Google listings for practitioners in a shared practice
Short answer: Under Google's guidelines, a public-facing practitioner (a doctor, dentist, lawyer, financial planner, insurance or real estate agent) who can be reached at the location during stated hours may have their own Business Profile, separate from the practice's. If several practitioners work at one address, the practice keeps its own profile too and each practitioner's profile carries only their name. A solo practitioner at a branded location shares one profile named "[Brand]: [Name]".
Shared offices produce more messy Google listings than almost any other setup: a profile for the clinic, one for each doctor, an old one for the doctor who left in 2023, and reviews scattered across all of them. The rules that sort this out sit in two of Google's help pages, and they are more specific than most practices realize.
The scenarios at a glance
| Your situation | Profiles Google's guidelines allow | Name on each profile |
|---|---|---|
| Group practice, several public-facing practitioners at one address | One for the practice, plus one per eligible practitioner | Practice: its real name. Practitioner: their name only (titles like Dr., MD, JD or Esq. allowed) |
| One public-facing practitioner at a branded location | A single shared profile | "[Brand/company]: [Practitioner name]", for example Google's own "Allstate: Joe Miller" |
| Independent solo practitioner, no wider brand | One profile | The name used in the real world |
| Distinct department inside a larger business | One per public-facing department that operates as a distinct entity | A name different from the main business and from other departments |
| Support staff, sales associates, lead-gen agents | None | Not eligible |
Everything below is how to apply that table without creating duplicates.
Who counts as an individual practitioner
Google describes an individual practitioner as a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base, and lists doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents as examples. Two conditions decide whether that person gets their own profile:
- They are public-facing. Hygienists, paralegals, assistants and receptionists are support staff; Google says support staff should not create their own profiles.
- They can be contacted directly at the verified location during the stated hours. A specialist who visits once a quarter fails this test at that address.
Google also says a practitioner should not have several profiles to cover different specializations. One person, one profile per location they genuinely work from.
Setup rules for a group practice
Keep the practice profile as the anchor
The guidelines say the organization should have its own profile for the location, separate from the practitioners'. This is the profile that should carry the main phone number, the practice website, the full opening hours and the broad category.
Name practitioner profiles with the person only
"Dr. Maria Chen" is right. "Dr. Maria Chen at Riverside Family Dental" is not: Google's rule is that the practitioner's profile title includes only the practitioner's name, not the organization's.
Give each profile its own job
A workable division, as a suggestion rather than a Google rule:
- Practice profile: general phone, main booking link, all services, photos of the building and team.
- Practitioner profile: a link to that person's bio page on your site, their own booking link if you have one, the categories that match their specialty, a professional headshot.
Pointing every profile at the same homepage wastes the chance to send searchers for a named person to the page about that person.
Decide on reviews before you ask for any
Each profile collects its own reviews. If a patient searches the practice name, they see the practice's rating; if they search the doctor, they see the doctor's. Decide which profile your review requests point to for each type of visit and use that consistently. Splitting at random leaves every profile with too few reviews to look established.
Setup rules for departments
Larger organizations (a hospital's dermatology unit, a dealership's service center) can give a department its own profile when it is public-facing and operates as a distinct entity. Google's guidelines add that departments typically have a separate customer entrance, may keep different hours, must use a name that differs from the main business and other departments, and must have a most-representative category that differs from those too. Google's examples of what doesn't qualify are telling: the Apple section of a Best Buy, the hot food bar inside a Whole Foods. A corner of the floor is not a department.
Avoiding and fixing duplicates
Google's duplicates page is blunt: one business gets one profile, and a profile treated as a duplicate won't show on Search or Maps. It also lists "same address" as one reason profiles get flagged, which is exactly what a shared office looks like. The page says several businesses can each have a profile at one address when they are distinct and eligible, and it names individual practitioners at a shared location as one such case.
Practical fixes, taken from that page:
- You created a duplicate by mistake: remove it from your account. Google warns that removal deletes all its content and linked managers, so double-check which one you are removing.
- Two profiles for the same practitioner exist on Maps: request a merge through "suggest an edit" on Google Maps. Reviews are combined, but Google says replies to reviews may be lost.
- Someone else owns a profile you need: request ownership. The current owner has three days to respond; if they don't, you may be offered the option to claim it.
- The practice moved: update the existing profile's address rather than creating a new one.
When a practitioner leaves
This is where most stale listings come from. Decide at hiring who will control the practitioner's profile, and record it. Google's guidelines treat practitioners as having their own customer base, so expect some to keep their profile and update it to their new location; others will want it closed. Either way, remove the practice's phone number and website from it promptly so callers don't keep reaching a desk that can't help them.
FAQ
Can our receptionist manage all the profiles?
Yes, as a manager added to each profile. That is different from having a profile of their own, which support staff should not have.
Can I add "Family Dentistry" to a dentist's profile name?
Not if it's the practice name. Google says a practitioner's profile title includes only their name; titles and degrees such as "Dr." or "DDS" are allowed.
We're a two-agent real estate office under a franchise brand. One profile or three?
If both agents are public-facing and reachable there, the office can have its own profile and each agent one with their name only. The "[Brand]: [Name]" shared format is meant for a location with a single public-facing practitioner.
Do we need a separate profile for each specialty a doctor offers?
No. Google says one practitioner shouldn't hold multiple profiles for specializations; list the services on the one profile instead.
If your practice, your practitioners and your website bios are pointing in different directions, send us the list of listings you've found and we'll sort out which ones should stay.