Latest / The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers / The Overlooked SEO Move: Why Your Yellow Pages Listing Still Matters for Clinics | Ep. 129

Transcript

The Overlooked SEO Move: Why Your Yellow Pages Listing Still Matters for Clinics | Ep. 129 · The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

• 0:26
  Speaker 1: What if I told you there is a simple free move you can make this week that could give your clinic a boost in search results, including AI-driven search results?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: And almost no one is talking about it.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: It's not social media, it's not even Google.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: This is an old-school strategy that's quietly making a comeback, and it can be helpful to help you stand out online in a really competitive market.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Are you curious?
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: All right, let's dive in.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Well, hey there, and welcome back to the Clinic Marketing Podcast.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, darci Sullivan, from Propel Marketing and Design.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: This is a show where we make marketing simple, practical and effective for busy clinics like yours.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Now I'm about to say something that is going to surprise you, because, well, it surprised me when I started to do a little digging into it last week.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: We're talking about yellow pages.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Yep, that giant yellow book your parents used to keep under the kitchen phone, the one that you probably haven't thought about in years.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Well, turns out, it still matters for your clinic's marketing, and not just a little.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, grab a cup of coffee, because I am going to walk you through why Yellow Pages is still a legitimate player in your local SEO game, how it impacts your search visibility and exactly what you should do to make sure your listing is still working for you, not against you.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Now, just to clear this up when we're talking about your listing, we're talking about your listing online, not the good old-fashioned thick book that some of us love and remember.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And you might be saying well, how?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: What Yellow Pages?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I know, here's the thing Yellow Pages isn't dead.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: In fact, it's holding steady as one of the top citation sources out there.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So citation sources, which we've talked about before, they're your online listings, and I was reading this study and doing some diving into this, and there's an SEO expert that I look up to named Miriam Ellis, and she found that yellow pages ranked fifth, fifth, fifth Sorry, I have to keep repeating it fifth, fifth sorry, I have to keep repeating it, it sounds so weird Fifth overall in a review source study.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Fifth can you believe that?
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: That's above a ton of other directories that you might think are more modern.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And if you go to Google and search for something like plumber in Denver or physical therapist in Miami, there's a chance yellow pages will pop near the top of the results.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: It's not flashy, but Google is clearly still indexing and trusting it.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: But let's look at this as an overall way that this listing can help you, because it's not just about Google.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: And before we dive into that, I do want to mention that this is really interesting.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: In some parts of Europe, google is pulling Yellow Pages reviews directly into Google Business Profile listings.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Can you believe that that means this platform is not just sitting there collecting dust?
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: And then there's Bing Places.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: It uses Yellow Pages as one of the sources it pulls reviews from.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Now, when we look at the frequency of Bing Places and where it pulls reviews from and where it relies on, the top one is Facebook.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: After Facebook it's Yelp, after Yelp it's TripAdvisor and Porch, which have really nothing to do with the audience that's probably listening to this episode.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: But right after that it's Yellow Pages, it's yellowpagescom.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: And before you say who cares about Bing Places, you know who cares about Bing Places ChatGPT cares.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Chatgpt cares about Bing Places.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Chatgpt highly relies on Bing Places for where it pulls its information.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: See how this is all starting to pull together.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: And here's the thing that I love.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Like, if you jump in this week and make some of these changes that we're going to talk about, you're ahead of the game.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Is it going to change your overall online presence astronomically?
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: No, but it's probably an action that is going to help you in Google search, that's going to help you in your chat GPT searches and it's probably an action that your competition is not taking.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So if you run a clinic, your potential patients searching online for phrases like chiropractor near me or acupuncturist in name of city, the search engines rely on these citations.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: And the citations are your NAP that we've talked about before, your name, your address, your phone number and the other information that's associated with your business to verify your business and decide if you are trustworthy enough to rank.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And now good old Yellow Pages is back.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: It's part of that ecosystem.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Having a fully optimized, accurate Yellow Pages listing strengthens your local SEO footprint, gives Google, bing and AI search tools one more signal that your business is legitimate.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And hey, even if only a few people click through from yellow pages, that's still a win, isn't it?
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: So think of it as another digital breadcrumb you can drop to help your patients find you.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we've talked about why this is important, why it's important directly and why it's important indirectly.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about how you can optimize your Yellow Pages listing.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: This is the practical portion.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Right, you're going to put a Yellow Pages action plan together.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Very simple Just carve out maybe 10, 15 minutes.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: We can do this.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: You're going to claim your listing.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: You're going to head over to ypcom and see if your clinic is already listed.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Claim it so you can control the information.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: If you have multiple locations or moved recently or have multiple listings, consolidate them.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Next, check your info.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Make sure your clinic's name, address, phone number and website match everywhere else online.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Remember, consistency is key.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Consistency is huge for local SEO and your online citations.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Then you want to fill out every field, so add your hours, your services, detailed description, upload photos of your clinic, your team, even your logo.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: The more complete the better.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Then get some reviews.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Now you do not need to go out and get 100 reviews on Yellow Pages, but sending every 10th patient or so a review request to Yellow Pages instead of Google can help.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Even a handful of reviews gives your listing a boost Because, remember, other people aren't doing this.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Then keep your eyes on it.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Revisit your listing every couple of months to make sure nothing's outdated or duplicated.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Updates can take a day or two to go live, so don't panic if you don't see your changes right away.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Yellow Pages alone isn't going to explode your clinic's growth online.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: But here's what it does do it strengthens your overall local SEO strategy.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Pair it with a fully optimized Google business profile, fresh patient reviews coming in constantly, website content that's localized to your city or region and a mobile-friendly website that makes it easy for patients to book.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Do those things together, along with all the other strategies we talk about on this show, and you are not only gonna just show up on Google and those other search engines.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: You're going to stand out.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: So here's my challenge for you if you choose to accept it, take 15 minutes this week to claim your Yellow Pages listing.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Clean it up, add some photos.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: It's one of those quick wins that most clinics overlook.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And if you're feeling overwhelmed with local SEO, don't forget to visit our website, propellyourcompanycom.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: We have tons of resources for you there.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: You can book a discovery call.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: You can check out our DIY SEO toolkit for clinics called Ready Set Rank.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: We offer Google business profile audits and we offer tons of other resources, along with our done-for-you services and done-with-you SEO services, website design and website redesign, and more.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Anyways, check it out by visiting propellyourcompanycom.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Thanks for hanging out with me today on the Clinic Marketing Podcast.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Go out there and claim that listing, and I look forward to chatting with you again next week.