Latest / The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers / Are Extra Google Listings Hurting Your Rankings? | Ep. 109

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Are Extra Google Listings Hurting Your Rankings? | Ep. 109 · The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Clinic Marketing Podcast.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, darci Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Today we're diving into a question that could be causing and costing you serious ranking issues and revenue problems.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Are extra Google listings hurting your visibility?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: You might think more listings, more opportunity to show up in search results, but those additional profiles could be doing more harm than good.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Stick with me as I'm going to break down how Google's rankings filters work, how you can tell if there's an issue that's affecting you and what to do to fix it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Did you know because some people know this and some people don't that if you were a doctor, if you're a practitioner, you can have a listing, a Google business profile listing, that is separate from your company's listing?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So today we're going to talk about three different types of extra Google listings that you can have and if you should have them, one being the variable of if you have a company listing, and then each doctor or practitioner has their own listing, and we'll get into the pros and cons of that.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Petitioner has their own listing, and we'll get into the pros and cons of that.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Two could be multiple listings from the same company.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: And then three.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Let's say that your clinic has three locations and you have three Google business profile listings, one for each of those locations.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: So that's what we're kind of diving into today.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: We're looking at those and talking about how Google looks at this information and how they rank it.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: And again, we're talking about the Google Business Profile listing, and I love talking about Google Business Profile listing.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Tons of our resources are about the Google Business Profile listing.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Tons of our resources are about the Google business profile listing.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And why?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Because when you implement changes and best practices to your Google business profile listing, you get kind of real quick results.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And in fact, I had a call on Friday with one of our Ready Set Rank members.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: If you don't know, we have a DIY SEO program for clinics and it's called Ready Set Rank and he had purchased the program with a bundle that included a call where we walk through things and go through actionable strategies.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So on this call, we talked about his website and we talked about his Google business profile listing.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: On Monday I received a very nice email from him saying how great it was to talk and that he had already implemented some of the Google business profile suggestions and had seen his listing move up the rank substantially.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: So not just move, but move up substantially.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: So making the right changes to your Google business profile listing can have huge results, and you can see them quickly.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, so back to today's topic.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Should you have extra Google business profile listings or are they hurting you?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Do you even have them?
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Let's get into it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: So one of the common misconceptions about Google listings and it's logical, right, you would think, or a clinic owner might think more Google listings equals more chances to rank.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Separate listings for practitioners and their practice equals greater visibility.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: More locations equal more overall search presence.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: But here's the catch Google doesn't see it that way.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: In fact, sometimes having multiple listings for the same practice in the same location can work against you.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So we're going to dive into some examples, but first notice what I just said Having multiple listings for the same practice in the same location can work against you.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: This means that this does not affect if you have multiple physical locations.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: If you are a clinic with five different locations, you should each of those individual locations should have a Google business profile listing.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: You don't want to then have an overall Google business profile listing for them, right?
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: You just each location has its own listing.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: But it's okay in that instance.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: What we're going to dive into now is examples when there are multiple listings for the same practice and the same location.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: So we had worked with one client who had multiple Google business profile listings one for their overall practice and then one for the individual doctors.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Again, on the surface, this sounds like a smart move More listings equals more visibility.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: But we checked his rankings and the main practice listing was not sitting high and the practice the practitioner's listings weren't sitting high.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: And the practice the practitioners listings weren't sitting high either.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Neither were really in those top results.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: And the reason?
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Google was filtering out one of the listings, seeing them as competing businesses rather than complementary ones.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: This is because google's algorithm tries to avoid duplicate or similar business rankings in the same geographical area.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: So what was our suggestion?
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: We suggested that they delete the practitioner's listings, and you know what happened they increased their visibility and position, which in turn, drove more traffic and leads.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: So if you have multiple practitioners, our suggestion is to not have multiple listings for them, because it dilutes the water.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: If you want to think about it like that, you're saying to Google no, our company is here, no, this practitioner is here.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: It can just get a little confusing.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: And we had another issue where a client came to us and said we had a practitioner who left, but they were promoting themselves as a practitioner, not as the overall company.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And now the internet includes all of these listings for this one practitioner, but it's listed at the company's address that they're no longer with.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Of course, with your Google Business Profile listing, it's easy enough to suggest an edit for that issue.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: But there were other online listings that were still showcasing this practitioner who was no longer with the organization.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: The organization wanted nothing to do with this practitioner and they didn't have the practitioner's logins to all these listings that the practitioner had set up.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: So keep that in mind.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Google's algorithm is designed to provide the best search experience possible.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: That means preventing multiple listings from dominating local search results, and we've seen this before, too, where there could be a company that somehow ended up with two listings For some reason.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: This happens if a marketing company had originally taken over that responsibility, or an ex-employee had taken over that responsibility, and then somebody didn't realize, so they set up a separate listing.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Whatever the reason is, if you have two listings for one single location, you want to consolidate those, and if I were going to do that.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: What I would suggest is look and see which one gets the most traction and which one has the best reviews.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: The other issue with having multiple listings is there's multiple places for people to leave reviews.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: So instead of having that gleaming, oh, we have over 500 reviews now.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: They're scattered throughout, so we don't want that.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: If Google sees two or more listings in the same, for the same business, at the same address, it often filters out one, so you usually only see one, and even the filter listing might still exist.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: It won't rank well.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: So, instead of helping, the extra listing again can dilute the overall authority, drag down your listing that you want to write, so you want to think of these.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: They could kind of think of them like anchors dragging you down, and we don't.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Instead, we want you to have one solid, amazing company listing for each of your locations.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: So how do you know if you're dealing with this issue?
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Well, here are some red flags.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Your writings have plateaued, despite strong reviews and optimized content.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Your practice listing isn't appearing high in that local pack of competition out there.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Right, the competition keeps growing, and this is going to vary if you are living in a populated area where you have tons and tons of competitors versus if you're living in a rural area with less competition, but you do want to keep an eye on where your listing is placed in that local package.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Do you have multiple Google business listings that you're aware of?
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Are they including separate practitioner profiles?
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: This can also confuse patients about which listing to use or to go to for information, and if any of that sounds familiar, it's really time to take action.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So how do you do this?
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Well, if you suspect multiple listings are hurting your visibility, here's what you should do Audit your Google business listing.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: If you have issues with this, we offer a Google business profile audit.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: You can find out more by visiting propellyourcompanycom Under services.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: You will find the business profile audit if you're interested in having somebody do this for you.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: You can also use Google Business Profile Manager to see if you have multiple profiles.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Decide which listings to keep.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: The practice listings should always be the main focus.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: If practitioner listings exist and you decide that you want to keep them, they should be optimized separately and ideally, if they are including a link to your website, it should go directly to that practitioner's page, so a bio specific to that practitioner.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: They should not link to the homepage.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: If you have multiple listings, consider merging or removing the extra listings.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: If you have multiple listings existing for the same business, request to merge them through Google Business Profile support.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: If your practitioners have their own listings, ensure that they do not interfere with the main practice listing and again, we suggest if they are going to have their own listings, that they need to link to a page on your website that is specific to that practitioner.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Also, optimize your remaining listing.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Ensure that your Google business profile is fully optimized with accurate business details, categories and services.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Regularly update your profile with posts, offers and patient reviews, and use SEO strategies on your website to support your Google business profile ranking.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Now we already talked about this for a minute, but I want to circle back and make sure that we talk about multiple locations.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: If your business has multiple locations, each location again should have its own dedicated Google business profile listing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: However, they should have unique contact information and addresses.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: They should feature location-specific services service page on your website and you want to avoid duplicate content across listings.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: So if you were a chiropractor and let's just say you had a location in Greenville and a location in Blueville, on the Blueville listing I would link directly to a page on your website that is specific to the Blueville location.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: That has details about the services you offer photos, more information than just a paragraph like quality content, location-specific information.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: This ensures Google understands that these are separate businesses rather than duplicate listings.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So here's the bottom line.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: More Google listings doesn't always mean more visibility and in many cases, they could be hurting your rankings.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: By auditing your profiles, consolidating when necessary and optimizing your main listing, you can improve your search visibility and attract more local patients.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: So take a few minutes today to check your Google Business Profile listing.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: If you spot duplicate listings, address them as soon as possible.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: If you found this episode helpful, please be sure to subscribe to the Clinic Marketing Podcast so you never miss the strategies that we share here.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: And if you need help optimizing your Google business profile, please visit our website to book an audit.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: We'll make sure your listings are working for you and not against you.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: That's all for today's episode.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.