Why a Great Business Can Still be Invisible
Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a patient sees before they ever step into your clinic. Yet most clinics in Nagpur either have an incomplete profile or no profile at all — and wonder why their appointment book isn’t full. In this post, we’ll break down exactly why a great clinic can still be completely invisible online, and what you can do about it today.
A Physiotherapist in Godhani told me last week that his phone only rang on weekdays, leaving his Saturdays completely empty. When he finally asked a patient to reschedule for a Saturday, they were confused, “Wait, aren’t you closed then?” He spent every Saturday in his clinic thinking business was slow, while his Google Profile was telling the whole of Nagpur he was off the clock. He wasn’t just slow, he was invisible. How many patients had he accidentally handed over to a clinic in the next colony?
The Customer Journey Starts on a Google Search
Let’s take an example, someone has had a stiff neck for a couple of days and they can’t bear it any longer. It is eleven o’clock at night and they want to find a physiotherapist, what do they do? They go to Google and type in their query ‘physiotherapist near me’ or ‘best physio in Godhani.’ They didn’t call someone, they didn’t physically go out to search for a physiotherapist, they typed in their mobile phone. Today, about ninety percent of such journeys start from one’s phone or laptops.
Premium Real Estate on the World’s Busiest Street
A physical shop needs a board and signage and signals to indicate that they are open, but a physical shop is limited to the number of people actually passing near it. A Google Business Profile on the other hand can be shown to a lot of people through their own devices. They don’t have to physically come to your area to see your shop. Think of it as a retail space on a street called Google, it is not just another listing that you do. Whenever someone searches for ‘physio in Godhani’ your name ranks up if you have properly edited your GBP, which is basically free advertisement for your business.
What Is the Google Map Pack (And Why It Matters)
Do you know when you search “physio near me,” Google shows only three listings? This is what’s called the Map Pack. Of course one can also search for more places, but the top three listings are the ones that show up with the map and get the most attention and clicks. Being a fourth makes one almost invisible.
Why Only the Top 3 Businesses Get Most Clicks
Continuing with our earlier example, it’s eleven o’clock and I find two physiotherapists in Godhani fairly close by to each other. One has detailed reviews of the clinic and physiotherapist, the pictures are updated recently, their services are listed appropriately, the timings are updated, in short this one profile shows signs of active usage.
The second one on the other hand, doesn’t have many reviews, his photos are from three years ago, services are not listed properly, etc. Who do you think of the two physio clinics that send trust signals to someone who’s in pain and is looking for a genuine clinic to help him? The first one is active, people are leaving reviews, services are listed, all these things make choosing a lot easier, which leads to another significant point.
Active vs Inactive Google Business Profiles: What Customers See
You’re the best physio in Godhani, you have a loyal clientele, people come to you through referrals and word of mouth, so you never updated your Google Business Profile, what does that say? It means that people that really need you are missing out on the best that there is in Godhani or your service area. Not just that, no reviews, no photos, no updated information means low and/or no trust signals to potential customers which means people don’t know if they can trust you. Think about it, are you just losing customers or are you losing more?
How Reviews, Photos, and Updates Build Trust
The Active Signal
You’re going through the first clinic’s post and see a post with their new TENS/IFT machine for pain management and this is what you want. You scroll down further and see a recent video testimonial from a patient who used the same TENS/IFT machine and got rid of a stubborn pain. This is called being ‘Active’ which leads to increased Trust or more active signals lead to more trust signals.
The Q&A Section
You’ve gone through their profile, you’ve read the posts, you’ve decided you’re going to see them, but realise it’s the weekend and you worry if they are open or not and you find their Q&A section which answers all your queries. A business with a good GBP listing will always make sure to have an updated Q&A section so that customers can know in advance about their queries and questions. These generally include payment methods, parking, optional timings and other such things. It is like an FAQ section designed to boost engagement and conversions.
The Reviews
Google Business Profile allows users and customers to leave custom reviews on a page, these include text, photos and star ratings. Another measure of activeness of a profile would be the replying to of said reviews. If someone has left a three star review and was not satisfied with something, the business owner could engage with this specific customer and alleviate their concern suggesting you’re a business that actually cares about its customers.
How Local SEO Helps You Beat Bigger Competitors
If you’ve used Google Search before you’ll have realised it works on proximity and relevance. Taking the physio example again, if you search for a ‘physio in Godhani,’ Google will show you the most relevant results for your search and your proximity, not some huge corporate chain in another part of Nagpur or another city. This is the power of having an updated and active Google Business Profile, you become relevant to everyone that searches for your product or service in your area, you are the hero of your area.
Here is the link for Google’s official GBP guidelines. (See Google’s support pages for full policy.)
Is Your Google Business Profile Helping or Hurting You?
The thing about Google is that it prioritizes local businesses because it wants to give the user the easiest solution and like we discussed above there’s so many ways that we can utilize Google Business Profile to promote our own business. Services, photos, reviews, Q&A, there’s so many things you can do with your GBP without spending a ton on advertisement or actually any money for that matter.
Your Google Profile is either making you money or losing you money. There is no middle ground. Go look at your profile from a customer’s phone to see how they see you. If you don’t like how it looks, we can fix it together.