The largest search platform in the world got sober last night and decided to shut off advertising to certain keywords for rehabilitation centers. And, for good reason! Even though there are plenty of legitimate rehab centers, there are plenty of scammy and illegitimate advertisers taking advantage of putting their rehab centers in front of vulnerable prospects.
You Can No Longer Advertise Your Rehabilitation Center On Google
Addiction is a big deal. There are legitimate, wonderful companies helping struggling individuals conquer their addictions and heal their bodies and minds. Adwords used to be one of the top revenue-generating activities for these rehab centers. Why? Because people go to Google when they want to solve a problem. In an effort to battle the illegitimate advertisers, and go against those who all they wanted was to get Heads in the bed. Running PPC campaigns is no longer available.
So how can you continue to show up at the top of Google without paid advertising?
Google Maps Business Listing.
Google Maps Business Listing
(Show up at the top of local search results)
In order to effectively continue marketing your rehabilitation center, it is imperative that you have your Google Local Listing Properly Setup. This will allow you to show up at the top of the search up at the top of a Google search for your local area.
What to Include for Your Rehabilitation Center
If you haven’t started at all, head over to business.google.com to get started. Here you’ll be able to set up all the different attributes that will show up for your business.
The key is to include as much information as possible. Google wants you to optimize your listing to best appear on its search platform.
If you include everything that you can. You’ve taken the first step to showing up first for your prospects.
Advantage Over Ads
Everything that Google does is for the consumer and trying to make the internet a safe, informative, friendly experience. Taking away the ability to advertise with certain keywords is HUGE and will actually be a really good thing if you are optimized for it locally.
Why?
Because we know that the search traffic is not going to go down. The same amount of people are going to be searching for “Rehab centers near me.” So, instead of showing someone else’s results right at the top, the best local results will be displayed nice and big right at the top with all of your information. This could be a game changer for your business if you quickly optimize your listing business page with Google.
Factors
Just by taking a quick look at the picture above we can see that some of the biggest ranking factors are: Number of reviews, average star value, we can see that all listings have a website, address, contact information, their address, and their hours of operation. The goal: give Google as much information as possible.
There’s so much more that you can do to help boost your rankings. If you’re going to play with Google, you have to play their game.
Act Now
Take advantage of changes in Google to raise your business above the rest. Don’t let the big internet giant throw you on the ground and cripple your profits. Cultivate a mindset of, “This change probably will keep a lot of others down. Meanwhile, I’m going to adapt and use this to my advantage.”
You can do this quickly by optimizing your Google business listing.
If you feel lost or don’t think you can keep up with all the changes. Give us a call. We’d be happy to help your rehabilitation center stay profitable.
