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How to Get to the Top of Google: Part 2 – Google Maps

Greetings!

Would you like to consistently attract new patients from Google?

Last week, we reviewed how to get your dental website on the first page of Google using Google Ads for dentists. This week, we’ll review how to increase your website rankings in Google Maps using dental local SEO.

When a person uses Google, they enter a ‘search query’ into the search box, which is the combination of words that they use to find what they’re looking for. For example, if a person is looking for a local dentist, they’ll likely use any of these search queries:

            
• Dentist near me
    
• Dentist [city]
    
• Downtown dentist

The results they get in Google vary depending on the keywords that are used. Keywords are the groups of words that trigger your website to be displayed in Google Ads, Maps or Search results. Sometimes the keywords might match your search query exactly, other times it’s a similar phrase match.

If your dental website is not found on the first page of Google, your patients will have a hard time finding your practice. So, how do you get on the first page of Google?

When a person types a search query into Google, they see three results:

1. Google Ads: Pay Per Click

2. Google Maps: Local SEO

3. Google Search: Organic SEO

The results that you see in each of these three sections are based on completely different factors. In this 3-part guide, we’ll review how to get your dental website found on the first page of Google. Here’s what you’ll learn:

Last Week – Google Ads: Pay Per Click

Google Ads for dentists are text, image, or video advertisements displayed by Google in their search engine results page, on websites and apps, as well as in Gmail or YouTube. Get your business website found on the first page of Google instantly using Google Ads, and use their powerful analytics to focus your ads to a specific audience of people interested in your dental services.

This Week – Google Maps: Local SEO

Local search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of tactics to increase the position of your website ranking in local search results, such as Google Maps. Many people use Google Maps when looking for a new dental provider, so attract more patients to your dental clinic by increasing your rankings in Google Maps using local dental SEO for dentists.

Next Week – Google Search: Organic SEO

Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of tactics to increase the position of your website ranking in organic Google Search results. Dental SEO for dentists often provides the best long-term value for growing your practice with new patients compared to paid advertising.

After reading this guide, you’ll understand how to grow your dental practice by being on the first page of Google. Let’s get started!

Google Maps: Local SEO

What is local search engine optimization (SEO)?

Local SEO (search engine optimization) is a set of tactics to increase the position of your dental website in local search results, such as in Google Maps.

When a person types a search query in Google, the first thing they see are paid advertisements from Google Ads. Below that are Google Maps, followed by Google Search.

Sometimes a person types a search query into Google when they’re looking for information, such as: “how to whiten my teeth”. Other times a person types a search query into Google when they’re looking for a local business or service, such as: “dentist near me” or “orthodontist Vancouver”.

According to Google, 46% of all searches now have “local intent” – using local city or neighbourhood names, or ‘near me’ added to the query. In other words, people are searching for local businesses or services about 46% of the time, which they find displayed in Google Maps based on the proximity of their search.

Out of these searches with local intent, 72% of people who did a local search visited a store within five miles (WordStream Research, 2016). That means that your prospective new patients are searching for a local dental provider that’s geographically close to their point of search.

How to Get on Google Maps?

Google Maps is a navigational tool that offers satellite imagery, street maps, Google Street View, traffic conditions in real-time, and a navigational route planner.

Google also manages a database of business listings from multiple online and offline sources, and organizes these listings based on address, phone number or geocode. These business listings are displayed in Google Maps when a person is conducting a search with local intent. Google allows you to create or claim your business listing and to manage your business profile through a service called Google Business, formerly Google My Business (GMB).

Google Business

Google Business is a free service offered by Google that lets you claim, create and manage your Business Profile that appears in Google Maps, which allows you to:

                        
• Edit your dental practice business information
    
• Respond and manage patient reviews
    
• Create post updates about announcements or sales
    
• Posts photos of your dental practice and team
    
• Learn how people are interacting with your Business Profile on Google Maps

To create or claim your Google Business account, visit their homepage and follow these steps:

                        
1. In the top-right corner, click on the button that reads: “Start/Manage Now”. This takes you to Google’s sign-in page.

                        
2. Google uses one account for all of their products, including Google Business, Ads, Gmail, YouTube, and more. If you already have a Google account for your dental practice on any other product, type in your email address and password to login. If you don’t have a Google account setup, or if you want a separate account for Google Business, click on the link below that reads: “Create account”.

                        
3. Once you’ve signed in or created your new account, Google Business will then ask you for the name of your business, and to read the terms of service.

                        
4. Next, enter your dental practice information, including business address, service location, business category, contact details, phone, website, photos and more.

                        
5. The final step is to verify your business with Google. Although Google has a few different options to verify a business, the most commonly presented option is to verify your business using traditional mail. Google will mail you a postcard with a verification code to the address listed earlier. You need to enter this verification code into your Google Business profile in order to have your business verified on Google Maps and to fully manage your account. In some cases, Google will require a video recording to verify your location, or you may get an auto-verification if you have established history online.

Your Google Business account is the online headquarters for managing your local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, which determines your rankings in Google Maps.

Google Maps Ranking Factors

Google decides which websites to display in Google Maps based on the keywords on the site matching the relevancy of the search query, then ranks the website order based on local search engine optimization (SEO) factors. According to Moz, there are many factors that Google considers, such as:

                        
1. Google Business Signals: proximity of address to the point of search, proper category associations, keywords used in the business title, etc.

                        
2. Link Signals: inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, quality and authority of inbound links to domain, etc.

                        
3. Review Signals: quantity of customer reviews, increase in review recency, velocity, diversity, format and authority of customer reviews, etc.

                        
4. On-Page Signals: presence of name, address and phone number, keywords used in the headlines, website domain authority, quality, technical and security factors, etc.

                        
5. Citation Signals: consistency in name, address, and phone number in all citations, citation volume, distribution, quality and relevancy of listings, etc.

                        
6. Behavioural Signals: click-through rate from search results, session duration, bounce rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, clicks to call/directions/website, etc.

                        
7. Personalization: location of a user’s city or country relative to business, physical address in the city of search, previous search history, etc.

The top-ranking factor to have your business website listed in Google Maps is to have a complete and accurate Google Business profile. This business profile is considered to be the primary citation of your business.

In addition to Google Business, there are many other citation sources for your website. Consistency of citations is the basic foundation of local search engine optimization (SEO).

What are Citations?

According to Moz, a local citation is:

“any online mention of partial or complete name, address, and phone number of a local business - also called NAP data. Citations can occur on local business directories, on websites and apps, and on social platforms. Citations help people to discover local businesses and can also impact local search engine rankings. Specifically, having high quality basic citations can help you rank accurately on Google’s local search interfaces. Local businesses can actively manage many citations to ensure data accuracy and maintain consistent business information.”

In other words, any mention of your business online is a citation. The core components of a citation are your business name, address of your clinic, and the phone number listed (NAP). Ensuring consistency in these three components across every online citation tells Google about the credibility and accuracy of your business listing.

There are structured citations, such as a business profile in Google Business, as well as unstructured citations, such as a mention of your business in an online news article. This means that there are hundreds or thousands of possible citation sources.

Every citation source has a different degree of credibility or authority for ranking in Google Maps. The top citation sources vary by country and by industry.

In Canada, the top 15 structured citation sources are:

            
1. Google Business
    
2. Apple Maps   
    
3. Bing Places 
    
4. Facebook
    
5. Yellowpages.ca
    
6. Factual     
    
7. Yelp   
    
8. Foursquare   
    
9. MapQuest     
    
10. Infobel 
    
11. N49   
    
12. Cylex
    
13. HotFrog
    
14. Brownbook
    
15. Opendi

For dentists, the top 15 structured citation sources are:

1.     Zocdoc

2.     Healthdirect

3.     QFinder Health

4.     Vitals

5.     RateMDs

6.     Family Dental Directory

7.     Wellness

8.     Dentagama

9.     Doctor.com

10.  Find a Top Doc

11.  MD.com

12.  HealthProfs

13.  HealthShare

14.  Free Dental Care

15.  HealthLocal

Accuracy in citations don’t just matter to Google, they also matter to your patients. According to a recent survey, 80% of people lose trust in local businesses if they see incorrect or inconsistent contact details or business names online. Furthermore, 68% of people would stop using a local business if they found incorrect information in online directories.

Ensuring consistency in the name, address and phone number of your business information in these top citation sources is the foundation of local search engine optimization (SEO). But, if you change any of this information, you move, change your phone number or hours of operation, it can be time consuming to change all of your citations manually – there could be hundreds or thousands of them!

Optiimus provides a listings management for local SEO central hub to build and manage all of your online listings. If you change your address, phone number or hours of operation, you can update this information across all of your online listings. This ensures accurate and consistent business information, increasing your local SEO rankings.

Increase Your Website Rankings for Local SEO

Now that we understand the basics of local dental SEO, let’s dive deep into how to increase your website rankings in Google Maps.

First, where does your website rank to begin with?

You can get a free Practice Checkup report to track your website visibility and keyword rankings, which evaluates how easy or difficult it is for new patients to find you on Google Maps and Search results. This report also includes a Google Business profile audit to identify opportunities for optimizing your profile.

The top five things you can do to improve your local SEO results are:

1.     Optimize your Google Business profile

2.     Increase quantity and quality of reviews

3.     Improve your on-page SEO for local search

4.     Build local landing pages for each location

5.     Create and optimize online business listings

1. Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business account is the online headquarters for managing your local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, which determines your rankings in Google Maps. You can optimize your Google Business profile by completing the following:

            
•   Business name: same on your Google Business profile as on your dental clinic office signage; although it’s helpful to add keywords here, you can only do this if they’re part of your legal business name 
    
•  Address: your dental clinic office location
    
• Phone number: connects directly to your front desk
    
• Website link: connects directly to your dental website
    
• Hours of operation: accurate hours that match your website hours
    
• Social media links: connects directly to your existing social sites 
    
• Map pin: make sure the map is placed in the right location for new patients
    
• Other contacts: any other forms of contact (phone, fax, email) is accurate 
    
• Photos: upload high-quality, professional photos of your clinic, team, credentials, etc.
    
• Posts: create posts promoting campaigns, sales, offers, announcements and more

2. Increase Quantity and Quality of Reviews

In addition to optimizing your Google Business profile, Google also determines how to rank your website in Google Maps using other factors, such as your online reputation on Google, your website and third-party review sites. Google evaluates your review quantity, recency, velocity, diversity, authority, format, and sentiment to determine where to rank your website in Google Maps.

Furthermore, about 88% of people said in a customer survey they were influenced by online reviews when making a buying decision. Your prospective new patients are also considering booking with your dental clinic based on the reputation of your clinic and staff. One of the most popular ways patients evaluate dental clinic reputation is by looking at online reviews at various review platforms, including Google, Facebook, Yelp, RateMDs, Vitals, Healthgrades, and more.

Asking patients to provide a review can be easy to forget for a busy dental practice. Optiimus review management automates the process of asking each patient for feedback after each visit to your clinic. Your patients receive an email or text message asking for feedback, which is then captured and posted to any online review platform.

Google’s ranking factors are not just about collecting, but also responding to each and every review. If you’re getting a lot of reviews, it can be time consuming to monitor and respond to each review, on every single platform. But, not responding to the reviews hurts your local search rankings.

Optiimus provides one central hub to monitor and respond to online reviews on over 200 third-party review websites, such as Google, Facebook, Healthgrades, RateMDs, Vitals, Better Business Bureau (BBB), and more. If you’re too busy, Optiimus can manage your Google reviews and respond for you, helping you grow your stellar online reputation.

3. Improve Your On-Page SEO for Local Search

Google ranks websites on Google Maps based on how relevant each website is to the user’s search query. In other words, Google’s algorithms scan your website and search for keywords to evaluate how relevant your website’s content is to each user’s search. The algorithms scan your website searching for keywords here:

            
• Page title: add target keywords to the front of the page title
    
• Meta descriptions: may not impact rankings, but increases click through rates 
    
• H1-H6 headlines: add target keywords to your primary headlines H1, H2 
    
• Body content: aim for about 2% keyword density, without ‘keyword stuffing’   
    
• Images: add keywords to both file names and alternate text, optimize image size 
    
• URL: add primary keyword to each web page URL, local city if appropriate

In addition to ensuring that your target keywords are found everywhere Google’s algorithms scan, you can also optimize your on-page SEO by completing the following:

            
•  Mobile-friendly: more than 50% of your traffic is likely coming on mobile devices
    
• Page load speed: Google’s PageSpeed Insights provides a free report on your web speed
    
• Photo optimization: ensure all photo files are compressed, using WebP format 
    
• Video optimization: all video files hosted on a third-party platform, using WebM format 
    
• Local business schema: structured data markup tells search engines local business info
    
• Create local content: all digital content created is geo-tagged with local city keywords

4. Build Local Landing Pages for Each Location

Local SEO is local to each individual location, down to the specific latitude and longitude coordinates of each business. When a user conducts a search query, Google searches for businesses that are geographically close to the user and displays those first, as they’re the most relevant to the user’s search location.

In other words, if you conduct a search query on your phone while sitting inside of your dental practice, you’ll likely see higher rankings for your website because of your proximity to your own clinic (you’re inside!). However, as you start to move in any direction away from your clinic, your website rankings will likely start to drop, depending on any nearby competitors. Your dental website rankings vary from one city block to another!

If you have more than one clinic location, it’s helpful to build a local SEO strategy for each location. Whether the other locations are in another neighbourhood in the same city, or another city completely, it’s helpful to build a unique and separate local SEO strategy that includes a separate Google Business profile for each location, as well as a separate web page landing page for each location.

Each individual clinic location should have a unique web page that targets that specific location, down the city and neighbourhood. Optimize each web page for local SEO with the following:

            
•  Use city name and local neighbourhood names as target keywords on the web page
    
• Add city name as keywords to the page title, URL, headlines, and more
    
• Add clinic address and contact information, including embedding a map 
    
• Add images of that local dental clinic and surrounding neighbourhood
    
• Add SEO optimized content local to that location, guides, FAQs and more

5. Create and Optimize Online Business Listings

Finally, once you’ve optimized your Google Business profile, increased your patient reviews, improved your on-page SEO and built local landing pages optimized for local search, you’re ready to build and optimize your online business listings.

As mentioned above, there are thousands of listings sources that vary by country and by industry. You can manually build these listings one by one, but that’s time consuming and difficult to manage. Optiimus provides a central hub to build and manage all online listings for local SEO, making it easy and convenient to grow your local rankings.

Conclusion

Local SEO for dentists is one of the most effective strategies for consistently attracting new patients to your dental practice, as many people search for a local service provider that’s geographically close using Google Maps.

The best strategies to increase your dental website rankings in Google Maps include optimizing your Google Business profile, getting more patient reviews, improving your on-page SEO with local search terms, creating local landing pages and building online listings on business and healthcare directories.

If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to contact me directly. I read and respond to every email. All the best in growing your dental practice!

Sarkis Hakopdjanian

President | Optiimus

(587) 409 5990 | (833) 409 0979

sarkis@optiimius.ca