To increase engagement and traffic to your business, some of the most effective Google Business Profile tips for plastic surgeons can become your cheat code to outranking your competitors. Curious? Keep reading and we’ll tell you everything. But first, we will explain what a Google Business Profile is and give you some of the benefits of having a Google Business Profile. Then we’ll show you how to set up a Google Business Profile, how to optimize it to attract more patients, and we’ll top it off by giving you some tips about how to make your most time-consuming daily marketing tasks quicker, easier, and more effective.

What Is a Google Business Profile for Plastic Surgeons?

Google Business Profile, formerly called Google My Business (GMB), is a free, easy-to-use platform offered by Google to help businesses reach a broader audience. This tool allows you to encourage and gather patient reviews, easily answer questions from current and potential patients, and offers a full suite of other services to help people who are searching on Google for answers.

A Google Business Profile gives you the ability to add photos, reply to Google reviews, create posts, add promotional information for your practice, and more. A Google Business Profile also increases your chances of being in Google’s map pack. The map pack is the set of business listings found at the top of a local search page. The map pack listings are displayed in a box alongside a Google map. It also shows other information about each of the businesses listed there as well.

The Benefits of Having a Google Business Profile

If you don’t have a Google Business Profile, you are missing out on significant benefits and exposure for your plastic surgery practice.

Here are some of the benefits you can expect.

Increased visibility and better rankings in local search results.

Makes it easier to get more reviews.
It’s free and easy to use.
Helps you educate your visitors through pictures and videos.
It’s easy to maintain accurate online business information about your practice.
Helps attract new patients due to the increased visibility.
Provides social proof people rely on to make informed buying decisions.
Makes it easier for you to interact with current and potential patients.
It provides your visitors with a map to your business, a phone button to call you, and the ability to book an appointment online or by using the in-house scheduling system.

How to Set Up a Google Business Profile

Google provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up your Google Business Profile. Here is a quick overview of the process. Then we will get into some of the best Google Business Profile tips for plastic surgeons.

Create a Google account or sign in to your current account.
Create a business profile.
Enter the name of your business and select a primary category.
Select whether or not you have a physical location.
Enter your practice’s business location.
Select whether or not your business provides home services or deliveries.
Add your contact details (address, phone number, website).
Verify your Google Business Profile account (usually done with a postcard, phone verification, or email verification).

After you have your Google Business Profile set up, you will then need to optimize your profile. This step is what will help amplify the results of your Google Business Profile listing. So you don’t want to skip this step.

Tips for Optimizing Your Google Business Profile to Attract More Patients

Now you should complete your profile and optimize it by doing the following. Here are some of the best Google Business Profile tips for plastic surgeons.

Complete Your Google Business Profile

Make sure your name, address, phone number, location, and other business attributes are consistent and clearly spelled out.

Add Your Business Hours

Adding your business hours helps your patients know when you’re open. Make sure you post business hours that are consistent across all your online pages, including your website and social media pages. Conflicting information is frustrating for your visitors.

Category and Description

Add a category, then write a compelling and authentic business description so your patients know whether you are a good fit for their specific needs. This also helps Google understand your business, what you do, and who you are, so they can recommend your practice to people searching for your types of services.

Upload Photos and Videos of Your Practice

Studies show that Google Business Profiles with photos get more views than those with fewer photos. They also get more clicks, phone calls, and direction requests. Additionally, businesses that have more than 100 photos get 520% more calls than other businesses. And those with just one photo get 71% fewer calls. That’s significant enough to justify spending a little extra time adding photos to your Google Business Profile. Additionally, photos give people a peek into your practice and what you do. For example, you could show before-and-after photos (with your patients’ permission) or photos of your office, etc.

So how do you go about getting that many photos on your Google Business Profile? You can ask each of your staff to take and post photos. Hold a patient appreciation event and ask your patients to take and post photos. You could also ask your patients to post photos of their experiences at your office when they post a review. Additionally, you could create a “Selfie Wall” where your clients can take pictures of themselves while they are at your office. That way you can encourage them to do so, then ask them to post those photos to your Google Business Profile right then while it’s still open on their phone and fresh in their mind.

You can also add videos to your Google Business Profile. Video ideas include taking a video of your office, a video of an FAQ session, educational videos, etc.

Respond to Patient Reviews

In today’s world, reviews are critical to a business’s success. People use social proof to make buying decisions on just about everything. Therefore, don’t hesitate to ask your current patients for honest reviews. You can do this by sending them a link to make it easier for them to post the reviews. Reviews will increase your practice’s credibility and brand authority and will help show you as a trustworthy business.

Answer Questions from the Questions & Answers Section

The Google Business Profile questions and answers section enables searchers to ask and answer questions about your practice. It also gives you the opportunity to directly engage with your patients one-on-one by directly answering their questions. This feature also has an “upvote” option to allow users to show other searchers which responses were the most helpful to them.

Another great use of this section is seeding the most frequently asked questions you receive. This will enable you to answer patients’ and potential patients’ questions in anticipation of them without them having to go to the trouble of asking.

Q&A sections are also great for SEO. That means you can insert keywords naturally into your questions and answers. This will give Google a better understanding of your practice, which will help increase your local rankings.

Post Business Information on Google

The more information you include about your practice, the better. For example, include information about the doctors, the team, educational information, special offers, describing your practice, and anything else your patients might find helpful.

You should also double-check to make sure your name, address, phone number, website address, and business hours are correct and that they match all your other online platforms and your website as well. Google uses this information in its search results when someone is looking for services in their specific area.

Google Posts

Posting content is a great way to indirectly communicate with your patients and potential patients. This feature allows you to post educational information, FAQs, practice updates, highlight new services, share intriguing news, or anything else you want to communicate. Google loves fresh content. So the more frequently you post new content, the more likely Google is to favor your business.

It’s also a good idea to include photos with each post. Photos are great for getting people’s attention. Always use photos that are relevant to the text and try to use real photos versus stock photos when possible.

List Accepted Insurance

Always include a list of accepted insurance. It’s extremely important information for patients to know which insurance you accept. This will save them (and you) the trouble of making and fielding phone calls and contact form requests for this information.

List the Products and Services Your Practice Provides

Add the products and services your practice provides to your Google Business Profile. You can also add a call-to-action button there to encourage more sales and appointments.

Now for some tips about how to make your most time-consuming daily marketing tasks quicker, easier, and more effective.

Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo

Surefire Local is business intelligence marketing software that costs a fraction of what other online tools and resources cost. It’s also significantly less than using a digital marketing agency. Surefire Local helps you manage your most important online marketing activities all from one platform.

Here is a sneak peek at what you can do with Surefire Local.

Ratings and Reviews
70+ Business Directory Listings
Content Marketing
Lead Generation
Local Paid Ads
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Competitor Analysis
Geo-Location Check-Ins
Text Message Marketing

We hope you enjoyed these Google Business Profile tips for plastic surgeons and that you’ll consider attending a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo!