20 Ways to Win at Google My Business

1. When patients are searching your local area for a GP or Specialist, Google My Business is the first thing they’ll see, even before your website. Make sure at the very least you have the correct, exact, business name, opening hours, and address showing on your GMB Profile  Read more about Local SEO for Doctors and Medical Specialists here.
2. Choosing the right GMB categories are one of the most important steps when it comes to optimising your GMB profile. Be sure to choose the primary category that is the best match for what your practice ‘is’.
3. Many practices don’t fill out the ‘Business Description’ section of their GMB profile. This is what prospective patients read to get a summary of your practice, take advantage of this opportunity, the first 250 characters of your description are shown on the front of your profile.
4. When writing a business description, make it concise, welcoming and most importantly, easy to understand.
5. The official name of your business on your GMB profile for medical practitioner should be an exact match to your practice name on signage outside your practice.
6. Utilise the Photos section of your GMB profile and add real life photos of your business. Photos of your team, practice and location can be what drives the decision to choose your practice or a competitor.
7. If you want Google to consider your profile 100% complete, add a video too. One of the easiest ways to create a video, and well-suited to those who are camera shy, is using a tool like Animoto to create a video using photos and text.
8. If you’re open to the idea of professional videography, this will have far more impact on your patients. You could talk about the philosophies of your practice, what to expect when visiting, and cover frequently asked questions.
9. If you have an online booking platform such as HotDoc, you can link this directly from your GMB Profile
10. Prospective patients look at negative reviews when deciding on a GP, they look at whether reviews have a common theme and how they were responded to. Whatever approach you take to reviews (based on legal advice) be aware they can either attract or deter new patients.
11. There is a Questions and Answer section on your GMB profile and anyone can post a question or answer. If there are questions on your profile you should respond as the practice to ensure all questions have an accurate answer for other patients viewing this section of your profile.
12. Get on the front-foot by preparing and posting your own Questions and Answers. E.g. post a question from your personal Google profile, and answer as the official practice GMB profile.
13. Google posts provide an excellent opportunity to share information about your services and link back to the services pages on your website.
14. Introduce doctors with Google posts and include their special interests.
15. Prepare your google posts topics ahead of time and use a scheduling tool such as OneUpApp to save time.
16. The COVID-19 Google Post type is highly visible on your profile and an excellent tool to communicate COVID updates before patients visit your website or call you.
17. Multi-location practices should create a separate GMB profile for each location.
18. GMB features are constantly changing. Taking advantage of new features as they are released can give you an edge over your competitors.
19. Keep track of your performance by checking the Insights section of your GMB profile. You can view what keywords people type into Google that result in your profile showing up, how many views and how many people engage with your profile.
20. It does require a decent amount of time and effort to continue to engage patients using GMB. Getting support with your GMB strategy can save you time and help you achieve an increase in patient bookings.

Hope you enjoyed our tips - learn about our GMB Optimisation Service here.