Latest / The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers / Google Business Profile: 5 Common Mistakes That Will Tank Your Google Maps Ranking | Ep. 122

Transcript

Google Business Profile: 5 Common Mistakes That Will Tank Your Google Maps Ranking | Ep. 122 · The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back to the Clinic Marketing Podcast, where we share practical, actionable marketing strategies to help your clinic stand out online and attract more patients.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: We talk all the time about your Google Business Profile listing on this podcast and, surprise, surprise, that's what we're talking about again today.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Now, before we dive in, I want to mention that you can find additional resources for your Google business profile listing on the website page and show notes associated with this episode.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: They'll walk you through best practices, from basic to advanced.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Now today's episode assumes you already have a verified listing that includes your correct name, address and phone number, so we can dive straight into the five most common mistakes I see clinics making on their profiles and how to fix them.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Now I'm going to be honest with you.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I see so many issues that clinics have when it comes to their Google business profile listing, but I wanted to make today's episode sweet and short.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Again, we already have a ton of resources regarding your Google business profile listing.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: If you're new and you're not familiar with your Google business profile listing, it is the listing that used to be called Google my Business and it is what controls your business's listing on the Maps section in Google Maps.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Now we are not talking about paid ads at all.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: We are talking about your organic Google business profile listing, and I'm going to share with you the five most common issues that I see.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And the first mistake is incomplete services section.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: So many people do what they're supposed to do they dive into their listing, they select their category and they just leave it at that.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: That's the wrong way to handle it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, you need a category, but once you select one or more categories that suit your business, you need to add services.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Many clinics skip adding detailed service names and descriptions or they lump everything under a generic title, and I don't want you to do that.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Now, why does this matter?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Google services businesses for specific searches, when you clearly list your offerings?
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: So what are you going to do?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Well, you are going to go to your Google business profile dashboard and look under services.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Now, one mistake that I've seen is sometimes along the way either people have had somebody jump in and make changes to their listing whether it was a marketing agency from days of yore or one of their team members or Google has assumed services.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: So you want to go into that section.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Check, make sure that the services that are listed actually match the services that you offer.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Now, if you are a chiropractor, a service could be a chiropractic adjustment.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: A service could be dry needling.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: A service could be shockwave therapy.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Back pain is not a service.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: So we're not posting conditions.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: We are posting services, each specific service, and giving a description.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, now on to mistake number two.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Mistake number two comes to your business description.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: You have right now, as I'm recording this, up to 750 characters to write out your business description, but many clinics leave it to 100 or 150 words, and this is underutilized real estate.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: They also miss the chance to naturally include keyword phrases that they want to rank for this matters.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: A fuller description helps Google understand your practice and gives patients richer context before they click.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: So here's your quick fix you log into your Google business profile listing and you look at the description.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Now, if you look at your description and you're like, hmm, I don't know.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to write, what should I do?
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: This is a great use for AI.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You can go to AI and you can say hey, chat, gpt or whatever resource you like for AI.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: You say I am name of business.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: This is the types of services we offer.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: This is the area where we offer them, like cities or your regions.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Help me expand my Google business profile description Boo, quick, easy peasy.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Mistake number three and this is a doozy not selecting attributes.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So once you've selected your business category, google will go in and give you options for attributes.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: These could be parking related.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: They could be accessibility related, like is your location wheelchair accessible?
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: This stuff is important not only to your future patients, but for Google to understand your offering and the way that people can get to your location.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: So some of these for instance, I would say the parking option has been new within the past few months.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I don't want to put an exact date on it, but oftentimes when we're going through Google Business Profile audits with people which, if you're interested in booking a Google Business Profile audit, you can visit propellyourcompanycom to find more detail about that but it's that these attributes haven't been addressed.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: So what do you need to do?
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Well, you just need to log in to your Google Business Profile listing, go to info and there select anything that applies and again, this is going to help you, help your audience determine, for example, wheelchair accessibility.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: For a lot of our listeners, that's important to people visiting their clinics, for understanding the parking situation.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: That's important for your patients as well.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Mistake number four, I see, is insufficient or inauthentic photos.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Actually, I'm going to even kind of add on to this a little bit.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: So there's the issue of the people that don't upload a logo.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: So under your photos there's like a section where you can upload your logo and other images For your logo.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Note that it is going to crop it and showcase it like a little circle, like a favicon.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So you might not want to use your whole logo.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: You might want to use an icon that's associated with your business, but we want to make sure that you include sufficient, accurate photos.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: You do not want to use stock photos.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: You want photos of the exterior of your building and we always suggest that you do these from a couple different angles, that you have a photo of signage.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: This stuff really helps you out if you ever have an issue with your Google business profile listing.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: When it comes to accuracy, if Google is coming after you for your listing, it helps to already have this loaded to your listing to say yeah, of course, this is my real listing.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Now we said for a minute earlier.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I mentioned a minute ago talking about one of those attributes for parking.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: If parking is difficult or odd, you can upload a diagram of where to park.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: So, for example, we've had clinics that we work with where they're like, well, you actually park beside this building behind over here.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: So they upload a really simple, easy to follow graphic to their photos.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: In addition to photos of the exterior.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: In regards to parking, obviously, you want photos of your team and action shots in treatment rooms and all of that that are appropriate.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Again, most likely you probably already have some of this stuff.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: You just might not have it uploaded to your Google business profile listing.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're almost done.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: We have one more of the most common mistakes I see, and that is setting and forgetting your profile.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: So many people optimize once and then never revisit it.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: But, as you've seen here, we've talked about how Google is assigning or asking about new attributes.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: It could be that Google is asking you for your social media sites.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Your Google business profile listings should continue to evolve.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: You want to keep your profile fresh.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Make sure, if Google is suggesting an edit, that you review it and make adjustments accordingly, that you update your hours so that they match your hours and we all know your business hours could change and, again, if you offer a new service.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: You're going to want to upload photos of that under the photo sections as well, along with responding to reviews and posting your Google posts and all that stuff.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Again, we have tons of resources that dive into specific elements, whether it's your Google reviews or Google posts, but today I just wanted to go over the five most common mistakes that I see people making right now.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: So those are the five biggest slip ups we see when it comes to Google business profiles for clinics.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Tackle these today and you'll boost your local visibility, engagement and, ultimately, your bookings.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: For a detailed walkthrough of these, please visit our website, where you can book a Google Business Profile audit.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: We would love to help you improve your Google Business Profile listing.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening to this episode of the Clinic Marketing Podcast.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: If you found it valuable, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with your fellow clinic owners.