Businesses Allowed to Have Practitioner Listings

[interiorguy]

I saw Joy's guide on practitioner listings and the business categories that are allowed to do them. Here are the categories listed:

• Attorneys
• Doctors – any type such as physicians, dentists, chiropractors, therapists, etc.
• Hairdressers (note: Google also said it’s fine for them to work out of their houses).
• Insurance Agents/Brokers
• Mortgage Brokers
• Music instructors
• Personal trainers
• Realtors
• Soft medicine practitioners such as massage therapists, dental hygienists, and registered nurses
• Tattoo artists
• Tutors

Would an interior design firm that has architects be able to make an architect practitioner listing, or would that not be allowed because they are not listed in the list above? Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@interiorguy, it's a gray area, but the above-mentioned industries are also in a gray area to the same extent. There's no coherent reason that, for instance, university professors or auctioneers or elder-care workers wouldn't be equally eligible for practitioner listings.

There are Google's policies (always strategically vague), and there's what Google is down with in practice. Here's what I've found the to be the real test: is the practitioner page for a person or entity local people search for by name, independently of the mothership? If so, and especially if you differentiate the landing page URLs, do the basic citation work, and get a few Google reviews, Google will leave it alone. Even if a competitor has a different take on your listing and drops the dime on you, Google is very unlikely to remove it. And for good reason: Google wants local results to satisfy every local query. Sometimes those queries are for the name of the professional, whether or not that person is in an industry on the list. In that case, a practitioner page scratches the itch - Google's, the searcher's, and that of the business.

 

[interiorguy]

@Phil Rozek this was very helpful. thank you