Is creating Hygienist GBP listings within Google guidelines?

[KristiSimone]

Hi, everyone. Our Whiteboard Marketing team discussed Colin Nielson's Local SEO for Dentists article and came away with some great ideas for our own clients.

We did have a question about one of the recommendations. Colin recommended creating individual GPB listings for Hygienists so we can accurately use the Hygienist category. It sounds like he has success with this tactic.

Has anyone else tried this? I would love to get some general feedback. When our team was discussing it, we asked if Google sees Hygienists as "practitioners".

For our multi-practitioner practices, we definitely go with the strategy of claiming or creating the practitioner listings and following Google's naming guidelines.
Based on those guidelines It would make sense to create a practitioner listing since we can add RDH for the credentials.

Any thoughts? THANKS in advance!
Kristi Simone

 

[Phil Rozek]

@KristiSimone, I can't think of a time I've never suggested it to clients, but I have seen hygienists' GMB pages in the wild on enough occasions that I've concluded Google is fine with those pages if they get into the system.

The only big potential problem, in my view, is turnover. Hygienists tend not to stay put for too long (at least in relative terms). So you may spend a lot of time on updating listings to reflect the current roster, and that could be a pain.

The other, minor issue is: I'm not sure hygienists' GMB pages would get many clicks, unless maybe they have great reviews in their own right and reinforce the practice or "brand."

I'd definitely work the practitioner (i.e. dentists') pages, though. If the bio page is focused on the doc's specialty, and the GMB page uses it as the landing page URL, and the GMB page has a different category from that of the main practice, that can be a great way to fill in some gaps in the rankings.

 

[KristiSimone]

@KristiSimone, I can't think of a time I've never suggested it to clients, but I have seen hygienists' GMB pages in the wild on enough occasions that I've concluded Google is fine with those pages if they get into the system.

The only big potential problem, in my view, is turnover. Hygienists tend not to stay put for too long (at least in relative terms). So you may spend a lot of time on updating listings to reflect the current roster, and that could be a pain.

The other, minor issue is: I'm not sure hygienists' GMB pages would get many clicks, unless maybe they have great reviews in their own right and reinforce the practice or "brand."

I'd definitely work the practitioner (i.e. dentists') pages, though. If the bio page is focused on the doc's specialty, and the GMB page uses it as the landing page URL, and the GMB page has a different category from that of the main practice, that can be a great way to fill in some gaps in the rankings.

Love this feedback, @Phil Rozek. We were also concerned about managing and sustaining the hygienist pages from a turnover standpoint. We are going to test your strategy with a few clients, @Colan Nielsen before rolling out client-wide. Thanks so much.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Awesome! And I definitely agree with Phil. Building out dentist practitioner profiles is the higher priority by a long shot. The hygienist page or pages should only be done if there is a really popular hygienist who gets wonderful feedback and is included in a good chunk of the reviews already.

 

[Phil Rozek]

That makes sense, @KristiSimone. I forgot to mention that, yes, I think cultivating hygienists' GMB pages could be a great move, especially if a given hygienist sticks around long-term.