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Video Summary
Local businesses can easily set up their Google Business Profile and start receiving phone calls and traffic to their website, but individual practitioners often find it more difficult.
In fact, many practitioners don’t even know they can have their own business profile separate from the business they work for. If you’re eligible to get a Google Business Profile, it is a good idea to do that. Without it, you can never appear in the Money Zone section of the search results.
Watch this video to know how to set up your Google Business Profile as an Individual Practitioner.
Video Transcript
Hello, my name is Jeffrey Kirk.
Do you want people to find your business in the search results?
Local businesses can easily set up their Google Business Profile and start receiving phone calls and traffic to their website, but individual practitioners often find it more difficult. In fact, many practitioners don’t even know they can have their own business profile separate from the business they work for.
Do you have a Google Business Profile? This is a free service from Google that lets you maintain your business information online. Local businesses that optimize and claim their business profiles connect to their clients better than those who do not.
For all businesses, it’s important to have a complete and optimized profile so that local searchers can easily find your business. A properly configured profile helps your business show up in the part of the search results that I call the Money Zone. That’s the section of the search results that shows a map and up to three businesses.
I call it the Money Zone because it’s so prominent in the search results that businesses showing up there are easily seen. It’s the best part of the search results for any business because searchers get access to your website, your phone number, and if they are on their mobile phone, even GPS navigation. And it’s all in one place. In previous videos, I discussed how to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile. Click the links to watch either of those videos.
That’s all great for a business, but what if you are an individual within that business. How can a Google Business Profile benefit you?
Individual Practitioners
Google defines individual practitioners as public-facing professionals with their own customer base that people can directly contact, at a verified location, during their stated hours. Some examples include doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, insurance agents, and real estate agents. Sales associates and lead generation professionals for corporations are not individual practitioners. These are considered employees and are not eligible for a business profile.
According to Google, a business can have a solo practitioner or multiple practitioners. If you are the only one working in a location within a single company, then you’re a solo practitioner. So, for example, if you’re the only dentist in your clinic, then Google recommends that you and your clinic share a single business profile. In this case you are allowed to take advantage of your business name and your personal name within the business name section of the profile. The format would be clinic name colon practitioner name.
Optimize Your Google Business Profile
What if there are many dentists in your organization and you are all based in the same location? This will fall under the category of multiple practitioners.
In this case, Google suggests that the organization create the business profile in its name, separate from any practitioner. Then each practitioner can have his or her own business profile that includes only the name of the practitioner. The name of the business or organization should not be included.
Individual practitioners with multiple specializations only qualify for a single profile. But they may include their professional titles, like Dr., MD, DDS, etc., in their business profiles.
Practitioners who do business in multiple locations are eligible to create a separate profile for each location. For example, if the dentist rotates through several clinics, he or she is eligible to create a new profile for each address. This best serves clients and prospects because they may be looking for a specific person at a specific location.
Sometimes people ask well what happens to reviews in the case of individual practitioners? It’s simple really. The reviews are attached to wherever the reviews were left. In other words, reviews attached to an individual practitioner stay with the practitioner, and reviews left for the business stay with the business.
Appear in the Money Zone
If you’re eligible to get a Google Business Profile, it is a good idea to do that. Without it, you can never appear in the Money Zone section of the search results. But keep in mind that just because you have a profile doesn’t mean you will automatically appear.
Individual practitioner profiles are among the most competitive in the local search ranking results. And that’s because many businesses will have multiple practitioners at a single location. If you work in a real estate office with 9 other brokers or agents, that’s 10 potential practitioners plus the business itself.
This is why it is also important to optimize your Google Business Profile. You want to introduce some uniqueness, something that helps you stand out from the others.
Can you differentiate your target market from the other agents in your office? Or, to go back to the dentist example, are you a family dentist, a pediatric dentist, a cosmetic dentist, or do you have a recognized dental speciality? Including those details within your profile will help you attract the patients who are the best fit for your practice.
So don’t just get a Google Business Profile. Take the time to completely fill out all the details. Once you do, you’ll have a better optimized profile!
Whatever your chosen profession, would you like to take your business profile to the next level and use it to overcome competitors in your market? I have a webinar which shows you exactly how to do this. Click the link and join me soon.
Your business deserves to be seen online, you deserve to be seen online, and I will help you get there. Also, if you could take one more second and do me a favor, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. I would appreciate it.
Thanks for watching and have a great day!
