Most med spas treat Google like a phonebook listing
When someone within a few miles of you searches for a treatment, Google shows them a map with three clinics on it. Being one of those three is worth more than most advertising, and it is decided by a profile most owners set up once and never touched again.
The map pack is a different competition to your website
Ranking on the map is not the same as ranking a page. It is driven by how complete and how active your Google Business Profile is, how close you are to the person searching, and what your reviews say. A beautiful website does not help you here.
That is good news for a smaller clinic. You cannot out-spend a chain on ads, but you can absolutely out-maintain them on a profile most of them ignore.
What a properly run profile actually has
Categories and services filled out completely. A full treatment menu with price ranges, which most clinics leave blank and which is one of the first things a patient looks for. Real photos of your actual space, added regularly, rather than stock images anyone can spot.
Then the parts nobody does: a Q&A section you have seeded and answered yourself, a description written in the language of your actual neighbourhood, and a reply to every single review.
It has to stay active, which is why owners drop it
A profile that was completed once and never posted to again drifts down. Treatment-specific posts every week or so, and a steady trickle of new photos, are what keep it live.
This is exactly the kind of work that gets dropped when you are treating patients all day. It is small, it is recurring, and it never screams at you when it is ignored.
Honest about the timeline
Local visibility compounds. This is not a channel that produces a result in the first fortnight, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. What it does is build a lead source that costs you no media spend at all, month after month.
We will also be careful with it. Profiles can be suspended after careless edits to categories or services, so changes are made deliberately and documented.
Questions about this
- How long before my Google Business Profile brings in patients?
- Longer than paid ads and we will not pretend otherwise. Local ranking compounds over months rather than days. The trade is that it costs no advertising spend, so it keeps working after any given month's budget is gone.
- Do you need access to my Google profile?
- Yes, manager access. You stay the owner throughout and can remove access at any time.
- Should I really put prices on my profile?
- Price ranges, yes. It is one of the first things a patient looks for and most clinics leave it blank, so it is a easy way to be the listing that answers the question. Ranges rather than fixed prices keep you flexible.