The primary goal of any well-planned online marketing strategy is to bring more new patients into the practice. Beyond that, ranking well in search engines such as Google will help your dental clinic gain recognition within your community. A strong Google My Business listing is part of gaining online visibility, and new features to take advantage of are rolling out near-constantly. Google Posts are an untapped resource for many dental practices that can have an impact on your web visibility, traffic and conversion rate.
Google Posts are short, catchy posts that incorporate an image from your website along with a link to guide traffic to your site. Google Posts are great short-term communication tools that last on your listing for seven days. If you are featuring a service or have a new patient special, this is a great way to make the community aware of what is happening in your dental clinic.
In a 2018 Great Dental Websites case study, we created a sample of fifty posts across thirteen practices. What we found was that the posts alone produced 70 extra website visits resulting in an impressive 24 extra conversions, or patient contacts.
Google Posts only take a few minutes. We have provided some beginner tips to help you get started:
1. Choose the type of post you want to create – specials, events or news about the practice. What would you like to broadcast to your potential patients?
Posts that look like a clickable button work best. If you don’t have a graphic design platform you like to use, we recommend making a free account on Canva. To create your post:
2. Use a solid background
3. Compose in 42 point font
4. Choose or create an image that is 750×750 pixels
5. Crop the post to centre text
6. Double check with the “preview” function
7. Publish your post. Though you can choose to make multiple posts, be sure to remember that they will disappear from your knowledge panel in seven days.
Studies show that Google Posts welcoming new patients to the practice have the best results. So, even if you don’t have a special or promotion, simply announcing you are accepting patients helps to draw the eye. Keep in mind, though, what works well for one dental clinic may be different than another. Do some experimentation to see what types of Google Posts speak to your community.
We welcome you to get in touch with questions about Google Posts. You can also find more information online here. If you are a current SEO client with GDW, your account manager will be a great resource to help you get started creating successful Google Posts.
