How to Optimize Your Dental Practice Google Business Profile

Obtaining the top local search engine results has remained an important goal for many small to large dental offices. An essential step in achieving this highly sought-after ranking is ensuring your Google Business Profile optimized for success. In a successful local marketing plan, understanding the dental audience’s search behavior and how to best optimize your listing are widely significant elements.

Optimizing your Google Business Profile is one of the simplest ways to improve your business’s visibility on search engines and, thus, gain traffic while increasing revenue and providing valuable data about your patients’ search trends. Other search results such as LSAs, Organic, and Google Ads provide value to your business. Still, GBP is highly visible, allows readers to leave reviews, and provides unique insights and consumer information.

Our local search experts at The Local Agency created this guide to reveal a few of the ranking factors you can start optimizing for your dental practice today. Here’s everything you need to know.

Understanding How the Dental Audience Searches

Before we dive into optimizing your profile, you must understand how dental patients search while seeking a local dentist.

We surveyed 200 Google searches to identify what kinds of search results people tend to click when searching for a local dentist.

*Search engine images

There are still many customers to engage with paid search and LSA placements. Yet, the largest share of potential customers still prefers clicking on a Google Business Profile listing or local organic results.

Optimizing Your Profile

Various ranking factors play a role in securing a top-three ranking in Google’s map pack. Unlike factors such as proximity, optimizing your profile is primarily within your control. Let’s dive into a few of these critical areas.

Name

Although this may seem simple, there are several subtleties to bear in mind. Google explicitly states to “represent your business as it’s consistently represented and recognized in the real world across signage, stationery, and other branding.”

For example, if you are a multi-location dental office brand, consider adding additional modifiers in your name, like the city’s location or the services offered. While this may provide a boost, it is not absolved of risks. Namely, Google may suspend your business listing if they conclude that it violates their guidelines. We highly recommend using your legal business name or the name listed on your signage.

Categories

Categorical business offerings are the most critical ranking factor within a listing and should be one of the first optimized elements. Google permits the use of one primary category and nine additional ones. Note that the primary category should match a business’s core service as closely as possible.

Below are some important categories a dentist can use when optimizing their profile:

• Dentist

• Pediatric dentistry

• Emergency Dental Service

• Denture care

• Dental lab

• Cosmetic dentist

• Dental clinic

• Oral surgeon

• Dental hygienist

• Teeth whitening service

• Dental school

• Dental supply

• Dental insurance agency

• Dental radiology

Secondary categories potentially provide you with some additional map pack rankings, but they generally won’t have the comparative advantage of a primary category ranking.

Description

Business descriptions are a great way to educate patients about dental offices and the services provided. Yet, it’s also an terrific opportunity to add some relevant keywords for your intended rankings. This area is perhaps the easiest way to improve your business profile’s relevance. However, it’s crucial you don’t go overboard with dental-related keywords. We recommend you try to naturally write a description within the permitted character count while listing what you offer.

Google Business Posts

Google Business posts are a free and easy way to reach potential patients. You can add your keywords to the content whenever you create a new post. Also, you have an opportunity to add hashtags for relevant terms. This will allow you to optimize your business profile for keywords and phrases to attract dental patients.

Reviews

Reviews are a good indicator of consumer behavior but can additionally be a powerful tool used as an essential ranking factor. It’s no surprise that dental patients have a higher likelihood of choosing a dentist with a higher review rating, but reviews that include keywords relevant to your dental office will help you rank even higher in the map pack for those specific terms.

While it is difficult to naturally obtain optimized reviews, asking others for reviews, or setting up an automated communication system to request your patients’ experiences should be a part of your marketing strategy.

A great way to increase keyword density within your control is by responding to reviews and writing relevant terms. Nevertheless, note that you shouldn’t go overboard by responding with “thanks for using an affordable dentist near you” in each one. Subsequently, over-optimizing your reviews could trigger the Google Business Web Spam team.

Images

Using images is an easy optimization method you can influence. Visual content provides variety within search results, and Google is becoming increasingly more competent at understanding what an image represents. We recommend incorporating images that visually describe the services you offer your patients. For example, if you write “family dentist,” include an image that shows a family visiting a dental office.

Additionally, EXIF data is an essential component to optimizing your images. This metadata that search engines can read includes items like geographical coordinates. Optimizing the EXIF data will give Google an additional local signal to benefit your rankings.

Google Business Q/A

A tool that few companies optimize is Google Business Q/A. Anyone can ask or answer a question about your business, so it’s a good idea to provide relevant questions and answers for potential patients. If you don’t address frequently asked questions regarding your dental office, someone else will.

This area of optimization is also a practical tool for incorporating relevant keywords. For instance, if patients continually search for the price of dental services, use this as an opportunity to provide relevant information and optimize for those terms.

Finding Local Dentist Keywords

Now that you have an idea of how to optimize your listing, let’s look at the top 15 dentist keywords by monthly volume:

Using keywords such as these will help you guide search engines to the relevant content on your website’s page and subsequently help patients find your content among many results.

Consult The Local Agency to learn more about the benefits of Google Business optimizations.

The dental industry is a competitive one, so dentists need to stand out from local competitors uniquely. Using Google Business, dentists can engage patients in local communities, spread the word about their offerings, and pave their way through the dental market. Utilizing some of the previously mentioned optimization strategies, you’ll navigate your way to attract your patients and uniquely make your mark in the dental industry.