Google has an optional section at the bottom of your hospital’s Knowledge Panel that gives you up to 750 characters to talk about your practice in any way you choose—this is the Google My Business Description. If you don’t want to add a general overview of your practice, you can include your mission statement, more information about your doctors, or really anything else you think is important for clients to know about your practice.

The description should be easy for anyone familiar with your hospital to complete, and it is wonderfully effective—it’s worth an entire 15% of your profile when Google calculates the completion of your profile. The less complete your profile, the lower your practice’s search listing is ranked.

Pro tip: If you don’t see the option to add a description on your Google My Business page, it’s possible your business is incorrectly categorized within Google My Business. This can often be rectified by simply reducing the number of categories your hospital is under. Keeping the category to the most accurate will remove any confusion Google may have about your business, and the Google Description feature should become available.

Hospitals that have a Google Description saw a 4% increase in the number of ratings and reviews over those that did not.

To add a Google My Business description, log in to your Google My Business account, click on the “Info” button on the menu bar and look for a section labeled “Add business description.” Click on the pencil icon next to that field, which will bring up a menu that will let you enter a brief description of your business.