Why You Should Set up Apple Business Connect for Your Healthcare Organization
Until recently, excelling at local search centered on your Google Business Profile (GBP) and Apple Maps was pretty much just another standard citation. However, for people searching for nearby healthcare providers or services, Google is no longer the only player in the game.
In January 2023, Apple introduced Apple Business Connect (ABC) to the public, allowing business owners to manage their online presence with an entirely different experience. Replacing a simplified map profile program called Apple Business Register, the new tool enables businesses to control, customize, and promote their business information to Apple users worldwide.
You may be thinking that nothing can measure up to your GBP, but let us remind you that as of the fourth quarter of 2022, Apple claimed a 24.1% market share. This represents a significant number of consumers who are using their iPhones to navigate and research local businesses, including healthcare organizations.
To be even more precise, the iPhone is officially America’s most sought-after smartphone, with 57% of market sales in Q2 2022. In addition to this, iPhone users tend to be highly engaged with the Apple ecosystem. They are more likely to use Apple Maps as their default navigation app, making it essential for healthcare providers to note recent changes.
To put accurate and relevant information in front of Apple users, you need to claim and customize Apple Business Connect for your healthcare organization. In return, you can increase your opportunities for creating widespread user engagement, reaching new heights in terms of online rankings and brand recognition, and building an effective local SEO campaign.
Put Your Business on the Map with Apple Business Connect for Your Healthcare Organization
Apple Business Connect is a free tool that allows businesses of all sizes to customize the way their information appears across Apple apps such as Apple Maps, Messages, Wallet, Siri, and more apps in the Apple ecosystem. It’s described as a way to “put your business on the map.” In this case, Apple Maps.
The service is a long time coming for Apple Maps. For 17 years, Apple relied on third-party data from multiple sources, including Yelp, Foursquare, and others, to compile business information for their users. Now, they have followed in Google’s footsteps, getting first-party sourced data from the businesses themselves.
Apple Business Connect offers a great opportunity for healthcare organizations to reach more potential patients and grow their online presence. With its user-friendly interface and compatibility with Apple devices, you can easily create or claim your ABC profile, manage information and reviews, and improve patient engagement.
How Does Apple Business Connect Compare to Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile and Apple Business Connect offer similar services. For example, they both let you provide accurate and up-to-date information, showcase your services and specialties, respond to reviews, communicate with patients to help them make informed healthcare decisions, and track the effectiveness of your online presence. This means that if you already have a GBP, it’ll be easy to keep Apple Business Connect for your healthcare organization up to date.
While Google calls each listing a Profile, Apple names your healthcare organization’s account a Place Card. Once you set up your account and verify it using your existing or newly created Apple ID, you can access your Place Card and begin making changes. In other words, start optimizing Apple Business Connect for your healthcare organization.
While GBP has businesses add and edit information within the search results (an update, called New Merchant Experience, that’s recently been introduced), Apple enables editing through a back-end dashboard. You can add a business name, address, phone number, website, healthcare organization hours, location images, logos, and more. There is also a feature called Showcases, which parallels GBP’s Posts feature.
Finally, with a feature called Insights, Apple Business Connect provides you with information about how patients found your profile, such as what terms they searched or which profile features they used, so you can use this feedback to improve your overall marketing strategy.
Although Apple uses Google as the default search engine on its devices, a growing number of people are using Apple Maps and Siri voice-command to find local businesses. Given that Google captures about 85% of the world’s search market, it continues to stand out as the leader in creating and managing business profiles in the digital environment. However, as Apple Business Connect matures, it’s easy to envision the addition of new features, new functionality, and more seamless integration. With the growing popularity of Apple Maps among iPhone users, optimizing Apple Business Connect for your healthcare organization can be a valuable way to increase the chances of patients finding and choosing your practice, ultimately resulting in higher patient volume.
ABCs of Your Local SEO
Locally-oriented searches make up about 46% of all searches conducted on Google. This statistic alone illustrates how important local SEO is in boosting your visibility. Including specific physical location details, business hours, geographical service areas, and driving directions can help Google understand and process user queries accurately, resulting in better search results for potential patients.
When those details are added — either by claiming your GBP or ABC for your healthcare organization or both, you can stack the deck in your favor, supercharge your digital footprint, and increase patient trust with accurate and up-to-date information readily available.
In addition to this, while many healthcare providers focus on GBP, using Apple Business Connect for your healthcare organization can help you differentiate yourself from competitors who aren’t listed on this platform. This is especially important in competitive healthcare markets where patients have many options to choose from.
However, managing local SEO and keeping your GBP and ABC well-optimized requires ongoing attention and effort. It’s not a one-time task that can be completed and forgotten about. You need to continually monitor and update your local listings, respond to patient reviews, and analyze website traffic and search rankings.
This is where SocialClimb comes in. With the help of our platform, managing your healthcare organization’s local SEO and optimizing your listings across all major directories becomes a streamlined and efficient process. At the same time, we understand that gaining local visibility is only one part of a patient-centric, data-driven strategy. That’s why our platform provides a range of easy-to-use tools, allowing you to manage reviews and online reputation, track and analyze your online presence, monitor your competitors, and make informed decisions to improve your visibility, attract more patients, and increase retention rates.
