Google Business Profile for clinics follows its own rules. The clinic can have a profile for its address, and each doctor who sees the public can have their own, as long as they can be contacted at the verified location and you don’t open a profile per specialty. What most often gets a profile suspended is a name with a specialty or phone number, a category used as a keyword, and review requests offering a discount or gift, which Google treats as fake engagement.
This guide summarizes Google’s guidelines and does not replace the rules of your professional council. If in doubt, ask your regional council before publishing.
Google Business Profile for clinics: clinic profile, doctor profile, or both?
It depends on how many professionals see the public at the address. A doctor working alone in a private practice usually has just one profile. A clinic with several doctors has the location profile and, if each one wants it, an individual profile.
The product is now called Google Business Profile, even though many people in Brazil still say Google Meu Negócio. The guidelines for representing your business treat doctors, dentists, lawyers and real estate agents as practitioners. A practitioner can have their own profile if they deal with the public and can be contacted directly at the verified location during the stated hours.
| Situation | What the guidelines require |
|---|---|
| A doctor alone in a private practice, the only person who deals with the public | Just one profile. If they represent a brand, the title combines the brand and the practitioner’s name |
| A clinic with several doctors at the same address | The clinic creates the location profile. Each doctor can have their own, with only their name in the title, without the clinic name |
| A doctor with two or more specialties | One profile, not one for each specialty |
| Front desk, support staff, salesperson or lead generator | Not eligible for their own profile |
| Hospital and departments | Can have separate pages, each with the category that best represents the department |
Creating more than one page for the same location is also not allowed, even under different accounts. Duplicates are among the reasons for suspension that the article on suspended profiles covers in detail.
Google Business Profile for doctors: the name Google accepts
The profile name is the real name of the clinic or practice, the same as on the storefront, the website and the letterhead. Nothing more. Adding a specialty or neighborhood to the name to rank higher risks suspension.
For the profile of an individual professional, a title or degree (Dr.) can be included. The rest of the name guidelines apply to everyone. With a fictional clinic, Google would reject:
| How the name would appear | Problem |
|---|---|
| Aurora Clinic, Dermatology and Aesthetics | Service information in the name |
| Aurora Clinic (11) 3000-0000 | Phone number in the name |
| AURORA CLINIC | All caps |
| Aurora Clinic, open 24 hours | Business hours in the name |
| Aurora Clinic, next to the subway | Location information |
An exception causes confusion. If the sign, the website and the letterhead already include the specialty, it is part of the real name. What isn’t allowed is adding it just to show up in searches.
Categories: few, specific and saying what the business is
Choose as few categories as possible, and the most specific one that represents your main business. Google’s guideline gives a simple test. The category must complete the sentence “This business IS”, never “This business HAS”.
In practice, “Dermatologist”, “Cardiologist” or “General practice clinic” say what the place is. “Botox”, “check-up” and “insurance accepted” are services or attributes, and they belong in the services and attributes fields. Using the category of a neighboring business, such as the lab on the ground floor, is not allowed either. On a doctor’s profile, the specialty is usually the most specific option. On the clinic’s profile, it is the type of establishment. The Google Business Profile category guide shows how to check what competitors in your area use.
Address, shared office and hours
The address must be the real physical location where you serve clients. Suite or room numbers go on address line 2, and the building must have fixed, permanent signage with the business name. That means a sign on the door or on the building directory. If your clinic’s pin lands on the wrong building, the fix is in how to fix an address on Google Maps.
Three cases come up all the time.
- Virtual offices don’t qualify. An address rented only for mail doesn’t create a profile.
- Coworking or rooms rented by the shift only qualify with clear signage, in-person customer service on site and staff present during business hours.
- Home visits only count as a local service business, with a service area and without showing the address. The step-by-step guide to a profile without an address covers this case.
Hours require care. The guideline says businesses that operate by appointment only should not list business hours, and it also asks that the professional be reachable on site during the listed hours. The two rules pull in different directions. Read the hours section before deciding, and make sure what you list matches your website and what the front desk actually handles.
The profile description has its own rules. It can’t contain links or highlight prices or promotions. Google’s own example is “Everything 50% off”. Consultation fees and campaigns stay out of this field.
Patient reviews: what you can ask for and what Google prohibits
Asking for reviews is allowed, and offering something in return is prohibited. According to Google’s tips for getting reviews, giving free or discounted products or services in exchange for a review, for changing a review or for removing a negative review is fake engagement and is strictly prohibited.
For a clinic, that rules out ideas that seem harmless:
- A free follow-up visit for anyone who leaves a five-star review.
- A discount on the next procedure for anyone who leaves a comment.
- A gift at the front desk in exchange for showing the review screen.
Google recommends reminding patients to leave a review, with a Google link or a QR code at the front desk, and says a mix of positive and negative reviews often looks more trustworthy. The step-by-step guide to getting reviews without buying them has request templates.
Reviews also affect local results. Google states that ranking is based on relevance, distance and prominence, and prominence takes into account, among other things, the number of reviews. There is no way to pay for a better position. The local SEO article explains each factor.
How to reply to reviews without exposing the patient
Reply briefly, without confirming that the person was a patient, without mentioning a diagnosis, procedure or date, and move the conversation to a private channel. Google asks for exactly this on the most sensitive point. Never share a reviewer’s private information and never attack the person.
In healthcare, caution goes one step further. Saying “your Tuesday appointment” already reveals that someone is a patient. In practice, the reply talks about the experience in general terms and gives a phone number or email for the clinic. A template for a negative review:
Hello, Marina. We’re sorry your experience fell short of what we aim to deliver. We want to understand what happened and make it right. Could you contact us at the phone number or email listed on the profile? Aurora Clinic team.
Keep the message short, sign with a name or initials and don’t make any offer, because the reviewer is already a customer, as Google’s guidelines request. The guide on how to reply to reviews on Google has more templates. A fake or abusive review is a matter for reporting and removal, not for a reply.
What the professional council adds to the profile
On a Google Business Profile for clinics, Google defines what the profile can include and the professional council defines what the professional can advertise. Both sets of rules apply at the same time, and the stricter one prevails.
For doctors in Brazil, the rule is CFM Resolution 2,336/2023, published on September 13, 2023, which replaced Resolution 1,974/2011. It touches the Google profile on four points:
- Identification. A doctor’s advertising materials carry their name, CRM number (the doctor’s registration number) with the word MÉDICO and, when registered, the specialty with the RQE (art. 4). On social media, blogs and websites, this information goes on the main page of the profile or equivalent (art. 6). A Google profile name has no room for this, so the information goes in the description and on the website. Check with your CRM whether that is enough.
- Reposted testimonials. A patient’s post that the doctor reposts on their own channel becomes the doctor’s own publication (art. 8, §3). And a reposted testimonial must be sober, with no adjectives of superiority and no promise of results (art. 14).
- Praise for the technique. The resolution requires investigating praise for the technique and the outcome of a procedure that appears repeatedly or systematically, even outside the doctor’s channels (art. 8, §4). That is why you should ask patients to review the care, not the result.
- Price. A doctor may state the consultation fee (art. 9). However, Google’s description field doesn’t accept prices, so that information lives on the website.
This section covers the CFM only. Dentists, psychologists, physical therapists and nutritionists follow the council and rules of their own profession, which this guide does not cover. For doctors, the medical marketing guide and the one on Google Ads for doctors and clinics detail what the resolution allows in ads and on social media. For dentists, there is the marketing guide for dentists.
Google Business Profile checklist for clinics
- Decide who gets a profile: the clinic, each doctor, or both, without duplicating the same location.
- Use the real name, the same as on the storefront, with no added specialty, phone number, hours or neighborhood.
- Choose one specific primary category and a few additional ones, always using the “IS” test, not “HAS”.
- Check that the address has the suite on line 2 and a visible sign on the building.
- Keep your hours the same as on your website and at the front desk.
- Write the description without a link, price or promotion.
- Complete the profile verification with whatever method Google offers.
- Put together a script for asking for reviews with no freebie, and a standard reply that doesn’t mention patient data.
Frequently asked questions
Does the doctor need a personal profile in addition to the clinic’s? Not required. Google allows an individual profile when the doctor serves the public and can be contacted at the verified location. If one exists, the title carries only the doctor’s name, without the clinic name.
Can I put the specialty in the profile name? Only if it is already part of the real name, as on the sign, the website and the letterhead. Adding the specialty to show up in searches is grounds for suspension.
Do the same rules apply to a Google Business Profile for a single-doctor practice? Yes. The guidelines on practitioners, name, category and reviews are the same, and the medical board’s rules apply on top of them.
Can I give a discount or freebie to people who review the clinic? No. Google treats offering a product or service, free or discounted, in exchange for a review as fake engagement. Ask with a link or QR code, with nothing offered in return.
Can I reply to a patient’s review? You can and should, as long as you include no private information about the person. Avoid confirming they were treated, don’t mention a procedure or date, and invite them to talk by phone or email.
See how your clinic’s profile looks today
The free Google Business Profile audit compares the Google Business Profile of clinics in your area, putting three competitors next to your profile, and points out the name, category and reviews that need adjusting. If you prefer to fix it yourself, the Kit GMN Express (instant access, pricing sent on request) gives you the step-by-step method.