Why Does Your Urgent Care Need a Google+ Page?

How do your potential patients find you when they need urgent care? The Internet! And your goal is to the be the first search result when someone Googles urgent care.

Google is the largest search engine company on the Web with 80% of the online search market. This should come as no surprise. What you may not know is that Google ranks your business’s website using a sophisticated algorithm. This algorithm measures websites by content, visits and other advanced metrics. By boosting the Google ranking of your business website, you will move up in Google search results, thus making it easier for your potential patients to find you on the internet and as a by-product, locating your actual clinic.

When you need to order pizza, find the current movie theater showings or check to see if the local retailer has the latest must have gadget or toy in stock, where do you turn? The Internet! Most likely, right there on your smartphone. The same can be said for finding the nearest urgent care when mom is pretty sure Timmy’s arm is broken or when her nagging cough just won’t go away. You may I have this awesome website and my Facebook page has over 500 likes! While that is a fantastic start, you must keep in mind that your website will get buried in search results if you don’t invest some time and energy into boosting your Google ranking. In this age of search engine optimization, a great website and active Facebook page are simply not enough.

So how do you do this? It’s not too hard. Just by creating a Google + profile, you are improving your overall Google ranking. You will further increase your placement by developing your business page. You can do this by posting relevant content, photos, videos and articles. You can follow and be followed by people and businesses that are related to your industry. Ask your patients, colleagues, friends and family to add you into their Google circles. This provides you an audience to share information with and gain information from. The more content that is added and interactions that take place on your Google + page, the higher your ranking will be. Just five minutes a day can reap huge benefits for your website rankings.

Relationship building is a very important aspect of social media. Take the time to use this as a channel to respond to patients or potential patients, this will increase brand loyalty and get people talking about your urgent care. Hello! Free advertising, anyone? Remember, your goal is to be the first search result when someone Googles Urgent Care YOUR TOWN, USA.

The other added benefit to using Google + is that you now have easy access to the entire Google family of social networking applications and other business tools. While we’re not encouraging you to drop your Facebook page, we’re simply suggesting that you take advantage of one more tool where you can further interact with patients and colleagues, all while boosting your Google search ranking.

So take advantage of a few extra minutes here and there to make a bigger internet footprint. Be sure that when spring and summer sports kick-off, allergy season blooms, and illnesses and injuries strike, that your urgent care is the one patients find first!