Practitioner Listings on Google: When Each Doctor Gets a Profile

Google's guidelines allow a chiropractor to have a Business Profile of their own when they are a public-facing practitioner whom patients can reach at the practice's verified location during its stated hours. In a practice with several doctors, that usually means one profile for the practice and one for each doctor who sees patients there. The exception is the solo doctor: when one chiropractor is the only public-facing practitioner at a branded practice, the guidelines say the doctor and the practice should share a single profile, named in a "practice name: doctor name" style.

Google revises its help pages from time to time, so read what follows as a summary and read the current Google Business Profile guidelines before you change any listing. The section on individual practitioners is short and worth reading in full.

Who counts as an individual practitioner

Google's guidelines describe an individual practitioner as a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base, and list doctors among the examples. A practitioner's profile may include a title or degree such as "Dr." For a dedicated profile, the guidelines expect the practitioner to work in a public-facing role and to be directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours. Support staff should not have profiles of their own, and one practitioner should not hold several profiles to cover different specialties.

In a chiropractic office, that means the doctors who see patients can qualify. The office manager and the front desk team can't. A doctor who sees a wide mix of patients still gets one profile, not one per type of patient.

The group practice: one practice profile plus one per doctor

In a practice with more than one doctor, the practice keeps its own profile, separate from the doctors' profiles. Each doctor's profile carries the doctor's name, with any title they use publicly, at the same verified address. The practice profile carries the practice name exactly as it appears on the sign. Adding a town, a service or any other keyword to either name is against the guidelines and can get a profile suspended.

A few practical points come with this setup, and they are where most of the work sits. Practitioner profiles are one part of local SEO for a chiropractic practice that tends to get set up once and then forgotten.

• Doctor listings can exist before anyone claims them. Google can create listings from public information, so search each doctor's name on Google Maps before creating anything, and claim an existing listing instead of starting a second one.
• Reviews split. Some patients will review a doctor's profile rather than the practice's. That's their choice. Decide which link your front desk shares when it asks for reviews, and use it consistently.
• Both profiles can appear for the same search. That isn't a problem in itself, but each one needs correct hours, a working booking link and current photos, or the weaker listing becomes the one a patient happens to tap.
• Link each doctor's profile to that doctor's bio page rather than your homepage, and point its booking link at that doctor's schedule if your booking system allows it.

The solo doctor: one shared profile

When a single chiropractor is the only public-facing practitioner at a practice with its own brand name, Google's guidelines say it's best for the doctor and the practice to share one profile. The name follows the brand first, then the practitioner:

[Practice Name]: [Doctor Name]

The guidelines give an example of the format, so compare yours against it. Two cautions apply. The practice part of the name still has to be the real-world name, with nothing added. And the rule is for a solo practitioner. Once you hire an associate who sees patients, you are a practice with more than one practitioner, and it's worth rereading the guidelines and deciding whether your setup should change.

If you are a solo doctor with two listings today, one for the practice and one for yourself, read the guidelines and Google's Business Profile help on duplicate profiles before you change anything. Don't assume reviews will move from one listing to the other.

When an associate leaves

A practitioner's profile describes the doctor, not the practice, and that's where trouble starts when an associate moves on. If the listing still shows your address and phone number, patients looking for that doctor end up at your front desk. If the doctor claimed the listing, they control what it says.

Google's help pages describe what can be done with a practitioner's listing after they leave the location. Read the current version rather than relying on what a colleague did a few years ago, and don't create a new listing to get around an old one.

The easier fix happens before anyone leaves. When an associate starts, agree in writing who owns and manages their profile, which email address holds the login, and what happens to the listing if they go. Your healthcare attorney can tell you whether that belongs in the associate agreement.

Setting up a doctor's profile: a short checklist

• Search Google Maps for the doctor's name first, and claim any listing that already exists.
• Name: the doctor's name, with a title such as "Dr." if they use one, and nothing else.
• Category: Chiropractor, unless another category describes the doctor more accurately.
• Address: the practice's verified address.
• Hours: the hours that doctor is actually available to see patients, which may differ from the practice's.
• Website: the doctor's bio page on your site.
• Booking link: that doctor's schedule, if your system supports it.
• Photos: a current photo of the doctor and one of the office entrance.
• Access: whatever you agreed in writing, with the login on a practice-owned email address.

Run the same checklist once a year for every doctor, and again whenever someone joins or leaves.

A next step

If you'd like to talk through how your doctors' listings are set up, request a call and tell us how many doctors you have and which listings you can log in to. We'll go through what Google currently shows for each one.