Practitioner Profiles in GMB

[Gilad Gafni]

A dentist in the area is maintaining both a practice GMB and a practitioner GMB (he is a solo practitioner). For the last 18 months, he's been consistently occupying 2 of the 3-pack with his profiles.

How does one "power up" a practitioner profile to the point where it outranks actual businesses (his practitioner profile even outranks his own practice...)? Could it be his website (ranks #1 organic) that actually powers his profile?

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Technically a single practitioner office shouldn't have both a business and a Dr listing. It's against TOS.

That said, if the Dr has a lot of authority and is well known by name, that can be a factor in the Dr listing outranking the practice listing. Google's goal is to give people what they are looking for immediately, and Google can tell if a specific Dr is popular within the community.

The website is also a factor, especially if the backlinks and content are very focused on the Dr.

 

[WRM]

According to this article, that action doesn't go against TOS:

How Does Google My Business Handle Solo Practitioner Listings?

I quote:
"Google recommends that solo practitioners have 1 listing that combines the name of the practice with the name of the practitioner...However, it’s not actually a violation of the guidelines for solo practitioners to have a separate listing for themself as well as a separate one for their practice."