When it comes to digital marketing, it is often easy to get obsessed with the big picture and forget the little but important details. Online listings management is a crucial part of your practice’s digital footprint as it influences your search engine rankings and kickstarts your patients’ customer journey. 

Learn more about the importance of listings and how listings management can make it easier for patients to find you.

What Is a Business Listing? 

Listings summarize essential business information your customers need to research, locate, and contact your practice. It usually includes your practice’s name, location, phone number, website, industry, and hours of operation. It is highly beneficial for directing patients to your website or clinic.

82% of all smartphone users conduct “near me” searches. If your hearing care practice doesn’t show up online or if patients find inaccurate or inconsistent information, you risk losing their trust and turning them away to your competition. 

So, it is not only important to have your business information online, you also need to ensure they are accurate, up-to-date, and consistent across online directories and listing sites.

Top 5 Tips for Effective Listings Management

Audit Your Digital Presence

You need to know what you are working with. Look up your clinic on various platforms like Google, Yelp, Bing, Facebook, and more. There are over 500 indexing sites for hearing care practices—find out which ones you show up on. 

Is your business information accurate and consistent from platform to platform? Do you also see listings for individual practitioners in your search results? Once you know the answer to these questions, you can start creating a strategy to rectify any errors and optimize your online listings.

This can obviously be a time-consuming and complicated process. Fortunately, a professional marketing team can help your hearing care practice stay on top of your online listings and enhance your findability.

Claim and Optimize Your Listings

Start the process of claiming unclaimed listings as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more chances there are that someone else will claim them. Duplicate listings can cause several problems for hearing care clinics as they can confuse patients and result in reduced traffic to your practice. Flag duplicate listings immediately with the platform’s support team.

While it is ideal to claim your listings on all the major platforms like Yelp, Google, and Facebook, don’t forget to claim listings on healthcare-specific listing directories such as WebMD, Wellness.com, and others. Patients trust these sites for medical advice and information—and listing your practice there will build trust and credibility.

Ensure Your Business Information Is Clear, Accurate, and Consistent

After securing all your online listings, it’s time to make sure your listings are as informative and efficient as they can be. Remember, even the most minor things can make a huge difference when uploading your practice information.

For example, suppose your practice name is “XYZ Audiology” on one site and “XYZ Hearing & Audiology” on another—search engines will mistake them for two different practices and index them incorrectly. 

According to Google’s guidelines for representing your business on the platform, your name on the search engine should reflect your practice’s real-world name. In addition, most search engines also allow you to place your practice under several categories. 

Choosing the right categories is integral to creating your business listing as search engines use category data to match businesses with particular searches. Categories like “audiologist” or “hearing aid store” might be more appropriate for you. Remember, search engines will not display your practice if it is left uncategorized—or worse, miscategorized.

Hearing care practices will also benefit from highlighting other essential information, including

• Areas of Specialty

• Address

• Insurance Accepted

• FAQ

• Practitioners' Profile

• Branded Photos and Videos

• Safety Protocols and Information

Make sure that all the information you include in your listings matches the data on your website as consistency is a major factor for high search engine rankings.

Nearly one-third of all mobile searches are location-specific, making Google Maps essential for driving foot traffic to your clinic. Google Maps sources your business address and other information from your Google business listings to direct patients to your practice. So, make sure your location details are accurate and up to date.

Adding attractive photos and videos will increase the number of clicks that a particular listing gets. From pictures of your facility and state-of-the-art equipment to images of individual practitioners, staff, and happy patients, you can add a variety of engaging visuals to your listings to create a positive impression of your practice.

Monitor Reviews and Ratings

A positive online reputation is essential for all businesses, especially for healthcare practices. Most listing sites like Yelp and Google Business Profile allow patients to leave reviews about your practice.

While a positive review can encourage patients to visit your clinic, a negative review can make them lose trust in your practice. So, always keep track of online reviews and respond to both positive and negative ones.

Reach out to patients who left a negative review and determine why their experience with your practice was not positive. This will not only allow you to improve your processes and offer better patient care, but it is also an excellent way to show your patients you care and transform a negative experience into a positive one.

Always Keep Your Listings Up to Date

Online listings management is not a one-off thing that you can forget about. It is important to update your listings without fail whenever there are any changes in your business information. Whether you get a new practitioner or move your business hours, update your listings information immediately, so patients know what is going on with your practice. Moreover, outdated information will negatively affect your search engine rankings and findability.

Benefits of Accurate Listings for Your Practice

Attract New Patients

Most patients are apprehensive about hearing care clinics with missing or incorrect listings. Patients are also less likely to engage with your practice if they can’t find the correct information or worse, are given the wrong phone number or address.

In fact, 71% of people trace negative experiences with a brand to incorrect information listed online. 

On the other hand, regularly monitoring and updating your listings can increase your brand visibility and lead new patients straight to your door.

Increased Trust and Brand Credibility

Incorrect or missing business listings lead to miscommunication and result in patients losing confidence in your brand and services. Outdated listings may also make your patients feel like you don’t care about them.

A crucial aspect of building trust and attracting new patients is ensuring their experience with your brand is as seamless as possible. If prospective patients find out that the wrong phone number has been listed when they try to call and book an appointment, chances are they will not try contacting your practice again. They may even leave a negative review!

80% of customers lose trust in a business if they see an incorrect or inconsistent listing. This makes inaccurate and inconsistent listings more costly for your clinic than most businesses, as trust is the most integral part of running a successful hearing care practice.

Boost Your Search Ranking Results

A 2018 study on local search ranking factors found consistency in business listings to be the second most crucial factor. If you maintain correct and up-to-date listings across the internet, you are more likely to rank high on search engines, making it easy for patients to find you.

When you update your listings, make sure the changes are uniform across all channels so your patients can remain well-informed and you can avoid getting penalized.

Listing management is all about the little details, and even the tiniest difference in street abbreviations can negatively affect your hearing care practice’s search rankings. Understandably, many hearing care practices and audiologists find it difficult to keep their listings accurate and consistent across the internet.

But, worry not—Ear Level Marketing can help you manage your listings and increase your practice’s online visibility in no time. Contact us today!