If you work for a dental office and ask yourself, “Why isn’t my dentist showing up on Google Maps?!” check for these pitfalls that can hurt your dentist’s chances on Google Maps.

Unclaimed or Unmanaged Listing

Most dentists have a Google Business Profile even if they didn’t create it. Google finds lists of dentists elsewhere on the internet and often generates the profiles automatically. Unfortunately, when this happens, the information, even the dentist’s name, is inaccurate. You’ll often find the name a jumbled mess like Lastname Firstname DDS. Claim your listing or regain access to it if it is just neglected and unmanaged, then check for the most common problems listed below.

Correct Business Category Selection

If your dentist isn’t marked as a ‘Dentist’ or ‘Cosmetic dentist’ as your primary Business Category, you probably need to fix that. Only specialists should have another category selected as the PRIMARY Business Category. You can include other categories such as Dental clinic or Dental implants provider, but if you want more patients, the more general ‘Dentist’ category is likely to get you ranked for more searches such as ‘dentist near me’.

The most common problems we see are dentists with either no Business Category selected or something like ‘denture care clinic’ set as the PRIMARY or even only category.

Incomplete or Incorrect Contact Information

Google doesn’t want to waste its users’ time by showing listings that lack basic contact information. Ensure your dentist’s listing has an up-to-date phone number, website, contact, and scheduling information.

We occasionally come across Google Business Profiles of dentists where a call tracking number is listed rather than the office’s actual phone number. This is a Google Maps dentist ranking no-no! The best practice for local SEO is to ensure that your office’s name, address, phone number, and website are all listed identically across the internet, especially on your Google Business Profile.

If Google sees a mismatch between your website, your Google Business Profile, and the rest of the internet, it may suspect the other listings as being listings for other businesses or as outdated and irrelevant. Either way, your dentist will have less of a chance of ranking well in Google Maps.

Poor Star Rating and Lack of Reviews

If your dentist’s Google Business Profile has relatively few reviews and the reviews there are negative, your dentist probably has a very poor star rating. This has a compound negative ranking influence. Google will be more likely to avoid listing your dentist for searches other than the dentist’s name, and the search results where your doctor is showing will probably result in humans avoiding the listing, clicking instead of dentists with better star ratings and with more reviews.

Especially if the reviews are recent, patients will be more likely to contact competing dentists. This sends the signal to Google that competing dentists are more trustworthy than your dentist. Google evaluates trustworthiness for dentists as part of their overall E-E-A-T, a key concept for dentists wanting to improve their rankings on Google Maps and Google’s other organic listings.

We see dentists’ Google Maps listings with old, negative reviews all the time. We help them by hooking them up with team training and our marketing portal, ProView Analytics, which helps them ask for Google reviews.

General Lack of Information in Profile

Google knows that prospective patients likely have questions and curiosity about your office. Follow our recommendations for better Google Maps dentist listings here, and you’ll likely have a better listing than other dentists in your area. You can also find instructions from Google on completing your business profile here. Following these steps will make you much more likely to out-rank other dentists on Google Maps.

Pro Impressions Marketing Can Help

Pro Impressions Marketing is a digital marketing agency that specializes in helping dentists, and dental practices grow their patient base through effective digital marketing strategies. With years of experience in the dental industry, we understand the unique challenges that dental practices face in attracting new ideal patients. We use a variety of techniques, such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), website design, reputation management, and copywriting, to increase your online visibility and drive more traffic to your website. By targeting specific keywords, demographics, and locations, we can help you reach your ideal patient and build a strong online presence.

Schedule a strategy call or call (970) 672-1212 to talk with one of our dental experts to find out how we can help your practice grow.