The Importance of Local SEO for Dentists: How to Rank Higher on Google Maps

For a great many users, Google is the internet. They spend most of their online lives interacting with one of the company’s many subsidiaries, and its suite of online tools defines both their digital existence and a good chunk of their real-world activity. Google Maps is a case in point – a handy tool for navigation has evolved into a platform for finding businesses, restaurant recommendations and reviews, and a host of other information. This is part of the importance of local SEO for dentists; search engine optimization aimed at improving local search results helps potential patients find you when searching Google Maps, among other sources. Let’s explore some of your practice’s options for how to rank higher on Google Maps and what an improved ranking can do for you.

Why Google Maps is Important

We’ll start by taking a look at why Google Maps is important and how a good Google Maps ranking can help your business. 

Roughly 70% of your potential patients prefer to use Google Maps for navigation, which means a higher ranking on Google Maps is another form of search engine success. “Success” in this case means that your practice appears in the first few results on either Google’s search engine or Google Maps. This is of vital importance as most potential patients do not look beyond the first three to five search results; if you want to be visible, your practice had better appear there.

Another often-overlooked benefit of a good Google Maps ranking is ambient exposure. With well-implemented and effective SEO, your practice will appear on Google Maps as potential patients use it to find their way around town. This serves to increase your practice’s visibility and name recognition, which are key elements in any successful marketing plan. Seemingly small things can often make the difference and this is one of those. 

Now that we’ve touched on the basics of why Google Maps is important to your dental practice, how can you go about getting a good Google Maps ranking? Let’s go a little further.

How to Rank Higher on Google Maps

What follows is a basic guide for how to rank higher on Google Maps. While there’s a lot you can and should do yourself, for best results you’ll need a professionally designed, implemented, and updated digital marketing plan that integrates Google SEO into your practice’s overall digital identity. 

First and foremost, you’ll want to add your business to Google Maps. This is a pretty straightforward process, and Google has a basic how-to guide here that you can follow. Your business may already be listed–Google’s bots are busy–but you do need to double-check and add your practice just in case.

Next, you’ll need to verify and claim your business on Google Maps. This isn’t the same as adding it; just because your practice is listed on Google Maps doesn’t mean you’ve claimed the listing and are in control of it. Again, Google makes the process of claiming a business fairly simple, and they offer a good how-to guide for doing so. 

Help Potential Patients Find Your Practice with Google Maps

Once you’ve added, verified, and claimed your practice on Google Maps, it’s time to make sure the information is correct as well as add some appropriate visuals. Double-check that the address, contact information, and website links are all correct and working. Potential patients will be using this information to learn more about your practice and make appointments so it has to be right. You’ll also want to add some visuals–high-quality photos of your practice’s interior and exterior and your logo are good choices. This helps potential patients get a feel for your practice, your brand, and the quality of care you offer.

There’s a lot more to SEO success with both Google and Google Maps than the brief guide we’ve presented here, but this should get you started and help you understand why these tools need to be part of your overall digital marketing plan. But how can you find the full-spectrum digital marketing solutions that you need?

DentaMarketing: Dynamic Digital Solutions for Dental Practices

Your practice is the culmination of years of effort–you’ve honed your professional skills, your quality of care, and your chairside manner in order to offer your patients the best possible outcomes for their oral health care needs. That kind of dedication deserves the best possible digital marketing, which is exactly what DentaMarketing offers. Our comprehensive approach to digital marketing combines bleeding-edge solutions, a detailed knowledge of dentistry as a business, and personalized attention to your practice and its needs in order to deliver results that reflect your dedication. Schedule a consultation with us today, and we’ll discuss how we can work with you to build your future success, one patient at a time.