Every business relies on regularly bringing in great leads. To do that, you need online visibility. You need enough people to find you online so that you can regularly send enough traffic back to your website each month to generate the leads and the income that will keep your business going – and hopefully, growing.
One of the best ways to gain extra visibility online is to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP). This is a directory listing that Google provides at no cost.
As with most things marketing, you do need to know what you’re doing when filling in your profile, but you can find out how to do that below with our Google Business Profile tips for chiropractors.
What is a Google Business Profile?
If you’re already listed on Yelp, Angi, or any similar sites, your GBP will immediately look familiar because, as we said above, it really is just a business directory listing. However, a business directory listing provided by Google is most definitely not to be ignored. In fact, if you haven’t yet claimed this profile, we’d suggest you do it right now. It really can make a huge difference to your online visibility.
You’ll recognize a lot of things once you claim your profile that you can edit. Just as with other directories, there’s space for your contact details, opening hours, services, an about you section, and more that you’re probably familiar with.
Just like with other business directories, your GBP also allows reviews. You definitely want to encourage people to leave reviews on your GBP. This profile, once optimized and fully complete, is literally the only way to get yourself listed in the Google Map Pack at the top of Google Maps, and the more reviews you have on your profile, the better the chance you have of being listed.
Not only that, but if you use paid ads and allow ad extensions, you’ll get a greatly enhanced and attractive listing, showing your opening hours, contact information, star rating, and more. And sometimes, you get excerpts from your reviews on there too. This is excellent for you and for your customers. It draws people in and gives them all the information they need to make a buying decision, and if they want to know more, they can click through and be taken straight to your full profile.
Benefits of having a Google Business Profile
If we haven’t yet convinced you that you really need to fill in your GBP, here are just a few more benefits to doing that:
1. Increased visibility and better rankings in local search results
Google wants to provide the best possible answers to search results and they want to provide them from genuine, legitimate businesses, not scammers who’ve cheated their way up the search engine rankings.
When you claim your Google Business Profile, before you can edit it, you have to verify your business with Google. It’s not hard to do that and what that does is tell Google that you are a real, genuine business. This then gives them more confidence in you to potentially raise your site in their rankings. It’s also possible that your content may make more appearances in search results as long as it’s good enough.
We mentioned earlier that optimizing your GBP is the only way to get listed in the Google Map Pack. This is a listing of three to six websites just under the Google Map itself that Google thinks are the best chiropractors in your area. Naturally, you want to get yourself listed in there, if you can.
2. Makes it easier to get more reviews
People can leave reviews right on your Google profile, and it’s simple for them to do. It’s also easy for you to give people a link right to your review section when requesting reviews.
You can also reply to your reviews quickly and easily, and it’s really important to do that. People are looking to see how you respond to both good and bad reviews as it gives them an idea of what it would be like to use your services and to meet you in person.
3. Free and easy to use
What more could you want? Free publicity from the world’s biggest search engine!
The hardest part – and even that’s really not hard – is verifying your business. After that, it does take some time to fill in all of the sections and create an attractive profile, but once you’re done it’s then just a case of maintaining it and updating it, just like you do with your social media.
How to set up a Google Business Profile
You may find when you search that there is already a GBP for your business, but you still need to claim it so that you can edit it. If you go to Google Maps and find your business, but there isn’t a GBP, then all you have to do is create one and claim it.
When you claim your profile, Google will ask you to verify your business, and you can do this by text, video, email, or phone. It can take up to seven days for Google to review your verification, but then you will be able to edit your profile and complete it.
You can get to your Google Business Profile via your Business Profile Manager, and you can find that in the top right corner of Google Apps.
Optimizing your Google Business Profile to attract more patients
It is so important that you don’t skip this step or only partially complete it. Without a full profile, you might not gain as much online visibility, and you definitely won’t appear in the Local Map Pack.
Take your time over this.
1. Complete your profile
Fill in every single section on your Google Business Profile. It’s vital not to skip anything. Start by choosing up to ten categories that suit your chiropractic business.
Fill in your full contact details, including your phone number and email address. Add your location and attributes. Include your opening hours, not just so customers can easily look it up but also so that you appear in voice search for “chiropractor open now” and similar searches.
As usual, when you are writing out your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number), you must write it in exactly the same way as you’ve done so elsewhere online. Any slight variations can potentially cause doubt in your customer’s minds and have them wondering which entry is right. They may even be put off enough to choose a competitor over you, so check this carefully. The other reason to be careful with this is that Google also can get confused, and they may not be as sure that you are a genuine business. If this happens, they may take the step to lower your ranking until the errors are fixed.
2. Write a compelling and authentic business description
This is basically your sales page on your Google Profile. This is where you have the chance to tell everyone why you are the chiropractor they should choose over and above your competition.
Take your time over this and don’t forget to include keywords and local keywords to increase your chances of being found.
If writing isn’t your strength, it really is worth spending some time to get it right. That’s how important your GBP is.
However you choose to do it, make sure your brand voice is used and that this section really reflects the personality of your business.
3. Upload photos and videos of your business
Ensure you are using high-quality images and videos of your business here. People love to see what it’s like inside a chiropractic clinic before they arrive for their first appointment. They want to know what to expect and to get a little reassurance about how things will go. You can give them that with a helpful introductory video tour.
People also love to see smiling photos of you and your staff to give them an idea of what you’ll be like in person.
You can also take shots of the outside of your building and any signage to help new patients find their way.
4. Respond to patient reviews
Your GBP is a great place for patients to leave reviews. It’s easy for them to do and it benefits you greatly, especially as the more reviews you have the better the chance of you being listed in the Local Pack.
It is important to answer your reviews, though, as people want to feel appreciated for leaving one. At least say “thank you.” You can also respond to your reviews by mentioning some of the points the person has made and telling them how helpful that was and what you’re going to do about it. This shows people what excellent customer service you have and reassures them that you pay attention and listen to great feedback.
You also have to respond to negative reviews too. We know this isn’t pleasant, so take a minute and calm down before you respond. Encourage the complainant to take the conversation offline to either a phone call or an email so that you aren’t having a public row online. You’re trying to create an excellent impression here and that really won’t do it.
As a chiropractor, bear in mind that you have to consider HIPAA when responding to reviews so be careful not to even confirm that any reviewers are your patients or to give out any personal information, even if the reviewers are happy to do so.
5. Answer questions from the Questions & Answers section
Your GBP has a dedicated Q&A section where people can leave questions for you to answer. It’s important to regularly check that section and answer any questions that have come in. This allows you to show your patients matter to you and show how much knowledge and expertise you have.
If you don’t yet have any questions from your audience, don’t leave this section blank. Think about your most frequently asked questions and simply add a few of those with answers. This ensures you’ve filled in every section, provides useful information to your audience, and could well encourage others to feel they too can ask questions and get them answered. Engagement always looks good on your profile as it shows you’re running a live, thriving, and responsive business where customer care matters.
6. Post on Google
Once you’ve filled in all the sections, ensure you’ve posted about your business and your educational info too.
It’s then time to maintain your profile and keep it looking up-to-date and vibrant with new posts, your latest news, special offers, quality images, and more. You need to treat this just like regularly posting on your social media, and in fact, there’s nothing to stop you from copying across some of your social media posts to your GBP and vice versa to add more content, especially if these posts are highly useful to your audience.
7. List services/products your business provides
This separate section is just for listing your products and services and acts as an at-a-glance list for potential patients.
As with all sections on your GBP, do include your keywords and local keywords to optimize for SEO.
If you also sell any products, such as ointments, support bandages, and slings, you can add these products here and link directly to your online shop, if you have one.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo
There can be quite a lot of work in setting up and maintaining your Google Business Profile, but you don’t have to do it manually and all by yourself.
With Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing software, you can update your Google Business Profile and over 80 business directories, with just a few clicks, without leaving our dashboard. You don’t have to log into and out of each individual site, just use our software and it’s done.
With our marketing platform, you can also manage your reviews on your Google Business Profile and elsewhere. You can request reviews, automatically send reminders, and reply to your reviews right from our dashboard. That makes it considerably easier to keep up to date with responses and also to make getting reviews a regular part of your marketing.
Not only can our software help you manage your Google Business Profile, but you can also manage your most important online marketing activities all within one platform.
Manage your content marketing, paid ads, social media marketing, your email campaigns, and more. You can jot down ideas, plan your content and your emails, and schedule posts and emails in advance.
Add highly detailed reports, statistics, and analytics on every aspect of your marketing, and you can quickly see what’s working and what’s not and manage your budget accordingly.
Why not book a demo and see how we can help build your online presence and market your chiropractic clinic?