How Optometrists Can Maximize Their Google Business Profile
- Perfect the Basics: Complete and accurate NAP info, detailed services, and a strong business description help patients find and choose your practice.
- Engage with Photos & Reviews: Showcase high-quality images of your office and staff, and actively manage patient feedback to build credibility.
- Keep Profiles Fresh: Regular updates, posts, and monthly check-ups ensure your practice looks active, professional, and easy to contact.
When you’re running a business that depends on word-of-mouth like an optometry practice, the vast majority of new patients are going to discover you in the exact same way: through a search engine.
According to one recent study, about 80% of people between the ages of 13 and 21 use Google more than three times a day. Not only that, but many of these respondents (72%) indicated that they either exclusively click on organic results or do so the vast majority of the time.
People are turning to search engines like Google for everything – from gathering complex information to getting the answers to even simple questions like “optometrist near me.” But how does Google make money and remain profitable if it’s in the business of giving away information for free? The answer is simple: it isn’t free.
In Q4 of 2025 alone, Google posted almost $100 billion in revenue – the vast majority of that coming from the ads that it sells on its massively popular search engine. The longer you stay on the page, the more ads you see – which is why it’s in Google’s own best interest to make sure that you get the information you need without necessarily needing to navigate to another browser window.
But how, then, is Google supposed to help someone find your optometry practice without actually sending them to your website if they can help it? With the Google Business Profile, you get a free tool that lets you manage your online presence not only directly through Google Search, but with Google Maps integration as well. You can provide customers with your updated address, phone numbers, service hours, and more – all to make it as easy as possible to contact you.
Keep in mind that in the United States, over 60% of all searches happen on mobile devices. Those mobile users are very likely to pick up the phone and give you a call, especially if it’s easy to find you via your Google Business Profile. But gone are the days when simply filling out this information was enough to get the job done. As was true in the early days of the Internet, just having a website or even a Facebook page isn’t going to cut it any longer.
You need to stand out. You need to look at your Google Business Profile as an opportunity for engagement. It needs to become the best type of advocate for your business, and fast. Getting to this point isn’t necessarily difficult, thankfully, but it will require you to keep a number of essential things in mind along the way.
Start With the Fundamentals
The first step towards crafting an engaging Google Business Profile as an optometrist involves making sure all your core information is complete and accurate.
A profile with missing hours or an outdated address is like handing someone a blurry prescription. They might get there eventually, but it’s going to cause frustration along the way. Double-check your business name, address, phone number, website, and hours of operation. Make sure holiday or special hours are updated in advance so no one shows up to a locked door. Patients looking for eye care often need timely service, so clarity and accuracy here aren’t optional.
Another one of these key fundamentals is your business description, which is where you bring your practice’s personality to life. Avoid vague statements like “We provide quality eye care” because that could describe anyone. Instead, share what makes your practice unique.
Do you specialize in pediatric eye exams? Offer same-day glasses? Use the latest retinal imaging technology? The more specific and authentic you are, the more your profile will stand out. Think of this as your elevator pitch. If someone read just these few sentences, they should feel they’ve found the right optometrist for their needs.
The last of these fundamentals has to do with your attributes and services, which also play a role in how people find and choose you. Google allows you to list specific offerings, from contact lens fittings to dry eye treatment, and highlight accessibility or payment options. Patients searching for “emergency eye doctor near me” or “optometrist who accepts my insurance” are more likely to find you if your profile includes those details.
To put it another way, it’s like adding the right signs outside your office so passersby know exactly what’s inside.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Another one of the key ways to craft the most engaging Google Business Profile possible as an optometrist involves using as many high-quality, can’t-miss photos as possible.
Many optometrists upload one exterior shot of the office and call it a day, which is a giant mistake. In reality, photos are the closest thing to a virtual handshake. Use high-quality images of your office, your staff, and even your equipment. Show the friendly faces patients will meet, the clean and comfortable exam rooms, and any unique features like a stylish eyewear selection. This is the online version of letting someone peek inside before they walk through the door, which can go a long way toward making them feel at ease.
The Power of Reviews
In an era where social proof is everything, reviews are your reputation in action.
A Google Business Profile with glowing patient feedback feels like a friend’s personal recommendation, while a lack of reviews makes people wonder if anyone’s ever been through your doors. Encourage happy patients to leave reviews by making it part of your post-appointment follow-up. When you receive a review, respond to it as soon as you can.
A simple “Thank you for sharing your experience” shows you value patient feedback. For less-than-perfect reviews, reply with professionalism and empathy. How you handle criticism can often be more impressive than the review itself.
An Ongoing, Iterative Process
Finally, think of your Google Business Profile as something that needs regular check-ups – not unlike your patients’ vision.
Information changes, services evolve, and new reviews come in. All of this needs your attention to keep up the quality level that people have come to expect.
Set a reminder to review your profile at least once a month, updating anything that’s outdated and adding fresh content. A well-maintained profile builds the impression that your practice is organized, attentive, and ready to meet patient needs.
As a part of this process, be sure to upload new content and take advantage of new engagement opportunities whenever you can to keep things fresh. In fact, one could argue that posts and updates are an often-overlooked part of the Google Business Profile.
These work like a mini social feed right in your search listing, giving you a chance to share promotions, seasonal reminders, or educational tips. Posting about a back-to-school vision screening in August or a special on sunglasses in summer shows that your practice is active and engaged. An empty profile can feel like a darkened shop window, but regular updates signal that you’re open, attentive, and ready to help.
When done right, your Google Business Profile can be more than just a digital listing. It becomes an ongoing conversation with your community, a showcase of your care and professionalism, and a powerful tool for attracting new patients before they’ve even called your office.
In the end, crafting an engaging Google Business Profile for your optometry practice isn’t something that you’ll “do once and forget about.” Yes, it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to do it once. Then, you have to be forward-thinking and make sure that it’s updated again and again to not only attract someone’s attention initially, but keep it.
Now, imagine needing to go through roughly that same process in close to 80 other online directories. That’s on top of the work you’re doing in terms of search engine optimization, or content marketing, or anything else on your outreach list.
Managing it all can easily become a full-time job – which is why businesses often hire someone (or even a team of people) to do precisely that. But assuming that isn’t in the cards for you, Surefire Local was designed to be the next best thing.
Surefire Local is a powerful all-in-one marketing platform that distills everything you need to create the best online presence for your optometry practice into one easy-to-manage tool. You don’t have to go to one application for content marketing, another for social media, another for analytics, and more. Everything you need is under one roof. That includes business listings, SMS text marketing, competitive analysis, benchmarks, and more.
All the tools that you need to craft an engaging Google Business Profile for your optometry practice are at your fingertips, freeing up an enormous amount of time for you to focus on more essential matters. That way, you can spend more time crafting an engaging experience for your patients as soon as they walk through the door, which in and of itself is the most important benefit of all.
If you’d like to find out more information about how to craft an engaging Google Business Profile for optometrists, or if you have any additional questions about healthcare services marketing that you’d like to go over with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. You can also click here to attend a Surefire Local demo so that you can get a better sense of just what such a powerful all-in-one marketing platform can do for you.