Google Maps listing is crucial for marketing your business. For successful healthcare digital marketing, healthcare providers like doctors, dentists and other medical practitioners can use Google My Business to claim and manage the info about their practice; they can personalize their business in Google Search and Maps. Google Maps can help you stay ahead of your competitors, get discovered by new customers, and generate more business. However, these benefits can be achieved only if your listings have strong visibility.
Google will not rank you automatically for a specific area, if your business is listed in that area. To achieve those benefits, it is important to follow some strategies to get your Google Maps listings rank higher in Google search results. According to Google report, around 28% of Google Maps local searches usually result in purchase. According to stanventures.com, 85% of consumers, who search for any local business in Google Maps visit there within 24 hrs. or 48 hrs.
From Google Maps listings, customers can easily find:
Reviews.
Credibility Scores.
Online reputation of the business.
These are the quick decision-making factors that drive people to make a purchase. Features like relevance, prominence, proximity and industry domain are the foundation to rank higher in Google Maps listing.
Some strategies to be followed to rank higher in Google Maps Listing:
Add your business to Google Maps Listing: If you don’t have your business added in Google Maps listing or are not sure about it, follow these steps to add your business to rank higher or perform successful Google Maps Marketing.
Go to Google Maps app on your smartphone or Google.com/maps and search for the name of your business.
If your business name along with the location near to it appears in the drop menu, you already have a listing.
When you click that, you will be asked to provide your name, category and location.
Verify/Claim Google My Business Listing: It is not just adding your business to the listing, you have to verify it. Until you have verified it, your business won’t show up on Google Maps. Anyone can add any business to Google Maps, but the one who claims or verifies the listing only can prove the ownership of the business and control over it. This is the second step to be followed to rank higher.
You are able to provide only your name, category and location when you add your business to the listing. But when you claim it, you can include more details about your business. Providing as much as information in the listing can bring you to a top-ranking position on Google Maps. But if you don’t claim your business you can’t do any of the following steps. If you already have an account, you can simply go to Google Maps listing and select the option that says “Claim the business”.
Add More Details to Your Google Maps Business Listing: As said before, when you add more information about your business the more likely you get to rank higher in the results. To add more information to your listing:
Select the info tab, which includes your name, category, address, service area (if there), hours, special hours, contact number, website, products, services, attributes and description.
To rank higher on Google maps, follow these tips to optimize these Google My Business account sections:
Make sure the name and address of the business you provide in Google My Business dashboard is exactly that and not a slight variation. That means, avoid making it short like using Ctr for Center, etc.
Provide your local telephone number with the area code of your location, it also helps searchers verify that your business is located in that area.
Add your track number as your primary business number if you use call tracking and main number as secondary business number.
Keep your working hours updated to let users know if your business is open, closed, temporary closed or opening soon or closing soon. This will help you with ranking as you are sending signals to Google that you are active and trustworthy. It is also important to update working hours to avoid negative reviews, it will affect your rankings.
Write a business description on the listing to provide a big picture of your business by including proper keywords to rank not only for searches that include your business name, but also for searches for products and services. The description should establish a better connection.
Choose the category properly in your business listing, as it is very important for your ranking. Choose the one that best represents the core offering of your business as primary category and choose secondary categories, if there is any other category. You cannot add custom categories, it is only possible to choose from the categories that you see in the drop-down menu.
Include Images to Your Google Maps Business Listing: Firstly, adding images to your listing signals to Google that you are an active listing worthy of ranking higher in results. Secondly, images will be shown in local search results as Google’s photo-recognition technology is advanced and third, it is the SEO rule of thumb, i.e. due to the reason that consumers love images, Google wants to give what consumers love. So, if you don’t add images to it, it will show a generic map like this:
While adding images, it is better to add high-quality and compelling images. You can add images by going to “Photos” tab in your Google My Business dashboard.
Invite Google Reviews: Google Maps will always rank the business with positive reviews to give its users the best experience. Studies show that the more the number of Google reviews, the more trustworthy will be the business. Reviews are the first thing that people notice on any website to know how much you can trust a product and services. It helps people with quick decision-making. Getting reviews in the listing is more important to increase conversion rates than other local SEO strategies.
You should be proactive in asking the users for reviews and also, you need to respond to them. Responding to them will encourage more of them and weaken the damage of negative reviews. It will also show your customers how attentive you are to them and the way of resolving the issues.
Consolidate Google Maps Listings: Avoid duplicate listings and unnecessary information to make sure that your one true listing will rank. Businesses providing multiple phone numbers, or locations for one actual business will be discredited by Google.
Regularly Post in Google Maps Business Listing: You can create and share posts regularly in Google Maps business listing like you do on Facebook. It tells Google that you are proactively managing your listing, which is considered when ranking. When consumers are on search-engines, they will be having high-intent, with the help of Google posts, you will get your offers in front of a ready-to-engage audience.
When it comes to ranking higher on Google Maps, optimizing your website also plays an important role.
Optimize your website: Make sure your website is optimized to be accessed from any device. That means, it should function consistently across any device or screen size. The reason is Google maps will contain a link to your website and according to studies, nearly 60% of Google searches are done through mobile phones. So, if your website is facing issues like slow to load, broken links, etc it will affect your rankings.
Add Local Keywords to Your Site: To boost your ranking in Google Maps, the next method is to target it for local search. It will help your business rank higher but also after considering how high your Google Maps business listing ranks. So, make sure that you add location-based keywords to the main pages of your website such as the Home Page, About Us page, Contact Us page, Products and Services page and also in the title, body, image tags, captions and URL of the blog posts.
Insert the Google Map on Your Website: Most businesses insert Google Maps on the Contact Us page, to rank higher or better on Google Maps. It ensures that you are in the location that you mentioned on Google My Business. Use the same address that you have given in the Google Maps business listing.
To insert Google Map:
Get your physical location on the map.
Click on the three-lined button beside your venture name.
Right-click on share map.
You will get a link, copy and paste it on the Contact Us page.
Watch this video for strategies that can help achieve top ranking on Google Maps
Google Maps results are relevant and interactive. People find it very helpful for decision-making. By using Google Maps effectively in healthcare digital marketing, doctors can find an increase in the number of patients visiting, it improves their overall practice, and enhances trust when listed in the top positions of Google Maps listings. Therefore, it is very important to achieve the top search position in Google Maps local listings. It will be helpful for your business to achieve maximum visibility along with high traffic.
Writing a great blog post involves a lot of research and effort. The focus should be on communicating your message or idea quickly and powerfully. Blog posts can range from 300-5000 words or more. Irrespective of the length of the blog post, you have got to get the reader’s attention and hold it. Healthcare digital marketing involves creating blog posts to provide information about health-related concerns that readers may have. A good blog will help capture the user’s attention, and build trust and authority with the target audience. Healthcare blogs provide interesting and timely information to visitors, and will more likely convert your visitors.
With high-quality and accessible content, blogs can build a dedicated audience base and increase your website traffic. It is not easy to run successful blogs, for that there are some tips to be followed.
Pick an Interesting Topic: The more interested you are in your topic, the more engaged your readers will be when they are reading it. If there is a lack of enthusiasm from the writer’s side, there is nothing like that that can kill your post.Before choosing the right topic, consider these things:
Choose what interests you and it should be relevant, don’t pick any topic just because others are making money from that.
Don’t write a blog on a topic if you know very little about it.
Your blog must have a focus, be careful not to write about too diverse a range of subjects.
To select a topic for your blog post you must:
Be confident.
Choose authoritative sources if you depend on third-party information to do research on the topic. This will help you to deliver the right information for the public.
Have excellent knowledge.
Check your facts.
Know Your Audience: Before writing the blog post, understand your target audience. Get to know what they really want to know about and what will resonate with them. To understand your target audience once you have chosen your blog niche, the following tools can be helpful:
Quora: Since it is a platform that is based on questions and answers, you can find out what questions people are asking in your blog niche. It is helpful to find tons of insights. First, do a few searches with some basic questions about the important topic in your blog and use “Related Searches” to find the relevant ideas people are talking about.
Google search: To find the ideal group of readers, quick search in Google will be helpful. It helps to find the people who are really interested in the information regarding a specific topic.
Discussion forums: These are very helpful to discover the main questions of your target audience. People use forums when they need help or want to share information with others. It also helps to find popular keywords in your blog niche.
Facebook groups: To find what people are talking about, Facebook groups really help. Search the groups to find out the questions and discussions happening about your blog niche. Seeing those questions and answers people have written about your niche will allow you to find if there is any similarity in what you have found in the discussion forms or to find out whether something important is missing.
Other blogs: Compare your blogs with your competitors and try to understand what posts work well for them.
Review sites and apps: Review sites and apps will help you understand people’s interests in certain products and services. If yours is a travel blog, then you have to check TripAdvisor. For instance, to provide services in your area or a specific region, check out reviews on Google and Yelp.
These tools will help you find your target audience. It will help you create content (and products) that match with what your audience are actually looking for. For instance, if your readers are millennials looking to start a business, instead of providing them information about how to get started in social media (most of them already have that down), provide them information about how to adjust their social media approach.
Deliver your content by understanding your audience by considering their age, gender, location, job, income, education level, personality, marital status, interests and hobbies. This will enable your website to gain more traffic, and also increase conversions.
Writing a Compelling Headline: Having a compelling headline is crucial for your blog’s success, where it increases the chance of the blog post to be read and shared. When writing a headline, you can use two methods: Either decide your final headline before writing the rest of your blog or write a blog post using a working title and see what is the suitable title when you are done. Putting headlines depends on your audience. It varies according to them. If you decide to put questions as your headlines, be sure your audience is genuinely interested in the question. So, start focusing on your headlines, because headlines are the first point of connection with your prospective customer.
The Writing Part: After doing research based on your topic and target audience, and settled on a headline or a working title, next comes the writing part. Choose what works for you, whether it is the writing done in a single sitting or you can chip away at it gradually over time. However, it is better to write in a single sitting, as it helps to stay focused on the topic. It minimizes the chances of missing crucial points and makes the work easier. The more you do it, writing becomes easier. Most people are trying to write the introduction first, a great strategy is to write the introduction last, and get into the meat of the blog post. Unfortunately, there are no hacks to make the writing task easy, you have to strive all by yourself to make it easier.
Choose Images Effectively: Sometimes people will not have the time or resolve to focus on lengthy posts without visual stimulation. Choosing images tells a story as much as the words do. Diagrams, infographics, charts, and any other visual assets will help readers understand abstract or complex topics and grasp the points you are trying to make. Using good images helps:
Your blog post flow more effectively.
To make great visual punchlines, mainly if you are writing about a boring topic.
To make complex topics easily understandable.
The Editing Part: Editing is not just correcting grammar mistakes or cutting sentences that don’t work. Good editing makes your writing style more effective and increases the clarity of your ideas. It tightens up your content so that it packs a punch and keeps your readers scrolling. Editors view the content differently and a properly edited content affects your business in a good way.Things to consider while editing:
Avoid repetitions.
To check the flow, read your post aloud.
Ask your friend or colleague to read your work.
Short sentences and short paragraphs make your audience’s job easier.
Don’t be afraid to make cuts if something doesn’t work.
Blogging is a great way to share information about your business and services, and it also allows you to share your opinions and thoughts on particular topics. Consider all these steps while writing a blog to improve your website traffic and also conversions. When it comes to healthcare digital marketing, blogging by creating quality content improves your visibility, and enables current and prospective patients to find you easily online. Consistent blog posts will help improve your credibility and enable you to establish a good relationship with your audience.
The healthcare industry is undergoing rapid changes and so are the ways in which people are trying to locate new healthcare providers and facilities. Attracting or inspiring patients to visit or reach your hospital is not an easy task. When it comes to attracting patients online, a hospital or healthcare practice is in constant competition with other similar players in their local area. Building a solid digital presence is a great opportunity for hospitals and independent practitioners to reach their target patient groups. Ensuring that your healthcare practice is listed everywhere your potential patients may be searching for your services online is the key to driving more web traffic. That is where the need of a comprehensive healthcare digital marketing strategy comes into the picture.
Why Do You Need Digital Marketing for Hospitals?
Hospital marketing is nowadays all about making a positive connection with your target patients. Nowadays, before choosing a healthcare practice or consulting a physician, it is quite common for people to go online to know more about the hospital, physicians and level of services. It is estimated that about 70 percent of people feel that feedback about a hospital and service they find online is the prime factor in deciding whether or not to avail services from that hospital/provider. There are multiple digital channels like social media, search engines, websites etc through which hospitals can build a solid online presence before their target audiences. Ensuring that your hospital is listed in the right places with the most updated information about your products and services is important for successful digital marketing.
Here are some top ways to effectively market your hospital or healthcare practice online –
Build a Strategic, Responsive Website – A healthcare website is often your prospective patient’s first touch point with your brand, so it is important to create the right image from the very start. To maximize your online presence, start by designing a responsive, optimized website that is simple, user-friendly, intuitive, easy to navigate and visually appealing; and that acts as your main marketing hub for communicating with patients online. A website for your hospital should always include the location, phone number and directions. Clear display of contact information must be included in the page, along with multiple options for patients to get in touch. In addition, a patient FAQ page must also be included that addresses the most common questions and allows for self-service.
Ensure Your Ranking on Search Engines – Now that you have set up a website, the next step is to ensure that your website is search engine friendly. Perform a basic level keyword research related to your field to figure out what your target audience is searching for. Conduct a competitor analysis to find out what your competitors are ranking for. Then, carefully devise a strong SEO plan by creating quality content that helps your website rank high on Google search results.
Create Quality Content That Educates – Creating top-quality content that educates your target audience would drive more traffic to your website. Post quality content in the form of blog posts, eBooks, articles and white papers as this helps create value to readers and build trust between your patients and your hospital over time. The content should give answers to the common questions that patients are repeatedly asking about their health and your particular focus area. For instance, if a patient is planning to consult an orthodontist, then he/she may also search for information on braces or questions like “how much do braces cost?” or “how long do you need to wear braces?”
Build Your Brand Visibility via Social Media – Currently, social media has become a very powerful tool in hospital marketing. According to reports, more than 2.65 billion people worldwide were actively using at least one social media platform in 2018. It is estimated that by 2021, social media will account for just fewer than 20 percent of the average marketing spend. Hospital marketing via social media platforms should rightly focus on building trust with your prospective patient groups. Try to deliver value with each post like posting valuable health-related content as this would enhance your brand reach and increase patient visits.
Run PPC campaigns – While searching for a new hospital or medical facility, people will try to search for a practice near their location. Increasing your visibility on the search engines is one way to bring your potential patients into your facility. Including pay-per-click or PPC ad campaigns as part of your healthcare marketing strategy is one way to get immediate results on search engines. PPC ads appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) when people type in search terms (relevant to your practice). Unlike organic SEO, PPC ads generate instant results and allow you to target your ideal patients. This in turn helps in quality lead generation and high return on investment. For example, many patients search for hospitals near their home, work, or current location, and PPC ads can be a great tool to build local traffic. By correctly targeting keywords and phrases that include the city or region that your hospital is currently located in, you can attract more local patients to your website.
Humanize Your Brand – Instill the human side into your hospital marketing. Try to build trust with your patients. According to a PwC study, one in three consumers feel that trust is the most important element that influences their decision, even more so than price. Hospitals should try to highlight their services, community partnerships, events and other elements that will instantly connect people to your brand. Social media can be a strong platform for humanizing your brand by allowing patients to see the level of services offered.
Patient reviews – Medical SEO is a highly competitive field and often certain small but important details make the difference for the healthcare digital marketing efforts for your hospital. In the healthcare context, patient and healthcare consumer reviews matter and are important for building your reputation. Reports suggest that about 92 percent of people are influenced by what they read online. Reviews help patients decide which hospital to seek treatment from. In fact, people trust recommendations from family and friends more than any kind of advertising. It is important that you encourage your patients to post reviews. If your existing customers are satisfied with the services you offer, they will be happy to review your hospital brand on sites such as Yelp, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages and Healthgrades.
Allow Your Patients to Market Your Practice – Word-of-mouth marketing is an important technique for building your patient network. Provide your customers a platform to evaluate or rate their experiences with your hospital by sending online surveys to them after their visit or including a feedback form on your hospital website itself. Create video testimonials of your patient success stories to post on your website. Publishing patient experiences on your website is a more authentic approach than writing your own marketing messages. In addition, creating a customer referral program that offers incentives for your existing patients may inspire them to recommend your services to friends, family, and acquaintances.
Get referrals from physicians – Try to build a good rapport with the local doctor community. As a number of physicians own private clinics, letting them know about your hospital amenities and treatment services that you offer would help these physicians recommend your hospital to their patients as well.
Digital marketing for hospitals can be challenging and requires careful consideration of several strategies. The above-mentioned points are some of the top ways to effectively market your hospital or healthcare practice online. Just as the healthcare industry changes over time, so do the strategies for finding and attracting new patients. Therefore, if you want to grow and maintain a successful healthcare practice, it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest digital marketing strategies in healthcare.
The healthcare domain has become highly competitive with more healthcare providers and innovative medical technologies making their appearance. Physicians, hospitals and health systems overall have recognized the growing significance of medical SEO. Building strong online visibility is important for the success of any medical practice as it helps attract potential patients and healthcare consumers. Nowadays, before choosing a healthcare practice or consulting a physician, it is quite common for individuals to go online to know more about the physician or his/her services. The relevance of reviews becomes evident here. Reviews are important for any medical business. Whether online reviews, opinions or feedback, reviews are one of the most trusted and frequently used sources for patients. Online reviews are made by existing patients and these can help future patients to make an informed decision. Reviews can either be positive or negative. While positive reviews are encouraging and will help attract more patients, negative reviews are a sign that there is more room for improvement of services. Importantly, one cannot simply ignore negative reviews. It is important to acknowledge them and respond in the best way possible.
Importance of Online Reviews
Gathering patient reviews can be valuable for strengthening the online reputation of a medical practice. However, obtaining positive reviews is a real challenge. This is because patients are motivated by their own goals, so it is not their responsibility to provide your medical practice with feedback. In fact, many patients are reluctant to fill out surveys or respond to requests to provide reviews due to the inconveniences these activities can cause. Some others may be skeptical of the questions that may be asked and may not feel comfortable with providing honest feedback. This is where creativity and expert tips may come in to play.
Online reviews are a trust signal. More healthcare consumers than ever consider patient reviews as influential when looking for a provider. According to recent research reports, about 69.9 percent of consumers see positive patient reviews as “very” or “extremely” important. 72 percent use reviews as the first step to finding a new physician. It is estimated that 60.8 percent consumers avoid physicians based on negative reviews.
Why Are Many Healthcare Practices Skeptical About Online Reviews?
Generally, many healthcare practices struggle with reviews. One of the most common problems is that many healthcare practices are uncomfortable asking for reviews. Providers fear that it will strain the patient relationship. The second problem is that if at all these practices ask for reviews, they don’t get many. This means that they are not asking in the right way, at the right time and with the right tools.
Local Listings – The Foundation of Reviews
One of the initial steps before expanding your patient review collection is to ensure that your local location listings contain the correct information. Start with Google My Business – one of the top review platforms. The information generated via this platform can easily be syndicated to other directories beyond Google. This can be done using listing management tools which can be found online with a simple Google search. However, make sure to read the fine print to understand the key features and limitations of the listing tool selected. One common challenge with listing management is that healthcare practices often have listings for both the practice as well as the physician. As Google allows listings for both the physician and the practice for one single location, this can cause issues because review management platforms / directories may view them as conflicting locations as they share the same address.
So, it is highly recommended that business listings on review management platforms should be focused on the practice, not the physician. There are separate platforms just for physician reviews that can help you create and share those physician listings to the appropriate platforms. However, it is important to have a proper strategy to grow both the healthcare practice and physician reviews.
Why is Review Marketing Important for Physicians – Top Strategies
A patient review strategy helps improve the brand reputation, attract the interest of patients, increase revenue and create more buzz about the medical practice now and in the long run. In most cases, patient feedback can come in the form of reviews, private emails, star ratings and video testimonials. Patient feedback can be used to encourage prospects to visit your healthcare practice and avail your services. Patient reviews can also impact search engine optimization (SEO). A well-written review with the right keywords can make your healthcare practice appear in Google searches and increase your online footprint.
It is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for increasing patient reviews. No matter, you get reviews from multiples sources or from a handful of sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp and Healthgrades, it is important to devise a clear-cut strategy to get more patient reviews –
Set up profiles on top review sites – One of the initial steps is to select third-party review sites that are relevant within the healthcare industry, attract users and show up results when your medical practice is searched online. For most healthcare practices, a combination of Yelp, Facebook, and Healthgrades is more than enough. Once the review sites are shortlisted, set up accounts.
Ensure compliance – Some review sites, for instance, Yelp – disfavor healthcare providers asking patients for reviews. On the other hand, sites like Google are just the opposite, allowing marketers and providers to proactively ask for online reviews. When you try to reach out to patients to give reviews about your healthcare practice, make sure that your efforts are in compliance with each individual review site’s guidelines.
Ask patients – Asking patients is one of the best ways to increase reviews for your healthcare practice. Patients know the relative importance of reviews to your healthcare practice and as long as you provide excellent service, they may be glad to do a review. When patients compliment your service via phone, email or personally, make sure to tell them to leave their feedback via a review on your website, or Yelp, or the review website of their choice.
Selectively identify patients for reviews – One of the simplest strategies to increase reviews is to ask the patients in person about their experiences. If you know someone who had a positive experience, encourage them to share it for the benefit of other patients, as well as the growth of your practice. It is often best to ask them in person, with a follow-up email to remind them a day or two after their visit.
Automate Email requests for reviews – Automating email requests is one of the top ways for medical practices to collect reviews and it is the best strategy that is likely to have the most impact on generating a large number of reviews. To attract the best possible response, send a review request email within a week of the appointment to take advantage of the positive feelings. Timing can make a significant difference between positive and negative reviews, so it is important to establish rules. For instance, if you are a plastic surgeon performing a tummy tuck, never try to send out that request a few days after the surgery, but rather after a follow-up appointment. Ideally, this should be a completely hands-off process automated through your email system. One of the best ways to automate review collection via email is to use a customer relations management system to create a definite workflow that will send an email request to specific patients individually once they fulfill the conditions outlined.
Make it convenient for patients to leave a review – Make it easy and convenient for patients to leave reviews as this will help attract more patient reviews.
Consider taking reviews in your healthcare practice – Collecting reviews in your office before or after patient appointments is another important strategy. This can help attract reviews from the patients when your practice is top of mind.
Respond to existing reviews – When a patient leaves a review, he/she normally expects a response to their feedback. However, it is estimated that two-thirds of patients never get a response. Responding to patient reviews shows that you care for their opinion – which is extremely important for any healthcare organization. Patients, at most times want to know whether their reviews are valuable and can contribute or effect the way a provider perceives patient care and experience. While responding to reviews, organizations need to be aware of the existing HIPAA guidelines to protect patient data. One way to avoid this issue is to create pre-drafted responses. For instance, the marketing team at “Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Miami FL, United States”, notifies the reviewer that the hospital is aware of their comments. They also encourage patients to take the conversation offline and provide more detailed feedback. With such carefully-worded responses, any healthcare organization can influence each review to improve the experience of patients and show them that their current and future feedback is important.
Respond to negative reviews – Before responding to negative reviews, make sure to check your records to see whether the review posted is genuinely by one of your patients or customers. If not, it could well be a fake review. Whatever be the negativity conveyed in the review, make sure your responses are all positive. Address the complaint specifically. Your responses must address the following points –
Thank the reviewer for their genuine opinion
Point out your specific concern
Apologize for the trouble caused and be honest about any mistakes made by your practice
Acknowledge the reviewer’s concern as genuine, and if you feel it can’t be true, follow the next step
Explain the possible reasons for the person to have felt wronged
Provide a contact number to the concerned individual for the complaint to be fully redressed
Publish reviews on your website – Publishing reviews on your healthcare website has several advantages. These include –
Patients can read reviews, ask questions, and mark reviews as helpful or unhelpful.
Other patients can see that people are happy with the services.
Original, user-generated content is great for ranking and SEO.
If the reviews are generally positive, make sure to share them via social media channels and display them on your website.
Incentivize (if appropriate) – Consider incentivizing the patient review requests. However, it is important to do this carefully. No matter what specialty you are serving, you never want to let others know that you are paying patients to write positive reviews about your practice. For instance, healthcare practices can give offers to patients like anyone who writes a review in a specific month will be eligible for a free consultation.
Patient reviews are a powerful tool that every healthcare practice must utilize correctly to increase patient volume and strengthen online reputation. Obtaining positive reviews from patients and reducing the impact of negative reviews are the major considerations when it comes to healthcare digital marketing. Healthcare providers must ensure that reviews regarding their services are regularly monitored and identify any concerns patients may have and address them appropriately. By incorporating valuable reviews in the content strategy and using them as a channel to connect with patients, healthcare practices can establish an engaging brand. However, growing reviews doesn’t usually happen overnight and in most cases, patients may not take the time to write reviews. By carefully considering the above-mentioned strategies, healthcare practices can increase both the quantity and quality of the reviews they receive, and establish a brand that is engaging and trustworthy.
Innovations by Google in its search algorithm have always kept webmasters on tenterhooks. When it comes to the competitive world of healthcare SEO, every Google algorithm and SERP change needs to be monitored.
The Origin of the Deduplication Update
Back in January 23, Google brought in the deduplication update which kept URLs that made it to the featured snippets from repeating themselves in the search results below. Featured snippets have always been right at the top of the results, but earlier they occupied position zero in the search results and the URL re-appeared in the first page of the SERPs. However, with the update, featured snippets are considered position 1 in the results. So those URLs won’t get repeated below. But the update has kept evolving and, as some SEOs noticed, there are variations in how the featured snippets appear.
Evolution of Featured Snippets
Search Engine Land reports that there is a specific kind of featured snippets that don’t come up in top position in the organic results. These featured snippets are similar to knowledge panels in terms of certain features. They are triggered for a small section of queries. Search Engine Land’s Brodie Clark could find some common features in the new featured snippets, after analyzing millions of queries.
Featured snippets that used to appear on the right side of the results on desktop SERPs are those affected the most. These featured snippets are no longer seen. Google’s earlier plan was to merge these snippets after the deduplication update. It was considered a disadvantage to be having those positions. As per Google Search Console, these featured snippets on the right side of the SERPs were considered position 11 on the SERPs.
At times, when the featured snippet is not in the top spot, it is commonly seen in the 2nd and 3rd spots. It has also been reported to be all the way down in the 7th spot. And it’s worse in mobile.
Format Changes Noticed for Featured Snippets
The format for the new featured snippet is slightly different than before as the illustration below describes.
As you can see, what’s new with the new featured snippet is the People Also Search For (PASF) feature. The way images are arranged is also different as well as the snippet text. The PASF, though, isn’t seen in all searches. Moreover, these observed changes have only been seen in a small percentage of search queries. And most of these queries aren’t exactly questions. So, the change can’t be considered widespread or even noticeable all the time. For the relevant keyword searches for your site, you may perhaps find this for only around 1% of searches.
While this change may be insignificant, it is important to keep monitoring the SERPs since that’s where the results of your efforts are seen. With advanced healthcare digital marketing services, all aspects of search engine optimization are dealt with, including dealing with the SERP updates.
