Getting your practice into the map pack

1. Why the map decides who rings

When somebody nearby searches for a dentist on their phone, Google shows a map with three practices on it before it shows anything else. Most people ring one of the three and never scroll further.

• The three are chosen from Google Business Profiles, not from websites. A beautiful website with a neglected profile is invisible at the moment the decision is made.
• Google chooses by relevance (does the profile say it does what was searched for), distance (from where the searcher is standing) and prominence (reviews, activity, how complete the profile is). You control the first and the third.
• In most towns the chains are in the pack because head office keeps their profiles complete. They are rarely kept better than complete, which is your opening.
• The searches that matter are not all "dentist". Emergency dentist, dental implants, Invisalign and teeth whitening are searched for separately, and a practice can be in the pack for one and nowhere for another.

This week: Search for "emergency dentist", "dental implants" and "dentist" with your town's name on your own phone, standing outside the practice. Note who is in the three for each.

2. The foundations

A profile is a form, and most practices filled in a third of it years ago. Each empty field is a search you are not shown for.

• Name: the practice's real name, as it is over the door. No treatments or towns added to it; Google suspends profiles for that.
• Primary category: Dentist, or Dental clinic. Additional categories for what you actually offer: Cosmetic dentist, Emergency dental service, Dental implants provider, Orthodontist, Teeth whitening service, Dental hygienist. Only categories Google offers can be chosen; type the first letters and pick from the list.
• Hours: the real ones, including Saturday if you open. If you take emergencies, say the hours you take them, and put the out-of-hours number in the description.
• Phone, website and an appointment link if you have online booking. The appointment link is the one most practices leave empty, and it is the button a patient on a phone presses.
• Description: 750 characters, plain English, the treatments and the town in the first two sentences. No "best", no "painless", no "state of the art". What you offer and who for.
• Attributes: wheelchair access, whether you are accepting new patients, and whether the NHS list is open. The last one saves the receptionist twenty calls a week.

This week: Open the profile, add every category that is true of you, and fill in the appointment link.

3. Treatments as services

Google lets a profile list its services, and most practices leave the list empty. A listed service is a search you can be shown for; an unlisted one is not.

• Add each treatment as its own service, named the way a patient would search for it: Dental implants, Invisalign, Teeth whitening, Emergency dental appointments, Hygienist appointments, Children's dentistry, Dentures, Crowns and bridges, Root canal treatment.
• Give each a sentence of description. What it is for and who it suits, not a price promise and not an outcome promise.
• Group NHS and private clearly. If a treatment is private only, say so in its description; it stops the wrong phone call.
• Keep the list honest. A service you cannot actually book is a one-star review waiting to happen.

This week: List every treatment you offer as a service, with one plain sentence each.

4. Photos

A profile with ten or more photos, and a recent one, is shown more than one with the two photos Google took from the street. Patients look at the photos before they look at anything else.

• The outside, so they recognise it from the car. Reception. A surgery, tidy and empty. The team, named or not, as they prefer.
• No patient in any photo without written consent, and no clinical before-and-after on the profile at all.
• One new photo a month keeps the profile looking alive. A new piece of equipment, a decorated reception at Christmas, a member of staff's first day.
• Google rewrites every photo's hidden data on upload, so there is nothing to gain from tagging photos with your location first. Save the effort.

This week: Take six photos on a phone in good daylight and upload them.

5. Reviews: asking, and replying without a breach

Reviews are the strongest signal a practice controls, and the one most practices are frightened of. The fear is about replying, and there is a simple rule that removes it.

• Ask at the end of a good appointment, in person, and follow with a text or email carrying your review link the same day. Google provides the link in the profile under "Ask for reviews".
• Ask everybody you would be glad to hear from, not only the delighted. A steady few a month, every month, counts for more than thirty in one week after a push.
• Never offer anything for a review, and never ask a patient to write one at reception on the practice's device. Both are against Google's rules and the GDC's.
• Replying: thank them for their words, say the team will be glad to read them, and stop. Do not confirm they are a patient. Do not say "your appointment", "your visit" or "coming in". Do not name the treatment, even if they did. A public reply that confirms somebody had an implant is a disclosure of their health data by the practice, whatever they wrote first.
• A one or two star review: apologise once, say nothing about what happened, and ask them to contact the practice manager directly so it can be looked into properly. Never argue, never explain, never mention the clinical facts, even when they are on your side.
• Reply to every review within a day or two. An unanswered complaint reads as an admission; an unanswered compliment reads as indifference.

This week: Reply to every review that has no reply, using the rule above. Put the review link in the end-of-appointment text.

6. Posts the GDC would not mind

A post a week tells Google the profile is alive and tells a patient what you do. The rules for a practice are tighter than for a cafe, and they are easy to keep once written down.

• Write about what the practice offers and how to book. A treatment explained plainly, a reminder that the hygienist has Saturday slots, that the NHS list has reopened, that a new clinician has joined.
• Never: best, leading, number one, painless, pain-free, guaranteed, cheapest, 100%. No comparison with another practice. No before-and-after photos without the patient's written consent, and better none at all.
• Never a testimonial quoted in a post. Reviews live where patients left them.
• No prices unless they are the full price, including everything, and will be honoured.
• Four hundred to nine hundred characters, a photo, and a button: Book, Call or Learn more.

This week: Write four posts in one sitting, one a week for the month, and schedule them.

7. Emergency and NHS, said plainly

Two searches are made under pressure: "emergency dentist" and "NHS dentist accepting new patients". A profile that answers them plainly wins the first and stops the second wasting your receptionist's morning.

• If you take emergencies: the Emergency dental service category, the hours you take them, and the out-of-hours number in the description. If you do not, say where patients should go instead; it still earns goodwill.
• If your NHS list is closed, say so in the description and in the attributes, and say what you can offer privately. A closed list said plainly is a kindness; a closed list discovered on the phone is a one-star review.
• If your NHS list is open, say so in the first line of the description. It is one of the most searched phrases in dentistry, and most practices with an open list have never written the words down.
• Keep both current. The month the list reopens is the month to post about it.

This week: Put one sentence about emergencies and one about the NHS list at the top of the description.

8. The weekly rhythm, and the first thirty days

None of this is hard. It is an hour a week that has to belong to somebody, and the month it stops the profile starts sliding.

• Every week: reply to new reviews (the same day for anything under four stars), publish the week's post, check the hours are still right.
• Every month: six new photos, a look at who is in the pack for your three main searches, and the review link sent to everybody who finished a course of treatment.
• Days 1 to 7: categories, hours, appointment link, description, attributes. Days 8 to 14: every treatment listed as a service. Days 15 to 21: photos up, every old review answered, the review link in your end-of-appointment message. Days 22 to 30: four posts written and scheduled, and the first search check done from outside the door.
• If the hour never finds an owner, that is the job Octopusup does. It is the same list, done every week, with the rank measured so you can see it move.