Business Name Formatting for Professionals (Such as Doctors)

[russofford]

Hello,

I am taking on a client who has a large mess of business NAP citations for both their practice listings and the professional name listings.

I was wondering what the recommended format for the professional name would be when it is found in a variety of formats on various major aggregators and IYP venues.

John Smith
John Smith PhD
Smith, John
Smith John PhD

I assume that the listing 'looks' best when it is the first name then last name then professional letters afterwards... however some venues like to use last name first and then the first name.

Is it allowed in the Googles and IYP websites to use the professional 'letters'... or must we stick ONLY to their basic name?

For example... I understand that for Attorneys you should not put 'Attorney Fred Jones' nor 'Fred Jones Attorney'... as that can be seen as keyword stuffing(?)... but the PhD could be seen as part of their professional name.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Russ

 

[Chris McCreery]

Well with the changes in the guidelines for Goolge you can now add a keyword OR regional identifier to the name. So it would acceptable to use Fred Jones Attorney.


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[Linda Buquet]

Yes Russ, Chris is right. Guideline change today.

GUIDELINE CHANGE - City or Keyword in Places Title Allowed Now

But aside from that I believe the name should always be formatted like:
John Smith PhD

PhD is not an add-on. It usually is part of their DBA and professional license and that's normally the way they would be listed in professional directories.

It's usually the YP that puts the name backward and then other local directories scrape the bad version.

But in Dental directories for example most listings would be for John Smith DDS which has always been totally appropriate on the Places page.