For the modern dermatology practice, local online marketing is an essential way to find new customers. With local online marketing, you can showcase your services and point people in your local area to your clinic rather than marketing to the entire World Wide Web and people who cannot are never going to use your services. Directory listings are one of the tools businesses can use to build a strong online presence as they seek to draw in new potential patients. If you want to make the most out of your business directory listings, you need to first understand their importance, and then second, utilize these local directory listings tips for dermatologists.
Understanding the Impact of Directory Listings
Directory listings have a direct impact on local search visibility. Every single directory you get listed on gives a link back to your website, which is a key factor in determining search visibility. It also provides a citation signal because it includes your name, address, and phone number. Finally, most directories offer reviews, which are yet another signal.
According to MOZ, these factors make up over 60% of a website’s ranking in the Google local and organic search algorithms. Thus, your business directory listings are quite important to your ability to show up in the local search results.
Directory listings also impact customer acquisition. Research shows that customers are 70% more likely to visit a practice with a complete Google local business listing, for instance. In addition, 94% of customers will use directories to find information about a business. Your customers are looking at business directories when they are looking for a new dermatology practice, and if you aren’t listed, you’re losing potential business.
Claim and Verify Your Business Listings
Each business directory page has a process for claiming and then verifying your business listings. The first step in doing this is identifying relevant directories. Google can help with this. Simply search for your town and “local business listings” to find some of the more popular options in your community. You can also use an online marketing platform, like Surefire Local, to manage your presence across multiple business directories in one place.
As you build your list of directories, make sure you include these popular ones:
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
- Better Business Bureau
- Yellow Pages
- Dun & Bradstreet
- Foursquare
- Local Chamber of Commerce website
- EZ Local
Once you have claimed your directory listing and filled in your information, follow the steps to verify it based on the directory’s regulations.
Ensure Consistency in Business Information
Every directory listing you use has the opportunity to add your Name, Address, and Phone Number, also known as NAP. These need to be exactly the same across all your listings, and they need to match your website. In addition, make sure that your hours of operation, business descriptions, and other information are accurate and consistent across your various directory listings.
This consistency does two things for you. First, it improves your SEO efforts. Even small changes, like a difference in punctuation or capitalization, can make the search engine bots distrust a business listing. Second, it keeps your customers from getting confused. When they see different operating hours or slight differences in your address or name, they may not develop as much trust in your business. As many as 85% of consumers find incorrect or incomplete information on business directory listings, and this frustrates them. As many as 63% will walk away from a business if it has incorrect information. Thus, accuracy is critical to bringing in new patients.
Optimize Business Description for Local SEO
One of the reasons that directory listings are so important is they send local search signals to the search engines to increase your relevancy when someone in your community is searching for a dermatologist. So, weave local SEO techniques into your directory listings. List out service areas, including zip codes, and add local-specific terminology to your business description. If the directory lets you ask for reviews or post additional posts, incorporate local search terms into these as well.
In addition to using local lingo in your description, provide relevant information about products and services, including search terms. When someone searches for “facial peels in New York,” and you have both “facial peels” and “New York” in your description, it may alert the search engine to your business as a relevant result.
Utilize Additional Features of Directory Listings
Each directory has specific features that help businesses enhance their listings. For example, some allow you to post video and multimedia content to draw more attention to your services. Almost all of them offer the option to add photos. Use these tools to make your listings more appealing and to add relevancy to your dermatology practice. You can even post before and after photos to show what your services can do for your patients.
If the directory has a reviews section, don’t be afraid to ask your happy patients to leave reviews. These reviews give your business additional legitimacy and they also provide an opportunity to grow your community by responding to reviews.
Leverage Dermatology Specific Directories
As you consider the best directories to use, make sure you choose those specific to medicine and dermatology. For example, the American Academy of Dermatology has a directory that lists board-certified dermatologists. Getting listed here creates a significant amount of credibility. Others to consider include
These are the places potential patients will look for a new dermatologist, so they are quite helpful in boosting your local relevancy with the people who are actively looking for the services you provide.
Monitor and Update Directory Listings
Simply claiming and verifying your directory listings is not enough. You also need to keep them up-to-date. Monitor them on a regular schedule, so you can make changes if you need to. Update them as well, adding new photos or posts. People notice when the posts are all old or the photos are all outdated, so keep up with these updates.
As you monitor, keep an eye on reviews. When they come in, respond to them in a genuine way, and don’t be afraid to weave in local search terms in your response where they fit naturally. If you get negative reviews, respond kindly but professionally, so you can show that your practice can handle feedback and is willing to make things right.
It can be overwhelming to keep up with the management of a number of different directory listings at once. It’s easy to overlook one or two in the busy activities of running your practice. Leverage tools that can help you manage directory listings more easily so you can keep them updated without spending too much of your valuable time on the task.
Analyze the Impact on Local Search Rankings
Directory listings, when done well, should improve your visibility and search rankings in your local search. While these boosts don’t happen instantly, over time, you should see increases in your ranking.
Use analytics to track these improvements. If you aren’t seeing them, then readjust your listings to better improve your rankings. If you are seeing them, keep an eye on them to ensure that you are continually improving. As needed, make adjustments to keep improving your local search rankings.
Get Help Localizing Your Dermatology Online Presence with Directory Listings
By following these local directory listing tips for dermatologists, you should see a boost in your search engine rankings and an increase in the number of inquiries you get from potential new clients. Throughout this process, make sure you are choosing the right directories and optimizing them for local search while also keeping them updated. However, you may need help to manage the various directories and keep things consistent across them.
Surefire Local can help. Our goal is to help small businesses, including local dermatology practices, establish a solid online presence with the right local signals that reach across platforms. With these signals, your local customers can find you more easily. We offer an all-in-one marketing platform that lets you claim, edit, and publish new content across over 80 online directory listing platforms, all from the same back office. This platform makes it easy to see your directory listings in one place to ensure consistency.
We also have content marketing tools to help you create local content to post to your profiles and social media pages to boost your local search signals. In addition, transparent analytics help you carefully evaluate your campaigns and see if they are working. Our platform provides AI-generated recommendations on actions you can take to improve your local search results if needed. Finally, we have educational resources designed to help small business owners learn online marketing well.
Curious to learn more? Attend a Surefire Local demo to see these tools and their benefits first-hand. With our help, marketing your dermatology practice has gotten significantly easier.