As some optometrists have discovered, the Internet can be a substantial source of new patients. That’s because Canadians are increasingly using search engines—Google, Yahoo!, Bing and others—as a quick way to find information about local businesses.

Below are five things Canadian optometrists can do to get more exposure by improving their ranking in search engines. If you would like clarifications on these points, please contact us or post your question at the bottom of this article.

1. Claim Your Google Listing

Have you ever done a Google search and noticed a map on the results page? Every business gets an automatic free listing in Google, but it’s important to "claim" it so that you control it. Once you’ve claimed your listing you can add details such as your business hours, payment methods, photos, and your website.

A claimed profile can bring you more businesses because it often ranks higher in the search results. When someone does a Google search for local optometrists, they may see your information on the map and visit your website for more details. For instructions, see our article How to Claim Your Optometry Business Listing in Google.

2. Verify Your Maps

When looking for an optometrist online, search engines will often show a city map with different offices plotted on it. The map is very useful for choosing a nearby optometrist and for getting directions there. But sometimes the map is wrong, as it was with one of our clients. Google showed her office to be several blocks away from the actual location, which could cause obvious problems for patients.

Verify your map by visiting maps.google.ca and searching for your business name and city. If your map is wrong, claim your listing (see tip #1 above) and follow the instructions for adjusting your location.

3. Keep Your Website Updated—for Both Your Audiences

This is more important than it may seem. Your website actually has two distinct audiences: your patients, and the search engines. Naturally, you want your site to look up-to-date (no old new, old photos, or out-dated designs) because it conveys to visitors that you run an active, modern practice.

But the search engines also read your website, and they reward sites that have fresh and current content. That’s because an updated site is more likely to have useful information than a stale site, and so it will be ranked higher on the search engine results page. You don’t have to make major changes to your website; consider just updating your site’s news section, or adding more information about your services.

4. Think About Keywords

If the text on your website closely matches what is typed into a search engine, your site is more likely to appear in the top search results. Try to guess the keywords people would type when looking for your services. We’ve founded hundreds of common keywords and keyphrases during our research, so you can start by including these common ones into your site’s text: "Optometrist in {your city name}", "eye exam", "eye doctor", "eye clinic", "vision test", and "eye disease", and "prescription glasses".

5. Get Free Online Promotion

There are plenty of websites where you can place a free link to your website. This is important for two reasons: first, some people may find your website by these links. But more importantly, the search engines count these links and use it as an indicator of how important your site is. While getting links to your site is important, you should consider what type of links you get, and how local and relevant the sites are that link to you. If you get too many links too fast, or links from the wrong types of websites, it can actually damage your site’s ranking.

Because the issue of "link building" is an important one, we’re preparing a more detailed article on how you can do it yourself should you choose, and what mistakes to avoid. Link building is also a component of Visible Optometry’s Local Online Ranking service.

Please join our email newsletter list to be notified when parts 2 and 3 of this article are published.

This brief tutorial explains how to use Google’s Local Business Center to improve your online visibility. Don’t be alarmed if you’ve never heard of the Local Business Center; most other business owners haven’t either. It’s a relatively-new system that lets you update and enhance the profile that Google already has on your practice.

Claiming your listing has four main benefits:

1. Your practice will rank higher in local Google searches.
2. You can add information to your profile such as business hours and your website.
3. You can see how many people view your listing.
4. You prevent others from modifying or claiming your profile first.

About Google’s Local Results

Google is becoming very important to small business owners. Many people use the Internet as their primary source of local information, and Google is by far the most popular search engine.

If you do a Google.ca search for “optometrists in ottawa”, Google understands you’re doing a local search, and so it provides a map as the first result, followed by the ten regular search results. This map is very important because people make their choices based on which listings are nearby, and on the websites of each listed optometrist.

Google results for "optometrist in ottawa"

But notice there are only seven mapped results when there are over 40 optometrists in Ottawa. How does Google decide which optometrists to list first?

Ranking order is determined by two main factors:

1. How relevant your listing is to the search query
2. How “important” Google thinks your business is

There are specific ways to improve both your listing’s relevance and your importance, but the first step is to claim your listing.

Claiming Your Listing

Step 1: Create a Google user account

You can make a new Google account here. Note that if you already have a GMail account (Google’s email system), you already have a Google account.

Click "more info" to see your listing details

Step 2: Find your business listing

Visit maps.google.ca and search for your business by typing your business name and city. If you can’t find it, try typing it exactly as it’s printed in the Yellow Pages and include the street address.

After searching you will see a large map in the right panel, and a list of businesses in the left panel. Click "more info" next to your listing, as shown in the image to the right.

Step 3: Claim your listing

After clicking "more info" you will see a listing details page similar to the image below. Now you can see what information Google has already collected about your business. Because Google collected it automatically from various sources, there may be errors which you’ll want to correct.

Click on the "Claim your business" link. Use your new Google account username and password from Step 1 if you’re asked to log in.

Claim your listing

Step 4: Add or correct information

Now that you’re in Google’s Local Business Center you should have no trouble adding or correcting your listing details. Make your listing more complete by adding as much information as you can including business hours, payment methods, parking, business categories, and photos.

Step 5: Verify your listing by phone

Before you save your changes, Google needs to verify that you are the actual business owner. You have the choice of receiving either a postcard or a phone call from Google. If you choose the phone call you need to be at your office or have someone there who can answer for you.

The procedure is very simple: an automated voice will tell you a numeric code which you enter in your Local Business Center account. See Google’s User Guide for more information on this final step.

Congratulations!

By updating and verifying your listing, Google now has more information and more trust in your business. In our experience your listing will be fully updated in about one week, after which you should begin ranking higher in local search results.

Example (closeup) of search statistics

You can return any time to edit your listing by visiting here. Remember to return after a few weeks and review the search statistics. This is a new feature that shows you how many times your listing has been displayed, how many times it’s been clicked, and what those people searched for to find you.

There are many things you can do to make your practice rank even higher in Google results. Please join our email newsletter to receive regular articles on optometry marketing, and see our article on 15 Ways to Acquire New Patients Online.

Assistance

If you have questions or comments about claiming your Google listing, please leave a comment on this article or contact us here. Claiming and creating business listings is one service provided to Visible Optometry clients.