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The Importance of Google My Business

Google My Business (GMB) isn’t optional; it’s essential to any treatment center’s online presence. When someone looks for up-to-date information about your business, GMB will likely be the first place they look.

If a client wants to find your operating hours, call you to establish an appointment, or get a map to your location, they only need to Google your center’s name. Should your name not come up, they might look for someone else.

Updating and using this valuable tool is crucial for your treatment center marketing in the post-pandemic world.

What is Google My Business?

When performing a Google search for a local business by name, Google My Business will place your business profile on the right-hand side of the screen. A complete profile will:

• Link to the business website

• Provide an address, telephone number, and email address

• Show business hours

• Update customers about business happenings

• Include an area for questions and answers

• Display social media profile links

• Allow patients to enter reviews

• Display pictures

• Offer the ability for direct messaging

• Describe accessibility and amenities

• Allow a cell phone user to tap on the location for directions in Google Maps

• Make calling easy as patients need only tap the number

• Lists your facility when a maps search is performed

A complete GMB profile makes it easy for potential patients to find you, contact you, and see relevant business information. It gives your treatment facility greater visibility and validity.

Why is Google My Business So Important?

GMB is the first thing they’ll see when someone searches for you. A few benefits of optimizing your GMB account are:

• Your future patient has an immediate first impression when they see your essential information listed on the right-hand side. Customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable and 70% more likely to visit when they find a complete Google My Business profile.

• A completed listing can improve your search engine optimization (SEO).

• People can easily reach you with the ability to send messages directly to your email or press the listed phone number and call you.

• Integrated with Google maps, GMB makes your business easy to find using the world’s most used mobile directions app.

• Under your profile, patient reviews are displayed, giving you greater credibility and reaffirming that you are the facility to choose.

• The ability to add photos is a great way to show off your facility and establish a friendly face.

The Importance of Reviews

It is also worth noting that GMB has become the default source for patient reviews, overtaking sources like Yelp. Having a strategy that prompts patients to leave a review is a critical strategy. The combined space for star ratings and detailed reviews lets your patients share as much or as little information about your facility as they wish.

It might seem scary to contemplate reviews coming in. Don’t fear them. Google’s support page states, “Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy.”

It is possible to respond to reviews and is highly encouraged. Timely responses show that you value your patients and welcome their feedback. Letting people know you appreciate their positive comments and acknowledging negative reviews so that the patient feels heard increases trust and strengthens perceptions.

Photos Matter

Something as simple as uploading pictures of your facility and smiling employees can give you a competitive advantage. According to Google, businesses that add photos to their business profiles receive 35% more clicks through to their websites and 42% more requests for Google Maps directions.

Photos offer your treatment center the benefits of:

• Improved brand awareness: Pictures of your logo and center make your brand more identifiable.

• Increased engagement: Interior and exterior photos and staff photos help future patients to visualize your treatment center before visiting.

• More trust: Transparent companies are trusted and considered more authentic by their customers. Your future patients will come to you with a sense of trust already developed.

Google makes it possible to see how often your photos have been viewed and how your facility compares with others. Keep adding pictures over time, as more photos will increase views over competitors. Google rewards businesses that constantly update their GMB—adding just one or two new images every week keeps you on top.

The use of a professional photographer is highly recommended to make your pictures pop. Once your beautiful, professional photos are ready to upload, rename them using relevant keywords before uploading them.

Inclusion in the Local Pack Listings

When performing a relevant search, three businesses are listed above the organic search results, known as Google’s Local Pack or the 3-Pack. Your regularly updated GMB profile allows you to rank in the topmost position without competing for organic rankings.

This free benefit has tremendous value in markets where companies have to spend considerable money on improving their drug rehab SEO. The value of a listing before the search results cannot be overstated.

A Maps Listing is Essential

A GMB listing means a listing in a Google Maps search. Many searches are as simple as a potential patient searching for a business or business category within Google Maps to find what is nearest them. Should a future patient search for something like “drug treatment” or “rehab,” your center will show on the map.

Being able to provide quality care to a new patient might come down to the fact your treatment center came up on a map.

It’s Free Advertising!

A GMB account is free and can do more to connect future patients with your treatment facility than many expensive forms of advertising while not having the appearance of a marketing campaign. It’s now an expectation that great companies will have a GMB profile.

A well-maintained GMB profile is an undeniable competitive advantage. Think of your profile as a way to put you at the top of the list for treatment centers. It just takes consistent profile maintenance and following best practices for profile management.

Quality of care depends on the patient finding and engaging with your treatment center. A free tool that can expand your reach to future patients and start relationships based on trust is invaluable.