Across the country, a vast landscape of doctors’ offices, hospitals, specialists, university-affiliated practitioners and outpatient facilities takes care of millions of patients. That’s the good news.
The bad news? All of these professionals and offices need correct online listings, but they seldom have them in place. And as we all know, when online listings are incorrect, it leads to a plethora of problems. But for healthcare companies, the worst problem might be that incorrect online listings can lead to poor online reputations for medical professionals.
Why is this? It’s because healthcare listings are tangled in a confusing listings problem: one medical office building may contain dozens of physicians. If one of those physicians has claimed the physical address for herself, then any negative and positive reviews become associated with that address. So, a lot of medical staffers may look like they have one-star reviews that really “belong” to another practitioner. (For the record, Google has guidelines for practitioners who are part of a larger organization or who work solo in a building with multiple physicians here). Or, if you want the shortcut, this is what Search Engine Land says is the right thing to do, based on Google My Business’s guidelines:
“If a practitioner is one of many public-facing practitioners at a location, then there should be a single local page with the practice or brand name, and a local page for each practitioner who wishes to have one. The practitioner pages, however, should be titled with their name online and CANNOT contain the business or practice name in their page name.”
Pro Tip: Connectivity works with healthcare companies each day, and we’re experts on managing and claiming online listings. Contact us today and learn how we can help.
In addition to cleaning up reviews, correct online listings create a solid business foundation for healthcare companies.
Correct Listings:
> Help customers find the correct medical office or center
> Lead to a great experience for patients, especially at large campuses where a maze of buildings can make patients late or flustered
> Assure reviews are “assigned” to the correct practitioner, rather than someone else at the same building address
For healthcare companies, it’s often a matter of resources that prevent listings from being managed properly. It’s a ton of work to manually claim listings on the major sites. But it’s a task that cannot be ignored. Correct listings lead to correct reviews and happy, content customers who arrive where they need to, when they need to.
Want to know more about Listings management? Download Connectivity’s Complete Guide to Listings here.
Jennifer is a Content Strategist for Connectivity.
