As a local chiropractor with a brick-and-mortar location, there are multiple reasons that your strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be different than other businesses online. There is a seemingly endless amount of information about how you can rank higher in search results, but SEO plans are not one-size fits all.
We're taking a look at three ways that you can increase the odds that potential patients in your local area will find you online. A recent article from StartupNation, "Why Brick-and-Mortar Startups Need to Strategize Search Rankings Differently", highlights a few online elements that can help drive business for a local brick-and-mortar shop. The key takeaway is to think "local."
The three strategies below require no coding or special technical skills. You can start boosting your ranking in Google's local search results with nothing more than your smartphone and a bit of effort.
Build a Positive Reputation: Get Google Reviews
Gone are the days of relying on personal referrals. Online reviews are the new referral. A potential patient will likely base their decision making on what local chiropractor has the best online reviews. That is why you can greatly help your practice by investing time and energy into building your Google Reviews.
Google has realized that when a person is searching for a service provider in their local area, they want to know if that provider is any good. Now, if a potential patient searches for the term "chiropractor", Google is going to provide local results of chiropractors in their area. The order of the list of chiropractors is partly weighted by the quantity and quality of reviews. Additionally, the review rating is prominently displayed.
We previously wrote about 11 ways you can get more patient reviews. You can build your online reviews by asking all of your patients to leave you an online review. This can be done as simply by asking them in person. Due to the importance of acquiring online reviews on a regular basis, we recommend investing in a review building platform.
A good review building platform can make your life easier. For instance, our Chiropractic Online Review Building makes it easier for you to invite patients to write reviews, helps recover unhappy patients before they leave a negative reviews, monitors your reviews across the web, and displays your five star reviews on your website.
Be Patient-Centric: Reply to Online Reviews
Google wants to display businesses that are customer-centric. Google is looking to see if business owners are replying to customer reviews. Replying to online reviews is a great opportunity because many business owners fail to follow-up.
Regardless of whether a review is negative or positive, you can use your reply to strengthen your marketing. Google will appreciate your action in posting a reply, and you can strategically include keywords in your response to help boost SEO.
More importantly, future patients will see how you appreciative you are of your happy clients. Also, they will see how professional and respectful you are when communicating with an unhappy client.
Lastly, by regularly replying to online reviews, you will be more likely to catch false or spammy reviews that can severely damage your online reputation.
Invest Even More Effort in Google My Business: Optimize Everything
Setting up you business location in Google My Business is a prerequisite to everything above. If you haven't already follow these steps to set up your Google My Business account now.
It is a critical step in a successful local SEO strategy to maintain a verified Google My Business profile full of images, reviews, regularly published Posts, and up-to-date information. You can further optimize your Google My Business profile by ensuring that you include proper keywords (without "keyword stuffing" or being spammy).
One can argue that your Google My Business profile is the most important component of your local SEO. Due to the fact that some business owners neglect their Google My Business profile, you can maintain and optimize everything in your profile to boost your local ranking.
Let Us Help You
We can help you build your online reviews and maintain an optimized Google My Business profile. Be sure to review our online marketing plans to see how we can help you improve your local search ranking and more: Compare Online Marketing Plans
As always, let us know if you have any questions by scheduling a 1-on-1 call or asking a quick question.
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