Local businesses – medical practices included – have an invaluable opportunity to connect with a specific audience through Google Business Profiles (or GBP, formerly known as Google My Business) and Google Maps. This interactive Google search feature appears frequently for consumers actively seeking products and services. With a Google Business Profiles audit, you can ensure that your listings are in tip-top shape to attract more foot traffic. This guide covers the seven essentials for an optimized GBP.
The Importance of a Google Business Profile Audit
While Google built the infrastructure for Google Business Profiles (GBP), listings management and accuracy depends on the individual businesses. When businesses take the time to check their Google business listings for any errors or omissions, they do their part to make this a reliable feature for the digital community.
Google is all about creating an exceptional user experience. Businesses that cultivate a great user experience tend to be rewarded by Google with higher visibility for paid search, organic search (search engine optimization, or SEO), and local search through Google Business Profiles. Checking for issues affecting user experience such as outdated information, discrepancies, poor quality photos, and non-response to communications from the public are all addressed by GBP audits.
Benefits of an Optimized GBP Listing
Conducting an audit for Google Business Profiles is a core component of local SEO. Not only does having an optimized profile listing on Google promote good public relations, but it also can help your business get better search rankings as such activities signal to Google that your business is actively providing value to consumers.
The more competitive your local market is, the more important it is to have a strong online presence, particularly in Google search results. An optimized Google Business Profile is a core component of a local business’s potential to be found in search results by a target audience. For patients who default to Google local search when needing services, your practice needs to be discoverable for them to even consider you as an option.
GBP Audit Checklist for Medical Practices
Like any audit, there is a range of how deep into detail a Google Business Profile audit can go. These seven aspects of a Google Business Profile cover the essentials of an optimized GPB. Depending on your marketing goals, you may opt to further inspect a particular performance area of your local search visibility. The next several sections will cover the basics of how to audit a Google Business Profile.
1.) Review Your Core Business Information
Not only is your core business information the first thing a Google user will see on your profile, but its accuracy also plays a role in the patient journey and helps your local SEO rankings. That every aspect of your business data is correct and up to date is paramount for a complete Google Business Profile audit. GBP basics to inspect for accuracy are:
- Name: Your business name should match what you put on your branded items like your signage versus what is stated on a legal document like a business license. You can also amend your business name with a descriptor to add SEO keyword value and differentiate your business from another of the same name. For example, if your pediatrics clinic has a name in common with a daycare center, you can list your business as “KidsCare Pediatrics.”
- Address: While a courier would have no problem understanding that, “Unit 123,” is the same as, “#123,” within an address is the same business location, Google may not. A component of SEO known as “citations” helps Google connect digital sources to one business. Citations are an indicator of being a well-known establishment. Ideally, all mentions of the address should match. Check your address against other listings, including your own website, for uniformity.
- Phone number: Phone numbers matching is another part of citations for SEO. Also bear in mind that Google users can tap the number to place a phone call on a mobile device. While you may have multiple numbers, a single phone number must be chosen to be the primary contact number for your website and other online business listings, including Google Business Profiles.
- Website URL: While smaller medical practices would typically have only one website address to include in a business listing, establishments with multiple locations and specialties may have separate URLs within their website structure. Which one to use? It depends. Sometimes the SEO value is found in the domain name authority score, and sometimes keyword value (location or specialty) is in the extended URL. A digital marketing expert can help you determine which to include in your GBP.
- Hours: Fluctuations in provider availability and staff capacity can impact what days and times your office is serving patients. When you change your hours, your Google Business Profile must be updated as soon as possible, including for temporary and seasonal hours.
- Business category: While your business category may be appropriate, it may not be the most specific match possible. For example, a dentist office that primarily specializes in orthodontics should opt for the “orthodontist” category instead the primary category of “dentist.”
- Business description: Auditing is an opportune time to revamp your business description. Putting yourself in your patient’s shoes, would you be compelled to visit the website based on the current description? Could your description be infused with a new keyword strategy? Consider revising your description to match your current digital marketing goals.
2.) Check for NAP Consistency
As mentioned before, name, address, and phone number (NAP) should be consistent among sources as much as possible. While you cannot always control information on all sources, you can always adjust your Google Business Profile, business data on your website and social media profiles, etc. You may even be able to have other directory sites updated upon request.
SEO best practices include having NAP uniformity across all business information sources so that Google associates all of them with your medical practice. It boosts your SEO when Google can account for multiple internet sources mentioning your business with a matching phone number and address as this confirms that your medical practice is well-known in the healthcare community.
3.) Check for Accurate Google Business Profile Attributes
Google Business Profiles can prepare patients for the eventual visit. Does your profile contain what patients would need to know ahead of time, such as parking availability and if walk-ins are welcome? Filling in as many attributes as possible helps your business listing stand out from the rest.
4.) Double Check Your Location and Service Area
Google Business Profiles are adaptable for service areas, which is particularly beneficial for mobile services. For example, if your healthcare business is completely mobile, you can hide the address your business is registered to and instead indicate your service areas.
Some healthcare businesses may want to make it clear that though their main address is in one spot, that the service area extends through a territory. This can be communicated by adding on service area descriptions in addition to where the healthcare facility is physically located. For example, a hospital or medical center serves many towns, villages, or boroughs within a region. During your audit, consider if adding a service area would help you reach more patients.
5.) Did You Respond to All of Your Reviews?
Believe it or not, patient reviews are highly influential in a healthcare consumer’s final decision to book with a new provider. Online reputation best practices pertaining to online reviews involves a prompt response to incoming Google Business Reviews, both positive and negative. This both communicates to potential patients that your medical practice is attentive to patient concerns while it also promotes good relations with your current patients.
Have you missed any reviews? While running a busy medical practice, some new reviews may go unnoticed. However, you can set your Google Business Profile account to send alerts when a patient posts a new review. You may go several days or several weeks without a new review, so setting an alert can help you know when it’s time to login to GPB and respond to communications. At such time, you can see if there are any reviews that should be reported for removal. This includes reviews that are clearly not for your business or that violate Google’s guidelines. During your audit, check for any reviews that are still awaiting a response, either positive or negative.
6.) Don’t Forget the Q&A Section
As mentioned before, Google looks for indicators that a business is active. Google Business Profiles has a feature where the public can ask questions directly to a business. Timely response to these questions not only shows that your business cares about its online presence, but it also fosters a great first impression with a potential patient. During your audit, check for any questions that were missed.
7.) Update Your Media
That Google Business Profiles allows local businesses to add photos creates an opportunity to stand out from others. Profiles that are enhanced with visual interest tend to get more interaction, stealing the focus away from your competitors. But this also means that the responsibility falls on the business to provide quality images and moderate photos added by the public. Here are some things to consider when auditing your GBP photos:
- Branded logo: Medical practices will often have their logo as the first in a series of images on a GBP. It’s best to have a high-quality image with a white background. If your medical practice has been rebranded, the old logo should be deleted and replaced with a new and improved image.
- Inspect for any patient data: If you have not already, double check that none of your images contain faces of patients, or any patient data on computer screens, folders, or documents. Some healthcare businesses may feature before and after photos, but these must be accompanied by the proper legal release forms.
- Quality of images: As with your business description, the big question is if your images would compel a patient to choose your practice over another. Do the photos of the facilities convey comfort and modernity? Are the images of providers and staff friendly and approachable? It may be time for another photo shoot.
- Dated photos: Have things changed since the current images were taken? When staff have left the practice, joined the practice, or if the office has received a makeover, these are all reasons to delete and replace photos. An audit is the perfect time to remove photos and add fresh ones.
- Videos: You can add professionally produced videos to promote specific services or other offerings that set your practice apart from others.
- Images added by the public: Google allows the public to add photos to business profiles. If you find that a photo is irrelevant to your business, or otherwise inappropriate, you can report it to Google for moderation. Unfortunately, you cannot remove photos that have been added to your profile by the public.
Summary: 7-Step Guide for a Google Business Profile Audit
Because Google’s digital business directory is such a significant part of a medical practice’s online presence for a local target audience, it’s worth it to do an audit of Google Business Profiles (GBP). Checking for anything incorrect or overlooked in your GBP not only facilitates the digital patient journey, but it also helps your healthcare business gain more online visibility through merit-based local search engine optimization (SEO).
There are many factors that contribute to the SEO strength of a business’s online presence. One of those factors is how active and well-known the business is. When your GPB both matches information that other online sources and signals that the profile is actively maintained, these are signals that can help your business build more visibility online.
While there are aspects of your Google Business Profile that may need deeper inspection, the basics for a Google Business Profiles audit report are:
- Core business information: Is your name, address, phone number (NAP), and other information included in the profile correct and current? Does it match information on other sources? While it might not seem like a critical matter, discrepancies like “#123” versus “Suite 123” can throw Google off when trying to gain citation power for SEO. You may not be able to control what every website has listed, but you can request such sites to make corrections as well as update your website, GBP, and social media accounts to all match exactly. Audits will also check if the business category is as specific as possible and update the description for new keyword strategy and better engagement.
- Attributes: You can enhance your GBP with other highlighted information such as what kind of parking is available at your facility. Adding attributes to your website provides vital information up front, assisting the patient journey by helping Google users narrow their options based on key criteria.
- Location service area: Not all healthcare businesses are alike, and Google understands this. That’s why businesses who are completely remote can hide the address the business is registered to and instead provide a service area. Some medical establishments may benefit by adding a service area in addition to a physical address to emphasize what territory they serve.
- Moderating your reviews, Q&A, and photos: Ideally, your medical practice should provide timely response to new reviews, inquiries, and photo submissions, but these can sometimes fall through the cracks. You can set your account to send alerts when there is new activity on your GBP. That way you will know when something is awaiting your response, be that a patient praise, a patient complaint, a patient question, or a photo added by a Google that needs to be reported because it doesn’t belong on your profile. It is a consumer relations best practice to respond to all communications from patients, positive or negative.
- Update your images: Like any other business, medical practices go through seasons. There could be a rebranding, an office makeover, or welcoming/bidding farewell to staff and providers. Updating images to better reflect your current circumstances and make your medical practice more visually appealing can promote more engagement. Audits are also a time to double check for any inclusion of sensitive patient information such as faces or documents.
Have Google Business Profile Management and Optimization Done for You, By Experts
With so many pressing matters in the day-to-day of running a healthcare business, it’s easy for digital marketing upkeep to be routinely moved to the “back burner.” There just wasn’t a spare five minutes to respond to a new Google review, let alone researching which website format to include in your Google Business Profile (GBP).
The good news is that GBP management can be included in your general digital marketing services. iHealthSpot is prepared to serve as an extension of your practice management team, tending to your new patient acquisition efforts while you focus on delivering the best service to retain your existing patients. Contact us today to learn more!
