Part of a Solid Foundation - Why the GMB Process Is so Important
In theory you shouldn't add on to a home or build more on the home if the foundation is faulty, right?
That's the best analogy that I have for the importance of this uber-important microniche of marketing.
Google Maps.
It’s one element of your business’s marketing foundation.
And I preach this often, consider fixing your foundation before trying to build or grow.
Ok, what-the-frog am I talking about here? Let’s take a look at a search results page.
As an example, I’m going to pull up Stem Cell Therapy Houston. I’m currently in the Galleria area, so let’s see what happens.
[But feel free to do this for your practice as well. By the way, search for the type of business that you are, not just your name, ~81-92% of the patient views of business listings are “discovery” searches. In other words, they weren’t looking for you, they were looking for the category. And they had a better chance to see your competitor down the street than you if you’re not focusing on this. Just saying.]
Back to our broadcast.
Desktop results:
Well, that’s not an accident is it? Here’s the anatomy of the search screenshot
There’s no ads in the desktop result.
There’s a 3-pack of Google Maps results taking up the majority of the surface area of the search results above the fold.
There’s organic listings below the maps pack.
And Easter Egg: If you click that “More Places” at the bottom, you see where those are coming from. Those are the Google Maps results being pulled into a 3-pack.
And on the uber-important mobile, the search results come up as a 3 + 1 pack underneath 4 ads.
The way this search appear, there were 4 Ads (ugh, gross), a 3+1 maps pack and then Organic Results.
As I’ll detail later, the Google Maps results are, in general, driven by 4 big factors:
Relevance - do the words, images, themes and context of what you say about your business show users that you are relevant to the query
Credibility - are your citations accurate and consistent? Do you have reviews? Are the reviews credible and good?
Authority - Is your online presence considered an authority in the space?
Proximity - Is your device close to the business?
HOW DOES YOUR PATIENT VIEW THE PRACTICE
Now, let’s take a step back and think about how a patient views your listing and your business.
If they do a search for stem cell therapy in Houston and a patient doesn’t see you, are you now more or less credible to them? My bet is less.
If they have trouble finding you, are you more or less credible? Again, smart money is on less.
You have the potential to impact the lives of thousands of people searching everyday. But they are finding someone else.
BACK TO THE FOUNDATIONAL MARKETING ELEMENT THING
Do you see why we call this a foundational element of your marketing?
It’s huge. Like really huge.
The Maps take up a huge amount of real estate. They are there on mobile, on desktop.
And A LOT of people see them.
They see them when they are doing research.
They see them when they are looking for a provider.
They see them right before they visit your practice, after they’ve booked an appointment.
They see them when they are trying to remember the phone number.
That’s a touchpoint that you need to have full control over. /rant