Google Is A Moving Target

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 back to podiatry marketing. And with me is my cohost and partner in crime. It is big Jim Mac all the way over in Canada. How are you doing today, Jim?

Tyson, things are good. Things are good. You know, I'm still trying to work off some of those pounds from the holidays. So I definitely live up to that nickname. Big change.

For sure. All all the pumpkin pie, squash pie, turkey, ham, a a big, you know, New Year's dinner with my in laws here in Quebec. Yeah. I definitely need to get on the the treadmill, the bike, and, you know, kinda get some New Year's resolutions rolling. So no.

Things are good with me.

So I I always find it interesting that you guys don't do meat pies. You always talk about pumpkin pie and cherry pie, they have all these pies every time I've been to America. They have pie, but they don't do the good Aussie meat pie.

So it's funny you bring that up because actually in Quebec, we eat one of the things we have at New Year's is tortillaire, and that is a meat pie. So like do have some do have some meat pie there. And actually, one of the places I one of the first places I ever ate in Montreal when I got here, I don't know if they're Kiwis or they're from Australia, but there is an Australian meat pie Yeah. Spot spot here not too far away from where I live in Montreal. So You're blessed.

Yeah. I I I talk more about the sweet pies and not the meat pies, but but yeah, things are good here in Montreal.

Okay. So this is week two of January's. And so, obviously, in the beginning of the year, it takes a little bit of just getting the momentum going. You start your business back. You've just you know, you finished the holidays.

So we are gonna keep everyone motivated this year. So what is today's topic?

Yeah. So today, we're gonna talk about Google being a moving target. And like you said, you know, we're just starting off 2023. We don't wanna, like, bombard people with, like, way too much information or things aren't relevant to their practice. But I think everyone knows Google.

They know they use it on a daily basis probably to search for the weather, what time is it, you know, in Karen, Australia, you know, like, whatever you're looking. You're you're you're you're typing into Google. So we just wanna get into an understanding about how Google works and just kind of things to be aware of with their platform because there are rules associated with what Google's gonna rank. They're always kinda changing the rules to benefit themselves, and we wanna get into specifics around that today.

Are you saying Google isn't in it for us? They're in it for themselves?

Well Oh, that's harsh. All these all these venture capitalist funded Yeah. You know, American based corporations, the the bottom line, the investors, the

It's true, though.

They've gotta find ways to grow and and increase the amount of revenue on their balance sheets. Right? And usually, Google is, you know, their main form of creating revenue isn't your free Gmail account. It's not you're using Google.com for free. It's all the different types of advertising they serve in different places.

So it's important to know, you know, if you're not paying for the product, you kind of are the product. Right? So we will get into some of those details today.

Well, I suppose it's no different when you're talking about profits. It's like your podiatry business. Yes. We we wanna look after your patients, but in the end, you set up a business be because you want it to be profitable. So I think Google has to do exactly the same thing.

So I assume they're always moving it because they're trying to work out what is the best thing that's gonna bring profits in for their business, and then we've got to adapt our businesses to get the most out of it.

No, that's a perfect example is that when they first started, right, like this was a site that had no advertising on it. It was like a very like and they were looking for that way to actually generate revenue for their business. And ads was kind of the thing that, you know, became very valuable, whether it be the search ads was kinda where they started. And now display ads, you know, they're they own YouTube so they can run YouTube advertising. But it is one of those things where, you know, this quest for revenue is and can kind of, like, lead to, I wouldn't say, like, a terrible user experience, but, like, everyone, you know, has ideas about what they think about advertising, whether it be search advertising or display advertising, and really kinda getting down to the what does that mean for your practice.

Right? Like Yeah. And and I would say that it's really important to note that for a long time, the way Google worked was that you typed in those search words and you pushed, you know, search, and it would really bring, you know, at the very beginning, like, no advertisement, but basically the best five or 10 links. And you would basically Google's job was to send you to that that that great website. That's where you know, those blue links.

You click there, and you're gonna have something that's, like, a great result. And that's the reason why it beat out things like ask ask Jeeves or Lycos or AltaVista, some of these old school search engines that maybe not everyone in the the audience remembers, but that's how Google got popular is that it would send the way they built their algorithm. The links were very relevant, so people just kept on coming back to this website even though it wasn't the first search engine. You know, Yahoo and some of these other ones were, but it was the best. And but what's happening over time now is that they really want you to stay on Google based properties.

They don't want to send you to you know, if someone a patient in your local area is looking for your business or even podiatrist near me search terms now, they really wanna find a way to almost enrich themselves as opposed to, like, send patients to you anymore. So when you search, let's say, the name of your practice. Right? Maybe it's like, you know, Sydney Podiatry Associates. You're gonna see that box on their website, you know, that that that kind of, like, knowledge box on the right side that has your your your name, your phone number, your address is right there.

So there's almost no incentive for you know, if someone wants to call and make an appointment, there's maybe a book an appointment button there, and it might get to that scheduling page on your website. But Google is trying to find ways to keep people on google.com so they can serve these ads to people. So it's important to note that the way Google is doing things, you know, has changed. So you it's it's not something where a tactic you so someone used maybe an SEO person or your marketing person used five years ago on Google. Like, those things are quickly kind of eliminated by Google to kind of it's almost the Costco shopping experience.

I don't know if you have these big bulk stores in Australia

Yeah. There's few. There's a couple of them, Rand.

One of the tricks that they do at Costco is that they're always moving the different items around the store. So it's almost like a treasure hunt, and you're never like you never get into this routine where you can just, like, have your exact shopping list down, grab your stuff, and get out. It's always like the peanuts are next to the big screen TVs or like next week, the tacos are next to like, you know, the the $20 bottle of wine or something. Or they're trying to find a way for you to

Like, when you think about that, like, if you go to your normal supermarket, we have here Woolworths and Coles, they're two big supermarkets. And I just know when I if I go and do the shopping, I know what is in which aisle because it never changes. There might the ends, they they will change and there might be a promotion there, and that's supposed to be quite expensive for those products to be on each of those ends. But I can see how Costco where you'd normally go, your peanuts are here, next thing, hang on. They've put the peanuts down in the wine aisle.

It's pretty hard to walk down the wine aisle without going, well, actually, I've been working hard today. I deserve a bottle of wine or two. Yeah. And then moving it moving it somewhere else. So I think it's very clever.

So Google is doing exactly the same thing.

Yeah. I mean

Moving the

peanuts. You know, they're not they're not moving the peanuts or the wine or next to the wine, but it is a similar thing where you can't have a static strategy or a set of ways to approach Google. So either you as a podiatrist or the person handling your marketing really has to be on top of these algorithm updates. Because every three months or two months, Google is changing the way they're kind of rearranging those links in that top 10. And sometimes changes are needed to be made to your website.

Different technical things need to be implemented. Maybe a different type of page needs to be on your website. A different approach to the overall way you're presenting yourself on your website has to change. Maybe there has to be video embeds to make sure that people are staying longer on those pages Yeah. So they're watching the videos, so they're longer.

Because you're it is this feedback loop. Right? It's not only search, but a lot of people use Google Analytics, which gives Google information about how long people stay on your website. So it is this thing where have to kinda keep your eye on the ball. I guess that's the first this is kinda first part of our our chat today.

It's just like either you or someone you know that's doing your marketing has to stay on top of these changes because most recently, back in May, a lot of websites, a lot of podiatry websites that lost somewhere between 50 to 60% of the traffic to the websites because Google decided to send a lot of terms like, you know, diagnosis or treatment terms to big authoritative websites like Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic or WebMD. They don't wanna send it to your small little podiatry site about what a bunion is. Yeah. They wanna send it to these big authoritative websites that have a lot of traffic to hopefully get those big sites to buy advertising because they'll buy more advertising than you will. So it's it's a bit of a game, so you need to keep you or the person you're working with needs to keep their eye on the ball number one.

Yeah. And I have noticed there was something I was searching for just recently. I'm can't remember what it was that I typed in, but the first three things that came up were actually all YouTube videos. And those YouTube videos, but they were all three of them were exact were really good, was exactly what I was looking for, but the actual company that produced the product I was looking for was way down the page. It was probably about eighth on the page, but it was all these other places that were talking about it, but also had, you know, half a million views.

So Google straight over again, well, this is the information you want. We're gonna send you here because these are these are more popular.

That's a really great point. I think that it kinda touches on the basis of, like, what is the user intent? And depending on what you're searching for, for example, at least for right now, like if someone types in types in, like, podiatrist near me, like, the way they've used their algorithm is that, like, usually videos are not gonna show up for that. You're gonna get this kinda, like, what we call, like, a local pack. So the ads will show up.

It'll be like this local pack pack, which is like the map with usually, like, three links next to it Yeah. That are kind of usually based off the proximity. So your cell phone or your desktop has an IP address. Google can tell where that's located at. And then basically, like, says, these are the places closest to you, and maybe it ranks them by the number of rate ratings or reviews they have.

And then that area below is that kind of free or organic area that is constantly kind of being in flux. And like you said, sometimes for certain products, I type in maybe like how to change a light bulb, like some videos from YouTube will show up there.

But if

you type in podiatrist Cleveland or podiatrist Detroit, like, you're not gonna get videos there. So people, they're spending a lot of time maybe making I'm a podiatrist in Detroit videos. If people you know, not a lot of people are gonna be searching YouTube for that. And at least for right now, it doesn't pull it into YouTube into the Google results, but it is something to be aware of. And I'm always looking at those results to make sure that if if videos were to come in there that, you know, the podiatrists I work with, you know, that we have, you know, things optimized.

But it is like you said, it does kinda change depending on what you're searching for and what you see in the results.

Yeah. So to me, if I typed in how do I strap my heel for heel pain, then that may not give me a list of podiatrists. It could give me videos. But if there's a podiatrist in my local area that actually has a number of videos on that particular area and it's optimized the right way, then that could show up in that search results, ideally.

Yeah. It it could, but like I said, there's a lot of what's happening right now is that a lot of that kind of more general information I mean, has to be pretty niche, would say.

Yeah.

A lot of that general information, like if you had a, let's say you're a clinic in Detroit and you have, like, a video about, like, what a bunion is. At least for right now, like, all of that traffic is whether it be video, images, the the articles to it, Like, even if you're that local podiatrist, if you're on page one, you're doing something very, very right because a lot of that stuff is just going straight to these big websites right now. But it's not impossible, but it definitely like I said, Google's always changing their algorithm. So there could be you know, they flip a switch or they change this thing or that thing, and then all of a sudden, it could be very relevant. So like I talked about earlier, like, Google's always changing the rules, like and and you're playing their game.

So it might be something where the slots hit, you know, and then video is is a local thing as well. So it's something to be aware of.

Yeah. Well, I just typed in what's a bunion because you said that just to see out of curiosity what would come up. And it's funny that the number one place that came up was the Mayo Clinic. It's right at the top. Yeah.

There's there's no ads. There's no nothing. It's just the Mayo Clinic. And then it's got ortho info Cleveland Cleveland Clinic Yep. HealthDirect, WebMD.

So these are all ones that you actually mentioned. Foothealth facts, NHS UK, lifespan dot org, and Wikipedia.

Yeah. It's crazy. Like, it's they just wanna send all these big big sites to traffic. And then, I said, I don't if they're trying to update. I don't think that like maybe there's there's more money in these bigger websites to pay for advertising as opposed to like a small, you know, one or two podiatrist practice who has kind of a cap, you know, on their budget.

You know, no podiatrist is gonna spend 5 or $10,000 in Google Ads than maybe WebMD would if it helped them get more traffic.

And whether they say the best place to bury your body is on page two of Google.

Exactly.

So what what do podiatrists need to do then? Obviously, they should talk to you because this is what this is what you do day in, day out. You're always reading this information. You're keeping up to date. So if a podiatrist is because I I read somewhere I can't remember who.

I was on a webinar and someone was talking about this, and they actually said that if you've been using, like, an online marketing provider, and all of a sudden you've noticed your results taking a, like, quite a big dive, and you're not getting the results that you are. They said for them just to turn around and say, oh, yeah. Well, this yeah. The algorithm's changed. You just gotta expect that, is a is a lazy response.

They said because they really should be on top of and sort of in front of what the algorithm yeah. Be taking a bit of a through their experience, they should know what not exactly be able to predict what change is gonna happen, but they should be able to make changes pretty fast to keep your business where it should be.

Yeah. That's a good point. I think number one, would say is like and everyone gets these cold calls, probably gets cold emails. Number one is to like, just ignore anyone that like guarantees that they're gonna put you in the number one spot. Like, that's probably the

He's saying that that email I got from Raul was not real. He said he could make me number one.

I mean, I'm not gonna throw shade on him, you know, but like my experience is that, you know, no one can guarantee those things. Yeah. They may try really hard. They may not use they might use short term tactics that long term hurt your website, but that was something was more of a a gamification of the ratings and the rankings back in the day, but not so much now. I would also say that it's really important like like like like you mentioned, you know, if if you're if the people are blaming it on the algorithm, I think it's also important to understand the the different types of traffic that your website receives.

And I think a lot of the like I mentioned, there's this big drop in kind of across the board for most podiatry clinics that I saw in May.

Yeah.

And some of that is for what would call, like I would say that it's irrelevant traffic, but it's not traffic that's naturally gonna lead. It might be kind of like a first touch type of traffic. Meaning, like, if my website if my clinic website had what is a bunion, like, might be nice if someone comes and reads about it. That's not something I would ever want to, like, advertise on. Right?

Because it's it's something that I like, I'm gonna be paying a lot of money for for basically education educating my clients. So if I if I could get that to rank, you know, on the organic where it's the free, you know, part of Google, that would be fantastic. But like I said, and I I kind of disagree a little bit with that person that told you that. Like, I don't think anyone really, like, saw that, like, Google's gonna make a change and then to basically just push all this traffic towards these big websites. Like, they decided to do that.

And, like, maybe that, you know, Google and other tech companies are always looking for revenue, so maybe it's inevitable. But I think it is what you can do to protect yourself from something like that is what are those topics or those relevant pages? And we'll get into, like, so what's working now? Right? And this could change.

And I noticed that even in some of the places where I have some of my podiatry clients, I'm I'm really having to kind of fight against this. But one of the big things I think is is working now is this kind of, like, a local approach as opposed to just, like like I said, this educational, we're gonna describe what a bunion is or what a bunion treatment is. I think those are good pages to have on your website. But to think that those are the pages that are gonna like convert into a new patient, You really wanna focus the ones that are gonna convert are the ones that are more that local expert photos of you showing you doing those things, but you may not get, like, a ton of traffic on those, like, heel pain bunion surgery pages, you wanna focus on those, like, what I call, like, areas we serve pages. So Yeah.

If you're if you're located in Detroit, right, like, wanna rank number one for Detroit Podiatrist or Detroit Foot Surgeon, or if there's five suburbs around Detroit that you see a lot of great patients from, what are those five different locations and build out not only pages on your website for it, but then run ads, you know, for those locations. Because, like, you know, if it's convenient for someone and, you know, have those ads targeted locally. Right? Like, target people, like or just, you know, make sure that it's visible to people in that suburb so that they know that you're there and you're just getting visibility locally. There's no use in you being a podiatrist in Detroit in, advertising in Idaho or California.

Right? So just try to, like, you know, dominate your local market and show the value to your local market. And that's kinda like the first step that I think can be beneficial. And that kinda plays out in some different ways that we can get to

in a little bit. Yeah. So with Google as well, they're encouraging you to put photos onto the Google page. How important is that to to keep updating and making sure you're putting regular photos up there? Or is that not as important now?

Yeah. I mean, think there's some like I talked about when you're searching the name of your practice or when your name comes up in that local, like, maybe you're in the those three links next to the map. Yeah. I think it's important from like a branding perspective. You wanna make sure that whatever's on Google kinda matches your website.

So if they end up clicking through to your website, it's not like there was these like random pictures on Google, and now you have a great website, or you have great photos on the Google business profile, and then your website looks nothing like it. Right? Yeah.

Do you

wanna like

assume I've seen that.

Yeah. It's it's not uncommon. Like, it sounds kind of obvious to me because I'm always in this stuff. Right? But like, some of it, you know, and what sometimes happen too is that you you take your eye off of your Google Business profile for a while, and then sometimes Google will allow kind of user generated photos, so your patient or maybe a staff member took a picture of, like, your empty waiting room, which is, like, my least favorite photo of any like, it's almost worse to me than, like, the footprints in the sand photos.

Like, the empty waiting room or the empty treatment room is like

You don't like that when the footprints in the sand. What about the flower between the toe?

Not my thing. I mean, you can have that. No. Not my thing. But but like I was saying, though, I think it is important to, like, to look at the Google Business profile, those photos, and make sure they are update on brand and showing the podiatrist and the staff looking very professional with patients.

Mhmm. And it's not empty rooms. So I think, like you said, there's this, you know, having you know, maybe it's every year, every two years, having someone take updated photos of you, your staff, and then kind of either mock patients or patients who have given consent to, like, show people what you do. Because that's gonna be, whether it's on your website or your Google Business profile, extremely valuable. And it can be used on your Facebook, or if you get so popular that you need display advertising, that could be used there as well.

But I think that's a good point about the Google Business Profile for sure.

Okay. So what else in the area well, when it comes to things that are changing that we need to sort of well, for the average podiatrist in the clinic who is quite busy doing what they're doing, they don't have time to do this, to really stay on top of it. So this is why they reach out and they use different companies. So what what other advice would you be giving them other than they should be contacting you?

Yeah. I mean, besides getting

Well, you don't want everyone contacting you because then you'd be you wouldn't be able to do the podcast with me anymore.

You'd be too busy. Too inundated building out these websites and helping out people. No. I think it is important to really like, the mindset is, like, a locally relevant you're the local expert. Right?

The local foot and ankle care expert. And then whether it's your website or your Google Business profile, I think it is important to understand the power of Google Search Ads. I think we've touched on this a little bit, and maybe we'll do a podcast on podiatry legends at some point.

But Yeah.

When someone types something into the search box and they get either an ad or an organic result that really connects with them, like, that's the magic. That's that, like, moment. And you can there's ways of creating the moment for the people in your community and where it just like, it's a very relevant ad or it's a very relevant search result that leads to a patient appointment. So I see a lot of generic looking either ads or you know, it's fine to, like, advertise in the term, like, podiatrist near me. But if you see that in the the, like, the advertisement there, the first result is, like, podiatrist near me Detroit.

Like, that doesn't really connect with anybody there on a professional or emotional level. I think it is good to know that you're nearby, but just these small little touches can make a big difference. So I think it is I guess the biggest takeaway today is to know that Google is still a relevant platform, but just know that it's always kind of changing. And unless you have time to kinda keep track of those changes and be proactive, you're best to have either someone consulting with you or someone working with you that is on top of these changes so that you don't kind of, like, be six months or a year after some major updates, traffic is dropped, you have no idea why and where are the new patients at. And I think that's what's really important.

And whether it's a great website that that, you know, kind of provides information that's relevant to people that shows you the that you're the kinda local expert, that's the the first step. And then how do you get Google to, like you know, how how do you kinda learn those rules or play the game with Google? Because like I said, from the top, Google likes to change things around. Like, it's a business for them. Yeah.

It's a moving target. And unless you're paying attention and playing by their rules, it's really hard. It gets harder and harder to be rewarded by this really, really valuable service. But at the same time, they're a business doesn't actually wanna send you as much traffic as they used to want to.

Okay. So does Google ever change something, and then all of a sudden they've gone, damn it. That wasn't a good change, and they change it back. Does that ever happen?

Well, that's another, like, little small pushback I was gonna have with, like, with what you mentioned, like, oh, you should know that these algorithm changes

are

gonna happen, the set of focuses that so let's say you're super reactionary or you're trying to be so proactive that you, like, outguess Google. Some I've had it happen a few times where, you know, in digital marketing, I wish that most good decisions are made either month to month or quarter to quarter. If you have if you're working with an agency who's doing things day to day or week to week, that that's as, like, making changes or doing things. Google does roll back the algorithm.

Yeah.

They'll test things to see whether it works or not. And if you have an agency or someone that's, like, always trying to, like, be first or do those changes, you know, you wanna see like, in my mind, if there's two months in a row of something kinda going in a certain direction, either well or poorly, like, that that that's kind of a that's like a minimal time frame to, like, institute some tests or some changes. Obviously, if there's huge drops off drop offs, maybe like a technical audit or something needs to be done more urgently or emergently. But, you know, if you're not looking at it from month to month or quarter to quarter, I think people are just kinda, like, spinning their wheels and kinda like we talked about with some of

the

blogging, like making content just to make content, kind of like blogging farms or content farms.

Yeah.

Like, just making content to make content before you have, like, a good website. It's a similar thing with Google. If you're making all these changes, trying to predict what Google's doing or Google rolled out some massive update to the algorithm and there has been changes, it's it's more about the trends than it is, like, what happened this month.

Okay. I think that's good. It's it's one of those things that Google sometimes just looks like this massive beast, which it is. It's a yeah. It is a it is a big beast, but this is why there's people like you who are sort of all over this.

And it's true what you said about looking at trends and even always say that with people when you're looking at KPIs in your clinic. One week doesn't can can tell you something, but a month tells gives you more information. Two months gives you even more information. So the more you're actually measuring these numbers over the long term, the more you can actually see the peaks and the troughs. And if you just if you have one bad day in your clinic, you don't totally sack your whole staff and replace them with new people.

But if one day turns into a week to a month to a quarter, then you start thinking, okay, maybe I do need to make changes. So I think this is why people if they're doing it themselves, great. And if they know what they're doing, but if not, dealing with someone like yourself, especially because they can talk to you. I don't know what happens in the bigger the bigger companies, who they're talking to, what their expertise is, but I know at least if I was gonna do something, I would probably talk to you directly.

Yeah. I think it's you know, I'm always happy to answer people's questions too. Right? Like, even if you don't wanna bring me on as your consultant or kind of the builder for for your website or for digital marketing project, I'm always happy to share this information. That's why I got it through the first place is I had, you know, I had colleagues, podiatry school, classmates that just had no clue what was going on with Google or why were they spending here and not here and what was working and not working.

So, yeah, I'm really happy to provide that as a service. And I think, like you mentioned too, right, like, the good thing about Google is that it's definitely a value add, but it's, like, it's not necessarily it can bring a lot of great patients and traffic to to you know, foot traffic to to your clinic. But at the same time, if adjustments need to be made, it's not this I've never seen a podiatry clinic, you know, get more than a thousand to 2,000, I would say, visits. Yeah. Like, could churn out a bunch of content and get all kinds of irrelevant people coming to your website.

You know, you have a a great video about heel pain that is seen around the world, and you're getting people that are never gonna actually come to practice. I mean, which isn't an awful thing, but, you know, so if you do need to make some course corrections or do some things like a site being offered a day or two to kinda like clear things up is not the end of the world. But I think, you know, just having that basic information about what Google is, what the rules are, you know, ways to like play the game with them to really kind of, you know, build out an online presence that's, you know, not only beneficial to your patients, but also really brings long term sustainability and, you know, joy to your practice is really what it's all about. So definitely open to, you know, questions or concerns from our listeners because that's that's why I do this podcast with you. Otherwise, you know, I'd just be, you know, sitting in my basement, I don't know, doing some other random stuff on the Internet.

But I really enjoy working with my colleagues and podiatrists from around the world really address these these opportunities head on.

No. I think it's fantastic. So, Jim, I think on that note, we will wrap this episode up. So I will see you again next week. Thank you very much.

One or Tyson. Okay. Bye. Bye now. Thanks for

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