How to grow your Dental practice with Google My Business

Adi Kumar

Jan 13, 2020

1 min read

In the present era, where every business is moving online, dental practice also needs to be optimized for growth. Here, Google My Business serves as a boon.

People nowadays ask google for any kind of help. So, your dental service should appear online to get noticed. But, opting for building a website is not enough. One needs to get a position in Google My Business listing and search engines.

Before we get into the fact how Google My Business can help in the growth of a dental practice, let’s understand what Google My Business is.

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a listing of business/services. It includes the business/service’s profile comprising

Practice name

The name with which your dental practice is known.

Description of your business/service

You need to add a description of your business. The word count should be around 750 words.

Working hours

The timings you work in one or more clinics. Mention the non-working days also.

Google Maps directions

It helps the patients to reach your clinic easily.

Contact information

Add contact information including your address, contact number and email id.

Link to your website

So that patients are directed to your website easily and can gather more information.

Links to your social media platforms

To redirect the viewers to the pages displayed on social media sites.

Reviews

Prospects choose the service which has the maximum number of positive likes.

Questions

Answer the questions asked by the customers. This helps you link with the customers and brings you close to them, thereby, retain them for a longer time.

It is easily accessible through any digital device, may it be a desktop, laptop, Android, or iPhone. Google My Business App can be easily downloaded in any digital device. Google My business has added two new features for public convenience. These dynamic features are:-

Product Collection

This newly added feature lists all the products/services offered by the business. For a dental practice, it may include oral healthcare services like scaling, root canal treatment, whitening, implants, fillings, Browns, veneers, etc.

Appointment booking feature

When you get the advantage of booking your appointment for a service while sitting at home, it adds more comfort to your life. With this new feature, you can now book an appointment with the service. They send you a confirmation revert and a reminder on the day your appointment was fixed.

How you proceed with Google My Business

To get your dental practice registered with Google My Business and maintain it properly, you need to follow the following steps:

Enter your personal details

The very first step is to set up an account with Google my Business (GMB). For this, you need to enter your personal details, including your practice name, address, working hours, contact information, google maps directions, links to your websites, and links to your social media pages or accounts.

Select the right category

GMB has an excellent feature that allows the users to select more than one category. For example, if one has to select categories for the dental practice, then, one can select from a cosmetic dentist, pediatric dentist, dental implant periodontist, dental radiology, etc. This helps you explain properly the type of service provided by you and drives out the factor of narrowing down the choice.

Claim for approval of your business

Once the profile is updated, claim for approval and verification. Once verified, your practice becomes authentic and official. This increases the trustworthiness of your dental practice. When you claim for verification, GMB will send a verification code to the address given by you. After entering this code you will have access to your account.

Keep the information updated

To get more clients, keep your information updated. Keep posting photos, videos, any change in personal information, etc. This will earn you more traffic and more clients. Make a habit of logging into your account regularly daily. Respond to the questions asked by patients.

Add photos and videos

Visual aids are the most effective and have an everlasting impact on the viewer’s brain. Firstly, make your business recognizable by posting your logo. This aids in the process of branding. Add high-resolution photos of your dental clinic, including the waiting lounge, interior, camps put up by you, your team, services provided by you, the results of the treatments provided by you, before and after treatment pictures. This acts as a magnet to attract more customers.

Go for constant reviews

Reviews posted on your GMB page work as a positive signal for your practice. Encourage patients to post positive reviews for the dental treatment they have received. This helps you get higher ratings on your page.

You can make the review posting process easy by providing them links to your GMB page.Patients can also be directed to your GMB page by the QR code method. This can be achieved by placing a scannable QR code in the office, which links your GMB page directly to the customers, where they can post reviews.

Answer patients questions

This helps you in retaining the customers for a longer time.

Monitor your account regularly

With the help of the insights tab, you can monitor the visits made by searchers. You can also determine how well is your name being viewed in Google search results or map listings.

Tips

• Be consistent with your information – Make sure that your personal information, details of any camp or offers, etc. are the same on all the social media sites and GMB.
• Optimize your profile by opting for claim your account – If you miss on claiming your account, you lose the opportunity to rank higher in the search engines and GMB listing.
• Stay updated to be a part of Google snack pack- Snack pack lets the searchers view the best in class services. Always stay updated so that you become a part of the GMB snack pack listing, thereby, become the first choice of the searchers.

Closing thoughts

On the whole, it is clear that Google My Business is one tool that helps in the growth of any business. The importance of Google My Business in dental practice lies in the fact that it increases the reach of patients. With the best features of Google My Business, a dentist can list their practice and even make the appointment booking process smooth and easy.