15 Tips to Dominate Google Business for Emergency Rooms in Houston Texas
15 Tips to Dominate Google Business for Emergency Rooms in Houston Texas
According to discussions on the same over at runrex.com, the majority of prospective clients for emergency rooms search for information and ERs online. This means that emergency rooms must optimize their digital presence, starting by claiming and optimizing their Google My Business, which is crucial given searches for services offered by ERs are local searches. If you are a Houston, Texas emergency room looking to dominate Google Business, this article will look to help through the following 15 tips.
- Claim your listing
The very first move you have to make if you are looking to dominate on Google Business is making sure that you claim your GMB listing. You can only edit a Google My Business profile if you are an editor or manager, and to become one, you must forts claim your Google My Business listing. As explained over at guttulus.com, if a Google My Business profile doesn’t exist for your ER, then you will have to create it from scratch.
- Verify your listing
Once you claim your listing, the next important step is to ensure that it is verified. To verify your listing, Google will send a postcard to your ER’s address within 3 to 5 business days, with the postcard containing a verification code. This is why it is important to provide an accurate address for your emergency room, particularly since GMB doesn’t allow PO boxes. Once you have claimed and verified your GMB listing, you will now be free to begin editing and optimizing your profile.
- Add an accurate NAP
Your emergency room’s NAP is its name, address, and phone number as discussed over at runrex.com. When filling out the profile for your GMB, you must ensure that your NAP is accurate and up-to-date. This is how patients will be able to find your ER if they are looking for your services or want to make inquiries, which means that if this information is inaccurate, then it will lead to poor UX when patients reach out and can’t find you, damaging your rankings.
- Ensure that your NAP is consistent
Also, on top of making sure your NAP is accurate and up-to-date, you should ensure that it is consistent on all platforms, websites, and other directories, not just on GMB. An inconsistent NAP will mislead or even confuse users, which may lead to you losing business. It will also hurt your rankings on Google’s local search results.
- Complete your profile
As is revealed in discussions on the same over at guttulus.com, GMB profiles that are complete are twice as likely to be perceived as credible, ranking higher in Google search results, which is why you should ensure that you fill in every section and that you add as much information as possible. At the very least, make sure you add and are up-to-date on your NAP as well as hours of operation, and business category.
- Craft a compelling description
Google offers you 750 characters to describe your products, services, value, and anything else you want to communicate to your audience. It is important that you use this section well to describe your emergency room, and what makes you different from the rest. Not only does a well-crafted and keyword-rich description help engage your audience, but it will also help with your rankings.
- Add photos
Make sure you also add high-quality photos of your emergency room to your Google My Business profile. Here, you should upload pictures of your facilities and building, including the reception, treatment rooms, examination rooms, as well as other public-facing areas such as the waiting rooms and any on-site parking facilities as covered over at runrex.com.
- Avoid stock photos
While it is important to upload photos of your facilities to your Google My Business profile, you should avoid uploading stock photos. You want to add photos that are as unique as possible and show just how different and impressive your emergency room facilities are, as compared to competitors in Houston, Texas.
- Add videos
You should also consider adding videos to your profile, particularly since very few practices take advantage of this feature, and by adding videos to your GMB, you will be giving your ER an edge over the rest. The process of adding videos to your Google My Business is similar to that of adding photos, as explained in detail over at guttulus.com.
- Add your hours
While emergency rooms usually operate 24/7, not all abide by this, which is why it is important to add hours so that prospective patients know when you are open. If you operate 24/7, by adding this information, you will also attract more of your prospective patients. Additionally, GMB allows you to update your hours for holidays using the ‘Special Hours’ feature, one that you should also use to attract patients during holidays.
- Get your categories right
As is covered in detail over at runrex.com, Google allows you to categorize your business, and you should ensure that you choose categories that are specific and relevant to your business. The first category you enter will be considered to be your primary category, and it, therefore, carries more weight and you should ensure that through this category, it is clear that you offer emergency medical services. For the rest of the categories, as you are allowed to choose up to 10 categories, you should avoid repeats or basic phrase variations.
- Get your description right
As outlined earlier, you must craft a compelling description for your ER, adding important and relevant keywords. However, it is also just as important that you know some of the things to avoid when crafting your description. One of them is ensuring that you don’t add URLs or HTML code to your description. You should also avoid keyword stuffing, as this will just serve to put off users, hence why you should avoid it.
- Don’t forget to add your ER’s website URL
According to the subject matter experts over at guttulus.com, you should also ensure that you add your ER’s website URL to your GMB listing. You must direct users to your ER’s website and not to your social media profiles. Also, just as is the case for your NAP, you should ensure that the URL you use is both up-to-date and consistent.
- Ask for reviews
The reviews on your GMB can be the deciding factor that determines whether a patient engages with your ER or not. You should, therefore, ask your patients for reviews, letting them know that they should visit your GMB profile and add reviews. You should make sure you offer excellent services so that you get positive reviews. You should avoid at all costs buying Google reviews as Google will find out through its advanced algorithms, which will jeopardize your profile.
- Reply to all reviews
Asking for reviews is not enough as it is just as important that you take the time to reply to all of your reviews, whether positive or negative. It should be easy to respond to positive reviews as all you have to do is thank the user, but you should never ignore negative reviews. Respond and let the user know that you acknowledge their concerns and that you will have them addressed.
Remember, if you need help with your Google Business efforts for your emergency room in Houston Texas, then you should check out the excellent runrex.com and guttulus.com who are the best in the area for such services.
