Google Business Profile Best Practices for Healthcare Providers with Multiple Locations

Healthcare practices often ask: “Should each doctor have a Google Business Profile (GBP) for every office where they see patients?”

It’s a smart question. With providers frequently splitting time across multiple offices, the way you structure Google Business Profiles impacts patient experience, local SEO, and online reputation management.

In this guide, we’ll break down how to handle GBPs for multi-location practices and why consolidating profiles is usually the best approach.

What Google Allows vs. What Works Best

Google does allow individual practitioner profiles in addition to practice profiles, but the rules are clear:

• One practitioner profile per provider, tied to a single primary location.
  
• One practice profile per physical office.
  
• Additional practitioner profiles at every office are discouraged unless the provider has a permanent, public-facing presence (e.g., their name on signage, dedicated staff, regular hours).

For most healthcare practices, this means:

• Patients find the practice GBP when searching “orthopedic clinic near me” or “dentist in [city].”
• Patients searching for a specific doctor find that provider’s primary GBP—with all reviews consolidated in one place.

The Problem with “One GBP per Provider × Every Location”

We often see practices set up separate GBPs for every provider at every office they rotate through. While well-intentioned, this approach creates issues:

• Review dilution: Reviews get spread thin across multiple profiles. One profile may have 200 reviews, while others sit at 0–5, creating a weak and inconsistent reputation footprint.
• Outdated information: If a doctor no longer sees patients at a particular office, patients may still find and call that outdated GBP.
• Google confusion: Duplicate or inactive GBPs can lower your local visibility. In some cases, Google merges or suspends profiles.
• Management overhead: Each profile requires monitoring, updates, and review response—multiplied across every location.

The Best Practice Model for Multi-Location Healthcare

1. One Practitioner GBP per provider, tied to their main office

• This profile consolidates all reviews for that provider.
• It shows up when patients search by provider name.

2. One Practice GBP per office location

• Each location profile captures location-specific searches (“orthopedic surgeon near me”).
• Reviews reflect the experience at that office overall.

3. Use Review Software (like SocialClimb, Birdeye, etc.) to route reviews correctly

• Patients seen at an office → directed to the practice GBP for that office.
• Patients seeing a provider → directed to the provider’s primary GBP.

Transition Plan for Practices

If you already have duplicate or inactive GBPs, follow this cleanup process:

1. Audit existing profiles: Document all provider/location GBPs and their review counts.
2. Choose a primary profile for each provider.
   
3. Close or merge duplicates:
   
   
   • Request merges from Google if the duplicates clearly represent the same provider.
   • If merging isn’t possible, mark duplicates as “Permanently closed.”
4. Update your review software templates: Make sure review requests point only to active GBPs.
5. Communicate internally: Ensure scheduling and front-desk staff direct patients to the right links.

Benefits of Consolidating GBPs

• Stronger reputation signals: Reviews build faster on fewer profiles, improving star ratings and authority.
• Clearer patient experience: Patients won’t land on empty or outdated listings.
• Better local SEO: Google rewards consistent, accurate data and consolidated signals.
• Easier management: Fewer profiles mean more consistent monitoring, updates, and responses.

Key Takeaway

For healthcare practices with providers across multiple locations:

• Keep one GBP per provider at their main office + one GBP per practice location.
• Funnel reviews strategically to build stronger, consolidated profiles.

This approach simplifies management, strengthens reputation, and improves both SEO and AEO visibility—ensuring patients can easily find and trust your practice online.

How EHS Helps

At E-dreamz Healthcare Solutions (EHS), we help practices nationwide manage and optimize their Google Business Profiles as part of larger SEO, AEO, and reputation strategies. Whether your goal is to consolidate dozens of provider profiles, clean up outdated listings, or build a robust review-generation program, we can design the right plan for your practice.