Those pesky practitioners - best practices on setting up GMB pages

[Priya Chandra]

Before I go any further here, who else read this title: "Best Practices for Practitioner Listings on Google My Business (GMB)" and thought, hmm that sounds like a post Joy Hawkins would be interested in?

Not just me I bet! And guess what - she's not interested in it...because she wrote it

A common question we get in Local SEO is how businesses that have practitioner listings should approach Google My Business. There is a lot of confusion around how to deal with these and if they help or hurt the business? ranking on Google.

What is a Practitioner Listing?
A practitioner or professional listing is a listing on Google Maps that is for a person instead of a place. Businesses that have public-facing professionals that are known and searched by name would have these. Examples of industries that commonly have these would include doctors, dentists, lawyers, realtors, insurance agents, and financial planners.

Above is just a snippet, so head over to read the rest but take a cup of coffee with you because it's a long, detailed, well worth it read.

Thanks Joy for the great article!

<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content=""><meta property="og:description" content="">
<meta property="og:image" content="">

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Best Practices for Practitioner Listings on Google My Business (GMB)

Thought I would be the first to post this great write up on Practitioner and Practice listings by Joy over at the Whitespark blog. Love how clear Joy articulates complicated subject matter.

Thanks Joy


Best Practices for Practitioner Listings on Google My Business (GMB) | Whitespark

 

[JoyHawkins]

Re: Best Practices for Practitioner Listings on Google My Business (GMB)

Thanks for sharing Colan If I missed any FAQs on this topic, let me know. There are a ton of different scenarios out there.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Great article. A must read if you have dentist or lawyers (and the like) as clients.

Thanks Joy. And thanks Priya for sharing.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Re: Best Practices for Practitioner Listings on Google My Business (GMB)

Another great article Joy.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Best Practices for Practitioner Listings on Google My Business (GMB)

Thanks for sharing Priya & Colan and to Joy for writing.

Can't wait to read it!

(Merged Colan's post with Priya's post from earlier so would not have split convo.
Also moved to Google Local IMPORTANT, since without even reading, I know it's that good!)

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Look how eager we all are to share Joy's post. Awesomeness

 

[James Watt]

That's a great article Joy, very thorough. I haven't worked with any businesses in industries that have practitioners as an issue aside from talking on the GMB forum, but that point about Google's naming preference being different than Yelp's is a good one... or more in general, means there's a more well rounded answer that needs to be given if someone's in a position where they're considering merging their practice and individual listing.

Good stuff, I'll definitely be saving this for sharing with people I run into that need it.

 

[Mbrinton]

Joy for President 2016! (ha). Great article.

 

[Dialady]

Joy, thank you SOOOO much for this article!! I have a number of folks that left the Dermatology practice I work with and was at a loss of what to do with their listings. Got this article added to my Evernote library!!

 

[shondarogers]

What would you recommend in this situation: Client has opened her own real estate office and currently she is the only realtor but will be adding agents in the future. Should i create ONE listing: Agency Name: Realtor Name OR create two listings...one for the agency and the one for the agent.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I would stick to the guidelines and create the one listing for now. The only exception would be if they knew the new agent was starting in the next week or two.