Google Business Profile for Healthcare Services: The Ultimate Guide to Dominating Local SERPs

When it comes to searching, Google steals all the spotlight. With millions of businesses on Google Business Profile, healthcare businesses that wish to build their online presence and attract patients need to buckle up. One must have a tool, in this case, a Google Business Profile for healthcare practices. Do you know that 64% of customers have used Google Business Profile to find contact details for local businesses?

A well-maintained GBP profile offers credibility to a business, and the most interesting part? It’s Free! Google Business Profile can enhance the local search visibility of healthcare practices by attracting local patients to their website or physical location.

Want to know more about Google Business Profile (GBP)? This blog will offer a detailed guide on what GBP is, why it matters for healthcare providers, a comprehensive guide to setting up GBP, and more. So, let’s get started.

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, is a free tool that can enable businesses to effectively manage their online presence. It provides them with maximum visibility across all of Google’s platforms, including Google Maps, Google Search as well and Google Shopping.

Health services can own and customize their Google Business profile with details such as operation hours, contact information, business address, website links, images, and more. With GBP posts, you can increase the chances of your business ranking in the local search results- a dream for every business.

Why Google Business Profile is Essential for Healthcare Providers

With the rising competition in the healthcare sector, many healthcare practices fail to establish a strong online presence and often go unnoticed by their target patients. This is why healthcare businesses must have a Google Business Profile.

One of the major reasons is, it is where patients go to share their experiences. Your GBP allows you to easily collect online reviews from satisfied patients, fostering trust among potential patients. If you want to show Google that your practice is legit, claiming your business and providing relevant and up-to-date practice details can help Google categorize and rank your healthcare business. Medical practices with updated and accurate information are likely to rank higher in local search engine rankings.

Here is a quick breakdown of why Google Business Profile is crucial for Healthcare Practitioners

1. Showcase your Offerings:

Imagine GBP as the preview of your business. By showcasing your best-selling products or the most preferred services on their profile, medical professionals can inform potential patients the right way what your business is about, and why potential patients must check you out.

2. Enhance Local SEO:

A well-designed GBP means it can help patients find your business through Google Maps and Google Search. This means the tool is especially valuable for small healthcare clinics or organizations that are looking to gain online visibility.

For instance, when a user makes a location-based query (e.g., “neurology hospital in Bangalore”), Google often uses information from Google Business Profile, including location, description, contact information, and reviews, to determine which business is the most suitable for the search intent.

3. Foster Trust with Google Reviews:

Reviews act as social proof and a meaningful way to establish credibility and trust online. Even if searchers are not reading the full content of your reviews, seeing a 1/5 review on your healthcare business profile can make you lose a handful of patients.

For instance, if a business has 2 out of 5 reviews on its Google Business Profile, they are less likely to be chosen by customers. On the other hand, a business with 4 or more reviews has the highest possibility of getting chosen by customers.

4. Manage your Online Reputation:

Healthcare practices must update their Google Business Profile information according to their convenience. This means you can always control how your business hours, contact number, and other attributes appear online.

This helps you guide your prospective patients to the most accurate information that they have been searching for. Besides serving as a space for information for search engines and Google Maps, healthcare practices can use their Google Business Profile as a bulletin board.

Practices can create posts to share timely announcements, such as temporary changes in business hours. Posts are a part of your profile that is visible to anyone who looks you up in search or on Maps.

Step-By-Step Guide to Set Up a Complete Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile for healthcare can be very effective when done right. So, here is a comprehensive guide to set up a Google Business Profile that can help them attract new patients and get noticed by local patients as well.

1. Sign in or Set up your Google Account

In order to use Google Business Profile, healthcare practices need a Google account. If you do not have a Google account, you need to create one. Make sure not to use your personal account to set this up.

You may want to give others access to your profile later, which is why it is better to do that from a dedicated work account.

2. Type your Business Name on Google

Once you are signed in, navigate to the Google Business Profile and click on the “Manage now” button.

Now, healthcare practices need to check whether their business name is listed by typing the business name. It is possible that someone else has listed your business. If this is the case, then you can claim ownership of the business by clicking Request access and following the steps to complete a form.

In case your business is not listed, you can list it by clicking on “Add your business” on Google.

3. Select your Business Category

To successfully set up a Google Business Profile for doctors, they need to select the category that their business falls under. You can be as specific as possible in this section. You can simply start by typing in what your business specializes in, and you can choose from the list of pre-populated options.

For instance, entering “healthcare” brings up a range of options, from orthopedic to telehealth. 

4. Add the Location of your Healthcare Practice

In the next step, healthcare services must add what type of business they operate. Whether online or in person. In case you are an online-only business, Google will ask for the link to your website.

Either way, you will need to enter the country you are registered in. It is not mandatory to be in the same country as your location.

If your healthcare practice has a physical location, you will need to enter your business address instead. In case your practice does not have a physical location and offers deliveries or in-person services, then you can list your service areas. Once done, click on “Next.”

If you have not entered your service area or the physical address of your clinic, Google will ask you to specify the exact region you are based in. You can choose from the drop-down menu and click on Next.

5. Add your Contact Information

In the next step, healthcare organizations need to add their contact information so that they want their patients to use it to reach out to them.

You have two options: you can either add a website URL, phone number, or both. These elements will be publicly viewable on your Google Business Profile.

6. Finish the Profile Creation Process

To get your business listed across Google, healthcare professionals are required to agree to Google’s terms and conditions. Healthcare marketers will also have an option to opt into receiving tips and news about optimizing their GBP.

7. Verify your Profile

Now, Google needs to verify that you are the one who is managing the business. Verifying your business in GBP is crucial, as verified Google Business profiles average around 200 monthly clicks.

Google offers several options to verify your healthcare business. This includes getting a code on your phone through email, text, or a voice call.

In many cases, you can also get verified over a live phone call or by recording a short video of your clinic’s physical location. The verification option is automatically chosen by Google and depends on the type, region, public information, or operation hours of your business.

The verification process can take up to 5 days to be completed. And once your healthcare practice is verified, you can publicly respond to patient reviews, implement messaging features, and completely optimize your profile.

8. Optimize your GBP Listing

When you are done verifying your GBP, it’s time to add all the extra details that will help you get the most out of your profile. Although these are optional, if they apply to you, make sure to fill them out.

Healthcare practices can add:

• Hours of operation
• Description of your business
• Images of your business.

The next section will discuss the steps to optimize your Google Business Profile

Optimizing Your GBP for Maximum Impact

To successfully optimize your Google Business Profile for maximum impact, healthcare practices need to make sure to:

1. Complete your Profile

In order to complete a Google Business Profile, healthcare practices must follow the steps below:

2. Maintain NAP Consistency

First things first, if you want to properly optimize your healthcare Google Business Profile, you need to start by maintaining NAP consistency.

To maintain NAP consistency, healthcare practices must make sure their Name, Address, and Phone number are consistent across all platforms, including social media, website, and other online directories.

Even minor inconsistencies can confuse both potential patients as well as search engines, which might negatively impact search engine results.

3. Develop an Engaging Business Description

To complete a Google Business profile for healthcare, practices must write a compelling business description.

They have up to 750 characters to describe what their business is about. Implementing this space to showcase your services, unique selling points, and mission can be effective in attracting more patients.

Healthcare practitioners must make sure to use their most crucial keywords and location, but focus on writing naturally so that it can be easily understandable to patients, rather than writing solely to rank on search engines.

4. Select the Right Categories

Healthcare providers must make sure to select the most relevant primary category for their business description and add up to 9 secondary categories that are relevant to their business.

This will make it easier for Google to understand exactly what your business offers, guaranteeing you appear in the right local searches.

5. Add High-Quality Images

Your Google Business Profile is the first thing patients notice when they search for your products or services. A GBP with shabby and unclear pictures can drive away patients instantly.

Adding high-resolution images can not only increase patient engagement but also build brand credibility. Here’s how healthcare businesses can position themselves as an authentic source by uploading high-quality images on their GBP.

• Showcase your Business: In order to avoid getting listed as a shady business by Google, healthcare marketers must upload high-resolution images that are not only clear but also accurately describe their business. Healthcare providers can share the images of their clinic’s interior and exterior, team of specialists, or pictures of a medical procedure that is being performed.
• Follow Google’s Guidelines: For best results, healthcare organizations can use PNG or JPG files between 10KB and 5MB. Google’s recommended resolution is 720×720 pixels, with a minimum of 250×250 pixels.
• Promote your Practice: Healthcare providers must include their logo as well as a captivating cover photo. The cover photo is the most important image on your GBP listing and offers a great opportunity to showcase your healthcare business.
• Upload Regularly: Constantly adding new and high-quality photos or videos to your Google Business Profile can not only boost engagement but also help enhance your local search rankings.

6. Incorporate Keywords Naturally in your Business Description

• Implement Relevant Keywords: Healthcare practices must weave relevant and crucial keywords that prospective local patients are most likely to use in their service listings, posts, and business descriptions. For instance, a clinic could naturally incorporate “Family doctor” or “General practitioner” in its description.
• Focus on Long-tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords are more specific phrases that closely match user intent. For example, instead of implementing just “doctor,” healthcare professionals can use “best doctor in California.”
• Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Overusage of keywords in your business description can negatively impact your rankings and appear spammy to both search engines as well as the patients.

7. Enable and Manage Messaging

This is one of the most crucial features of Google Business Profile. According to SQ Magazine, listings with messages enabled see 29% more direct customer interactions. Here is how healthcare businesses can implement this feature.

• Turn on direct messaging: Healthcare practices must make sure to enable the messaging feature on their Google Business Profile so that patients can easily reach out to them directly from their profile. Replying to inquiries instantly can enhance conversations.
• Enable Notifications: Do not forget to set up notifications or chat alerts to get notified every time someone messages you. This will fasten the process of responding to patients within Google’s recommended 24-hour window.
• Set up automatic replies: Create automated welcome messages to greet patients as soon as they land on your GBP and offer information on your business hours or typical response time.

8. Regularly Update Hours, Holiday Closures, and Services

• Keep Operating Hours Accurate: Patients rely on your Google Business Profile for correct business hours. In order to set up an effective Google Business profile for healthcare, practices must clearly specify their regular hours of operation and use the “Special Hours” feature to announce any changes for events or holidays.
• Specify special hours: Google will often remind you to confirm your holiday hours. By providing information on holidays or special events, healthcare organizations can prevent patient confusion and missed visits.
• Highlight temporary closures: In case your clinic stays closed for a week or more, healthcare practices can use the “Temporarily Closed” feature. This can help you keep patients updated and informed without confusing them.
• Update your services: If your clinic adds or modifies its services, you must make sure to update this information on your Google Business Profile. The “Services” section is a great way to incorporate keywords and attract relevant searches.

Managing and Responding to Reviews

In the modern, patient-driven healthcare industry, effectively managing and responding to online reviews is a very important aspect of patient engagement and reputation management. Do you know, 75% of patients use online reviews as their first step in finding a new healthcare provider?

A single detailed negative review from a real patient can beat hundreds of positive reviews. They can greatly impact the online visibility of a healthcare business, as they offer valuable insights about a business and significantly influence the decisions of prospective patients.

Importance of Online Reviews in Healthcare

Here are some of the reasons why online reviews are crucial in healthcare decision-making.

• Fosters trust and credibility: A large number of positive reviews can act as social proof, building trust and credibility with potential patients. Similar to a few negative ones, a lack of recent reviews can be greatly damaging, showcasing that your medical practice is not actively engaged with its patients.
• Drives quality improvement: Reviews often offer direct and unbiased feedback from patients, which can help healthcare organizations identify gaps in patient care, operations, and communications.
• Enhances online visibility: Sites with more reviews and higher ratings often appear in a higher position in the search engine results. This enhanced local SEO can help potential local patients find your practice more easily.
• Impacts patient choices: As the statistic suggests that a vast number of patients turn to online reviews when choosing a new healthcare provider. Ratings are often considered a top-ranking factor. This means, the more positive reviews your healthcare business receives, the more likely it is to rank in the search engine results.

How to Encourage Satisfied Patients to Leave Reviews

It is important to remember that most satisfied patients do not think of leaving a review on their own. By reaching out to them and politely asking for their feedback, healthcare practices can intensify the voices of happy patients and balance out any negative feedback.

• Offer a great experience: The base of an effective review strategy is offering exceptional, high-quality, and patient-centric care. Friendly staff, minimal waiting times, and transparent communication can do all the magic.
• Automate the request process: Offer proper training to your staff to politely ask happy patients to leave their valuable reviews, especially when they offer positive comments during their visit. A simple script like “We are so glad you had a positive experience with us. If you have a moment, sharing your feedback online would be a great help for other patients” can be very effective.
• Ask directly and in person: Healthcare professionals must automate follow-up messages through SMS or email after a visit to thank patients and strategically include a direct link to their Google Business Profile. Automated reviews are very effective in making the process convenient and can possibly increase the number of reviews.
• Avoid incentivizing positive reviews: You must avoid offering cash, gifts, or discounts in exchange for a positive review. This can violate the terms of service and legal regulations. Healthcare organizations must focus on gaining honest feedback, fostering trust and loyalty among potential patients.
• Use in-office reminders: Another best way to squeeze out a review from your patients is by placing a “Review Us” sign or QR codes in the lobby or at the checkout desk. A QR code can send patients directly to your review page, eliminating any hardships in the process.

Responding to Positive and Negative Feedback Professionally

For an effective Google Business profile for healthcare, responding to feedback is crucial. It signifies that you value their opinion and are committed to improving, which fosters trust with both reviewers and potential patients.

Responding to Positive Feedback:

• Thank the reviewer: Healthcare practices must express genuine gratitude for the patient’s valuable feedback. This promotes positive experiences and fosters loyalty among patients.
• Avoid details: While appreciating your patient’s positive feedback, healthcare organizations must not confirm their identity as a patient or mention any particular services they received in order to stay compliant with HIPAA regulations.
• Tailor your responses: Healthcare practices must tailor their responses and not just respond to every review with the same message. For example, replying with a “Thank you for your valuable feedback. We are glad that you had a positive experience with [Your practice name]. Our team works hard to offer exceptional medical care, and we appreciate you for taking the time to share your kind words!” can be very effective.

Responding to Negative Feedback:

• Accept and apologize: Thank your patients for sharing their feedback and express regret that your services did not meet their expectations. An apology for their negative experience is not an admission to wrongdoing.
• Stay calm and professional: Healthcare is a very sensitive topic, so professionals must make sure to be empathetic, even to negative reviewers. Always respond with empathy, even if you think the review is unfair. Rather than getting defensive and arguing with the reviewer publicly, admit the mistake and apologize.
• Take the conversation offline: The major priority of a healthcare practice is to move the conversation to a more private space in order to protect patient privacy. Provide them with a phone number or secure email address so that they can contact you directly to discuss the issue.

HIPAA compliance tips when responding to reviews:

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is mandatory when managing online reviews. Breaching patient privacy can lead to significant legal and financial penalties.

• Do not reveal the patient relationship: Even if the reviewer identifies themselves, healthcare professionals cannot confirm that they are a patient. The fact that an individual is or was a patient is considered Protected Health Information (PHI).
• Avoid disclosing any PHI: Under no circumstances should a healthcare professional mention any details that are related to a patient’s treatment, health, or billing. This is valid even when the patient has revealed the information in their own public review.
• Keep responses generic and professional: Healthcare providers must make sure that their responses address general practice policies and their commitment to patient care, rather than specific patient incidents.
• Develop template responses: You must create pre-approved HIPAA-compliant templates for standard scenarios. This guarantees consistency and diminishes the risk of an employee accidentally disclosing PHI. To know more about HIPAA-compliant marketing, click here. 

Tools to Manage Google Business Profile

To make Google Business Management easier for healthcare businesses, here are some tools that can help healthcare practices manage their Google Business Profile effectively.

1. Hubspot

This tool is recognized for its comprehensive marketing platform. HubSpot can help healthcare providers manage their Google Business Profile information through third-party integrations or by implementing the GBP platform itself.

HubSpot is an exceptional GBP management tool that can allow healthcare marketers to schedule posts and respond to patient reviews within the same interface they use for other marketing activities, such as email and social media.

Special Features:

• Updates and handles GBP profiles
• All-in-one marketing platform with advanced GBP management
• Integration with wider marketing strategies

Steps to Implement HubSpot for Effective GBP Management

In the first step to implement HubSpot, healthcare practices must navigate to HubSpot and sign up> set up your user profile with relevant business details> choose the HubSpot tools (e.g., sales hub, marketing hub, or service hub) that perfectly align with your objectives,> Configure HubSpot’s settings to meet your business needs, including custom properties for organized data>Now connect your GBP with HubSpot using any third-party platform to automate tasks> After that create custom workflows in your integration tool to trigger actions in HubSpot based on events in your Google Business Profile. 

To manage GBP content, healthcare practices need to implement HubSpot’s social media tools to post photos and updates directly into their GBP> Set up workflows to get notifications of new GBP reviews and use HubSpot to log them and assign follow-up tasks> Now, monitor and respond to queries on your GBP, possibly using HubSpot to manage the process and monitor patient queries. 

2. Moz Local

It is a tool that is especially designed as a complete local SEO toolkit to enhance visibility and engagement for local businesses. Moz Local can simplify the management of Google Business Profile for healthcare practices by offering a central dashboard to verify, syndicate, and monitor their business information across major directories such as Google.

This tool can help healthcare marketers maintain consistency in business information across online platforms such as Google Business Profile and Facebook and manage patient reviews to improve local search rankings.

Special Features:

• Efficiently manages online presence and consistency of information
• Part of the Moz suite focuses on local search
• Tracks and responds to patient reviews for better local search rankings

Steps to Implement Moz Local for Effective GBP Management

In order to connect their Google Business Profile with Moz Local location, healthcare practices must make sure that their GBP is created, verified, and connected to the Listings Dashboard> Now, make sure you are viewing at the location level> Navigate to the icon on the right top of the screen and click on the Google Business Profile icon> After clicking on the GBP icon, Moz Local will prompt you to sign into your Google accoun> Healthcare businesses need to log in with the google account that is associated with their Google Business listings> If logging in already, you will be prompted to select and confirm the account you wish to connect> Once signed in or selected an account, a window will appear in which you will be asked to grant access to the Local Listing Connector to your google profile> Click Allow> Now healthcare businesses need to create and verify their location>Once you are done verifying your location, you can finish connecting it to Moz Lcal by selecting “Connect only one location.”

3. Yext

Yext effectively manages Google Business Profile by offering a platform to synchronize and update business information across Google and other online directories, guaranteeing data privacy and enhancing local search visibility.

This tool specializes in location data management and offers advanced GBP management solutions for healthcare businesses.

Special Features:

• Location data management with GBP capabilities
• Guarantees the accuracy of business information across various online directories
• Improves visibility in local searches
• Effectively manage patient reviews

Steps to Implement Yext for Effective GBP Management

Before connecting Google and Yext, healthcare practices must perform a data cleanup to ensure accuracy and consistency> To link your Google account to Yext, install the appropriate connector app> In your Yext account, navigate to “Account Settings” then “Linked Accounts” and select Google Business Profile> Sign in with Google account that manages your business listings and give access to Yext> In Yext’s app store, install the appropriate Google Business Profile Connector for your industry, such as Healthcare“> After connecrting your account, verification is required to complete the setup> When you are done with linking and verifying your listings, you can manage and optimize them through the Yext dashboard> In the final step, healthcare practices need to leverage Yext’s analytics to track their GBP performance and refine their strategy. 

Google Business Profile Metrics Healthcare Practices Must Monitor

Your Google Business Profile is more than just an online listing. It is a dynamic picture of your business, offering prospective patients a glimpse into what your business offers. By tracking the right metrics, healthcare businesses can boost patient engagement, find out how their business is being found by patients, and identify gaps. Here are some crucial metrics that healthcare practices must monitor.

1. Call Insights

The “Calls” metric displays the number of calls initiated from your GBP, providing a clear indicator of direct patient engagement.

This metric can help healthcare professionals primarily record calls that are made from mobile devices through the click-to-call option. Tracking this metric can help determine peak call times, allowing you to plan your operations accordingly.

2. Message Metrics

For healthcare businesses, using the GBP’s chat/message feature, this metric is crucial. It not only highlights the volume of messages received but also offers insights into the average response time and rate.

Timely answers and effective communication with prospective patients can improve your reputation and increase the likelihood of communication.

3. Direction Requests

The “Direction” metric is especially relevant for healthcare businesses that have a physical location. It showcases how many people have used your Google Business Profile to get directions to your practice location.

A higher number in this metric indicates that your local SEO strategy is doing great and you have a strong local presence.

4. Websites and Booking Clicks

The “Website clicks” metric measures how often people click through to your website from your Google Business Profile. This metric directly indicates online interest and can serve as a powerful tool to drive traffic to your website.

5. Views

The “Views” metric is crucial as it indicates how many people have viewed your Google Business Profile. This metric is divided into two major categories: those who found your profile on Google Maps and those who came across it on Google Search.

Tracking Views is essential as it can help healthcare businesses gain insights into online visibility and reach of their business. An increase in views often showcases an effective SEO strategy and higher brand awareness.

This metric offers information about how users are finding your profile. It includes the keywords they used in their search queries. By identifying the search terms that are leading patients to your profile, you can customize your content and SEO strategies to match more closely with what your prospective patients are looking for.

Conclusion

Managing a Google Business Profile for healthcare is quite straightforward. To successfully manage your Google Business Profile, the above-mentioned tips can be impactful.

However, in case you have multiple accounts, a Google Business listing, or physical locations, it can be quite a task. This is because you need to make sure the information in each listing is accurate, as well as closely monitor local distinctions. What works for one specific location might not work for the others. By implementing the tools mentioned above or partnering with a healthcare marketing agency that specializes in GBP management, you can not only make these time-consuming jobs easier but also focus on high-priority tasks.