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Google Places A dramatic change in online marketing

Issue: May/June 2011

ByPaul M. Stubenbordt

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Tips to ensure that prospective patients can find your practice’s location via the popular Internet search engine.

Last year, Google cited that 40% of approximately 10 billion search queries were geographically targeted — users would enter the city, state or region in addition to what they were looking for (eg, New York ophthalmologist). Google took note of this statistic and in late 2010 officially rolled out its new system for online search results, called Place Search. The way you show up on Place Search is to create something called a Google Places page. For most businesses, Google has already created this page for you.

Almost overnight, the traditional map listings were gone and organic listings were minimized in the interest of providing relevant results to queries. This dramatic shift in Google’s algorithm changed everything with online searching and is probably the most important marketing issue practices will have to face in 2011.

There are four things your practice needs to do to appear in a local search:

1. Claim your page
2. Fill out your page
3. Get citations
4. Get reviews

Claim your page and fill it out

Thankfully, Google has made claiming your page quick and easy. Most practices already have their page set up and ready to be claimed. To claim your page, first visit www.maps.google.com, then type in your business phone number and click the “Search Maps” button.

You will see a number of businesses listed, and usually the one on top is your practice. Click “More Info” on the right side of the page and then click “Business Owner?” At this point you will be asked to log in to your Gmail account. If you do not have one, you will need to create one, free of charge.

After this step, you will be given three options; the one you want to click is “Edit My Listing.” At this point, you will be required to fill out basic information regarding your business, including your website address and a description of your services. This is an important step. Make sure you offer as much data as possible, and make sure you keep addresses and phone numbers consistent with what may be listed on other websites. Do not use 800 numbers or call-tracking numbers. You will also select from a number of categories in which to have your practice listed, including ophthalmologist, eye care center, LASIK surgeon and pediatric ophthalmologist. Unfortunately, there is no category for cataract surgeon at this time.

Next, you can upload a photo and videos for your practice. All videos must first be uploaded to YouTube; you will then copy and paste the link for your YouTube video onto your Place page. Google currently allows you to post up to five videos. Remember, the more complete your page is, the more Google likes it, so fill out everything.

Lastly, after filling out your Place page, Google will ask you to validate your listing by telephone (instantaneously) or by mail (2 to 3 weeks). Either way, Google will give you a PIN number that you will enter to validate your listing. Once validated, all of the recent changes you have made to your Place page will appear. You may wonder why one would wait 2 to 3 weeks to receive validation via mail rather than no time at all via telephone. This option is helpful if a practice has an auto-attendant that takes the place of a person answering the phone, preventing Google from delivering the PIN.

Citations

Toward the bottom of your Place page, you will see a heading labeled “More About This Place.” This section shows other websites that have directory listings, news stories, press releases or articles about your practice. Google gathers information from other websites to get citations. The more websites that talk about your practice, the higher you will rank. Having the same address, phone number and contact email on each website is very important.

How do you get Google to find citations? One of the best ways is to put out a press release on PRNewswire.com or PRWeb.com. You can also advertise on other sites that link back to yours, and you can always see what your highly ranking competitors are doing to get ranked. Visit their citation sources, and see if you can also be listed.

Reviews

Reviews are a crucial step in securing a high rank on a local search. The easiest way is to ask happy patients to go to your Place page and write a review. You can also send out a mass email to your patients with very detailed instructions on writing a Google review, if you are comfortable with doing so.

There are also third-party vendors’ websites, such as Citysearch, Yahoo! Local and Vital, which can all be directly tied to your Place page. You can also use Smile Reminder or Demandforce, which are good practice-to-patient communications companies that enable you to email your patients a survey. Once a patient completes the survey, you can use something called an application programming interface to link your surveys to Google Reviews. Google will count this as a review, thus raising your rank.

Bad reviews can be good?

We do not live in a five-star world. Our favorite coffee shops, restaurants and, yes, even doctor’s offices, will inevitably have an off day. This is why I refuse to panic when a client gets a bad review. Bad reviews push your practice to improve. They build trust in what is being said, and they can allow your practice to turn a bad experience into a good experience. Remember, it is not how many times you fall down, but rather how you get back up. Composed, responsible management of dissatisfied patients speaks as strongly for your practice as a good review.

How to handle fraudulent negative reviews

If you feel that a review on your Place page or third-party website is incorrect, you can appeal it with Google or the third-party website. In most cases, however, you have to prove that it was incorrect. Google now allows businesses to respond to negative reviews.

Here is how to respond to reviews:

1. Log in to your claimed Place page
2. Scroll down to the Reviews section
3. Click “Respond Publicly” (as the owner)
4. Write a response (read Google’s guidelines)
5. Click “Publish”

Your review will show publicly as a response from the business owner. Even if the review you are responding to is scathing and false, make sure you do not lash out at the reviewer. People reading your public responses will remember the tone you choose and attribute it to your practice as a whole.

Final thoughts

Google local search, a.k.a. Google Places, is the new dominant factor in website marketing. Be sure you have taken the proper steps to ensure your Place page is showing up when someone searches for an ophthalmologist in your market. This truly is the next “big deal” for online marketing, and you can take the steps today to make sure you have a strong presence.     

Paul M. Stubenbordt can be reached at Stubenbordt Consulting Inc., 104 Houston St., Suite D, Roanoke, TX 76262; 682-831-0900; fax: 682-831-0903; email: paul@stubenbordt.com.