The listing patients see before your website.
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts a medical practice on Google Maps and in the box of three local results. Google ranks it on relevance, distance and prominence, and relevance comes largely from fields the practice fills in and the website that backs them up. Ark Visibility sets those fields up correctly for doctors and practices for $250, one time, or hands you every word to paste in yourself, free.
Three checks you can run on your own listing
Use a phone and a private browser window, so Google isn't showing you results shaped by your own history.
Test 1 — Count your listings
Search your practice name, then each provider's name, in Google Maps.
[practice name] [city]More than one listing for the practice, or a provider listing you never made, splits your reviews and confuses the match. Google allows a practice listing plus one per public-facing practitioner. Anything else is a duplicate.
Test 2 — Read your primary category
It is the gray line under your name and star rating.
Medical clinic? Doctor? Something narrower?Compare it with the three practices that outrank you for the search you care about. If theirs is narrower and more accurate than yours, that is the first fix.
Test 3 — Look for the answer to one question
Scroll your own listing the way a stranger would.
Do you take my insurance?If your description, services and website don't say how you're paid, Google's AI features and other assistants will guess. For a cash-pay practice, a wrong guess is a wasted call.
SPECIFIC TO MEDICAL PRACTICES
What goes wrong on medical practice listings
These are the patterns we check first, drawn from hands-on work and from Google's published rules. Your own audit replaces them with what is actually true of you.
Recognize any of this? The free search audit identifies which of these structural errors apply to your practice, in writing, with the exact step-by-step fix.
4 reports by email · 2 business days · No sales call
The practice and its providers are tangled together
A provider listing carrying the practice's name. Two listings for the same solo practice. A listing for a clinician who left two years ago, still collecting reviews.
Google has specific rules for practitioners. A solo practitioner should have one listing, named "Practice: Provider name." In a group, the practice gets a listing and each provider's listing carries only their own name.
Decide which structure you are, rename to match Google's format, and ask Google to merge true duplicates so the reviews come with them. Never delete a listing with reviews on it.
A broad category where a precise one exists
"Medical clinic" or "Doctor" as the primary category on a practice that is really a pediatrician, a family practice physician or a naturopathic practitioner.
The primary category is the strongest statement you make about what searches you belong in. Google's advice is to choose the fewest categories that describe your core business, completing the sentence "this business is a."
Pick the narrowest category that is accurate, add only the additional ones that are also true, and put everything else in services.
Empty services and a description that says nothing
No services listed under any category. A description that opens with "Welcome to" and never says what you treat, who you see, or how you're paid.
There is no category for "direct primary care" or "functional medicine" that we can find. Services, description and your website are the only places those words can live.
List real services in patients' words, each with a plain one-line description. Lead the description with what you are, where, and that you don't bill insurance, if that's true.
Related: how to ask patients for reviews.
Keywords added to the business name
"Example Family Direct Care | Best DPC Doctor Anytown." A city, a service or a tagline bolted onto the real name.
It can work for a while, which is why agencies do it. Google's rules say unnecessary information in the name isn't permitted and could result in suspension, and any competitor can report it.
Use the name on your door and your paperwork, written identically everywhere. We won't add keywords to a name, even if asked. What NAP consistency means.
Review replies that confirm someone is a patient
"We're sorry your visit on Tuesday ran late." "As we discussed at your appointment." Any reply that acknowledges the reviewer was ever seen.
In 2023 a practice paid $30,000 to settle with the HHS Office for Civil Rights after disclosing patient information in a reply to a negative review. The reviewer going public first doesn't waive anything.
Reply to every review with wording that thanks the writer and states your general policy, without confirming a relationship. The audit includes templates; your compliance adviser has the final say.
What the $250 covers
What the $250 setup covers, field by field
You see every word before it goes live, with the reasoning. Nothing on your listing changes without your sign-off, and you stay the primary owner of the profile throughout.
One listing per real thing.Practice and practitioner listings named to Google's format, duplicates identified and merge requests filed.
The narrowest accurate primary, and only the additional ones that are true.Chosen against the practices that actually outrank you, not from a generic list.
Every real service, in patients' words.Each with a short description, matched to a page on your website that says the same thing.
750 characters that answer the first three questions.What you are, who you see, how you're paid. No claims you can't support and nothing Google's rules prohibit.
Name, address, phone, hours and links.Identical to your website and its code, with the appointment link pointed at the right page. Attributes such as online care and accessibility set where they apply.
A short shot list, not stock.Exterior, entrance, waiting area, exam room and team, so a first-time patient recognizes the door. You take them; we tell you which and in what order.
A way to ask everyone, and safe ways to reply.A direct review link, wording for the ask, and reply templates that never confirm a patient relationship.
One of the four free audit reports is a Google Business Profile report with the exact words for each field. If you'd rather paste them in yourself, that costs nothing. Get the free audit.
What Google Business Profile setup costs
Profile report in your free audit
What's wrong, what to change, and the words to paste into each field.
Google Business Profile setup
Everything in the list above, done for you, per practice location. Included at no charge in the $950 Audit fix-up and when you order five or more new pages of medical practice website design.
The $250 is one time, with no monthly fee attached. If you want the listing kept current afterward, with review replies drafted and map rankings tracked, that is the $350 Upkeep plan or part of managed SEO. The rest is on the medical practice SEO pricing page.
Where listing work goes wrong
What we won't do to a listing
Each of these is sold by someone. Each can cost you the listing, or worse.
Add keywords to your name.
Against Google's rules, and reportable by any competitor.
Create listings for places you don't practice.
Virtual offices and mailing addresses aren't eligible, and a telehealth-only practice with no location patients can visit isn't either.
Ask only happy patients for reviews.
Google's policy prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews, and the FTC says it can be deceptive. We help you ask everyone.
Offer anything in exchange for a review.
Google's policy prohibits incentives of any kind, and the FTC's 2024 rule prohibits incentives conditioned on the review being positive. Discounts, gift cards and drawings all fall under one or both.
Promise a map position.
Distance is one of Google's three factors and nobody can move your building. The rest of the picture is on local SEO for doctors.
Take ownership of your profile.
You stay primary owner. We work as a manager you can remove at any time.
Asked by practice owners
Common questions about Google Business Profiles for doctors
Google allows it for any practitioner in a public-facing role who can be contacted directly at the location during stated hours. For a solo practice, Google's guidance is a single listing named "Practice: Provider name." For a group, the practice has its own listing and each provider's listing carries only their name. More listings mean more upkeep, so we only recommend provider listings when patients search for the provider by name.
Related: Google Business Profile report card.
Sources
Verified citations- [1]Google: guidelines for representing your business (practitioners, names, addresses, categories)
- [2]Google: how local ranking works
- [3]Google: choosing a business category
- [4]Google Maps: policy on fake engagement and review solicitation
- [5]HHS Office for Civil Rights: Manasa Health Center settlement, June 2023
- [6]FTC: Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule Q&A
- [7]BrightLocal: what happened to Google Business Profile Q&A