Google Business Profile for doctors: what to fix first

Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a patient sees about your practice, sometimes before your website. Most of the problems we see on these profiles are small, fixable errors: a vague category, outdated hours, a booking link that leads nowhere useful. This is the order we would work through them.

Start with the name and primary category

The primary category tells Google what kind of practice you are, and it is one of the most influential fields you control. Choose the most specific option that describes the bulk of your work. A dermatology practice should be listed as a dermatologist, not as a medical clinic.

• Pick one primary category that matches your main service line. Add secondary categories only for services you provide at that location.
• Use your real practice name as it appears on your signage. Adding keywords or city names to the name field goes against Google's guidelines and can lead to a suspended profile.
• Check that the address, suite number and phone number match your website exactly.

List services the way patients describe them

The services section is often left empty or filled with whatever Google suggested automatically. Review it line by line. Add each service you offer with a short, plain description of what it is and who performs it.

Profiles tend to lag behind the practice. If your physicians have added procedures such as aesthetics, medical weight loss, hormone therapy, regenerative medicine or pain management, those belong on the profile as soon as you are scheduling patients for them. Keep descriptions factual and avoid claims about outcomes. AI can help draft this text, but a physician should review anything clinical before it is published.

Keep hours and the booking link accurate

Wrong hours are a common cause of avoidable negative reviews. A patient who drives to a closed office rarely forgets it.

• Set special hours for holidays, staff training days and planned closures ahead of time.
• If your phones are answered on a different schedule than your doors are open, say so in the profile description.
• Point the appointment link to a page where a patient can book or request a visit, not to your homepage.
• Test the link on a phone, since that is where most patients will tap it.
• If the booking tool collects patient information, confirm with the vendor and your compliance contact that the data is handled with HIPAA requirements in mind.

Replace stock photos with real ones

Patients use photos to answer practical questions: what the building looks like, where to park, which door to use, whether the office looks clean and current. Real photos of the exterior, entrance, front desk, exam rooms and staff do this better than any stock image.

Do not post images that show identifiable patients without written authorization. Before and after photos are subject to privacy and advertising rules that vary by state and specialty, so confirm your approach with your counsel or compliance contact. Add new photos whenever something changes, such as a renovation, new equipment or a new physician.

Answer questions and respond to reviews carefully

Where the questions feature appears on your profile, anyone can ask and anyone can answer, including people who have never visited. Google has changed how this feature works over time, so look at what your own profile shows and answer from the practice account. Stick to logistics such as insurance, parking and scheduling. Never give medical advice in a public answer.

For reviews, ask every patient in the same consistent way. Do not offer incentives, and do not screen patients so that only the happy ones are asked. Both practices go against Google's policies.

Replies need care. Privacy rules generally limit what a practice can say in public, and even confirming that the reviewer is a patient can be a problem. Keep replies general, thank the person, and invite them to call the office. Have your counsel or compliance contact approve a set of reply templates before staff use them.

Sort out physician listings and duplicates

Google allows individual practitioners to have their own profiles alongside the practice profile. In a group practice this is useful. Left unmanaged, it produces listings with old addresses, wrong phone numbers and reviews scattered across profiles nobody controls.

1. Search Google Maps for the practice name, each physician's name and any old phone numbers. Note every listing you find.
2. Claim each legitimate physician listing, set the correct specialty category, and link it to that physician's bio page.
3. For a solo practitioner, Google's guidelines generally favor one shared profile over separate listings for the doctor and the practice.
4. Ask Google to remove true duplicates, and update or report listings for physicians who have left or locations that have closed.

None of this requires special tools. It requires one person at the practice who owns the profile and checks it on a regular schedule. At Rx Medical Web, we manage these profiles for medical practices and are glad to answer questions about yours.

This article is general information for medical practices. It is not legal or medical advice.