Over the last few months we\u2019ve had a couple of clients approach us to say that they\u2019ve signed up with a third-party agency that approached them and offered to manage their Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) for \u00a3149 + vat per month. Sadly they signed up to 12 month contracts for this on the back of being promised \u201cwonderful\u201d things in terms of Google rankings and new patient enquiries.<\/p>\n
I was instantly suspicious and asked one of the clients to send references describing the service that they signed up to and \u2018benefits\u2019 that it offered. Here\u2019s what came back in terms of the supposed benefits:<\/p>\n
That was it \u2013 no assistance with helping the business to rank better in Google local search, no citation building, no actual assistance with the reviews process. So in reality they\u2019d signed up to a 12 month contract at \u00a3149 + vat per where they were receiving effectively nothing on an ongoing basis.<\/p>\n
What the agency was actually doing was checking over the existing business profile to make sure simple things like addresses were set up correctly, a few photos added, opening times checked etc and that was it. At best this would represent just an hour or two of work. After this, pretty much nothing else was happening!<\/p>\n
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It would be quite difficult to prove that this is actually a scam as a company could claim to be carrying out management of the business profile in the background \u2013 but even if they were, this might amount to 30 minutes of work every couple of months to make a few checks, maybe upload a few new photographs etc.<\/p>\n
To make any real difference to the value of a Google Business Profile page and to help a dental business appear more prominently in local search results, much<\/strong> more has to be done. Of course the agency knows this but there was no mention of this when they sold the service.<\/p>\n For sure, it\u2019s a huge waste of money to pay lots of cash for a service offering minimal benefit and for work that can be done very easily (and quickly) by the local dental team.<\/p>\n The analogy here is very much like what you need to do with a website i.e. the on-page and off-page optimisation. On-page optimisation is the initial set up of the website to make it receptive to Google and then periodic checks back to maintain certain elements. Off-site optimisation is the consistent, ongoing process of building up new links to help the website rank.<\/p>\n Similarly with a Google Business Profile<\/a>, you need to get the initial optimisation right and then check back periodically to make sure it\u2019s still fine \u2013 however this input is relatively minor. Much more work will be required to build the reviews that are a key driver for ranking in the local search results. At best the agency mentioned above was only doing the initial part of this and then very little else. By the time the business realises what is happening, it\u2019s often a year or so later and after they\u2019ve spent a lot of cash for very little reward.<\/p>\n You certainly don\u2019t need an agency to manage your Google Business Profile and very definitely not subject to a 12 month contract at \u00a3149 + vat per month! It\u2019s easy enough to set-up and then look after yourself and you\u2019ll be \u201cquids in\u201d.<\/p>\n However, simply setting up a Google Business Profile on its own isn\u2019t sufficient to help your enter the local search rankings \u2013 you\u2019ll need to do a lot more, including building reviews, to help this. Here you may need the advice and support of a bona fide agency as it does need experience and focus to do properly.<\/p>\n Do you need help with this or any other facet of how to make your dental business prominent in Google? Please get in touch with the SEO team at Dental Media by calling 01332 672548<\/strong> or using the website contact form and we\u2019ll get back to you with free, friendly advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why you don\u2019t need to pay monthly fees for an agency to manage your Google business page Over the last few months we\u2019ve had a couple of clients approach us to say that they\u2019ve signed up with a third-party agency …<\/p>\nWhat do you need to do to optimise your Google My Business Profile and local search position?<\/h3>\n
Here is a basic check-list for managing your own Google Business Profile:<\/h3>\n
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Summary<\/h3>\n