Google Business Profile checklist for medical practices

Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a patient sees about your clinic, before your website and before they call. It shows on Google Maps and in local search results, with your hours, phone number, directions, photos and reviews in one place.

It is also one of the few marketing assets every clinic already has, and one of the most often neglected. This checklist walks through what to set up and keep current, with the healthcare-specific rules that catch practices out.

Work through it once thoroughly, then revisit a few items every month.

1. Claim and verify the profile

• Search for your clinic on Google Maps and confirm you control its profile.
• If the profile is managed by a former employee or agency, recover access before anything else.
• Give at least two trusted people in the practice owner or manager access, so you are never locked out.

Google’s local ranking guidance starts with verification: a verified profile is treated as the authorized listing for your business. (Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking)

2. Use your real-world name

• Use the clinic name patients see on your signage, website and paperwork.
• Don’t add keywords, cities or taglines to the name (“Northside Family Clinic – Best Doctor in Town”).

Google’s guidelines say the name should match how the business is known in the real world, without marketing taglines, phone numbers, URLs or extra location details. (Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google) Stuffing the name can get a profile suspended, and it rarely helps.

3. Get the address and service area right

• Use the exact physical address of the clinic, including suite number.
• Create one profile per location if you have more than one.
• Never use a P.O. box or virtual office address. Google’s guidelines say these aren’t eligible.

4. Choose categories carefully

• Pick the most specific primary category that describes what the clinic is (for example, “Pediatric dentist” rather than just “Dentist”, if that is accurate).
• Add a small number of secondary categories only if they genuinely describe the practice.

Google advises using as few categories as possible and making each one as specific as possible, describing what the business is rather than every service it offers. Services belong in the services section instead.

5. Set up practitioner profiles correctly

Healthcare has specific rules here, and getting them wrong is common.

• If several doctors practice at one location, the clinic should have its own profile, and each public-facing practitioner may have their own profile named with only their name.
• A practitioner shouldn’t have separate profiles for different specialties.
• Support staff shouldn’t have their own profiles.
• For a solo practitioner at a branded clinic, Google’s guidelines describe a single shared profile named “[Clinic name]: [Practitioner name]”.

These rules come from Google’s guidelines for representing your business. (Google Business Profile Help) If you have duplicate or outdated practitioner profiles (for example, for a doctor who has left), deal with them, because they confuse patients and split your reviews.

6. Hours that patients can trust

• Enter your regular opening hours accurately.
• Add special hours for holidays and closures in advance.
• If you only see patients by appointment, check Google’s guidance for appointment-only businesses before listing hours.

Wrong hours are among the most frustrating experiences for a patient: they make the trip or the call, and nobody is there.

7. Phone, website and booking links

• Use your main clinic number, the one your team actually answers (and that has missed-call text-back behind it).
• Link to the most relevant page of your website, usually the home page or the location page.
• Add an appointment or booking link, so patients can book directly from the profile.

8. Services and description

• List the services patients search for, in their words.
• Write a short, factual description: who you serve, what you offer, what makes the clinic easy to choose (for example, evening hours, telehealth, languages spoken).
• Avoid medical claims, guarantees or comparisons with other clinics.

9. Attributes

• Fill in the attributes that apply: accessibility features, languages, telehealth, and anything else Google offers for your category.

These small details often answer the exact question a patient was asking.

10. Photos that look like your clinic

• Add real photos of the building exterior (so patients can find you), the entrance, reception and treatment rooms.
• Add team photos only with each person’s consent.
• Never include patients unless you have their written consent, and avoid anything that shows a screen, chart or paperwork.
• Refresh photos when you renovate or change signage.

Google lists adding photos and videos among its tips for improving local presence. (Google Business Profile Help)

11. Reviews: ask, reply, repeat

• Ask every patient for a review shortly after the visit, with a one-tap link.
• Reply to reviews in a privacy-safe way: never confirm that the reviewer is a patient or mention their care.
• Never offer incentives, and never ask only happy patients. Both break Google’s policies.

Our guide to getting more Google reviews without breaking HIPAA or Google’s rules covers this in detail.

12. Questions and posts

• Watch for public questions on your profile and answer them accurately.
• Publish occasional updates: seasonal services (for example, flu shots), new providers, holiday hours.

13. Keep it consistent everywhere

• Make sure your clinic’s name, address and phone number are identical on your website, your Google profile, Bing Places, and medical directories such as Healthgrades, Vitals, WebMD and Yelp.

Consistency helps search engines and AI assistants trust that they have the right details. Bing Places can import from your Google profile, so get Google right first. See Bing and Microsoft Copilot: the search engine clinics forget.

Mistakes to avoid

• Adding keywords or cities to the business name.
• Using a virtual office or P.O. box address.
• Creating duplicate profiles for the same location or practitioner.
• Leaving profiles for doctors who have left the practice.
• Offering anything in return for reviews.
• Replying to reviews with details about a patient’s visit.

A monthly five-minute routine

1. Check hours and add any upcoming holiday hours.
2. Reply to new reviews and questions.
3. Add one or two new photos or an update.
4. Look at the insights Google provides: searches, calls, direction requests and website clicks.
5. Confirm nothing has been edited by someone else (Google and the public can suggest changes).

The takeaway

A complete, accurate, actively maintained Google Business Profile is one of the most practical things a clinic can do for its local visibility. Google is clear that you can’t pay for a better local ranking; what you can do is give it accurate, complete information and a steady flow of genuine reviews.

Google Business Profile management is included in every Clinic Growth Engine plan, with Bing Places added in Growth and Premium. If you’d like to see how your profile compares with your top three local competitors, request a Clinic Growth Plan.