When somebody searches for a dermatologist, a physiotherapist or a dental practice in their own town, Google shows local listings first: name, map, opening hours, reviews. That listing is the Google Business Profile — the free tool formerly called Google My Business — and for many practices it matters more than the home page, because it is the first thing people see.
A complete, current profile helps the person looking for you find you and work out how to get there. An incomplete or abandoned one leaves the ground to whoever paid more attention to the details. Nothing here promises a fuller diary: it is the groundwork that makes a practice findable and legible when someone nearby is already looking.
The information to complete
The first step needs no technical skill, only care. It is worth going through every field.
- Name, address and phone number, exactly as they appear on the website. Do not append services or a location to the name: the field is for the name of the practice.
- Real opening hours, kept up to date, including closures and seasonal changes. Special hours for public holidays are a separate field, and it is the one most often forgotten.
- A specific primary category. "Cardiologist" says more than "Medical practice". The category is one of the strongest signals for which searches the profile is shown in; secondary categories cover the rest.
- Website, service area and services described plainly, in the words a patient would use rather than internal jargon.
- The attributes that matter to a patient in advance: step-free access, parking, languages spoken, whether an appointment is required.
Consistency between the profile, the website and any directory listings matters: the same details, written the same way, make the profile easier to trust for the person reading it.
Photos
Images count for more than they seem to. Real photographs of the building, the entrance and the waiting areas, uploaded in an orderly way, help someone who has never been to the practice recognise it and find their way in. A few authentic, current images beat a gallery of generic stock shots taken somewhere else.
One rule that comes before any marketing consideration: never publish images in which patients are recognisable, and never publish anything from a clinical setting where a patient could be identified. If a photograph includes staff, the people in it should have agreed to appear.
Reviews, handled evenly
Reviews weigh on the choice of a practice. The most useful thing you can do is invite patients to leave feedback in a neutral way, without picking out the ones who seem satisfied and without offering anything in return. An invitation extended to everyone, identical for everyone, is also the only approach consistent with the rules of the sector — filtering for happy patients, or paying for opinions, breaches Google's own policies and, in many countries, healthcare advertising rules as well.
Then there is the reply. Answering positive and critical comments alike, in a professional tone, shows attention and often says more than the individual review does. Public replies never go into clinical detail, and this is a data protection point as much as a courtesy one: replying "we remember your surgery in March" confirms that the person was treated at the practice, which is health data about an identifiable individual, disclosed in public. The safe pattern is a short, generic reply that thanks the person and moves the specifics to a private channel — a phone number or an email address the practice monitors.
Negative reviews follow the same logic. Answer once, calmly, without defending the clinical decision in public and without disputing the account in detail. Invite the person to get in touch directly. Where a review is defamatory or clearly false, Google's reporting process exists, but a measured reply is usually more effective than a takedown request, because it is read by everyone who arrives afterwards.
This is the part that takes the most consistency, and the part practices drop first. When there is no time to keep on top of it every week, managing the Google Business Profile and the practice's reviews can be handed to a structured process: replies in the practice's own tone, the profile kept current, and review invitations extended to everyone in the same way, with nobody filtered out.
Posts and questions
Google lets you publish short updates that appear on the profile. They are a simple place to communicate organisational news, a new service, a change of hours or generally useful information. A profile updated from time to time reads as an active practice, and it costs nothing but a few minutes.
Two constraints are worth stating. Posts about patient-facing offers, discounts or promotions do not belong in healthcare communication — advertising restrictions on health services vary between countries, and the prudent line is to keep the tone informational everywhere. And the questions and answers section of the profile is public and open to anyone: it is worth checking periodically, answering the recurring organisational questions yourself, and never using it to discuss an individual case.
What to avoid
Some shortcuts do more harm than good.
Invented reviews, or reviews written by people close to the practice, are recognisable and undermine trust rather than building it.
Incentives in exchange for an opinion — a discount, a small gift, a prize draw — produce feedback nobody believes, and they conflict with both platform policy and the norms of healthcare communication.
Selecting who gets asked. Sending the invitation only to patients you expect to be satisfied is review gating: leave it alone. The invitation goes to everyone, in the same words.
Opening the profile and then abandoning it. A listing with wrong hours, old photographs and unanswered questions communicates neglect. A few things done consistently beat a profile that is full for a month and frozen for the rest of the year.
Duplicate listings. Practices that have moved, or that were listed twice by different people over the years, often have a second profile still collecting reviews. It is worth searching for the practice name and address and claiming or merging what you find.
Why the upkeep is worth it
A well-kept profile is not a shortcut to a full diary. It is how a practice presents itself to the people looking for it nearby: correct information, reviews followed with judgement, regular updates. Optimising the Google Business Profile of a medical practice is not a one-off job — set up once and maintained steadily, it becomes one of the most useful points of contact between the practice and the people around it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Google Business Profile the same as Google My Business?
Yes. Google renamed the product; the listing, the map entry and the review system are the same thing. Management now happens directly from Search and Maps rather than in a separate app.
How often should the profile be updated?
There is no fixed cadence. In practice: hours whenever they change, replies to reviews within a few days, photographs when something visibly changes, and a short post occasionally. What matters is that it never goes stale for months.
Can we ask patients for reviews?
Yes, provided the invitation goes to everyone in the same terms, with nothing offered in return and no filtering by expected sentiment. How and when you ask matters less than asking evenly.
Can we reply to a review mentioning the treatment?
No. A public reply that confirms someone was treated, or refers to their condition, discloses health data about an identifiable person. Reply briefly and generically, and move anything specific to a private channel.
What do we do about an unfair review?
Reply once, calmly, without arguing the clinical merits in public, and invite the person to contact the practice directly. Where a review breaches Google's policies you can report it, but the reply is what the next reader sees.
Who can look after this if we have no time?
It is the kind of upkeep that fails from lack of time rather than lack of skill. If you would like an opinion on your practice's profile and on what is worth putting right, you can request an assessment with no commitment, or start from the free guide.