As trusted advisors in the healthcare reputation management realm, we receive a lot of questions about Google Business Profiles for practices and provider listings. But by far one of the most frequently asked questions is:
“Our doctors see patients at multiple locations. Should our doctors have separate listings for each office where they see patients?”
If you’re seeking clarity on how to navigate the complexities of Google Business Profile optimization for several doctors within a practice, read on to learn some of the best practices and how rater8’s solution can help enhance your presence on Google.
How Many Google Business Profiles Should Doctors Have?
There are two approaches:
- Create only one listing per doctor and use the doctor’s “main location”.
- Create a separate listing for each doctor and each location. For example, if Dr. Smith sees patients at three locations, three separate listings will be created for this one doctor.
At rater8, we recommend that doctors have separate listings for each office where they practice. And here’s why…
Pros
- Imagine a doctor sees patients at multiple locations but only has one Google listing. If patients were looking for the satellite office location, the wrong Google Business Profile information would appear in Google Search. This likely confuses patients since the listing provides the wrong address, directions, and phone number. Having a separate listing for each location will help prevent such confusion and inadvertently misleading online visitors.
- Separate listings also helps attract new patients across a wider region. If a patient Googles a doctor and learns that the doctor’s office is 40 miles away, the patient may be less likely to book an appointment. However, if the patient sees a Google Business Profile listing for a satellite office near his/her home, the patient is more inclined to make an appointment with that doctor.
Cons
- The downside of multiple Google Business Profile listings for one doctor is that the number of ratings gets diluted across all listings. Fortunately, rater8’s robust pollin8 algorithm solves this issue. rater8 allows doctors to grow their online reviews at whichever listing the patient sees the doctor. All patients will automatically be routed to the appropriate doctor’s listing, based on the appointment location.
- Another con is that creating more listings naturally requires more time and upfront administrative work. Someone will have to go through the process of claiming and managing the profiles. Fortunately, this is typically a one-time cost.
How rater8 Can Help
At rater8, we believe the pros of having multiple listings easily outweigh the cons because location-based profiles allow you to cover a wider network and attract more patients.
Now it’s time to build your reviews! Learn how rater8 helps you build 5-star Google reviews.
