How many patients are searching for an optometrist in your area?
According to Google, the average number of searches in capital cities for “optometrist” ranges between 140 searches/month in Darwin to 720 searches/month in Melbourne.
Perhaps you are outside a capital city. For example, the regional town of Colac, Victoria, where I practice, has 10 searches/month. This is not bad for a town with two existing optometry practices and 11,770 people. This compares well to Warrnambool, Victoria which has a population of over 33,000 and 50 searches/month.
If you live within a regional area of Victoria, you can estimate the number of Google searches per month in your regional area. Simply divide your population by approximately 1100.
According to a 2014 Google Study, 50% of people searching on Google from a smartphone, went into a store within 24 hours of doing a search.
How can you advertise for free to these new patients?
Google My Business offers local businesses a free extra way to show up in the search results. If a prospective patient types in “Optometrist Portland”, the results from Google My Business are shown across search results, Google Maps and Google+ results.
Martin Shirvington, of plusmybusiness.com, said that as of last year only 37% of businesses had claimed their free Google My Business page.
What information can you find out from Google My Business?
- Driving Directions– the number of people who clicked for driving directions to your Practice
- Phone Calls– the number of people who called your practice (from their smartphone). You can also sort phone calls by the Day of Week and Time of Day. This tells you when people are searching for your Practice
- Total Clicks– the number of people clicking on your Google My Business Page
- To Your Website– the number of people clicking from your My Business Page to your Practice Website
Summary:
Google My Business adds a simple way to attract more patients to your Practice. You can track how effective your page is. And it’s free!
How to sign up for Google My Business?
If you have a Google or Gmail account, go to google.com/business.
Register your practice name and contact details. Google will then send you a postcard via mail to verify your information. This takes about 1-3 weeks to arrive. Once you receive it, type in the number on the back to verify your address with Google. Then you can customise your Practice Information, including practice photos, opening hours and more.
