and National Boards, check your processes against the super helpful AHPRA testimonial tools available here. Many practitioners think you cannot encourage ANY reviews but that’s not the case.

Back to Google, here’s some of their review guidelines: 

You must get your reviews in an ethical manner.

You and your employees cannot review your business.

No negative or harmful reviews on competitors.

How to get more reviews

First, get a direct link to your Google reviews box. 

This is now incredibly simple with Google Short Names. It will look something like this: https://g.page/locally-connected/review. Claim your short name and add /review. on the end. Your lovely patients can just click and write.

Send a text message. Yep, you can send that same link via a text message too. Considering your client is quite possibly logged into Google Maps on their phone, this will make the process a breeze.

Personalise it.You’re likely to increase your review-generation success by getting the practitioner to request the review. This is a brilliant opportunity to make it a personalised request that’s more likely to result in a positive outcome.

Provide a review template. A review template is a fantastic help as you can encourage patients to stick to non-clinical aspects of their experience. Allowable review topics include friendliness of reception, ease of parking, pleasant waiting room, short waiting times, that kind of thing.

Add the review link to your email signature.

Add it to the header or footer on your website.

Use review software. Review software options range from automated emails and texts to having tablet devices at your business location where patients can leave a review before they even leave your premises. The options here are endless. Having an automated review generation system is ideal for a busy practice and can help to build up your review profile quickly.

It’s worthwhile noting that some businesses are scared to encourage reviews for fear of getting a negative one. If you feel like this you’re not alone.

Let’s put it this way – if you are good at what you do, you’ll get plenty of positive reviews to outnumber a negative one.

By the way there is no need for a perfect 5-star score. Anything above 4 stars is excellent.

Requesting reviews be removed

Google does have a mechanism for requesting removal of a fake review and you will need proof, but you can’t request removal of a review simply because you disagree with a genuine complaint.

How to contact GMB Support

Online Chat:  https://support.google.com/business/gethelp

Message GMB via Twitter https://twitter.com/GoogleMyBiz

GMB Help Forum: https://support.google.com/business/community?hl=en

 

 

YOU’RE READY FOR THE NEXT STEP… GMB DOMINATION!

If you’re new to Google My Business, this guide is probably feeling rather overwhelming.

But if you’ve already dabbled in the basic features, it’s time to try out some of the new features that can really propel your listing.

Google is constantly expanding the capability of Google My Business and you need to make the most of the tools available.