A huge part of running a successful chiropractic office is having a strong base of loyal patients who come back to see you time and time again. However, you first need to get new patients through your door before you can convert them into repeat clients — and this means being visible on Google Search and Maps.
As such, your Google My Business (GMB) listing is a crucial marketing tool for your chiropractic practice. It can help you get discovered by new patients, stand out from local competitors, and generate more revenue for your business.
The best part — it is completely free.
Keep reading to learn how you can optimize your Google My Business listing to ensure your chiropractic practice shows up in Search and Maps.
Google My Business for Chiropractors
So, what exactly is Google My Business, and how does it impact your practice’s digital footprint and online visibility?
Google My Business is a free tool that helps businesses and organizations manage their appearance in Google Search and Google Maps. Essentially, it provides a dynamic snapshot of your practice that highlights your best features. Doing so helps potential patients to quickly find, learn about, and engage with your business — all without having to leave the search results page.
Setting up your GMB page helps Google understand more about your chiropractic business: who you are, what services you provide, and where you are located. It also tells Google how to find your website, so they can crawl it for more info — this is important for local search engine optimization (SEO).
There are three major benefits of having a GMB listing:
- Increased visibility in Google Search and Maps.
- Better user experience for potential clients.
- More traffic to your website, social channels, and office.
Think about when you last searched on your phone or computer for a local business. The first result was likely their GMB “knowledge panel — a card containing important information potential customers like you generally want to know, for instance:
- Business name
- Business type
- Address
- Hours of operation
- Contact information
- A link to their website
- Images/videos
- Directions to their location in Google Maps
- Their reviews
- Their overall Star Rating
- Best times to visit
The same applies to your Google My Business listing. At a quick glance, prospective clients can learn a lot about your practice and whether they want to visit you for treatment. And while viewers are learning about your business, you can learn more about your audience — their questions, content preferences, and interactions with your profile — via Google My Business Insights.
Optimizing Google My Business for Chiropractors
As you can see, Google My Business is a pretty robust platform. However, all these moving pieces mean that it is easy to feel overwhelmed or get distracted by non-essential features when first getting started.
With this in mind, let’s dive into the four features you should absolutely pay attention to when setting up your Google My Business profile. Following these tips will help your chiropractic office become more accessible on Google Search and Maps.
Google Business Profile
The more Google knows about your business, the more types of searches your GMB listing can appear in. So make sure to claim and complete every section of your Google My Business profile! In particular, be meticulous with your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data. You want to make sure everything appears the same on your GMB profile as it does on your website and storefront.
Also, make sure to select your primary and secondary business categories — these are critical for getting found in discovery searches (for instance, when someone searches for a “chiropractor” rather than your business name). Furthermore, mark off applicable attributes — do you accept credit cards, are you accepting new patients, etc? Finally, make sure to write a complete “from the business” description — you can repurpose content from your mission statement or highlight your qualifications and treatment specialties.
Google Reviews
It is critical that you regularly collect and respond to Google reviews. They are vital for the continued health and growth of your business. As you can imagine, prospective clients pay attention to what your former and current patients have said about your practice. They also want to see how you respond to reviews, both good and bad — and timeliness matters. According to the 2020 Local Consumer Review Survey, a whopping 73% of consumers only pay attention to reviews written in the last month. As such, it is important that you and your staff stay on top of new comments, making sure to thank reviewers and respond to any concerns within 1-2 business days.
The more positive reviews you accumulate, the more likely you are to be featured in Google’s “Local Pack.” This is a premier piece of digital real estate for local businesses and something you should aim to show up in as much as possible.
Google Question & Answer
The Q&A section on GMB offers you a fantastic opportunity to both engage with your patients and further optimize your local SEO strategy. On the human side, you can use your Q&A section to help people find answers to questions that might have been asked by multiple patients time and time again. Having a clear answer people can quickly find for themselves can be a huge time saver for your front-desk staff. And you don’t just have to wait for a member of the public to ask a question. You can post your own — a process known as “seeding”. This is a useful trick for when you know some questions that would be good to post on your GMB listing, (but nobody’s asked them yet).
Google Posts
Another way to let Google (and potential clients) know that all your profile information is current is through publishing a Google My Business post at least once a week. Using posts, you can connect with existing and potential patients through your Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. Sharing a post on GMB is very similar to other types of social media and allows you to communicate directly with your audience.
There are currently six types of posts you can publish on your Google My Business profile:
- COVID-19 Update: Use these posts to provide an update about changes related to COVID-19 — for instance, instructions on how your chiropractic office manages safety and hygiene.
- Offer Posts: If you are running a special deal (such as a discount for first-time patients), you can promote it with Offers posts. Offers require a title as well as start and end dates and times. Along with a description, you can also include media, a coupon code link, and terms and conditions with the post. Offer posts appear near the top of your GMB profile and in your Updates tab.
- Product Posts: You can use Product posts to add products that your business sells to your Google My Business listing. These do not share as a typical post, rather than they show up in your “Products” tab.
- What’s New Posts: These types of posts are great for sharing general information about your business. For example, announcing a new service you provide or introducing a new member of your team. You can also include features like a video or photo, a description, or an action button.
- Event Post: If your business is hosting an event, you can promote it and share details with an Event post. Event posts can be used for in-person and online events, and if the event meets certain criteria, it will be featured under the “Overview” tab of your GMB profile (to make it more prominent to viewers).
- Hours Update: If you have changed your hours or are reopening after a temporary closure, you can use this post category to alert people who view your Google My Business listing. This type of post shows up under the “Updates” tab of your profile.
The Surefire Difference
Surefire Local is dedicated to helping local businesses take charge of their digital marketing. Our expert team members understand the ins and outs of Google My Business for chiropractors and can help you optimize your business profile to show up in Search and on Maps. Meanwhile, our industry-leading local marketing platform provides the tools you need to easily keep your Google My Business page, along with all of your other online listings and social media profiles, up to date.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo and discover a local marketing strategy that can help you become easily accessible on Google and anywhere else potential clients are looking for you!