Claiming and optimizing your free Google Business Profile is an important tool for marketing your health care or medical business. At the very least, you want to claim your profile and fill out your contact information, address, hours, and other basics. But you will see even more benefits if you take the time to fully take advantage of your profile by adding regular posts as well.
Important Information to Include in Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile as a medical practice or health care company should include the following:
- Phone number
- Address
- Operating hours
- Links for scheduling
- Links or information for virtual care (if applicable)
- List of services offered
- High-quality photos of products and services
What Is a Google Business Profile Post?
When your medical practice makes a post on your Google Business Profile, you can include a range of information and media information. The text in posts is limited to 1,500 characters, which is more than enough to share the most important information.
Your posts can include a range of content, including:
- Updates
- Reviews
- Offers
- Photos
- FAQs
- Events
Why Should Your Medical Company Add Google Business Profile Posts?
Your competitors likely create posts on their Google Business Profiles. Therefore, if you don’t, you are falling behind. But the benefits of posting on your profile go beyond staying ahead of the competition.
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- Available for Free: As with the other main functions of your Google Business Profile, posting is completely free. You don’t have to factor it into your marketing budget.
- Boost Your SEO: Google Business Profiles are one of many factors Google’s algorithms consider when making search engine rankings.
- Boost Your Visibility: The improvement to your SEO from your posts means your practice becomes more visible. Potential patients will see you in search results and on Google Maps.
- Can Include a CTA: Google makes it easy to incorporate CTAs in your posts. Some relevant ones for health care and medical companies include Book, Sign Up, Get Offer, and Call Now, among others.
- Can Include Photos: You can also add photos to your posts as a way to boost engagement and their ability to grab attention.
- Easy to Share: You can easily share your Google Business Profile posts on your other social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook.
- Profiles Get an Average of 33 Clicks Per Month: Posts are part of optimizing your Google Business Profile. That will put you on the higher end of the average of 33 clicks per month from your profile. It can even help you reach the 16% of listings with more than 100 calls a month.
Why Include Photos in Your PostsOne of the reasons to post on your medical practice’s Google Business Profile is so that you can add photos. But why should you add photos?
Simply put, including photos in your post will boost engagement and website traffic.
Create Attention-Getting GMB Posts with your Talk Award
How to Add Posts to Your Google Business Profile
Once you are ready to post on your Google Business Profile, follow these steps to do so:
- Select the type of post based on your goal. Maybe you are announcing a new medical service or a new member of your team. Perhaps you want to share your updated hours. Or maybe you want to share information about an upcoming workshop or seminar about a particular healthcare topic.
- Write 1,500 characters or less of content.
- Add an image or video to your post.
- Select Publish. Google may review your post before publishing it. It will appear as “Pending” while it is under review and “Live” once it is published. If it says, “Not approved,” click the question mark to see what policy your post violated.
- Your post will remain visible for a week.
What to Do After PostingAfter you publish your post, your work is not done. You still need to respond to customer engagement. If someone leaves a review or asks questions, reply as promptly as you can.
Conclusion
Adding posts to your Google Business Profile helps encourage engagement. It also ensures that your health care or medical company appears closer to the top of search results on Google Search and Google Maps. As such, it is a crucial part of your online marketing strategy. Best of all, it is free to make these posts.
Sources:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/9798848?hl=en
https://rater8.com/google-my-business-doctors-dentists-healthcare-practices/
https://inboundmd.com/google-my-business-for-doctors-dentists-healthcare-practices/
https://www.themediacaptain.com/25-google-business-profile-stats/
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7342169?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid
