The Clinic Marketing Podcast - Local SEO & Healthcare Digital Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

Your Clinic's Google Ranking Depends on These Key Factors [Propel Playback]

• Darcy Sullivan

Share episode

What makes your clinic visible in local searches? It's a question that haunts many healthcare providers struggling to attract new patients online. The answer lies in understanding the complex signals that influence local search rankings – signals that vary dramatically depending on your location, specialty, and competition.

Diving deep into the world of local SEO, we explore the critical differences between ranking in the Google Map Pack and the localized organic results below it.

Episode Webpage & Shownotes: https://propelyourcompany.com/local-seo-what-influences-local-visibility/

Send in your questions. ❤ We'd love to hear from you!

⚡ Free Workshop + Bonus ⚡

How to Dominate the First Page of Google and Get More New Patients Without Spending Money on Ads

Rank at the top of Google and get free website traffic.

Join me in the workshop and find out how!

https://propelyourcompany.com/learn

Let's Stay Connected:


Speaker 1:

Hello, welcome to this episode of the Clinic Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design. Welcome to episode 98. Today we're talking about what really influences your local visibility online. If you haven't had a chance to listen to episode 96, which was called how Local SEO is Different from Traditional SEO Key Differences, you Need to Know you might want to listen to that either before or after you listen to this episode, as the two really go well together. As we continue to talk about basic SEO strategies, we'll leave a link to that episode in the show notes if you haven't had a chance to listen to it. But today we're taking it to the next level and talking about local SEO and what really influences your local visibility online. We're going to dig into signals that influence your visibility in local searches, because understanding these factors is really the foundation for an effective local SEO strategy.

Speaker 1:

Before we dive in, I want to give a disclaimer. No one outside of Google knows exactly how the local algorithm works. Not even Google's own engineers fully understand it these days, thanks to the complexity of machine learning. What we do know comes from years of observation, experimentation and research. That said, local SEO is complex and there's no one-size-fits-all solution. The strategies that work, for example, for a chiropractor in Los Angeles won't look the same as those for an acupuncturist in a small town. And even within the same profession, the tactics might vary depending on the level of competition in your specific geographical area. For example, the SEO strategy for a med spot in Miami with dozens of competitors in a tight radius will differ from one in a suburban area with fewer direct competitors.

Speaker 1:

To make sense of it all, there's a valuable resource you should know about. It's the Local Ranking Factor Survey. Each year, top SEO experts from around the world contribute to the survey, which breaks down the factors that most influence local search rankings. This data proves a fantastic roadmap for understanding some of the signals you need to optimize to increase both your visibility in the Google Map Pack and the localized organic results. Again, if you didn't listen to episode 96, this might be a good time to hit pause and give it a listen so that you understand the difference between traditional SEO and local SEO. Once you understand those differences, it's also important to note that within local SEO, there are also categories of local search results.

Speaker 1:

So let's pause for a minute to clarify the two main areas of local search results that you're aiming to rank in. First, you have the Google Map Pack. That's the Google Maps. That's what's controlled by your Google Business Profile listing, and this is the section that displays the map and the top three business listing. It's highly visible and incredibly valuable for your local business. Below the map pack results, we also have localized organic results. These are the traditional organic listings that appear below the map pack but are still tailored to a searcher's geographical location when the intent is localized. While the same signals influence both areas, they weigh differently depending on where you're trying to rank, and we're going to look at this closer.

Speaker 1:

I think that this is a good time, though, to make a mention that we keep saying Google, google, google here as we're talking about this, but a couple of episodes ago we talked about how ChatGPT is even changing its localized search results and factors that are going into it. So, even though we're talking about Google here, some of these key elements, some of the key strategies and tactics, matter, no matter where you're trying to rank on search. If you're trying to rank on Bing or Yahoo or ChatGPT, some of these things are still going to go into play. But let's jump back now into Google and talk about the Google Map Pack and Google Map Ranking Factors. I had mentioned earlier about the local search ranking factor survey and that detailed survey will be included in the show notes if you want to do a deeper dive into that. But when it comes to the map pack, here are some key ranking factors that you want to consider proximity this is how close the searcher is to the physical locations that in depth being displayed. I think we all understand the importance of reviews.

Speaker 1:

On-page signals, again for your Google business profile listing, it matters that your website is optimized, so these include optimizing your web content for local SEO. We have inbound links. These are quality backlinks from reputable sites, especially local ones. For this, for example, if you're a chiropractor, you can think of partnerships with local health organizations or sponsorships for community events. We have behavioral signals. Google tracks users' behavior, like how often people click on your listing, call your business directly from their mobile device. The more people interact with your listing, the better chance you have of ranking.

Speaker 1:

We have citations. Citations are your listings your name, address and phone number across all directories, like Yelp and Healthgrades. We want to make sure that these remain consistent. It used to be that Google relied more on outside citations than it does these days, but it still is important. We also have personalization. This refers to Google tailoring the results based on the individual user's search history, preferences and other data. While we can control personalization, it's a good thing to know that it's in play. We also have openness, and I think sometimes it's hard for people to understand this, but if my car breaks down and I'm on the side of the road and I go to Google and I search tow truck near me, google's going to want to deliver a tow truck that I can actually have come get me as soon as possible. So if there's eight places but only four of them are open, it's going to be more likely to show me the ones that are open above the ones that are closed during the specific time of my search. So that was great.

Speaker 1:

We talked about the map pack. Right, we talked about. Those are your Google business profile listing. What controls your Google Maps listing.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about the localized organic ranking factors. So, while the map pack is highly visible, we do not want to overlook the localized organic results, especially for your chiropractors, physical therapists and other healthcare professionals. Many searchers scroll past that map section to find a business that has more detailed information, like blog posts, like services, which means that your website needs to be absolutely optimized. And we'll go through and talk about a little bit about those localized organic ranking factors. Again, it's not a one size fits all process when you're optimizing, especially when you're optimizing your website, and we need to make sure that the whole idea isn't just to slap the name of your city all over your website. It's to really make sure that you're providing the correct information in a way that's easy to digest for your website visitors and also easy for them to book an appointment. We have tons of resources for how to optimize your website and, if you are interested, we also do offer optimization services. You can always book a discovery call by visiting propellyourcompanycom. There you'll find a link to book a discovery call.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to talk about some of these localized organic rankings, but again, it really is the quality of everything that's included in your website that matters. So we have on-page website signals. These take the lead here because they're making your website a critical asset. For example, are you really truly optimizing for the keywords that you want to rank for? We have link signals. Those, again, are backlinks to your website. We have behavior signals, including the amount of time somebody spends on your website. Are tons of people coming to your website and then leaving the second? They get there because they're not finding the information that they're looking for. What happens? How does somebody engage with your website? We also have those citations that we talked about before. We have your Google business profile signals and reviews, but again, all of these items are weighted differently depending on if we're the rankings of your website. Again, talking about local SEO, there are a lot of key elements and overlap between the map pack and ranking on Google Maps and then also ranking your website, but the order that it goes into and the amount of the percentage of the weight Google has for each element is different based on which section you're talking about.

Speaker 1:

So this is great, but what does this mean for you? Well, for chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, med spa owners, other clinic owners, local SEO is all about building trust and visibility within your community. You want to start with the basics of making sure your Google business profile is created and optimized. You want to build consistent citations across multiple relevant directories. You want to make sure that your website is optimized for local content, and if this all sounds overwhelming, don't worry, that's why we're here Again. You can contact us at propilyourcompanycom and book a discovery call if you are interested in getting assistance with SEO. Thanks for listening today. Remember, local SEO is a marathon, it's not a spread. Small, consistent efforts can make a really big difference over time.