Google Changed the Local Search Rules Again - Here's What Podiatrists Need to Know

You're listening to Podiatry Marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing. With me, as usual, every week is Jim McDannald, aka a big Jim Mac. How you doing today, Jim?

I said I'm doing really well. How about yourself?

I'm great. It's I love this time of year. Up here, it's getting warm, hotter, the better.

Completely the opposite here in Montreal, but that's just the way it goes when we're on the opposite sides of the planet.

But, yeah, no, life in general. Life is good. Always yeah, when I was in The States, we were talking about the number one thing that everybody should be doing all the time is just finding ways to be happy. Just be happy. Don't make the proviso, I'll be happy when.

And if that's what you're doing, forget about it. Go and find things that make you happy, and then everything else is much easier. So I'm in a happy place right now, Jim, as usual.

That's good. That's good to hear. I'm I'm feeling pretty good here, and I'm not Yeah. Nothing's are good as well.

Okay. What are we talking about today?

Yeah. So today we're gonna talk about, you know, Google and kinda local search rules. So, know, this is kinda like some tactical stuff that podiatrists need to know. We'll try to kind of, you know, make it super relevant. You know, I was going through this every every year, there's this what's called the white spark local search rankings factor report that came out, and it came out last week.

So they survey basically 47 top kind of local SEO experts every year about, you know, what's actually driving local search ranking. So, you know, it's great because it kinda gives you some ideas as far as, you know, how the rules have changed in the last twelve to eighteen months to make sure that the clinics that are listening to this this show can understand, you know, what's changing and and some differences that they can make. So, you know, things that used to matter a lot, you know, like getting your practice listed in the, you know, a 100 directories, They matter less now. So things that most practice completely ignore like, you know, how many people click their get directions button on their Google business profile. These are mattering more.

So today we'll kinda go through those things that Google has changed over time. We'll cover kind of the five biggest shifts that matter for podiatry practice in 2026. Some of these you you can handle on by yourself. Others you might wanna have a marketing professional jump in and help you out. But these are the things you need to know that will actually matter in 2026 when it comes to being visible locally.

So are you telling me Google are changing things again?

Well, we we had that previous podcast that's Yeah. You know, Google's a black box or you know, don't don't fall in love with the way Google does things now because, you know, they're gonna change it for you in, you know, six to eighteen months and that's just the way it works. So this is, you know, really focused on that local visibility, but, you know, Google's a huge player in this in this area now. So it's important to to to know where the wind is kinda shifting in a way.

Yeah. But they have to do it because yeah. When I wrote my book and I mentioned it there that Google came out of nowhere and all of sudden became the search engine of choice. And in my book eleven years ago, I wrote, I don't know what's gonna happen in the future. Will Google still be the number one search engine, or will something else come on we don't even know about yet?

Then you've got all these AI programs now, like Claude and Chat, that people are doing a lot of searches on those things. So Google has, it must lift its game, and it is being influenced by all those changes.

Yeah. There's definitely a lot of competition in that AI world, so Google's gonna try to do what they can to stay on top, especially when it comes to local stuff.

So what's the first thing you're talk about?

Yeah. The first thing to talk about is your Google's business profile matters now more than your website. And, you know, the 2026 white spark report shows that seventy percent of patients never click through to your website. They find you on Google. They find you, you know, your Google business profile.

They check out your photos. They read a few reviews and decide whether to call you or, you know, text you know, basically hit that button to to go visit your to to make an appointment, which they can do through some different Google links. So your website is never sometimes never enters the equation. So think about, you know, probably, you know, people spend 5 to $10,000 on a website or and websites are still important, but a lot of people will ignore or forget about this Google Business profile. But in some ways, maybe it's getting three to four times the amount of patient eyeballs that your website is.

That's a huge it's a huge number though. Is not going through the website. When I was in Arizona, they were actually talking about the exact same thing of how many people the click through rate is really dropped down because they're getting the information from that page that that Google's providing.

No. Exactly. And if your profile looks like it was set up in 2019 or like 2015 and haven't you haven't touched it since, now you're losing patience before they even see your website. So your Google Business profile isn't supporting your website anymore. It's replacing it.

So, yeah, it's it's one of those things, like you said, it it's it's more and more important, and people just don't even click through to the website anymore. You know, your services section, I would say, like, you know, people are asking, I've got a Google business profile. Like, that should be good enough. Right? But really, you know, your services section needs to kinda list specific treatments, not generic foot and ankle care, you know, list if you do bunion surgery, plantar fasciitis treatment, you know, sports injury care, diabetic foot care.

Patients search for these specific problems, and Google matches these searches to your services list in your Google Business profiles these days.

So people are confused in this area. Should just do it themselves? Get professional help?

I mean, think there's some things they can take care of themselves. If you, you know, you've if you had a photo shoot in the last, you know, six to twelve months, you know, uploading ten to fifteen, you know, photos is is pretty simple on the user interface with Google Business Profile. But you wanna make sure that when, you know, these photos are your actual office, hopefully it's with some either models or some family members so it doesn't look like you have an empty office.

Yeah.

You wanna show your staff. You wanna show your actual equipment and not stock photos because we've talked about this many times on the podcast before, but you wanna be authentic and you wanna be seen as the expert and you don't get that by providing stock photos. So, you know, maybe it takes them about, you know, five, ten minutes to upload these photos, but you have to have them. And, obviously, if you don't know how it works, you know, getting together with a, you know, provider to help you out with that is something they they can consider. You know, most practices, like I said, can make some updates on the services and the photos themselves.

But if you're looking for someone to handle kind of, you know, either weekly post or ongoing kinda optimization, you probably should hand that off to a marketing provider. But don't ignore those basics because, you know, you think you don't necessarily need to hire someone right away, but when you're kind of when you realize how important it is, like 70% of people aren't clicking through your website, and you don't if you're not willing to put in the time, the consistency of effort in keeping it updated, that's when I would consider, you know, working with someone that can help you out there.

So if 70%, for example, are not clicking through the websites, are people then come into that section. If you've got a really crappy profile, other than going, I'll just go to the next person. Let's click on that and reading their profile. Because I know I do that.

Everybody judges those photos that show up next to the Google business profile. Right?

I think

one of the one of things we talked about in the past that if if you haven't put any images on, what's gonna be it's that the Google car that drives by people's clinic to take, you know, on the roads to basically do the mapping, they're they're also taking photos of each address along the way. So if you don't have an uploaded photo of you, your staff, your clinic, Google's gonna upload you a really crappy looking, you know, drive by photo from their Google mobile. Maybe it's the backside of your clinic. Maybe there's trees. Maybe there's stuff in the way.

It's not gonna look professional. And if people see that you're not willing to spend the time and effort to make your Google Business profile look professional, then it kinda talks a lot about maybe what the experience is like in your clinic.

I saw one and had the podiatry clinic there, and there was a garbage truck that must have just pulled up at the front of it, emptying bins, whatever, as the Google mobile's gone past, and that's what the image of the clinic you can sort of almost see the sign, but you see the garbage truck.

And there's no way to, like, you know, get rid of that first impression. Right? So, you know, you have to have those specific, you know, service descriptions, the uploaded fresh photos that, you know, position you as the expert. You know, and also I say within, you know, sixty days, you know, like, I've worked with some people that have noticed a significant bump, you know, when they pay attention to their Google Business profile, you know, within sixty days of uploading photos and filling it out where they have, you know, sometimes between a 20 to 40% bump in the number of people that show up to their clinic through their Google Business profile. So it's important that you take care of it.

If you can't do it yourself, look for someone to help.

Yeah. I think it's an important point, but you just said then is about up to sixty days before they start noticing that bump. It's not like you put the photos up there, you add all the stuff, and then next day, all of a sudden, patients are rushing through your door. It takes time of adding that information before you really start to notice the effect from

Absolutely. Google wants to see consistency over time. They just don't wanna see a one day dump, and then you're you're gone for, you know, three sixty five, or maybe it's two years or three years later. They wanna see people even the people that are working on the clinic side with the Google Business Profile, they wanna see more engagement with it to help it rank better.

Yeah. That's why I used to joke with people when they have a look at their website, and they go, oh, suddenly, yes, your website went up on the 05/12/2021. And they go, it sounds about right. How'd you know that? I go, because you got six blog articles that have all got that date on there, and there's never been one before, and there was never one since.

So I assume that's when it got it got released, and they go, yeah. Been meaning to write a blog. And then when you go to their business profiles, it's as it's as out of date is what the website is.

Absolutely.

So what's next? I'd say

next is the the importance of review recency, and the fact that now it outranks review quantity as a kind of a ranking factor. Oh. You know, when you last when you last got reviews now matters more than, you know, how many total reviews you have. The report kind of puts, you know, re review recency in the top five ranking factors in 2026. If you've got 50 reviews last year, but nothing in the last four weeks, you know, Google sees you as inactive.

You know, here's what happens. You know, one practice that dropped that I've seen in the past dropped from position two to position seven when they stopped getting reviews for three months. You know, so it's gonna really impact the number of people that can see, know, because the map pack itself only shows the top three. Right? So, you know, when you're not getting in that top three of the map pack or not an organic search, it's gonna really drop off the number of people contact the clinic.

So it's super important that this review recency that you're you know, have a workflow to ask for these reviews because you're not getting ones, you know, a few each week or a few each day. It can really put a hamper on your rankings.

Yeah. So it's you'd be better to have the end of that one new review coming through every week than getting 52 in a big burst six months ago because you decided to send something out to everybody in you, including family members. So it's just it's having that consistent system in place to make sure that's being done by everybody in your business, not just the business owner.

Yeah. That's one of the biggest, you know, mistakes we see with reviews. Right? You know, people will send it out in a big burst. Maybe like, oh, I know reviews are important.

I'm just gonna like put this in an email, like my email newsletter just one time, and hopefully I can get some and that'll be enough. But, you know, someone says, you know, we need more reviews. We gotta do this email blast and get it out, and then do nothing again for six months. That pattern pattern actually hurts you. You know, Google sees the spike, then they see the silence, and your rankings drop.

So what you wanna do, like I talked about, is get into a workflow or a system where you're using software to help either make it easy to ask for that personal review. And, you know, either you you or your staff are asking for it. You have an easy way for them to be texted or email me emailed that request, you know, later that day or later in that evening. Or there's an automated system that that it can basically help you generate those reviews. Because really what you wanna get is, you know, two to four reviews each week, you know, every week.

You know, really consistency beats volume. Like you talked about, you gotta train your desk staff not to be shy about how to, you know, set and setting up a workflow so they can succeed. Because when you send those patients a direct link via email or text, it makes it easy for them and they're much more likely to you know, if they're in the evenings, they're sitting on the couch, they get a request, maybe they're more likely to write something that's gonna have keywords. They're gonna feel incentivized, you know, if they had a great experience with you to leave a great review. And like I talked about, Google is still really the most important place to get these reviews.

Maybe in the future, other platforms may become more important, but, you know, you gotta make it easy for your staff and for yourself, but also for the patient to get those, you know, three to four reviews each week.

Yeah. Well, back in October when I was in Seattle, there was something I noticed that I did three different tours, and all three of the tour people said the same thing. And I went, well, this is really interesting, this is something that I think podiatrists could take note of. And they said, oh, we would if you really enjoyed the tour today, we'd love a review on Google. And if you could mention my name specifically, I get a bonus from the company.

And I went, that was really good. That's why I kept all their cards so that I could make sure that I did review and I mentioned their names. But I thought that could be the way you can incentivize your reception, your podiatrist. I know some people will write a review for a company, and they're writing a review on how good the front desk was. Yeah.

How friendly they were, how they were greeted, how they felt like they were well looked after. So I think even if you said to your receptionist, hey, when you're asking a patient for a review, we don't mind if you say, hey, make sure you mention my name. It's Barbara or Mary. And if they mention your name, we'll give you a bonus.

I had a similar experience with an Internet company when I was living in The US last year. We got we helped upgrade the Internet where we're at, and it was the same thing. They if you mention my name, I'll get you know, it'll it's helpful to me as well. So definitely, when there's a human attached to it, it's a little bit people feel a little bit more compelled or there's a feel like they if they said they're gonna do something, they'll they'll more likely to follow-up if there's a human on the end of it.

Well, I I feel really compelled to make sure that I did reviews for each of these companies because they asked me to, and I know I now know who Robert is and Shane. Yeah. The people that actually took us on the on the tours. And I feel that and they said, in addition to a tip, which they wanted, a review was the next best thing if you weren't gonna do that. I'll do both.

So what's next?

Well, I'll just say before we jump to the next topic Mhmm. You know, one way to kinda look at it to see, you know, some things are regional. Obviously, you know, with podiatry, you can take a look at some other clinics in your local area to see how many reviews they're getting each each month or each week and kinda give you a bellwether. Like I said, this to get a general idea about the recency that you need. You know, like I talked about, you know, do you need to hire someone or can you do this yourself?

I think, know, you the software is something that's available that's out there that maybe you need some help from someone to set up a workflow to kinda set up some scripting, to feel comfortable asking for reviews in a way that, you know, feels natural. Sometimes people being in medicine don't always feel like they they feel a little shy. It feels kind of you know, obviously, we kind of turn into more of a consumer style of medicine in some ways. But, you know, if like we talked about in the past, if you're providing great care and great service for people in your local area, you you shouldn't feel shy about it. But sometimes, know, whether it be you know, working with a marketing provider to help you develop that script to know what software is gonna work well.

It could be a real bonus if you don't feel like doing it yourself.

Yeah. I think I do agree that there's a lot of people in the health industry, such as health industry, though they use it as an excuse. I'm in the health industry or I care about people. I feel weird asking for reviews. Don't worry.

The hairdresser and the guy that owns the butcher shop and every other service, they all feel exactly the same way. So don't use the health industry as an excuse. It's just you don't wanna ask people because you're afraid they might say no. But if they're gonna say no, then obviously, you don't think you did a good job.

Yeah. You have to you have to show that confidence in your work and and the and the great care you've you've provided.

But how often when you go to a restaurant or you go somewhere that you really enjoyed, you come home and you rave about it? If you've done a great job with your patients, they are going home and they are raving about it. They want to write a review for you. You just need to tell them where to do it and and mention your name. Absolutely.

If your boss is gonna give you a bonus. Go and talk to your boss about it. If the you don't have that in place already, go and talk to your employer now and say, we want a bonus system for if we get a review with our name mentioned.

There you go.

I think it's worth it. If I was the employer, I'd be going, yeah. Not a problem. I had do not have a problem with that at all.

That sounds like a good plan.

Okay. What's next?

So next is the engagement signals are now ranking factors. So Google is now tracking how patients interact with their business profile and using it as a ranking signal. So how many people are clicking call? How do people click get directions? How long they look at your photos?

If a 100 people see your profile and nobody clicks anything, Google is assuming that you're not relevant and your rank is gonna drop. You know? So if 30 of them call you or get directions, Google sees you as a highly as highly relevant, and you're basically your marketing sorry, your ranking is gonna improve. So this really kind of explains why practices ranked, you know, at a position of, you know, four or five sometimes get more patient calls than practices, you know, ranked one through three is because the amount of interactions they're getting.

And I I have had coaching clients who have said to me, oh, my rank I'm falling down the rankings. And I I think everything you've explained so far is is exactly why it's happening. So I hope they listen to this episode.

Yeah. Well, it matters because, like, the the practice is getting these, you know, more calls and a lower rankings because they've done something to kind of optimize their their profiles to get clicks. It's more engaging. So better photos, clear services, more compelling reviews. So they're gonna keep rate climbing in the rankings over time.

It's the it's the clinics that, oh, I've got, you know, 1,200 reviews, but nothing is that engaging or the photos are very old. Like, those folks gonna fall over time. So it's a matter of kinda controlling what you can control. So, you know, make it easy to call you and making sure that your phone number, you know, is obvious in like, you know, that it's visible. Like I said, there's there's ways of not only having your physical phone there, but there's gonna be a click to call button on your Google business profile.

You know, making sure you're, you know, utilizing high quality photos and obviously responding to every review are kind of really, really important aspects of, you know, making sure that your your Google business profile is something that is engaging and is and is seen by Google as being engaging because they can measure those clicks.

Yeah. I like to just the reminder about making sure you reply to when someone writes a review. Because I've written a review for some businesses, and you just you never hear anything back. And you go, wow. That was that was such a good experience.

But now I sort of feel let down that they didn't just acknowledge. Even if they just said, thank you for the review. We really appreciate it. Just something to acknowledge that I actually went to that that amount of effort would be great.

No. Absolutely. People wanna be interacted with, and they have that kind of back and forth. That's something that they value a lot. And you know, I've talked about in the past as far as you know, the types of photos you should have having people in the treatment chairs and in the waiting room.

But I found myself recently, know, kind of from a restaurant perspective, right, I drop my kids off when they do sports, I'm looking for a cafe. And and I guess this is a little bit different than a podiatry clinic, but I I don't mind seeing empty seats in a cafe. Because when I'm looking for a place to go, if it's a crazy busy restaurant or a crazy busy cafe, and if I know they have either little seating or, you know, they're just pictures of a place being packed.

Yeah.

On a on a Saturday morning, I'm probably less like more likely to go to the unbusy place even though I don't know. Like, maybe that's just who I am. But sometimes when you're looking at a restaurant though as well, you know, it's the ones that you know, is it is it getting directions versus someone scrolling past? You know, is it recent photos of actual food, you know, recent reviews, clear description of what they specialize in? You know, your pod podiatry clinic profile really works in a similar way where, you know, are you solving a very specific problem that people are looking for?

Do you look professional? Do the people on your photos look happy? If your if your profile answers those questions quickly and people engage with it, you're gonna soar in the ranking. So just keep that in mind when you're, you know, building out your page.

Yeah. This was something that I noticed when I was in Seattle. The amount of businesses that visually were doing things in the down at the markets that made people wanna take photos or videos and share it. And I think podiatry clinics have got to do something similar. You've gotta you've gotta come up with something that is photo worthy in your reception area, or it could even be a funny sign.

Just something that when people say it, they wanna take a photo, they wanna share it. Yeah. I've got a lot of ideas on this, but that's not what this episode's about.

No. No. Entire that could be an entire episode itself, and I think it'd be a good one.

Okay. What's next?

I'd say that, you know, social signals social signals are now part of the algorithm. In the past, it wasn't was kind of unclear how something on LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram kind of played a part in local rankings. But for the first time, the white spark report confirms that social media engagement is now measurable as a local ranking factor. This doesn't mean you need to have, like, 10,000 Instagram followers. You know, Google is looking at whether you're actively present and engaged with your community online.

So maybe it's just, you know, your Facebook page every once in a while being engaging and putting something on there that, you shows the personality of your clinic. You know, are people, you know, posting or tagging you in certain things? You know, Google doesn't necessarily care about the vanity metrics or how many likes you have, but showing some engagement on one of these platforms can be a beneficial thing.

Yeah. Well, I posted something on social media last weekend, a couple weekends ago. And I was talking at an event. I took a photo in front of the group because I love doing selfies when I'm at the front. But then in that, I tagged the organization that had invited me and also the main person that invited me.

Where some of my posts that you might put, say, on Instagram, might get 250 views or, you know, 500 views. This one was close to 4,000 within within that week because I had tagged people in that social media post. Therefore, it just gave you all that extra exposure.

No. Absolutely. It's a great way to get in front of more eyeballs, and when you when people are tagged, you might show up in front of other people's audiences. I think that kinda it it it kind of, you know, kinda follows along with kind of the next topic that I was gonna bring up is that there's some different ways of posting. Obviously, there's kind of the business to consumer b to c posting where you're like, you're providing educational information or you're showing your expertise, like, and kinda telling people how you can help them.

That's one way of doing it. But one way that I found that can still be helpful that you're not necessarily talking to your prospective patients, but they can see you still as the experts that especially I would say on LinkedIn, people are getting more into having conversations around different diagnosis, and treatments, and surgeries, and talking podiatrists talking to other podiatrists, or other podiatrists talking to other physicians online. And if, let's just say, some of your patients, they follow you, or they connect with you on LinkedIn, you don't necessarily have to, like, sell them on, like, you know, oh, come to the clinic. We've got availability or make an appointment, make an appointment.

Yeah.

But if they happen to follow you, then they see you engaging these discussions with other podiatrists online, it can be a signal to them that, oh, wow. Like, my, you know, my podiatrist is someone who is someone engaged in this professional community. They can see the conversation. They may not understand what's going on, but they see you engaging with other podiatrists and other podiatrists maybe complimenting you or giving you kudos for what you're doing. And it could be a way of building more trust than just like trying to sell to people on social media, if that makes sense.

Well, it makes perfect sense because there'll be a few times I might be doing a talk somewhere. Someone will tag me in that talk, but then I'll get notified that I've been tagged. As soon as I see that, I'm straight on to find out, well, who's saying what about me? Usually, it's always positive. But I did the same thing where somebody said to me recently, oh, how come you've never spoken at any podiatry conference in Australia?

And I went, yeah. Don't know. Just happens that way. But I've spoken for dietitians, dental groups, I've spoken overseas. So that's why whenever I speak, I always put those pictures up there because I'm thinking, as long as people are seeing that and you're posting that type of information on social media and they see that you can get in front of crowds and talk, One day, I'll get invited to speak at a podiatry conference in Australia.

Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed. I'm not holding my breath, but it could happen. But if I don't put it out there, then you're never gonna be top of mind anyway.

No. Absolutely. And like like we talked about in the past, I don't think you have to do all the things. Right? You don't need to be on Instagram, and TikTok, and Snapchat, and all all these things.

I think to get started, you know, just focus on what you wanna do. Like and like I said, to me, the best place to start in general would be LinkedIn. And just having, you know, you don't have to post yourself. You can just comment on other people and just engage kinda in the podiatry community on LinkedIn. And over time, if you see an area or a topic that is of interest to you and you wanna kind of get involved, it's a great way to do so.

And like I said, maybe maybe you wanna be a little bit more patient centric on Facebook or Instagram. Those are fine too, but don't feel like you have to do, you know, more than one social channel to get started. And like I said, just being authentic, sharing your true opinion, obviously, you know, there's HIPAA related stuff you gotta be aware of, and you don't wanna like run afoul of that stuff, but just engage in ways that as if you're, you know, talking with other colleagues and knowing that maybe some patients might see it.

I I think it's great advice. If you don't have any post yourself, just follow what other people are doing and and comment, engage, and and be seen. Because if your name I've seen that on especially on LinkedIn, where there'll be certain podiatrists that post a lot. There'll be other podiatrists that don't post anything, but I see their names and their comments on all the other podiatrists' posts. And and they've actually become their their names have become extremely familiar with me even though I don't see anything that they post.

Absolutely. That's the way it works sometimes.

It's a smart move there, big Jim. Mhmm. Okay. What's next?

So the last point is that citations matter less, but NAP or with NAP consistency matters more. So citations is basically like these directories. Right? So you have your your clinic is being linked out by some local directory or directory of podiatry clinics, and the NAP means your name, your address, and your phone number. The old advice was to get your practice listed on a 100 directories.

All those links were thought to be really valuable. That doesn't matter so much anymore. But here's what does. You know, if your Google Business profile says your address is 123 Main Street, and on Healthgrades it says your 123 Main S T, 1st Street, and your Yelp says, you know, 123 Main Street Suite 100, Google sees those as kinda conflicting signals and your rankings can drop. So, you know, how you have your name, address, and phone number listed on different sites is really, really important.

It needs to be exactly the same everywhere. So, like, one thing that you can either do yourself or have somebody work with you is that you need to audit kind of the top 10 to 15 local listings, including your Google business profile, Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD, Yelp, other kind of major health care directories, maybe your local hospital, your professional directories. Make sure that name, address, phone number are identical everywhere. And if you've moved offices or changed phone numbers, it's really, really important that you do this.

Yeah. I've seen that with a few businesses, and even I get confused. There was a place we were visiting overseas, and on one map, it said had one address. On a different map, it had a slightly different address because it was two streets that actually crossed this business. So it must have been when they filled in one form, they put one address.

When they filled another one, they may have put something else, or it just took it that that was their address. I almost didn't go because I went, oh, now I'm not quite sure. I'm gonna get an Uber. Which one am I was in two did they have two locations? That's what confused me until I went to the maps and figured out.

I know. Same location, but I've had that. So I think it's a really important thing to fix up and make sure all your addresses are really consistent because if it confuses a human, it's gonna confuse Google.

No. Absolutely. I run to this issue with my where my condo is located here in Montreal that I'm I'm not on a street. I'm, like, kind of right off the street in front of a park, and I get the same thing where someone's a street on a street over on the wrong side. They can't deliver deliver the Costco.

And, like, yeah, just even if you do it perfectly, sometimes things can mess up. But, obviously, you wanna try to create a great, you know, experience for your your patients and for customers. And, you know, by kinda keeping that stuff consistently consistently, like, updated and and having it being right all across all platforms, you'll basically produce a better experience for them. It'll lead to less frustration and more happy patients.

Yeah. And you'll get more patients. Absolutely. That's my pup. Okay.

Moving along.

Yeah. So to like kinda recap the kinda like the five shifts or these kinda five factors I think that are important for podiatry clinics. You know, let me kinda recap a little bit about I what we covered today. So first I'd say is that, you know, Google Business Profile matters more than your website for most patients. Second, review recency.

Basically, review recency beats review quantity. So get, you know, two to four every week consistently. Third, you know, engagement signals like clicks and calls on your Google business profile are now ranking factors. So keep that in mind. Fourth, social signals matter.

So, you know, show up consistently at least on one social platform. Like I think LinkedIn right now is the best platform for most podiatrists. You know, it's probably the easiest one. And fifth, these kind of citation to direct your websites don't matter as much as keeping your name, address, and phone number kinda consistently over all platforms. So those are the things to do.

And like, you know, the next step is also to take action. Right? So, you

know Definitely.

If you feel like you can do those things on your own, fantastic. If not, I I know a guy that does some marketing and some consulting with podiatry clinics named Jim McDaniel who can do a good job for you. To be the weirdo talking to the third person, but this is definitely something that I I do for the clinics I work with. You know, obviously, it takes time. It's not rocket science, but it's something where you have to be on top of it on a consistent basis to really get the benefits of these local ranking factors so patients can find you locally.

Yeah. And it's it's one of those things. See, you might have a list of tasks or five things you gotta do. Pick one, get it done, then move on to the next one. Don't try and do everything at exactly the same time, but otherwise, it's just overwhelmed.

And when you get overwhelmed, just yeah. All of sudden, you just end up doing nothing.

Yeah. And we're not at that point yet in our in our lives where the we can train an AI to do all these things for us. It is gonna go out there and do it on a consistent basis, and we can set it and forget it. We're still not in that at least not right now. Maybe in six to twelve or don't know.

In a couple years from now, we'll be able to have some AI agent that does all these things for us without us having even think about it. But right now, the algorithm, you know, it keeps evolving. You know, what worked in 2022 doesn't work it work now. You know, what works now might change in 2027. So the practice that that win are the ones who stay current and take action.

So you don't need to be perfect. You just need to keep moving forward. So we're here to help you do that. That's why we do this show. That's why Tyson and I show up most every week and have these fun and engaging conversations.

And, yeah, just just put the act take action and put the work in.

Put it in most every week. Every week. We're here every week. We have not missed an episode in almost four years. Every Monday

Yeah.

Without without fail, it's basically there.

Sometimes I check out. Maybe I'm not I'm not not here every week, but yeah. I'm I'm just having a little fun there.

Yeah. Okay. Nothing else you wanna finish up on? I thought this was a No. I think really interesting topic.

No. I think we're good.

Okay. Well, I look forward to talking to you next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. Au revoir. Bye now.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.