What You Need to Know About Google My Business & Your Website

Episode #342 with Kristi Simone

You've finally built your website, and it’s ready for patients to use. But just because you've built it doesn't mean it’s done! Managing your website is a constant editing process. And to help you be up to date and searchable, Kirk Behrendt brings in Kristi Simone, CMO at Whiteboard Marketing, to teach you the best practices of website building and utilizing Google My Business. If you want to create a website that will increase your conversion rates, listen to Episode 342 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Fill out your Google knowledge profile.

Be active on your Google My Business page. It will help you show up in search results.

Build your website for how Google is going to search for it.

Your website should also be built for patients. Keep it clean and simple.

Home pages are the most important to get right. It’s where patients spend the most time.

Have your calls to action at the top of your website.

45% of website users click off in 10 seconds or less. Make information easy to find.

Don't have videos streaming in the background. It increases the loading time.

Patients want clickable buttons, such as Google Maps, calling, and online scheduling.

Online scheduling and chat can increase your conversion rates!

Use Google Posts as a free advertising opportunity.

Don't build your own website. Let the experts build it for you.

It’s recommended to redesign your website every three years.

Quotes:

“We recommend that dentists redesign their [website] every three years, or at least making sure that just because you've built your site, you're not ever finished with it. You should always be working to update content, add new pages, add a blog, do different things to keep your website current all the time.” (04:28—04:46)

“[Google owns] pretty much every aspect of internet search. You also have other players in the industry like Bing, Yahoo. But Google really owns 90% of that search purpose. So, when we build websites, we are really building it for how Google is going to search for it and different things that make your website show up for Google when a patient may be searching for a dentist in your specific area, or a dental implant in your specific area.” (05:18—05:48)

“You also have to build a website for your patients to be able to use. There’s a lot of data out there that shows that 45% of actual users jump off of a site within 10 to 15 seconds. So, one of the other reasons that we really focus on building websites for is to get a patient to do whatever you want them to do, know whatever you want them to know, within 10 seconds or less.” (05:53—06:20)

“You're building [your website] for Google, you're building for conversion rate optimization, and then you're also building it for speed. We want those websites to load really quickly. The ideal is three seconds or less.” (06:21—06:35)

“One of the first things that we ask [dentists] to do when we’re talking about Google My Business is pick up their phone or their laptop and search their own name on Google and see what pops up. What they should get on the right-hand side is called the Google knowledge profile. And that is what Google is really using to pull up your practice information when a patient is searching for a dentist in that area.” (07:05—07:29)

“Google considers dentists as a local business. So, they're local to Columbus, Ohio, or Chicago. It’s really local to that. Where you think of Nike, for example, that's not a local business. That's a national, international brand. So, it’s really important that that knowledge profile that you just pulled up and looked at is filled out with all kinds of great information. And that's how local search...