A Google Business Profile is more than just a listing with your practice’s address, phone number, and website. It is one of the primary ways your potential patients will find your practice and engage with it online. If you have not completed your practice’s GBP profile yet, you should do so soon, and you’ll want to follow this guide to building and optimizing it to attract new patients.
Advantages of Having a Complete Google Business Profile for your Dental Practice
Google is by far the most popular search engine people online use. You can be sure that the people in your area are using Google to find the products and services they need, including dental care. Having a fully-developed and optimized business profile on Google gives your practice online visibility and establishes credibility. It also allows you to share important information with patients searching for a dental practice.
Increased Visibility – With a well-developed and accurate GBP, your practice will be included in more search results. Additionally, your practice will appear in searches that include the term “near me” if your profile is optimized. This means that when someone searches “dentist near me” or “dental implants near me”, for example, your dental practice may be included in the results list and on the accompanying map if you have an optimized profile.
Added Credibility – Your practice’s GBP includes online reviews. The more reviews the better, in fact. Google is excellent for collecting reviews in one place and then providing the average star rating. The star rating is usually one of the first impressions a potential patient will get. It gives them a reliable way to assess the quality of your services. The star rating is also an excellent attention grabber, especially if your practice has a high one, and patients will be prompted to dive deeper and read individual reviews. When your existing patients take the time to leave a review, it means they had a memorable experience, and potential new patients will take note. They will also pay attention to whether the practice has responded to any reviews, positive or negative, to show that they care what their patients think.
Accurate Information – You have full control over the information included in your GBP. It’s an opportunity to give potential patients essential details, like business hours, location, contact information, etc. It is also an opportunity to share information you think will add value and set your practice apart from others in your area. Your practice’s GBP can include images of your practice, descriptions, special services, updates, and much more. The more details you can provide about your dental practice, the easier it will be for a potential new patient to get a sense of its personality, values, and priorities and feel more confident about reaching out.
Optimization
While having a complete GBP is absolutely essential for promoting your practice online, it can become an even more powerful marketing tool if you take the time to optimize it.
Step 1: Write a detailed description of your practice. Include information that is unique to your practice and briefly highlight the services you want to promote the most. Be sure to also include important key words and phrases that patients in your area are likely to search.
Step 2: Add patient reviews and write thoughtful responses. If your practice does not already have online reviews, now is a good time to start soliciting them from patients in the office. You’ll find that many of your patients will be eager to leave a glowing review.
Step 3: Add information about your practice’s services. In addition to the description of your practice, potential patients will appreciate descriptions of services and procedures your practice offers, especially if you do something that is not widely available from your competitors.
Step 4: Post high-quality images of your practice. People love pictures! Take snapshots of the building, the lobby, the reception desk, the examination rooms, the doctors, and anything else that will highlight the uniqueness of your practice. Just make sure any pictures on the profile are high resolution. If you have someone on your team who is skilled at editing, take advantage to enhance the quality of the images.
There are also more advanced ways to enhance and optimize a Google Business Profile, including messaging, and Google Q&A. However, the basic steps we have listed here are a great way to get started. We highly recommend working with a dental marketing agency to take full advantage of the incredible capabilities that a Google Business Profile has to offer.
Using the marketing power of a Google Business Profile is an easy way to attract new patients online. We recommend searching your practice online to see what comes up, and if there is room for improvement, start with the steps listed above. Enhancing your practice’s online visibility can only bring you benefits.
