Successful digital marketing for healthcare involves mastering the Google My Business listing. And there are updates that keep coming here too.
What’s the POI Establishment Category ?
A new category appeared on certain Google My Business accounts in the latter half of April. The “POI Establishment” description appeared on some business listings, which left business owners and SEOs wondering what this was about. There was the worry that this could dilute the real categories of the businesses such as “restaurant”, “hair salon”, “software company”, etc. along with which the “POI Establishment” category is displayed, as the following screenshot by Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz shows:
You’ve probably seen it in your listing too. The Google Maps Platform developers’ page describes POI as “points of interest”. Google describes POI as places people would usually visit. Examples suggested are parks, tourist attractions, recreational parks or institutions such as schools, colleges, businesses, shops, etc. A place is designated a POI based on its definition in the Places API. Places such as fountains, lakes and forests are not usually categorized as POIs since people don’t visit these places often unless they have some historic or cultural significance.
Hotels, restaurants, shops, etc are business POIs. Google states that these appear on the map when it is a “normal” type base map where you also have the corresponding icons of these businesses. Businesses in indoor floor plans and maps only appear as POIs on a map that is in lite mode.
Responding to a POI Tap
You can benefit from the POI by responding to it when a user clicks on it. Google’s developer page suggests using an OnPoiClickListener in the code, as the example below shows:
This gives your app information about the POI clicked, such as coordinates for latitude and longitude, the name of the POI and the place ID.
How to Keep POIs from Showing on Map
If you wish, you can hide business POIs from showing on the map. Google’s developer site suggests the following code, a declaration like the JSON style:
For simplifying the display of all POI categories, Google suggests the following JSON:
Advantages of a Google My Business Profile
A great Google My Business profile can provide great advantages, since that’s usually how your target audience first gets to know your organization. An efficient healthcare digital marketing company such as MedResponsive can do that for your practice, as the following example of one of our clients shows:
This profile has resulted in great search performance:
Customer views and actions have been positive too.
We’ve included good photos of our client’s practice:
As you can see, the photos have great views. The graph below proves it:
The favorable reviews also help:
The right healthcare digital marketing agency can help you target potential customers and secure more views and conversions, no matter what updates Google brings about.
