Do you know what Google My Business is? If you’re a plastic surgeon who’s trying to attract new patients in your area, you definitely should. After all, your future patients are using this platform, which means you should be, too. Have we piqued your interest? Let’s talk a little more about Google My Business (GMB) and how it can impact your plastic surgery practice.
What is Google My Business for Plastic Surgeons?
Google My Business is a platform that’s offered by Google free of charge. It’s an easy-to-use tool that allows plastic surgery practices such as yours to reach a broader audience, compile reviews, and answer questions your future patients might have about your services. GMB funnels into Google’s full suite of services that searchers use when they’re looking for your services, including Google Maps and Search. By filling out your profile completely and engaging with past and future patients, you can tell your company’s story and help people understand just what your practice is all about. Not only that, but you’ll also help Google understand who you are, too, which is vital when it comes to ranking highly on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
GMB is a vital piece of the local marketing puzzle these days because it gives you the ability to provide people in your area with vital information, including:
- Your company’s name
- The services you offer
- Your location
- Your service hours
- Your contact information
- The ways they can contact you to learn more or schedule an initial consultation
Bear in mind that, when people are looking for a plastic surgeon, they’re likely doing a lot of research and trying to gather as much information about each doctor as possible. The easier you can make that on your future patients, the more likely they are to schedule an appointment with you and follow through on their desired or needed surgery with your practice. Google My Business for plastic surgeons makes that task easy, giving you a platform through which people can read reviews, learn about your services, and figure out if you’re close enough to their own locations.
How to Take Charge of Your Google My Business Account
GMB is free and easy to use, but you have to take the first steps. Before you can do anything, you need to claim your practice. This process only takes a few minutes and will get you started on the path to one of the most powerful local marketing tools in existence today. If you’re a single practitioner, you only need one GMB listing. If you have already created one for your practice and one for yourself, that’s okay; keep both if they’re both getting reviews and ranking. If one is performing and the other isn’t, you can consolidate them into one GMB profile by reaching out to Google Support.
If you’re in a multi-practitioner office, you might still consider creating your own listing if you have a public-facing position at your practice. Chances are, if you’re the plastic surgeon who’s reading this article, you would qualify under this category.
Once you’ve set your account up, you’re ready to take advantage of the many features this free local marketing platform provides. We’ll talk more in-depth about a few of the most pivotal features in a moment, but for now, you should be aware that there are a lot of aspects to GMB that can help you attract and retain great patients, such as:
- Category and Description. How Google knows what you do and who you are so it can recommend you to people who are searching for your services.
- Reviews. Potential patients are absolutely reading plastic surgeons’ reviews to see if they might be a good fit for their needs.
- Photos. Let people see your practice and the people who work for you. With patients’ permission, you could also share before-and-after photos of your work.
- Attributes. Define certain characteristics that might be attractive to future patients, such as being a woman- or minority-owned practice.
- Posts. Take a moment to write a little bit about what your practice is up to.
- Q&A. Ask and answer questions that will help people better understand how your practice can improve their lives.
- Suggest an Edit. This is a great feature that helps level the playing field, in the event one of your competitors is trying to game the Google system with a keyword-stuffed GMB profile. Should you come across a practice that’s listed as keywords (such as Plastic Surgeon in Capitol Hill, Denver), rather than the actual name of the practice, you can simply hit the “Suggest an Edit” link and report your findings to Google. This will help keep your possibilities of ranking well fair against your competitors.
- Insights. The performance metrics within GMB Insights can help you understand if your efforts are paying off.
4 Google My Business Features that Will Increase Your Local Reach on Google Search & Maps
Now that we’ve talked a little bit about some of the outstanding features found on Google My Business, let’s dive a little deeper into four features you should absolutely be using if you want to garner the attention of future patients to your plastic surgery practice.
1. Business Information
First things first: you need to make sure your NAP (name, address, and phone) information is correct. Google will use this information to alert people who are looking for services in their specific areas. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to get a hold of you, so including your website, phone number, and other contact information is vital.
Next, make sure you add a business description, which is very easy to do. Simply login to your GMB dashboard and click on your practice’s listing. Once you’re in the main dashboard area, you’ll see the option to “Add business description.” Click the pencil, and edit away. To curate your business description, consider following these steps:
- Describe your practice
- Craft a problem statement
- Identify how you help your patients overcome this problem
2. Google Reviews
Google reviews are imperative for plastic surgeons because people want to know how other patients felt about your work. Additionally, the quality and quantity of your reviews is an important ranking factor for local SEO. Between these two elements, it’s super important to continually collect new, positive reviews so you can show both your audience and the search engine that you’re the type of plastic surgeon people want to see when they need your services.
The ways in which customers find businesses have drastically changed in recent years. It’s important to understand that 94% of people say they’ll avoid particular businesses if they have negative reviews, according to Forbes, so it’s essential to gather great feedback from happy patients. Plus, people want to see recent reviews, which means you need to continually gather them on an ongoing basis. If you only have reviews that are several years old, you’ll lose trust with your potential patients.
3. Google Q&A
The Questions and Answers section of GMB is an excellent place for many reasons. For starters, you can answer questions that your future patients have very easily, allowing anyone else who might have the same questions to glean insights directly from your practice. You also have the ability to seed questions directly into the Q&A space, meaning if you receive the same frequently asked questions time and time again, you can put them here and provide the answers, giving people easy access to that information.
The Q&A section is also a great place to work on your SEO efforts. Here, you can insert keywords naturally within your questions and answers, giving Google a greater idea of who you are and what you do.
4. Google Posts
Google Posts show up on your GMB profile when a potential patient searches your practice’s name on Google or checks out your GMB profile on Google Maps. They’re a great way to show off your business in a unique way, giving you the ability to announce upcoming events, highlight new services, share intriguing news, or communicate any special offers you might have going on at the time. Google likes fresh content, so the more you post, the more attention you’re likely to get from the search engine.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
Discover a local marketing strategy that can help you become more easily accessible on Google and anywhere else potential patients are looking for you. Attend a Surefire Local marketing platform demo today, and get ready to change the way your practice does business forever!