What in essence is Maps Marketing?
Maps marketing is a marketing approach carried out such that your business name and location comes up on the Maps when a user searches for such a business in that location using the various search engines. Research shows that a great number of searches made on Google are targeted at specialized professionals such as doctors who specialize in a specific area of the medical field. For example, a person in need of a doctor who specializes in the treatment of cancer or endometriosis only needs make a search on Google, and the profile of such doctors will appear on the maps in the user’s geographical region. As a doctor, when it becomes relatively easy and quick for your prospective patients to easily find you on the search results, it means more business for you. It is therefore crucial that doctors who wish to experience significant boost in their practice be available on the Maps through Maps Marketing.
Why Maps Marketing is essential for doctors
When users see the name and profile of your clinic on Google, it significantly ignites their trust and confidence in your skill. Research shows that about 60% of users will click on your profile when it pops up on the local search results. That online presence which you have thus built by being on the Map is vital in how users view and rate your business as a doctor. And as people are known for flying patients out to get a specialized doctor in another country tor state, it is important you are digitally present on the Map since the patient or their loved one may likely search for doctors who treat that particular disease in that particular state.
But the business does not appear automatically on the Maps
Simply owning a business does not automatically put it on Google Maps or any other search engine Maps. Its business profile has to be created on that search engine, and this brings us to Google My Business.
Google My Business
For your medical practice to be visible on Google Maps, you must create a Google My Business profile for that particular business. When a user carries out a local search, the list of companies that come beneath the Maps is a 3-pack result, and this 3-pack contains the company name, number of reviews, and average star rating. Positive reviews and a high average rating go a long way in building customer’s confidence in you, and this is why it is important you create in your Business page a place where patients can leave reviews after getting treatment from you.
Also, how complete and rich your Google My Business profile is will determine how well optimized it is, and thus how relevant it will be seen by Google’s algorithm. In summary, Google My Business is pivotal to helping you rank high on local search. So how do you set up your My Business profile?
How to set up Google My Business
- Simply sign into Google My Business using a Google account that you have created specifically for the business. When on the Google My Business page, click on “start now”.
- You will be shown a map. It is possible your clinic is already on the listing, and this you can verify by simply typing in your business or clinic’s name or address. If the business doesn’t come up in the listing, simply click on the link given at the bottom of the page to add your business.
- Check the option for your business to be visible on Google Maps.
- Select your business category
- To set up your business profile, it is important you input the following information:
- The business name
- The specific physical address of the business
- The local phone number with which you can be reached
- Your website’s URL.
Note that whatever information you input on the fields must be consistent across all your business profiles on the web as Google relies on consistency to rank your business.
- You will be sent a verification code to the address you gave. With this code, verify or claim your business.
- You can then personalize the profile by including a high quality profile photo.
