A couple of questions about GMB listings for individual practitioners

[nathangdavidson]

Hi,

Someone has come to me and asked for some help with their digital marketing.

He has a Google My Business listing but it's not looking like it's been set up correctly - as per the guidelines.

He offers osteopathy, sports massage, acupuncture and other services out of a building in Central London with has three pilates studios and three treatment rooms. There is a separate GMB listing for this building. A number of professionals use this building.

I'm going to recommend he changes his listing to that of an individual practitioner, as they are a fully qualified osteopath.

So their listing would be at the same location, with their GMB name being 'his name' and then his qualifications... 'BSc (Hon) Osteopathy'

I've queried whether they are 'directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours' - to which he's said he is, but I know he's looking into automated answering systems as he cannot take bookings or enquiries whilst he's providing treatments of course, and doesn't have a receptionist.

Does anyone know what the rules are here please? Does there need to be a full time 'human' receptionist to be able to have an approved listing like this?

As far as I can tell he'll be the only practitioner to have a listing like this at this location - so far. The part I'm not clear on is his relationship with this other business and I don't want to pry just yet. I've made the assumption that he rents one of their three treatments rooms.

Is this relationship important? If he rents the room would he have to change his GMB name to 'business name' his name' 'his qualifications'

I don't particularly want to provide the dashboard url to either listings. Hopefully there's enough info here for someone to provide a bit of additional clarity for me before I make a recommendation to him.

Many thanks,
Nathan

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Lets start with the official guidelines:
Guidelines for representing your business on Google - Google My Business Help

Individual practitioners (e.g. doctors, lawyers, real estate agents)
An individual practitioner is a public-facing professional, typically with his or her own customer base. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents are all individual practitioners. Listings for practitioners may include title or degree certification (e.g. Dr., MD, JD, Esq., CFA).

An individual practitioner should create his or her own dedicated listing if:

• He or she operates in a public-facing role. Support staff should not create their own listings.
• He or she is directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours.

Using his name and qualifications would be fine. If he is an employee then the listing needs to have his name. However if he is operating as a business, using the business name would then be ok.

I wouldn't focus too much on whether the room is rented, and focus more on how to get more visibility. Maybe the business name has some service keywords in it that would help him rank better for those terms. Whatever helps distinguish himself from the other practitioners at the same address...

 

[nathangdavidson]

Many thanks for your thoughts Yan.