In case you’re not already aware, Google plays a vital role in your practice’s ability to generate traffic to your website. Most people understand the value of being ranked highly on search engines, particularly Google, since the majority of web users search with Google. However, there’s more to Google than just a search engine. Here are some Google accounts that every practice needs to have:
1) Google Analytics– If you don’t track traffic how will you know how the site is performing? What keywords are people searching for that bring them to the site? How long are they staying on the site? You need to be able to track all of this, and Google Analytics is the best free software available. It’s also wise to set up conversion tracking to see how many people are submitting contact forms on your site (or making purchases, if applicable).
2) Google Places– Every local business needs to be on Google Places. You’ll notice that now, more than ever, local business listings are showing up in search results. These appear next to a map with A, B, C, etc listings. It’s almost impossible to show up here without a completed Google Places account. Make sure that when you create a Places account you include your top keywords you’d like to rank for, but don’t keyword stuff. Add all your photos and videos to complete your profile, and most of all, get your patients to review you through your Google Places account.
3) Google Webmaster Tools– Another important place to have a presence is Webmaster Tools. You can see how well your site is being crawled, if there are any duplicate content issues, if there are broken links or if there are crawl errors. You can submit your sitemap, which helps Google to more easily scan your entire website, and you can even designate sub-links, which are the the additional links that show up under your home page listing in Google search results.
4) Youtube channel– I added this because Youtube is owned by Google. Having a Youtube channel gives you another opportunity to rank highly on search engines. Obviously you’ll need to add videos to your channel. Make sure to optimize these videos for your desired keywords and backlink to both the video and your channel.; this will help your videos and channel outrank your competitors on Google and other search engines. Finally, just having videos, especially patient testimonial videos, gives your practice much more credibility and social proof.
5) Google Feedburner– This is often overlooked, but if you have a blog, you need to set up Google Feedburner. This will allow people to subscribe to your RSS feed and get email updates every time you post a new blog article. With Feedburner you can also automatically post your blog articles to Twitter.
Other ideas:
1) Google Adwords– If you’re going to advertise online then Google Adwords is the place to do it. You can place ads on search engines and on other websites. Even better, you can target people who have been to your site before by placing your ads on sites affiliated with Google AdSense; this is called behavioral targeting, or as Google calls it, “re-marketing.”
2) Google mail– If you’re setting up new email addresses then you might want to consider Google mail, as opposed to the main alternative, Outlook. Google mail is very easy to use, and best of all, you can easily share documents and tasks with other co-workers, employees, clients and business partners.
If you have any questions about any of the items discussed in this article, or you would like to learn more, then contact TRBO ADvance today, or give us a call at 877-673-7096 x2.
