Google My Business for Orthodontists is a great way to reach patients that are looking for the services that you provide. Your Google My Business (GMB) listing will show up under google maps for users when they search keywords that are relevant to your business. It will help you grow your practice by bringing in new local patients and generating leads. Follow this step-by-step guide for tips on how to optimize your account so it gets ranked higher on the Google My Business listing results.
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ToggleWhy Google My Business for Orthodontists?
Google My Business for Orthodontist can help you reach local patients that need the ortho services that you can provide them. Users who are close to your clinic and search for those services can see how close your practice is to them on a map. Google My Business help increase your local ranking in the search result pages.
With Google My Business potential patients can also read reviews from other patients about their experience which can also influence them to visit your clinic.
How To Create A Google My Business Account
Log in to the Google account associated with your clinic in order to access your Google My Business account.
Then, go to Google My Business and select Manage Now.
In the next step, you will need to enter your Orthodontist Clinic’s name to claim your business. If you do not find your Ortho practice then you can add it to Google.
Next, you will need to specify if you have a website or if you sell products online and if you have a location that customers can visit. If you sell items to patients online, then click yes.
Great, now your business is ready to be on Google. Click Get Started.
Claiming your orthodontist practice on Google Maps will make your practice appear more official and it is also more likely to be seen by local patients.
Before actually starting your GMB profile check out this article for tips and tricks to keep in mind as you follow the process.
Create Your Orthodontic Practice GMB Profile
To start customizing your orthodontist profile, you will first need to enter your clinic’s name and your business category. You will choose this category from the dropdown list that Google My Business provides. Pick the category that best suits your practice.
We highly recommend that before selecting the business category for your clinic, you research your local competitors to see which one they chose so you can choose the most accurate category.
In the second step, you will be asked if you want to specify a location that your patients can visit choose yes.
Next, enter the address of your Ortho practice. As an Orthodontic clinic, it is important to specify a location so it makes it much easier for patients to find your office. The address will show up for users on Google Search and Maps when patients are looking for your office. Be sure that the information you enter is correct. You do not want to miss out on patients because they couldn’t locate your facility.
After entering your address, Google may tell you that your clinic may already have a Business Profile on Google My Business. If you see your clinic in the list provided, choose it. If it is not on the list, select the “None of these” option.
At this point, Google might ask you to pinpoint where your clinic is located on the map. Again, patients will see this pin if they click on your Google my Business profile from their search results.
In the next step of creating your profile, Google will ask you if your clinic offers deliveries or home and office visits?
Choose No. This option is more common in restaurants and fast food places that offer deliveries to the customer’s home and serve customers outside of their business. Unless you perform home visits as orthodontists perform, don’t check “Yes” on that.
You will then need to enter your phone number and your current website URL. Having a website URL that leads to a landing page for your dental clinic can help you generate more leads for your practice. Including a phone number makes it easy for patients to get in touch with your practice. This can increase calls to your clinic and appointment bookings. Google will offer you the option of creating a Google Website to use if your practice does not have a designated website URL.
Next, Google will ask you if you want updates and recommendations for your business on Google. Select yes so that your GMB listing always has a better chance at ranking higher.
Next, you will need to choose the best method to verify your practice. You need to verify your business in order to have control of and represent your Ortho practice on Google. Google will send you a verification number that you will then need to enter on your GMB profile.
There are several ways to receive your code to verify your business. You can choose to verify by postcard (the most common method), by phone, or even by email.
Customize Your Profile
Now that you have entered all your clinic’s information and selected a way to verify your business, you can start customizing your profile. You will have the option to customize the pictures on your profile, the description for your ortho clinic and you will also need to enter your clinic’s office hours. Remember, you can make changes to any of Google My Business settings whenever you need to.
First, you will enter your business’ daily office hours. Make sure to enter the hours accurately if your office hours are different some days.
You can then choose to enable messaging on your GMB listing. This will let your patients message your clinic on Google for free. You can skip this step and return to this setting later.
In the next step, you will be able to add your business description. This will let patients know more about your clinic by adding a description to your business on Search, Maps, and other services.
After you write your business description, you will be able to add photos to your business profile. Or you can skip this step and add them later. Remember, it is highly likely that potential patients will look at the photos in your clinic’s profile before they even consider going to your clinic. This means that pictures you decide to upload and represent your clinic will play a major role in turning visitors into actual patients for your clinic.
Next, you can choose to start advertising your business with google ads or skip. To save time, let’s skip this step.
But if you want to learn more about Google Ads for Orthodontists read our article for a comprehensive guide.
Next, you will land on the main page of your Google My Business account. This is where you can check your GMB profile insights, read patient reviews about your clinic and services if needed edit your business information, and add photos to your office’s listing. If you have not entered your verification code, you will also see a “pending verification” notification.
GMB Profile Settings Optimization
Optimizations for your GMB account will give your clinic a greater chance at showing up on Google Maps when people are searching for the services that you provide. You can find these on these sections on the left bar under info, reviews, post, and messages.
Before we start optimizing your account make sure your business information is up-to-date and correct. You do not want to miss out on any potential patients because your information is inaccurate. The more information you fill out for your profile, the higher your Orthodontist clinic will rank so make sure you fill out as much as possible.
Optimizing your profile will help you drive traffic and it will encourage your loyal patients to follow your clinic on Google Maps.
Want us to take over the optimization portion of your GMB profile?
Clinic Photos & Videos
The most important photo in your profile is the cover photo of your listing. This is because this is the photo that shows on your business listing and the first photo that visitors will see when they come across your business listing.
Did you know that most visitors will look at your pictures before even considering contacting your dental clinic? This is why the pictures you upload on your profile help convert visitors into actual patients for your clinic.
Pictures are a great way to showcase your clinic’s culture and add personality to your clinic. You could highlight some procedures that you performed and even include before and after pictures. Avoid using stock photos in your business’s profile as these are not authentic and do not leave a lasting impression on a patient.
Other pictures you can include can be your logo, the outside of your office, your staff, and your patient rooms. You can also include pictures of your desk or even videos in your office. This can show the friendly and caring environment that you create for your patients. You should also add short captions to your photos.
Orthodontist Categories
An important component of your Google My Business account is the category section. There are more than 3,000 GMB categories you can choose from. The Category section will let you select different categories from the Google database system. The categories help describe your business to Google and your visitors. You will need to search different keywords and Google will give you options of business categories to choose from. You have to find the best categories that relate to your Ortho clinic.
You are allowed to choose one primary category for your business and select at most 9 additional sub-categories. The primary category that you choose for your clinic should be the category that is the most relevant for your practice. The categories you choose will influence your ranking on Google My Business when users are searching for Orthodontists.
When choosing your categories your primary category should be Orthodontists. Your sub-categories could include services like braces or Invisalign provider if those are services that you clinic offers.
Read this article for cool tips on how to choose the best category for your Google My Business profile.
Service Areas
To optimize your GMB account it is better to target a more specific and defined area for your ortho clinic patients. When ranking in Google Maps the most important setting for your Google My Business listing is location listings. It will be more difficult for your practice to rank at the top if you try to target areas that are too far from your office. You have to consider the distance people far from your location would need to travel. Patients that live further from your office may seek orthodontic care elsewhere if your location appears too far.
The area range of where you want to rank will differ depending on the population where your office is located. If the population in your town is small, then you may target locations further out, but if the population around you is much larger then you should focus on targeting areas close to you. You should focus on cities within a 20-mile radius of your location.
It is recommended to keep your service area listing to 20 or less.
Services
You can expand on your selected categories and list the services that you offer that are related to those categories. After you are done listing the services you offer in the appropriate category, you will also have the opportunity to edit the service details describing each service.
Listing your services makes it easier for your patients to know the ortho services you can help them with. For example, if you want to rank for your the different type of braces options you provide then you should list all the different types of braces you have available for your patients. This can include traditional ceramic braces, self-ligating braces, self-ligating ceramic braces, and self-aligners.
In your service descriptions, you should include keywords, common language, and search phrases that are relevant to your Orthodontist clinic. This will help optimize and rank your clinic in the Google My Business listing when patients are using those search phrases and keywords to find an orthodontist.
Need help writing great service descriptions so your business listing reaches relevant patients?
Google My Business Posts
A key component of Google My Business is that posting on your profile allows you to keep patients updated with any changes, promotions, or new services about your business. Constantly posting on your business profile can help you stand out amongst other local Orthodontic clinics.
Some ideas for your posts include posts that talk about something new at your clinic, special events like free teeth whitening sessions on certain days, or you can even post about Ortho products that your clinic offers its patients. To make things easier, remember, anything you post on your Facebook or Instagram you should also post on your GMB page.
Want to learn more about Facebook Ads for Orthodontists? Follow along with our guide to Facebook Ads for Orthodontists.
What you post on your Orthodontic clinic Instagram and Facebook social media accounts, you should also post on your Google My Business webpage. This will allow you to keep patients updated with consistent information across all platforms. You do not want your Instagram following to have different information from your GMB visitors.
Review Ratings
The Google reviews on your business listing work to establish credibility for your Orthodontic Clinic. The reviews help build trust among potential patients. They also play a big role in the ranking of your listing’s position on the Google My Business results.
You should request reviews from patients. The reviews that patients write on your ads are the biggest drivers of clicks in local Google business listings. This is why it is important that you acquire authentic reviews from your patients.
Your clinic’s reviews will affect your ranking based on different elements:
- the number of reviews you get
- Your profile has a better chance of ranking higher on Google if you receive more reviews.
- keywords your clients write in their reviews.
- You are more likely to rank for certain keywords the more a patient mentions a product or service in their review post.
- the rating a patient gives you and your services.
- The higher rating you get, the higher your business profile will rank on GMB. This is why it is important to deliver excellent customer service so your patients feel confident enough to give you and your office a high star rating.
- the photos you post to your profile
- When you take a photo at your clinic, it’ll contain information like geolocation data in the picture which is known as metadata.
So, when asking for reviews from your patients, you should aim to receive both quality and quantity reviews that contain relevant keywords. Learn more about how to get reviews for your orthodontist services.
Messages
The messaging aspect makes it easy for your office to reach out to patients that may have questions.
You can download the Android or iOS Google My Business app and your customers will have to opportunity to send you a message to request a quote on a certain Orthodontic procedure. The app allows you to quickly see new messages and makes it easy to reply to any leads that your listing brings in.
If you want even more tips on how to optimize your GMB profile check out this article for more optimizations. You can also effectively market to your patients by using orthodontist email newsletters.
Check Your Google My Business for Orthodontists Profile
So, if you want to rank better in Google Maps and Google My Business to reach local patients near your practice you should frequently be active and optimize your profile. It can help you grow your practice by bringing in new local patients and generating leads by showing your business listing to users who search keywords that are relevant to your services.
Did you know that Google Ads are also a great way to target patients based on the keywords they search? Read our Google ads for Orthodontists article for a step-by-step guide on how to create effective and profitable ads.
Checkout this article to learn more about how to use Google My Business to Get More Customers.