Google Places, Your competitor’s secret weapon!
Have you wondered why you have lost some of your patients to the dental practice two blocks away recently? Maybe they know something that you don’t. They know the importance of Google Places and you don’t. To explain the importance I will first explain the anatomy of Google’s search engine results.
When a patient looks for a dental practice he/she typically types a search term similar to “dentist walnut creek” in Google’s search bar. Patients used to see two types of results: 1- the sponsored search results on top of the screen and right side of the screen when an “Ads” term is displayed; 2- Organic search results which was every other result on the page. Most visitors used to click on organic search results and some on sponsored search results.
Recently, Google added the Google Places Listing. Now after ads, but before organic results, patients see a list of dentists in their area (7 to be exact), their address, their map information and their ratings. If patients click on the Google Places Pages, they can also see reviews, photos and videos of the practice, as well as more information. That’s what makes the difference.
A high percentage of the visits that used to go to sponsored and organic search results now go to Google Places Pages. So here is what you should do:
1- Have a proper Google Places Page set up.
2- Search Engine Optimize your Page.
3- Get good reviews for your page.
If you do all of three steps right, you will see your practice listed for your targeted keywords in one of the 7 results showing on the first page of Google. If you don’t, you will lose your patients to those who have done it. By the way, you don’t need to have a website to have a Google Places’ Page. It is fast, it is far less expensive than any other dental marketing campaign and it is effective. Be ahead of the game and act now. If you don’t know what to do or where to start, we will help you.
At “DDS Strategy” we will claim the page on your behalf, develop the page for you, search engine optimize it for specific local keywords and help you establish systems that bring you more positive reviews and minimize the effect of bad reviews. Contact us today to set up your page.
[plus1 count="true" size="standard"][/plus1]