Google Business Profile for therapists: a step-by-step guide for pediatric clinics

Check eligibility and decide whose profile it is

Google requires a business to make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. A clinic with a front desk and treatment rooms meets that test. A clinician who only sees clients at home or at school can use a service-area profile that hides the street address. Google says a virtual office or online-only business does not qualify; a P.O. box or mailbox at a remote location cannot be used as the business address. A suite or mailbox number may go in address line 2.

Then decide who is listed. Google allows one profile per location and lets an individual practitioner have a separate profile if they are public-facing and can be reached at the verified location. When several practitioners share a site, Google says the organization should have a profile for the location, and each practitioner’s profile should carry only the practitioner’s name. Support staff should not create their own profiles. For a clinic with several disciplines, write down which clinicians will have profiles before anyone creates a listing.

Set up the profile fields

Work through the fields in this order. The notes summarise Google’s rules; the clinic-specific choices are yours.

• Name: the clinic’s real-world name as it appears on signage and stationery. Google does not allow taglines, hours, phone numbers or website addresses in the name, or added services and keywords.
• Category: as few as describe the core business, and as specific as possible. Google suggests choosing categories that complete the sentence “This business is a…”, not a list of services.
• Address or service area: a precise street address for a clinic. Service-area businesses hide the address.
• Phone and website: the number that reaches the clinic and a website that represents that location.
• Hours: regular customer-facing hours. Google says businesses that operate only by appointment should not provide hours, so decide how that applies if the front desk is staffed at set times and the rest of the week is by appointment.
• Description: the services, the ages served and how to book, in plain language. Google does not allow links, promotions or prices in the description.
• Consistency: Google asks businesses to represent themselves as they are consistently represented in the real world and to give one authoritative phone number and website. Check that the name, address, phone number and hours match your website, directory listings, signage and letterhead.

Verify the profile and decide who owns it

Google decides which verification methods are offered, and they depend on the business type, region and hours. Options include phone or text, email, a live video call and a mailed code. Most mailed codes arrive within 14 days, and editing the name, address or category while a code is in the mail makes the code unusable.

Make the clinic owner, not an agency or a freelancer, the profile owner, and add other people as managers. Google tells agencies that manage a profile they do not own to transfer ownership to the owner on request. Google can also revoke ownership when the owner no longer signs in or cannot be reached by email, so keep the owner’s account details up to date and record who has access.

Keep clients and clinical claims out of the profile

Google’s content rules do not allow content, or requests for content, that contains private or confidential information, including sensitive records and images that contain personal information. For a pediatric clinic that means no photos of clients, no first names attached to a story and no screenshots of schedules or forms. Photos of the premises and of staff who have agreed to appear are safer. If a photo of a child is ever considered, treat it as a consent decision under the clinic’s own policy and your regulators’ rules, not a marketing choice.

Regulators also limit what a health professional’s advertising may claim, and their rules reach a profile that an owner or marketing agency writes on a clinician’s behalf. In the documents we read: Ontario’s regulation for psychologists, psychological associates and behaviour analysts bars any claim that the member is a specialist; the Ontario speech-language pathology and audiology college (CASLPO) bars “specialist” and “expert” and requires that advertising not state or imply promised success for exclusive approaches or products; the British Columbia college of health and care professionals (CHCPBC) requires licensees not to create unreasonable expectations or promises about results; and claims of superiority are ruled out in different words by CASLPO, CHCPBC (false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims) and the FAQ of the Ontario physiotherapy college (CPO). Write the description as a factual list of services, ages served and how to book.

Know what your regulators say before you ask for reviews

Google allows a business to ask customers for genuine reviews, including with a link or a QR code, but not to offer incentives, to discourage negative reviews or to ask only happy customers. Several Canadian health regulators go further, and they do not all agree. The table shows what each source says, with the source linked on each row. It is a selection; the full comparison covers more regulators and more jurisdictions.

Choose a review policy for a mixed clinic

Rules differ by profession, so one clinic can employ an occupational therapist whose College bars soliciting reviews and a physiotherapist whose College FAQ is silent on soliciting. Check each clinician’s own regulator, and record the result in a one-page policy.

The rules are written for the registered professional. CASLPO says a registrant is responsible for advertising that an employer or company produces for them, and COTO tells its occupational therapists to inform their employers of the advertising regulation. Treat a review campaign run by the front desk or an agency as something your clinicians’ regulators may consider theirs. Decide who may ask, in what words, whether a link or QR code is ever used, and what you do instead, such as making sure the profile is accurate, answering enquiries well and not mentioning reviews at all.

Reply to reviews without disclosing who is a client

A public reply that names a reviewer or refers to their visit can reveal that they use your clinic. Google’s general tips for replying suggest addressing the reviewer by name and acknowledging their specific feedback; for a clinic that advice can conflict with privacy duties, so ask your privacy lead before the first review arrives. A safer pattern is a short, general reply that thanks the reviewer, does not confirm that they were a client or mention any service, and invites them to contact the clinic directly. Google’s own tips say never to share a reviewer’s private information and to move complex situations to phone or email.

• Decide who may reply and who approves the wording.
• Keep a template that never confirms client status.
• Offer a way to raise a complaint that is not the public reply thread.
• Know how to flag a review that breaks Google’s content policies, and how to flag one that posts someone’s personal information without consent.
• Tell the privacy lead when a review quotes a clinician or describes care.

Keep the profile current with a monthly checklist

Set a monthly reminder and work through the same checklist each time. Keep a short list of the facts that change, such as holiday hours, a new clinician or a moved room, and name an owner for updating each place.

• Hours and holiday closures match the front desk’s real schedule.
• New and departed clinicians are reflected, and former staff are removed as managers.
• The description matches the services now offered and the ages served.
• The website and phone number are still the authoritative ones.
• New reviews are read and handled under the reply policy.
• No staff, contractors or family members have posted reviews of the clinic; Google treats reviews based on a conflict of interest, including current or former employment, as rating manipulation.
• Any regulator standard you rely on is still the current version; re-check the source link.

Where TherapyCRM fits

TherapyCRM does not connect to Google Business Profile, post to it or read its reviews. A listing and a practice management system do different jobs: the listing helps a family find you, and TherapyCRM helps once they have, with scheduling, forms, family communication and clinical records for English-language practices in Canada outside Quebec. Keep the facts both rely on, such as clinic names and locations, in one place so that they agree.

Frequently asked questions