How should you utilize Google in building your dental practice? As the worlds most popular search engine, Google is the place where people find your dental practice. In today’s episode I’ll share industry secrets for getting the most from Google.
Linda provides dental professionals actionable marketing knowledge they can use to grow their dental practice.
Linda Mettler: Get your business to stand out. And one of those is the Google My Business Page. So Google, in addition to having Google Maps has a, an app that they call Google, my business, and your
every business. Welcome to the matalin Marketing Podcast where we will talk about marketing strategies and tactics to grow your practice. I am your host, Lynda Mettler and I have worked with dental
practices for several years now. And I want to share my knowledge and experience with you so that you can gain valuable and actionable steps on how to grow your practice. We will talk about the latest
and greatest and marketing features some guest speakers so that you can hear firsthand what is and is not working and help you unravel the complexities of the digital marketing world. I work really
closely with my clients. So we will also delve into some other issues that affect your practice from time to time, such as staffing problems, COVID protocols and similar issues. Good morning,
everybody. Thank you so much for joining me on my podcast this morning. And I gotta tell you, I am so glad this is an audio podcast and not a video one today, because I have a huge unicorn looking
bandage over my head from some little skin cancer surgery that I had earlier this week. So my number one tip for you today is do not neglect wearing your sunscreen. And if you do get a little spot,
don't wait to go to the dermatologist go get it taken care of. So anyway, that aside, let's move on to today's topic, which is Google, I'm sure everybody knows about Google unless you've been living
under a rock, or you are like my significant other who hates large tech giants and, you know, doesn't want to use Google. So he uses another search engine instead. However, he's definitely in the
minority, because Google has over 92% market share when it comes to search engines. In fact, Bing only have 2.3% market share, and Yahoo even less at 1.6% of market share on the search engine. scene.
So as you can see, Google's Google's that Google is king. In fact, the Google website has been is the most visited website of anything out there. Last year, they had over 62 billion visits to their
website. And no surprise 63% of the search traffic on Google comes from mobile devices. So and then that was as of last year, it's probably even higher, probably closer to 65 to 70%, which is just
amazing. What really amazes me about Google is that they have managed to skyrocket to this high market share and maintain that, you know, they they started back in 1997. And they skyrocketed within
about 10 years to the top. And they've just managed to maintain that that high rating up there. And I think one of the reasons that they've done that, and they've been able to dominate the market is
that they've been able to, they've been able to be flexible and change and add new products and services to their mix. So in addition to being just an incredible search engine tool, they also do a lot
of other things. So they've got mail, I Google Mail, most of us have have a Google account and use Google mailbox, I love them. And within that mail system, there's so many different things you can
do. You can you know segregate your mail, you can have your primary mail, your promotions, and they also have other types of apps. You know, Google My Business, Google reviews,
all all different types of apps and things you can do. So I think that's one of the reasons or the reason that they have skyrocketed and remained at the top of the search engine market for so long, is
that they do offer so many other other products and other services to kind of integrate your entire tech life. You know, now they've, they've even got all kinds of things for your mobile device on
Google. So so how do we utilize Google to the best advantage that we can with your dental marketing for your practice? So a couple things that I recommend that you do, and in an earlier podcast, and
I'm sure we'll talk about, again, the number one thing is to make sure your website is indexed correctly on Google and can get you the most organic search traffic as possible. And of course, to do
that, you know, just recap a few things. You know, search engine optimization is the organic way to get a higher ranking on Google so that when people are searching for a dental practice, your office,
your website comes up higher. Google is basically a Google search is basically a huge directory of how to find things. It's like going to the New York Central Library years ago, and looking for
things. So you obviously want to make sure your website has great search engine optimization. And we talked about some of those details in an earlier podcast. And we'll certainly talk about them more
in the future. But that's one way. Another way to utilize Google is to incorporate search engine marketing, that's the paid feature on Google. So that means going in and buying advertising. So using
Google in both ways, you definitely want to optimize your website. So that you know, it's got the correct page titles, and keywords, and all of those things for organic traffic. And then you can use
search engine marketing, that can boost some of your results with paid advertising on Google. But there's a couple other things that you can do, as well to get your business to stand out. And one of
those is is the Google My Business Page. So Google, in addition to having google maps have a, an app that they call Google, my business, and your Every business has the ability to have that business
page. So what you want to do is you want to go in there and clean that page so that Google knows that you are the owner of that page. In order to do that, you have to have a Google account. So you
have to sign up and you'll by default, get a Google email. And when you do that, and when you're on your email, if you go up into the right hand corner of that page, you'll see a little box that has a
bunch of little dots. And in that if you hover and click on that, in that drop down, you're gonna see all kinds of little icons and for the different types of Google apps and services. And under
there, you'll see one with a little house looks like a little house and it'll say business. And you click on that. And you can go in there and claim your business page. And once you do that, they'll
send you a verification either through the mail or a code through email that you click on and you verify that that business, you type in the name of your practice, and you verify that business is
yours. And once you do that, you've got an entire page, it's almost like a mini website. And you can go into that page, and update your products and your services and your hours. And put in your phone
number and your website, all the pertinent and important information on that page. And that's a great way to utilize one of the Google products for free. It's it's a free product. But I highly
recommend that you do that. It's it's amazing to me how many practices I see day in and day out, that just aren't even doing the basics. So before you you know, spend lots of money and get into lots
of other fancy video and, and expensive advertising things for your practice, all of which I think are great to do. But before you do that, make sure you have your basics covered. And this is
definitely one of the ways to have one of those basic things covered with Google is to have your Google My Business Page, and make sure you keep it updated. If your hours change. If you add a new
product or new service, maybe you start carrying a new white care start to carry a new whitening product in your office or you offer a new service, you want to update your Google My Business Page. And
it's so easy to do only takes a few minutes. Another really great way to utilize Google is for reviews. I know there's Yelp and there's other review services. But Google reviews are really going to
help you much more than I'm really not a big fan of Yelp. And we can talk about that in another episode, I can explain why to you. But Google reviews are going to be than the number one most searched
reviews. And they're going to help you with your rankings on Google as well. So the more reviews you have, the more attention you're going to get from Google. And the more five star reviews you have,
of course, is going to help you with that as well. So and there's also you know, a little icon in there that you can go in and copy that link to Google reviews. And you can embed that on your website
so that when people are on your website, they can click right over and they can either leave you a review or they can read the reviews that other people have left for you. They can also use that link.
In a lot of different practice management software, we have a great tool that your office people can use. And he texts that link to patients as they leave your office. And they can leave that Google
review for you before they even are in their car and out of the parking lot. So. So that's a, and that's a great free tool from Google that you can use to promote your practice is that is utilizing
Google reviews. And I highly recommend doing that. So there's a lot of other things with Google that you can use, obviously, you know, lots of apps and different things. Google has great analytics. So
we every month, we look at search traffic to our client websites with those analytics, they tell us, you know how many visitors were to the site, they tell us how many were from organic search versus
typing in the website, directly branded search. Their analytics tell us what
zip codes and geography people are searching from. So it's a great tool gives us lots of data that we can use to help our clients with their marketing. So please don't neglect Google, please dive in
and learn all you can about Google. If you need help, give me a call. I'm always available. I kind of call myself the Google queen. I do a lot of work with Google every single day. And it's just
there's there's so many things out there that you can do without having to spend a ton of money on Google. But the thing to remember about it is that Google loves Google. So the more of those apps and
tools and things that you utilize from Google, the better your search results in your rankings are going to be. So that's it for today. If you want to dive in deeper, we'll keep listening. We'll do
some deeper dives in future podcasts. And as always, give me a call if there's anything you need or any anything you want to know. We'd love to chat. So I hope you all have a really great day, and I
will talk to you next time. Are you
Ed Bejarana: committed to the growth of your practice that learn marketing can help at medtner marketing. We help dental practices gain new patients, increase referrals and maximize patient retention
with customized Marketing Solutions tailored to fit your needs. Visit www dot medtner marketing.com to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help grow your practice. Thank you for tuning
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