How to Optimize a Google My Business Profile for a Medical Practice

Let us start by sharing some interesting insights, according to Google, about 80% of consumers use a search engine to find a local business.

And who’s not on the internet these days anyway?

As of January 2019, more than half of the world’s population is online. 

Your potential patients are no different from you when searching for healthcare and medical practitioners. Pulling up a search engine on your device is the easiest way to find information these days.

SEO – in a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization is a strategy that is used on websites so that they rank higher in the search results for a particular search query (i.e. “dentist in concord nc”). 

Google’s Local Pack 3 – is the three local business results from Google Maps, which Google will suggest when someone is searching for a particular service of a business. If you are not in the top 3 for your keyword searches + location (i.e. “pharmacist in rock hill sc”), you will miss out on a lot of new patients in your area. 

Executing SEO can be so diverse especially for so many types of doctors in the healthcare space. There are many factors and subcategories to get Google’s approval for your website to land in that golden position in its SERPs.

However, Google clearly stated that they prioritize user experience more than anything else, so same rules applied as for your Google My Business profile. Google won’t show your practice in the local 3-pack if it is not fully optimized and providing relevant information to their searchers’ queries.

#1 Categories – are one of the areas you should pay attention to the most when optimizing your GMB profile. Understanding your primary and secondary categories are very important. Use this tool to help you select the right categories. 

We also created this short video on how to execute selecting the right categories for your practice.

#2 Add GMB Service Areas – you definitely want to add cities as well as zip codes as service areas to show Google the targeted radius for your practice.

For cities, just add the practice’s targeted city in the service areas section.

Also, add zip codes. Use the Free Map Tools website to find all zip codes in your targeted radius.

Note: A 10 mile radius from the practice’s zip code is ideal for zip code targeting. Add as many service area zip codes as possible.

Watch the short video below on how to add your targeted zip codes to your GMB profile.

#3 Add All Treatment or Services  – Include all services title with descriptions (note: GMB may have removed GMB descriptions) for GMB services’ section. You want to add as many services or treatments from your practice here.

#4 Update/Add GMB Description  – The GMB description should include primary and secondary keywords for SEO purposes. 

You should write a description that focuses on targeted keywords, location, and services.

#5 Add 8-10 photos  – Add 8-10 photos from the website and tag them with primary and secondary keywords.

Watch video on finding primary and secondary keywords.

Note: Add videos if you have short videos to use. GMB will not allow large files to be updated to its platform.

The more photos the better. Geotag photos by adding keyword based + location code with geoimgr.com/.

Watch video on photo tagging.

The goal is to add geo coordinates and keywords in the image’s name and description. Note: local based keywords are typically “targeted keyword + location”. In this video, dentist (targeted keyword) + kannapolis nc (targeted location).

#7 GMB Shortnames  – Read article on GMB short name strategy.

Add primary keyword + location as short name. For example, our client Advanced Sports & Spine’s primary “keyword + location” is pain management charlotte nc. Therefore, the short name could be “painmanagmentcharlotte”.

If primary keyword isn’t available, try using another secondary keyword. A secondary keyword could be “charlottepainmanagement”. A secondary keyword is a keyword that has less search volume but is a top keyword for your practice to rank for.

#8 Make Sure GMB Info is Correctly Updated – GMB Info that needs to be 100% correct

• Business Name
• Address
• Hours
• Phone Number
• Website
• Appointment URL (the landing page where client accepts appointments or form requests on their website)
• Menu URL (the landing page where client shows their services on their website)

This information can be found in the info section of the GMB profile.

#9 GMB Reviews  – This is big. Reviews can make or break your business since people rely on it heavily when deciding whether to utilize your service or not. 

We recommend our medical clients to use My Social Practice’s review software to increase their GMB reviews by 40%.

Besides, Google’s main factors on their SEO guideline is something they refer to as E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Google loves to hear organic reviews from your clients to identify if your page posses E-A-T.

Digital Marketing is showing no sign of slowing down. The trend is here to stay, and if your business is not into it yet, consider establishing your business footprint into the world wide web now.

Google my business is free, but managing Google My Business would be quite technical, just like on a regular websites’ SEO race.

The steps we provided you are just one of many effective strategies you can implement to reach the goal.

Other strategies you may want to explore are the following: using a radius for zip code service areas, DM option from customers, Website Builder, GMB Posts, and managing Q&A, etc.

For more assistance, you can reach Med Rank Interactive as we specialize SEO for medical practices, and try out our free SEO audit to discover which areas of your digital campaigns need more of your attention.