Dr. Ward is taking a proactive approach to Google Reviews and SEO, and his strategy is leading to practice growth.
How being strategic about Google SEO and reviews led to practice growth
By Matthew Ward, OD
August 4, 2026
There is no doubt that Google is king today.
If an office is not regularly managing its Google Business page or asking for reviews, it is leaving a lot on the table. I ask every new patient how they found us, and 99.99% of the time, they say, “Your Google reviews were good.” Of course, other reasons come up, like “You take my insurance” or “You’re close to my house or work,” but reviews come up constantly.
There is another optometry office about 200 yards from mine, so I know many of those same patients checked out that office too. Still, they chose us because of our reviews. We are sitting at 4.9 stars with 638 reviews, and it still blows my mind when I see offices that have been in business for 30-plus years and only have 10 or 20 reviews.
After paying close attention to our Google presence, both from SEO and Google Reviews, we’ve seen a growth of 15% new patients. It took some time, but I’ve developed a strategy that works for my practice.
HOW I STARTED
Back in 2018, I dove into my Google SEO on my own with a $250-a-month budget. It was overwhelming. I knew it was important because if people can’t find your presence on Google, they can’t choose you.
I was trying to learn SEO, figure out what was working and understand Google’s search engine algorithm. I was reading books, talking to people, and doing my best to stay on top of something that changes constantly. What you learned two years ago may not even apply anymore.
For a while, I ran my own Google Ads through the dashboard. Yet I was paying month after month without really knowing whether it was working, and the reports were difficult to understand to know what the actual results were. After about three years, I decided to turn off Google marketing.
Around that time, people were leaving reviews on their own, but I was not really asking for them.
REVISITING SEO
Then, about two years ago, I read something about SEO that made me realize I had to revisit everything. I found Rony Daniel, the spouse of Anisha Jacob, OD, of Village Vision Center in Highland Village, Texas. He had professional SEO experience and also founded MetricHelper to assist ODs in metrics analytics. He helped me tremendously.
It was eye-opening when he logged into my account and looked back at everything that had been done. Google had been pushing my information, yes, but some of the searches were completely wrong for my practice. Keywords such as “free glasses near me,” “free contacts near me,” “cheapest glasses near me” and even “dog ophthalmologist near me.” At one point, I had been paying Google to push data for some of that.
It was a wake-up call. I realized I had been wasting money and had no idea what I was doing. I learned that not only can you optimize and tell Google what you want to push, you also have to tell it what you do not want to push. I now have a list of 200 key phrases I manually put in so Google will no longer push for those searches. Now, keywords like “best eye doctor near me” drive patients to me. I highly recommend turning to an expert to help you navigate this important aspect of your online presence, whether someone in the industry or a local marketing professional.
TAKING A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO GOOGLE REVIEWS
For the first few years of owning this practice, I steered away from asking for reviews. I did not want to be pushy. I did not want to beg for a review, even though I knew how important it was. I kind of crossed my fingers and hoped people would leave one on their own.
A lot of restaurants and dentists seem to do this naturally now, but in my office, I started with a passive approach. I had a QR code and a simple message: If you had a good experience today, Google reviews mean a lot to us. I do not know how much that really did.
Now I’m more proactive. Tools like ReviewWave, Aloha or Weave can send a post-exam text requesting a review. We now incorporate a nice message after the visit: “Great seeing you today. If you had a good experience, please leave us a Google review.”
Once we started doing that, things really changed. We went from getting one or two reviews a week to about 12 a week.
HOW I ASK NEW PATIENTS
I also changed the way I ask new patients how they found us. That question has become the gold standard for me. I hear it all the time now: “I checked your Google reviews.” When I hear that, I say, “Great, I’m glad you found us. Those mean a lot to us. If you’ve had a good experience, we’d love a review from you.”
No one ever says no. If they take the time to do it, maybe one-in-five actually does it, but that still matters. When patients mention it, I tell them it is the best compliment we can get.
It is always great when I get those email notifications from Google saying another person has left a review.
WHY THIS MATTERS NOW
The more reviews you have, the more people notice. These days, if one office has 200 reviews and another has 1,000, your eyes go to the higher number. It does not matter the industry. If you are not doing this, you are falling behind.
At the beginning of 2025, we compared new patient numbers from 2023 to now. Since January 2025, the data shows that we are up about 15 percent in new patients. I anticipate that could be as high as 20 percent by the end of the year. And while many factors can lead patients to a new doctor, this Google Review strategy was the only change we made to draw new patients in.
That is why I believe so strongly in managing Google well. If people can’t find you, they can’t choose you. And if your reviews are not helping tell your story, you are missing a huge opportunity.
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Matthew Ward, OD, is the owner of Valley Eye Clinic in West Des Moines, Iowa. To contact him: eyedocward@gmail.com |
