As a mental health professional, you want to be easily accessible to your community and found by new clients. Without a doubt, search engines are one of the top ways individuals seek out therapy services in 2022. Completing a Google My Business listing for your practice is quick, easy, and sure to boost your online presence. Google is the phonebook of our time, and a Google My Business listing can be free advertising.
Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to take control of how your practice appears in Google Search and Google Maps. If you haven’t set up and optimized your Google My Business listing, you could be missing out on valuable website traffic.
A Google My Business profile is an excellent way for therapists to be found by new and referred clients. A completed listing can lead to improving your website traffic and engagement on all digital platforms. Within Google, a Google My Business listing allows you the option to message with clients, manage bookings, and provide quotes.
According to Google, users are 2.7 times more likely to view your company as reputable if they see your completed Google My Business profile. As a clinician, potential clients have to know that they can trust you before they open up and begin a successful therapeutic relationship.
Your Google My Business listing can help users find answers to common questions about your hours, how to contact you, your physical location, and which forms of insurance you accept. Google My Business is one way for therapists to save time in communicating information to potential clients.
Reviews not only give you excellent feedback about what you’re doing well and what you could improve upon, but they are also golden pieces of content for marketing your therapy services. Positive reviews provide the social proof potential clients may need to take the next step in seeking a consultation with you.
Google My Business provides a built-in review system for the public to rank your practice out of five stars and leave their comments. After you create your listing, encourage current clients to leave reviews on Google so that your listing garners engagement and moves up in ranking.
Maybe you have already established your Google My Business listing, but would like to improve your search ranking. Take the time to improve your profile and regularly post updates. Creating and optimizing a Google My Business listing is an easy way to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for therapists. Keep these three main factors that decide how Google ranks listings in mind:
Once your Google My Business profile is established, you are able to share posts, similar to the way you would on social media networks. One major difference, though, is that Google My Business Posts are archived after six months. You should be posting at least once per week so that potential clients are always seeing fresh content from you on your listing. Most importantly, the more GMB posts you share, the more likely Google will push your listing closer to the top of search results. You can add photos or videos to your posts, making them more engaging. Post about new developments in your practice, highlight clinicians and services, or reformat and share video content from other platforms. When applicable, make sure to include a call to action button in your posts so that customers can more easily complete the desired action. You can use Google My Business posts to push traffic to specific pages on your website or even build an email list.
Google My Business Photos permanently live on your listing, helping you garner views and engagement. When individuals search for a new therapist or to seek out therapy for the first time, seeing a visual representation of what the experience will look like gives them the confidence to take the next step and schedule a consultation. Since these images remain on your profile, it’s a good idea to share evergreen content rather than limited-time offerings. Upload high-quality images of the exterior of your office, the interior rooms where you serve clients, professional headshots, you and your colleagues at work, and photos that speak to your specialties and what makes your practice unique.
Good practice across all digital platforms is to engage with feedback. If someone posts an image of your practice or checks in on Google, like their post. If a client posts a review, make sure to leave a sincere comment in response. Make sure you even respond to negative reviews, inviting the client to have a discussion with you to solve the problem. If a negative review is not legitimate, you can report it to Google and have it taken down.
Furthermore, the Question and Answer feature allows you to list answers to commonly asked questions, saving users time when searching for those answers or having to contact you directly. To set this up, sign in to a personal Google account and find your Google My Business Listing. Click the button that says “Ask a Question,” and enter each question you would like displayed. Log out and back into Google as your business profile, and find your GMB listing again. Click “See All Questions” and select “Answer” for each question that you would like to publicly list the answer to.
Essentially, Google My Business Insights tell you more about your potential clients, their behavior online, and how they interact with your GMB profile. You can evaluate the performance of your listing over various time frames on Google Search and Google Maps. The more information you gather about your leads, the more strategic you can be with future marketing efforts.
To access Insights, make sure you are signed in to Google Suite with the correct email address, and navigate to the blue “Business Profile” icon in the menu to the left of your profile photo. On the next page, choose “Insights,” the fourth option on the left side. First, you will see a breakdown of Direct traffic, those who searched for you by name or address, versus Discovery traffic, those who found you while searching for therapy services in your area. Next, Customer Actions will walk you through how many users called you, visited your website, or requested directions after viewing your listing. Photo Views tells you how many views your photos are garnering, and if that amount is on par with other similar therapists in your area. Post Insights show how well your GMB posts perform, providing you with data on the post views and clicks. Google even provides data on competitor posts, so you can plan new ways to outrank them. Finally, using the Searches Breakdown, take note of the keywords users used before landing on your Business Profile. These searches will help you understand if users are finding your practice based on your brand name or services.
If you would like to learn more about improving your findability online or using content marketing to boost your SEO, the team at Theory About That is here to be a resource to you! Contact us today.
