Duplicate Practitioner Listings - both with different address but same phone

[Carolyn]

OK, I really tried to piece together what the best practice is by reviewing all the threads but I think I need a little specific help.

Background -
Practice has its own listing - no doctor names within the practice name.
Its live and in the listing. Claimed and no problems - information displaying as expected.

4 doctors work there (they don't own it they work for the group that does)
1 doctor previously owned the practice which has previously been in 2 different locations and these listings at one time were correct.

Practice listing - true address - main phone number - claimed
Doctor listing A - Dr name, old address in former city A - main phone number - unclaimed
Doctor listing B - Dr name, old address in former city B - main phone number - unclaimed

The desire of the client is for when patients search for doctor's name, the doctor listing shows up with the accurate information.

So - best practice

1. do I claim one of these?
2. do I use mm for the other?

I understand that the doctor listing needs to be a little different from the main practice listing - phone #, URLs, adding a suite to the address etc - just not sure what to do with the fact there are two of them and if I should claim one or none and use mm.

Thanks in advance -

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Carolyn and welcome.

I understand that the doctor listing needs to be a little different from the main practice listing - phone #, URLs, adding a suite to the address etc - just not sure what to do with the fact there are two of them and if I should claim one or none and use mm.

I recommend NOT doing several things you mentioned above - Don't make up or add a suite if not legitimately where that Dr practices. No need for different phone. Don't claim and don't use MM.

I train about this in a lot more detail, but the following old blog posts I did should explain my strategy and a solution I came up with. Consultants I've trained who do this have great results and Google recently read it and confirmed it's a good way to deal with the situation.

Read both in detail but read BOTTOM ONE 1st. Then the top one is the one that explains how I recommend doing it.

Search Results practitioner duplicates - Google Places Optimization Blog

In brief nutshell, don't claim. Do the user edits I recommend right on the listing. When I do it like this edits usually go through in about a week and the practice listing pops back up in the ranking in about 2 weeks if it was disconnected or ranking was suppressed due to the Dr listing(s).

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[Carolyn]

The client who is the owner of the practice and the one that hires the doctors, wants existing patients to be able to search by the doctor and have the correct address showing. Plus if that doctor chooses to leave the practice they want to be able to give the doctor the user/pw so then the doctor can update their personal listing.

In that case would you recommend the same? I did read the post - but I'm not sure how to be within that protocol AND provide back to the my client what they want. A listing that is separate from the practice listing and can be "willed" to the doctor if or when they leave the employ of the firm.

Hi Carolyn and welcome.



I recommend NOT doing several things you mentioned above - Don't make up or add a suite if not legitimately where that Dr practices. No need for different phone. Don't claim and don't use MM.

I train about this in a lot more detail, but the following old blog posts I did should explain my strategy and a solution I came up with. Consultants I've trained who do this have great results and Google recently read it and confirmed it's a good way to deal with the situation.

Read both in detail but read BOTTOM ONE 1st. Then the top one is the one that explains how I recommend doing it.

Search Results practitioner duplicates - Google Places Optimization Blog

In brief nutshell, don't claim. Do the user edits I recommend right on the listing. When I do it like this edits usually go through in about a week and the practice listing pops back up in the ranking in about 2 weeks if it was disconnected or ranking was suppressed due to the Dr listing(s).

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry I was short on time and could not explain in any more detail.

But I assumed that part of the picture was the practice wants to rank or continue to rank and not have the Drs outrank them or knock them out of blended.

The desire of the client is for when patients search for doctor's name, the doctor listing shows up with the accurate information.

But of course the address should be corrected and you can do that the same way - with a user edit without claiming. That gives the practice owner what you initially said was the goal.

The reason I suggest not claiming is 2 fold.

1) Had one consultant that I did training for decide to claim all the Drs. listings. The second she did, the entire account was suspended including the main practice listing. It was a long on-going nightmare... lost ranking, I think maybe lost reviews and lots of extra time and work before the listing recovered. I've heard of that happening a couple times.

2) If you leave the Dr listings unclaimed and edit them to your advantage, then when the Drs. leave you can edit to the new address or close the listing and say they are no longer there. OR tell the Dr to claim the listing and change it at that point.

That's just my advice. You can claim if you want to. My feeling is just why claim them if you don't have to and if there is some risk to claiming, but no risk doing it the other way, PLUS is less work?

 

[Carolyn]

This is a paid gig - so at the end of the day they want the practice found by category and the doctor's name's found when existing patients look for the doctors.

Is this an accurate interpretation of your training?

Practice Listing -
Name of Practice only no doctor name - claimed - showing for appropriate categories


Doctor #1
claimed
His name only (no mention of practice name)
same address as practice
same phone number as practice
description mentions doctor only
URL is to the page talking only about the doctor #1
category is to something that isn't the same but is related like medical office

Doctor #2
claimed
His name only (no mention of practice name)
same address as practice
same phone number as practice
description mentions doctor #2 only
URL is to the page talking only about doctor #2
category is to something that isn't the same but is related like medical office


Old listing of Doctor #1
update the listing in mapmaker using the current address as noted in Doctor #1
and over time this listing will merge with the doctor
but don't make it exact duplicate - and definitely don't claim this one.

Did I get it right in terms of understanding your guidance in the training? And can I post this in the forum where you could answer for everyone.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Carolyn,

If you really want to claim anyway, then based what you said below...

"A listing that is separate from the practice listing and can be "willed" to the doctor if or when they leave the employ of the firm."

You should create 2 new separate accounts to claim them in because you cannot "will" or transfer a Places listing.

Yes, correct on the practice listing you explained in post above.

Re: Dr. listings... Confused because in 1st post you said both Drs had old address. But in last post you are only talking about editing one.

At any rate as I say in training I would NEVER recommend edits in Map Maker to begin with for a variety of reasons unless you are very skilled in MM and have MM rep and know how to get edits approved.

I would do a user edit right on the listing instead of using MM but again in this case not sure I would do that either.

"Old listing of Doctor #1
update the listing in mapmaker using the current address as noted in Doctor #1
and over time this listing will merge with the doctor
but don't make it exact duplicate - and definitely don't claim this one."

PLUS would not edit and hope it merged, if claiming a new listing too because that would be creating a dupe. "but don't make it exact duplicate". If not exact dupe then it would not merge so none of that thinking really works.

I would not claim new listings for the Drs that are wrong and edit the old listing and hope they merge. I don't think that would be advisable. Well, err, the right solution kind of depends and is impossible to just guess. This is very tricky to explain working blind.

IF name change and BIG address move, way across town or different town, then could maybe create new and mark old CLOSED.

If correct name and close by move, I'd claim old (if they would get the PIN via mail forwarding.) Or do user edit to correct the address 1st, then claim. (Maybe???)

But again totally depends and can't really give best advice without doing a deeper dive. So whatever I said above could be right or wrong depending on situation.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry Carolyn,

If by chance you just read my last post in the last 5 min, please check again. I just did quite a bit of editing to try to make a little more clear.

 

[Carolyn]

Linda - this is great because its interesting when one has to describe a situation its not that easy!

as things stand now regarding the showing doctor's listings -
Doc #1 - two unclaimed listings both with incorrect and two different addresses/city but same and correct phone number
Doc #2 - one unclaimed listing with incorrect address/city and incorrect phone

I was thinking that I would create gmail addresses for the docs and claim one listing of Doc #1 and the only listing of Doc #2 and update them to their current correct information in the separate accounts. If I do that there is that pesky unclaimed and incorrect listing for Doc #1 is still showing him in a different city.

So what do I do with the unclaimed dangling Doc #1 listing? Now I'm reading this as make user edits.

Does this make more sense? Would you advise as above?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Tough to describe AND even tougher to try to picture what someone is TRYING to describe.

If you are saying separate account for each Dr that's correct.

If you are going to claim and correct one for each then edit in dash I assume that's fine.

That other Dr listing if in different city I would just close and be done with it. You do that right on the listing with either report a prob or edit details.