Do You Need Local Listing Management for Your Dental Practice?

Have you ever conducted a “near me” search on the internet when you’re looking for a particular service or business? Most people have because it’s a quick and effective way to find information and places they’re looking for.  

If you’ve used this technique to find “restaurants near me” or “coffee shops near me,” for example, you can bet that your patients have also used it to find a conveniently located dentist.

“Dentist near me” is a popular search keyword, and it can help match you with prospective patients if your local listing information is accurate and updated in as many sources and directories as possible. “Near me” results often contain listing sites like Healthgrades, Yelp, or Nextdoor.

What Is NAP Consistency?

NAP stands for “name, address, phone.” NAP consistency means that your practice’s contact information is listed accurately and the same way across the internet. You should also consistently list your address on the web.

How NAP Can Impact SEO Results

Search engines rank based on consistency and results they can recognize and trust. When a search engine crawls the web to provide search results, it will notice any slight variations in a business name, phone number, address, or website address. These subtle variations could mean a difference in how your dental website ranks when prospective patients search for a dentist.

Let’s use our business as an example. Here’s our business name and contact information.

Great Dental Websites

140 E. 19^th Ave.

Suite 200

Denver, CO 80203

Here’s another possibility for our business listing:

Great Dental Websites

One Sherman Place

140 E. 19^th Ave.

Suite 200

Denver, CO 80203

Did you notice the variation? Even these slight changes could impact our search results if they’re not consistent across the web.

How Can I Make Sure I Have NAP Consistency?

NAP consistency is an essential component when it comes to search engine ranking. To fix your NAP, you would have to visit every website with your business information listed and create an account to change your listing. You’ll want to ensure that each website that contains your listing has it accurately and consistently displayed, with no mistakes or variations.

Or, you can hire an SEO company like GDW to manage your local listings for you. An SEO company can also help with other online marketing services like optimizing your website, managing your Google My Business account, and providing ongoing help with blogging and paid search campaigns.

What Is Local Listing Management?

Local listing management refers to regularly updating and checking business contact information listed on websites and other online directories. This is important for both brick and mortar businesses like your dental practice and online businesses because your local listing directly impacts search engine rankings.

The Benefits of Local Listing Management

With so many consumers and potential patients doing their research online to make purchasing decisions, having the right business and contact information available to them is critical to your online marketing success.

The easiest way to ensure that your NAP stays consistent and easily accessible to potential patients is to invest in local listing management services, either through an SEO company (like GDW) or listing management software.

The benefits of local listing management services are:

• Increased traffic to your website. A local listing management service can improve your SEO rankings, which increases traffic to your website.
• Saves you valuable time. Local listing management will save you from visiting all your directories on your own, which is time-consuming. Your time is valuable, and you want to use it to do what you do best – serve your patients.
• Improved SEO. The easier it is for search engines to find and understand your practice information, the better your rankings.
• Update Your Information Anytime. Do you need to change your hours or days of operation, for example? It’s easy to make those changes in real-time on all your listings with a local listing management service.
• Increased visibility. The more directories like Google, Yahoo, or Yelp that have your correct practice information, the more visibility you’ll have to the prospective patients who are searching for you.

We Can Help You!

Do you need help with local listing management or other marketing strategies? Contact your team at GDW for more information about how we can help you grow your practice with marketing campaigns and systems customized for your dental practice’s unique needs.