Online Reviews and Their Impact on Search Visibility
Trust is one of, if not THE most important factor when businesses are looking to improve their online SEO. With the sensitive nature of mental healthcare, this is even more so the case.
Potential clients are quite literally putting their lives in a practitioner’s hands, so building trust early on is crucial.
Having a healthy score on your Google Business Profile reviews is an excellent way of making that important first impression with potential clients. Can you think of the last time you found a business via Google and were turned off due to a mediocre review score?
It’s an all too common occurrence and one mental health practices should aim to avoid.
Whether a brand new practice, or a pre-existing one, putting a focus on positive online reviews is both a necessary step for building trust as well as improving your online brand identity, so the question is: how do they actually work?
How do online reviews influence Search Visibility?
Customer reviews are a powerful multi-purpose tool for improving your business’ online profile. One of their main focuses is aimed at building trust and authority, with both users and search engines.
Positive reviews for your practice signal to Google’s search alghorithm that you provide high-quality services to your clients. These reviews act as a form of ‘social proof’ to users so that they can quickly gauge at a glance the quality of your services.
Authentic customer reviews tend to be naturally dense in the relevant keywords you want to be associated with your practice (e.g. trusted, mental healthcare, professional, considerate). This user-generated content works to organically enhance your online visibility with Google and the best part is that it doesn’t require you to allocate any resources to create high-quality written content.
Positive star ratings on your Google Business Profile adds a visual credibility and are an effective method of improving the clickthrough rates (CTR) for your website.
A High star rating, quickly communicate to the user that your practice has the trust of previous clients. A potential client is also going to be influenced by the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ so the volume as well as the quality is an important factor too. Both of these factors increase the likelihood of users being attracted or dissuaded from your website.
Another important factor to consider is it’s important to maintain a consistent flow of reviews too. Google’s algorithm favors businesses it believes are active and the best way to ‘signal’ this to Google is by having a steady stream of recent reviews.
This activity contributes to healthier google rankings as well as giving your practice credibility.
All of these factors work to enhance both your SEO and local SEO visibility and performance.
The Relationship between Reviews & Local SEO
Online reviews are also a brilliant tool for boosting your Local SEO too. This is particularly important for ‘bricks & mortar’ businesses including psychiatric practices that focus on in person therapy.
Good quantity and quality of reviews are more likely to push you into the ‘Local Pack’. When a user makes a location-based search query, the local pack is the featured result that appears at the top in Google search. Take the example below:
If a potential patient searches for ‘psychiatrists birmingham uk’, a small map area displays with relevant locations, as well as 3 prominent high ranking practices in the area; this is the local pack.
It acts as a quick snapshot highlighting businesses that are most likely to meet the user’s needs. The ‘more places’ button allows the user to expand the pack and show more businesses in the area, and even filter results further based on average review score or opening hours.
Users will often search these terms directly in Google Maps as highlighted below:
The local pack here differs slightly, showing an expanded view of more practices but also providing more detail for each business including important calls to action (website link, directions, contact number) aimed at driving traffic to your website or to contact you directly.
Do you frequently respond to reviews on your Google Business Profile? The rate at which you reply to reviews acts as a signal to Google, indicating you’re an active business that deals with customer queries or complaints promptly.
It’s equally important to make sure all details on your Google Business Profile are up to date. Nothing kills trust and credibility more than when a customer tries to call your practice only to find they are calling a wrong number, or sending a message to an out-of-date email address. This will have a negative impact on your website’s ability to rank well on Google.
How to Leverage Reviews
The key question is how do you actually leverage these reviews for your business? Any strategy you take has to be non-incentive based as providing incentives for positive reviews not only is against Google’s guidelines but also risks tarnishing a business’ credibility.
You also run the risk of having customers provide misleading feedback in a false review (e.g. “They gave a 10% discount for my first session”).
The foundation on which stellar reviews are built is providing a memorable guest experience.
- How easy is it for patients to book sessions?
- Are they met with a friendly face at reception on arrival?
- Are they offered tea or coffee while they wait?
- Do you emphasise a safe and confidential space for your patients?
All of these factors contribute to a positive guest experience that can lead to great reviews.
Some people can find leaving a review a complicated or time consuming process, so how simple are you making it for them to leave one? Giving clients a business card that includes a QR code for patients to scan adds simplicity and convenience to the process.
Following up with a simple email asking them to leave an honest review serves as a useful reminder to the client. The more that this becomes part of your process, the more you’ll convert these reminders into positive reviews.
How to Respond to Positive & Negative Reviews
No matter the industry, negative as well as positive reviews are to be expected. How you respond to reviews is again another important factor in signalling to Google how active you are.
Timely replies to reviews are critical. A quick turnaround demonstrates you are a regularly active business that takes feedback seriously. Be sure to personalise your response by addressing them by name and highlight specific details they’ve mentioned in their initial review. If a client mentions how they felt heard in their sessions, highlight this in your response.
Potential clients are more likely to be dissuaded from your services, by looking through reviews and responses and seeing that the practice has used a standard message template for multiple reviews.
This demonstrates that the business doesn’t take time to review client feedback and again impacts your credibility as a professional practice.
Tools for Managing & Monitoring Reviews
There are a number of tools, both free and premium that can support you in managing reviews. The simplest solution is enabling Google Alerts on your Google Business Profile.
Google Alerts is a free tool for monitoring mentions of keywords, including reviews across the internet and emailing you a notification. This advance notice allows businesses to know exactly when a review is posted and as a notice to respond.
Reputation management platforms such as Birdeye are also useful but carry a premium subscription. Birdeye has a centralised dashboard useful for an overview of your current online presence that also enables you to respond to reviews directly.
It also provides an aggregate score for customer reviews from multiple sources (Google Business Profile, Trustpilot etc) and can analyse review content and sentiment helping you gain a better understanding of your customers wants and needs.
Final Thoughts
Online reviews have a direct relationship with your website’s visibility in Google search rankings, so it’s important you have an effective strategy for managing them.
Make sure that all your Google Business Profile details are up to date and utilise tools such as Google Alerts to monitor and promptly respond to your reviews. Combining this with a stellar service will actively contribute to your website finding its way to the top of Google.
Managing and responding to reviews feels like a full-time position at times, taking precious time away from helping your patients. Mental
Marketing is dedicated to providing specialised SEO services to therapists and mental healthcare professionals like you.
Our digital marketing services are tailored to suit your needs and take the stress out of healthcare SEO, allowing you to focus more on your practice and less on managing reviews.