Latest / The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers / Google Business Profile’s New 4-Day Deadline: What Clinics Need to Know | Important Google Maps Update

Transcript

Google Business Profile’s New 4-Day Deadline: What Clinics Need to Know | Important Google Maps Update · The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

• 0:25
  Darcy Happy AI try: If you have a Google Business Profile for your clinic, there is a new update you need to know about.
• 0:31
  Darcy Happy AI try: And this is one of those updates that sounds pretty minor when you first hear about it, but it’s not.
• 0:37
  Darcy Happy AI try: Hello and welcome to the Clinic Marketing Podcast, I’m your host Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design.
• 0:45
  Darcy Happy AI try: Let’s dive into this new Google change shall we?
• 0:50
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google is giving business owners four days to review certain suggested changes to their Google Business Profile.
• 0:58
  Darcy Happy AI try: Four days.
• 1:00
  Darcy Happy AI try: But what makes this important isn't necessarily the four-day deadline itself.
• 1:05
  Darcy Happy AI try: It's what can happen if you don't catch the notification, and what this tells us about how much control you actually have over the information Google displays about your clinic.
• 1:17
  Darcy Happy AI try: Because even though you own and manage your Google Business Profile, that doesn't necessarily mean Google is going to leave everything exactly the way you entered it.
• 1:29
  Darcy Happy AI try: So today, we're going to talk about what's changing, where these suggested edits come from, what could potentially be changed, and most importantly, what I recommend clinic owners do to protect the accuracy of their Google Business Profile.
• 1:46
  Darcy Happy AI try: Let's dive in.
• 1:47
  Darcy Happy AI try: First, What Exactly Changed?
• 1:50
  Darcy Happy AI try: This update was recently reported by Search Engine Roundtable after Google updated its Google Business Profile help documentation.
• 1:59
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google has clarified that users can suggest edits to the information on a Business Profile.
• 2:07
  Darcy Happy AI try: That's not actually new.
• 2:09
  Darcy Happy AI try: People have been able to suggest edits to Google listings for years.
• 2:15
  Darcy Happy AI try: What's important here is that Google has now provided more information about what happens after one of those suggestions is made.
• 2:24
  Darcy Happy AI try: According to Google's updated documentation, if a suggested edit requires your review, Google may notify you by email or through a notification within your Google Business Profile.
• 2:37
  Darcy Happy AI try: Once you're notified, you have four days to accept or reject that suggestion.
• 2:43
  Darcy Happy AI try: Just four days.
• 2:45
  Darcy Happy AI try: If you don't respond within those four days, Google may automatically publish the change if Google believes there is other publicly available information supporting it.
• 2:55
  Darcy Happy AI try: For example, Google specifically mentions information on your website.
• 3:02
  Darcy Happy AI try: And there's another important part of this update.
• 3:06
  Darcy Happy AI try: Not every suggested change necessarily gets that four-day review period.
• 3:13
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google also says that it may apply certain suggested edits without giving the business an opportunity to review them first.
• 3:22
  Darcy Happy AI try: So when you hear"you have four days," I don't want you to walk away thinking every change to your Google Business Profile will sit there waiting for your approval for four days.
• 3:34
  Darcy Happy AI try: That's not what Google is saying.
• 3:36
  Darcy Happy AI try: The bigger takeaway is this: Your Google Business Profile is not something you should set up once and then forget about.
• 3:43
  Darcy Happy AI try: So, who Is Suggesting These Changes?
• 3:47
  Darcy Happy AI try: This is something that sometimes surprises clinic owners.
• 3:52
  Darcy Happy AI try: You may have noticed the"Suggest an edit" option when you're looking at a business on Google.
• 3:58
  Darcy Happy AI try: That's available to regular Google users.
• 4:02
  Darcy Happy AI try: Someone could suggest that your hours are different.
• 4:07
  Darcy Happy AI try: They could suggest that you've moved.
• 4:09
  Darcy Happy AI try: They could suggest a different phone number or website.
• 4:13
  Darcy Happy AI try: They could suggest that your business is closed.
• 4:16
  Darcy Happy AI try: There are a variety of pieces of information Google can gather or receive from outside sources, like other listings online, that your clinic has.
• 4:27
  Darcy Happy AI try: And Google isn't relying solely on what you entered into your Business Profile.
• 4:34
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google's own documentation says it gathers information from multiple sources, including user reports and licensed content, to try to keep Business Profiles accurate.
• 4:45
  Darcy Happy AI try: If Google determines that information on a profile might be incorrect or outdated, it may update that information.
• 4:55
  Darcy Happy AI try: Now, in theory, that makes sense.
• 4:59
  Darcy Happy AI try: Imagine a restaurant closes permanently and nobody ever updates its Google Business Profile.
• 5:07
  Darcy Happy AI try: Or a business changes its hours but forgets to change them on Google.
• 5:12
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google wants Maps and Search to provide accurate information.
• 5:18
  Darcy Happy AI try: The problem is that outside information isn't always correct.
• 5:23
  Darcy Happy AI try: And for a clinic, inaccurate information can create a much bigger problem than simply having the wrong information displayed online.
• 5:34
  Darcy Happy AI try: Now.
• 5:35
  Darcy Happy AI try: I want you to Think About What Happens If Your Information Is Wrong.
• 5:40
  Darcy Happy AI try: Let's say somebody suggests that your clinic closes at 4:00 when you're actually open until 6:00.
• 5:48
  Darcy Happy AI try: Now someone searches for a chiropractor, physical therapist, acupuncturist, dentist, med spa, or another healthcare provider at 4:30.
• 5:58
  Darcy Happy AI try: If Google thinks you're closed, that potential patient may never call you.
• 6:03
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may never visit your website.
• 6:06
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may simply choose the next clinic that Google shows as open.
• 6:11
  Darcy Happy AI try: Or imagine your phone number is incorrect.
• 6:14
  Darcy Happy AI try: That's obviously an even bigger problem.
• 6:17
  Darcy Happy AI try: Someone searches for your clinic, clicks the phone button and doesn't reach you.
• 6:22
  Darcy Happy AI try: You may never know that lead existed.
• 6:26
  Darcy Happy AI try: And there are other pieces of your Google Business Profile that can affect how Google understands your business.
• 6:34
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your business category.
• 6:36
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your address.
• 6:38
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your services.
• 6:40
  Darcy Happy AI try: Services is a big section where I see these suggested edits come into play when we conduct Google Business Profile Audits.
• 6:50
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your website.
• 6:52
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your hours.
• 6:54
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your attributes.
• 6:56
  Darcy Happy AI try: Attributes is another common one that we see.
• 7:00
  Darcy Happy AI try: The information associated with your profile helps Google understand what your clinic is, where it's located and when it should potentially appear for a search.
• 7:11
  Darcy Happy AI try: So accuracy matters for both the patient experience and your local visibility.
• 7:18
  Darcy Happy AI try: This Is Also Why Your Website Matters! There's another piece of Google's announcement that I think is especially interesting from an SEO standpoint.
• 7:31
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google says that if you don't respond to a suggested edit within those four days, it may automatically publish the update if the suggestion is supported by other publicly available information.
• 7:44
  Darcy Happy AI try: And the example Google specifically gives is your website.
• 7:49
  Darcy Happy AI try: Yep, that’s right.
• 7:51
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your website could be the issue.
• 7:53
  Darcy Happy AI try: I talk all the time about consistency between your website and your Google Business Profile.
• 8:00
  Darcy Happy AI try: Here's another reason why.
• 8:01
  Darcy Happy AI try: Let's say your Google Business Profile says you're open until 6:00, but your website says you're open until 5:00.
• 8:10
  Darcy Happy AI try: Which one is correct?
• 8:12
  Darcy Happy AI try: You know the answer.
• 8:14
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google doesn't necessarily know the answer.
• 8:17
  Darcy Happy AI try: Or your website has an old address in the footer.
• 8:22
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your contact page has the new address.
• 8:26
  Darcy Happy AI try: An old directory has another address.
• 8:31
  Darcy Happy AI try: Facebook has something different.
• 8:34
  Darcy Happy AI try: Now Google is receiving conflicting information.
• 8:37
  Darcy Happy AI try: This is why maintaining your online presence isn't just about rankings.
• 8:44
  Darcy Happy AI try: You're feeding Google information about your business from multiple sources.
• 8:51
  Darcy Happy AI try: The clearer and more consistent those signals are, the easier it is for Google to understand your clinic.
• 8:57
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your website should be one of your strongest sources of accurate information about your business.
• 9:03
  Darcy Happy AI try: Make sure your clinic's name, address, phone number, hours, services and other important business information are current.
• 9:12
  Darcy Happy AI try: And don't forget places like your contact page, footer and location pages.
• 9:19
  Darcy Happy AI try: Those areas sometimes get overlooked when something changes.
• 9:24
  Darcy Happy AI try: Please Do not Assume Google Will Always Ask You First.
• 9:29
  Darcy Happy AI try: This is probably the part of this update that I want clinic owners to pay the most attention to.
• 9:36
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google specifically says that suggested user edits may sometimes be applied without prior review.
• 9:43
  Darcy Happy AI try: So checking your email every four days isn't enough.
• 9:48
  Darcy Happy AI try: You should also periodically look at your actual Business Profile.
• 9:54
  Darcy Happy AI try: Search your clinic's name on Google.
• 9:57
  Darcy Happy AI try: Look at what patients are seeing.
• 9:59
  Darcy Happy AI try: Is the phone number right?
• 10:02
  Darcy Happy AI try: Is the address right?
• 10:05
  Darcy Happy AI try: Are the hours right?
• 10:07
  Darcy Happy AI try: Is the website link correct?
• 10:09
  Darcy Happy AI try: Is your primary category still correct?
• 10:13
  Darcy Happy AI try: Are your appointment links working?
• 10:16
  Darcy Happy AI try: Has anything changed that you didn't change yourself?
• 10:19
  Darcy Happy AI try: We conduct Google Business Profile Audits and manage Google Business Profiles for clients, and this is one of the reasons I don't recommend treating your profile as something you optimize once and never touch again.
• 10:33
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google Business Profiles are dynamic.
• 10:36
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google changes things.
• 10:38
  Darcy Happy AI try: Users suggest things.
• 10:40
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google gathers information from other sources.
• 10:43
  Darcy Happy AI try: New features appear.
• 10:45
  Darcy Happy AI try: Other features disappear.
• 10:47
  Darcy Happy AI try: So you need to keep an eye on it.
• 10:49
  Darcy Happy AI try: Here’s What Should Clinic Owners Do Now.
• 10:53
  Darcy Happy AI try: I want to give you a very simple action plan.
• 10:57
  Darcy Happy AI try: First, make sure the email account associated with your Google Business Profile is one you actually monitor.
• 11:04
  Darcy Happy AI try: This sounds incredibly basic.
• 11:07
  Darcy Happy AI try: But you'd be surprised how often a Business Profile was created years ago by an employee, an agency, a former office manager or someone else who is no longer actively monitoring that email account.
• 11:22
  Darcy Happy AI try: You should know exactly who has access to your Google Business Profile and who the primary owner is.
• 11:31
  Darcy Happy AI try: Second, don't ignore Google Business Profile emails.
• 11:35
  Darcy Happy AI try: Obviously, you need to be careful because there are also plenty of scam emails pretending to be from Google.
• 11:43
  Darcy Happy AI try: Don't blindly click links because an email says something is wrong with your Google listing.
• 11:49
  Darcy Happy AI try: When in doubt, go directly to your Google Business Profile rather than clicking a link in an unexpected email.
• 11:57
  Darcy Happy AI try: But if Google is telling you information on your profile may be changing, don't leave that sitting in your inbox for a week.
• 12:06
  Darcy Happy AI try: You may not have a week anymore.
• 12:08
  Darcy Happy AI try: Third, check your profile regularly.
• 12:13
  Darcy Happy AI try: For most clinics, I would make this part of your regular marketing routine.
• 12:17
  Darcy Happy AI try: You don't have to obsessively check it every day.
• 12:20
  Darcy Happy AI try: But someone should be responsible for monitoring it.
• 12:24
  Darcy Happy AI try: And fourth, compare the information on your Google Business Profile with the information on your website.
• 12:32
  Darcy Happy AI try: Make sure you're not accidentally giving Google conflicting information.
• 12:38
  Darcy Happy AI try: Check your: Business name.
• 12:40
  Darcy Happy AI try: Address.
• 12:41
  Darcy Happy AI try: Phone number.
• 12:43
  Darcy Happy AI try: Website.
• 12:44
  Darcy Happy AI try: Hours.
• 12:45
  Darcy Happy AI try: Primary business category.
• 12:47
  Darcy Happy AI try: Appointment links.
• 12:49
  Darcy Happy AI try: Services.
• 12:50
  Darcy Happy AI try: And if you have multiple locations, do this for every location.
• 12:55
  Darcy Happy AI try: Please Pay Special Attention When Something Changes at Your Clinic.
• 13:00
  Darcy Happy AI try: This becomes even more important when you're making a significant change to the business.
• 13:06
  Darcy Happy AI try: Maybe you're moving.
• 13:07
  Darcy Happy AI try: Maybe you're adding another location.
• 13:10
  Darcy Happy AI try: Maybe your hours are changing.
• 13:12
  Darcy Happy AI try: Maybe you're changing phone systems.
• 13:15
  Darcy Happy AI try: Maybe you've changed your clinic's name.
• 13:17
  Darcy Happy AI try: Maybe you've added a new provider or expanded your services.
• 13:21
  Darcy Happy AI try: When something changes, don't update one place and assume you're finished.
• 13:27
  Darcy Happy AI try: Think about your entire online presence.
• 13:32
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your website.
• 13:34
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your Google Business Profile.
• 13:36
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your social profiles.
• 13:38
  Darcy Happy AI try: Major directories.
• 13:39
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your appointment scheduling platform.
• 13:42
  Darcy Happy AI try: Other places where Google may be finding information about your clinic.
• 13:48
  Darcy Happy AI try: The goal is to create consistency.
• 13:52
  Darcy Happy AI try: If Google is looking around the web trying to determine which version of your information is correct, you don't want to give it five different answers.
• 14:03
  Darcy Happy AI try: One More Thing About Access.
• 14:07
  Darcy Happy AI try: I also want you to take a minute after this episode and make sure you actually have access to your Google Business Profile.
• 14:16
  Darcy Happy AI try: Not your web designer.
• 14:17
  Darcy Happy AI try: Not the marketing company you hired three years ago.
• 14:20
  Darcy Happy AI try: Not the employee who left last summer.
• 14:24
  Darcy Happy AI try: You.
• 14:25
  Darcy Happy AI try: Your clinic should maintain ownership of its Google Business Profile.
• 14:30
  Darcy Happy AI try: You can absolutely give an SEO company, marketing company or employee access to help manage it.
• 14:37
  Darcy Happy AI try: But the clinic itself should retain ownership.
• 14:42
  Darcy Happy AI try: This becomes especially important when there's an urgent problem.
• 14:47
  Darcy Happy AI try: If Google tells you that you have four days to respond to something, that's not the moment you want to discover that nobody knows the password to the email account that owns your profile.
• 15:00
  Darcy Happy AI try: The bigger lesson from this update isn't really about four days.
• 15:05
  Darcy Happy AI try: It's about paying attention to your Google Business Profile.
• 15:09
  Darcy Happy AI try: For a local healthcare clinic, your Google Business Profile can be one of the most visible pieces of your entire online presence.
• 15:18
  Darcy Happy AI try: Someone may see it before they ever see your website.
• 15:22
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may use it to call you.
• 15:24
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may use it to get directions.
• 15:26
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may look at your reviews.
• 15:30
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may look at your photos.
• 15:32
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may check whether you're open.
• 15:35
  Darcy Happy AI try: They may book an appointment.
• 15:38
  Darcy Happy AI try: And your Google Business Profile plays an important role in your visibility in Google Maps and local search.
• 15:46
  Darcy Happy AI try: So don't assume that because the information was correct when you optimized your profile six months ago, it's still correct today.
• 15:55
  Darcy Happy AI try: Google has made it pretty clear that information can be changed based on data it receives from users and other sources.
• 16:04
  Darcy Happy AI try: And now we know that for certain suggested edits requiring your review, that window may be only four days.
• 16:13
  Darcy Happy AI try: So here's your homework after today's episode.
• 16:16
  Darcy Happy AI try: Go Google your clinic.
• 16:18
  Darcy Happy AI try: Actually look at your listing the way a potential patient would.
• 16:22
  Darcy Happy AI try: Check your hours.
• 16:24
  Darcy Happy AI try: Check your phone number.
• 16:25
  Darcy Happy AI try: Check your address.
• 16:27
  Darcy Happy AI try: Check your website.
• 16:28
  Darcy Happy AI try: Check your categories.
• 16:31
  Darcy Happy AI try: Check your appointment links.
• 16:32
  Darcy Happy AI try: Then log into the account that manages your Google Business Profile and make sure there aren't any updates or notifications waiting for you.
• 16:42
  Darcy Happy AI try: And finally, compare that information with what's on your website.
• 16:46
  Darcy Happy AI try: If everything matches, great.
• 16:48
  Darcy Happy AI try: If it doesn't, now is the time to fix it.
• 16:52
  Darcy Happy AI try: Because when it comes to your Google Business Profile, accurate information isn't just an administrative detail.
• 16:59
  Darcy Happy AI try: It's part of how patients find you, choose you and contact your clinic.
• 17:05
  Darcy Happy AI try: And if you haven't reviewed your Google Business Profile lately, this is your reminder to do it today.
• 17:11
  Darcy Happy AI try: If you need help improving your clinic's visibility on Google, Google Maps and AI-driven search results, head over to PropelYourCompany.com to check out our free resources.
• 17:24
  Darcy Happy AI try: And if you'd like help figuring out what's working, what's missing and what your clinic should focus on next, you can also book a discovery call with us.