How Your Dental Website and Google My Business Listing Work Together

A lot goes into your dental practice’s digital footprint. However, there are two components that you absolutely can’t ignore: your website and your Google My Business listing. Everyone knows that you have to have a website in 2019 but not everyone understands how important a Google My Business (GMB) listing is or how the two work together. That’s why we’re here! In this post, we’ll talk about all the ways your dental website and Google listing work together to boost your local SEO and bring you more leads. (And if you’d like to try optimizing your listing yourself, here’s our complete guide to optimizing your dental practice’s Google My Business listing.)

Trends With Dental Websites

First, let’s talk about a trend we’ve been seeing with our dental clients: Fewer people are visiting the website but calls are actually up! Instead of going to the website to get the clinic’s phone number, more patients are calling from Google My Business. In February 2019, this dental practice had 64 phone calls from their Google My Business listing. Without a well-optimized listing, they could have missed out on those calls! And you can see that 81 people went to their website by clicking the link in their Google listing. That’s 145 people that were led to either call this practice or visit their website because of the information in their Google My Business listing. And that’s just one way your website and Google My Business listing work together to bring you new leads. Here are 5 more ways your website and Google listing complement each other:

1. Your Google Listing Contains a Link To Your Website

One of the most basic features of Google My Business (and likely one of the first things you’ll add) is a link to your website. Adding this link is part of optimizing your Google listing and is obviously great for directing people to your website. It’s especially helpful if you don’t show up organically but are in the Google 3 Pack because with this link, people can still get to your site easily.

2. Your Website Tells Google What You Offer

When you list your services on your dental office’s website, which you should do, Google pulls that information to display on your listing and in search results. For example, when I searched “emergency dentist Cary,” Google knew to show this practice because their website mentions emergency dental services: It’s important to have a website with your services and treatments listed so Google can show your practice to more people searching for what you offer.

3. Google Can Help You Book Appointments

You probably have an appointment link on your website. Good news: you can add the same link to your Google My Business listing! Taking people straight to your appointment booking page saves them time and makes it easy for them to book with you. Making it easy for a client is never a bad thing!

4. Google Reviews Drive People to Your Website

Reviews are a huge trust signal and are part of social proof: the psychological phenomenon where people follow the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior. In other words, when people see that other people like your practice, they’re more likely to visit your website, give you a call, book an appointment, or all of the above. A Google My Business listing is the easiest way to gather reviews and is probably where people will look for them most often. Other review sites carry weight but Google is definitely the standard. Look at the examples below. Which dental practice would you contact? If you’re like most people, you’d reach out to dentist #2 first. 195 reviews and a five-star rating is very powerful social proof. And if you struggle with getting reviews for your business, try our handy Google Review Link Tool. This generates a short and sweet link you can share on social media and/or printed marketing materials to make it easy for people to review your practice!

5. Google My Business Gives You Another Website

While it shouldn’t become a focus for you, Google gives you a free website with your Google My Business listing. You can access and edit it by clicking “website” on the left side of your Google My Business dashboard: This will take you to your website editor where you can customize your site: The information on this website comes from your Google My Business listing. It contains all the basics about your business, plus your photos, services, Google My Business posts, services, and reviews that have been added to Google My Business. How does it help your main website? It’s a source of quality backlinks, which help your SEO.

Google My Business + Your Website = More Patients

Optimizing your Google My Business listing and your website aren’t one-and-done marketing activities. Let our digital marketing experts maintain your website and GMB listing so you can focus on your patients. To learn more about our internet marketing services for dentists, call us 919-341-8901 or schedule your consultation here!

Tags: Dental Marketing