A 10-point Google Business Profile check for clinics
People from abroad search with the map app they already use. Ten checks, based on Google's guidelines, so your clinic shows up correctly on Google Maps.
Before they arrive in Korea, people look for a clinic with the apps they already use at home. For most of them that means Google Search and Google Maps. The clinic card they see there is your Google Business Profile (GBP).
A profile often exists even if the clinic never created one. The address may be old, the hours wrong, or the phone number may lead to a call center. Go through the ten checks below from the top.
The 10-point check
- Ownership. Check that a Google account in the clinic’s name owns the profile. If an agency or a former employee owns it, move that first.
- Name. Use only the real name on your sign and website. Google’s guidelines say the name must not include taglines, phone numbers or hours.
- Category. Pick the fewest categories needed to describe the core business, and the most specific ones. Adding more does not help.
- Address and pin. Confirm the street address and floor, and that the pin sits on the actual building entrance.
- Hours and closures. Enter regular hours, lunch breaks and holiday closures separately. People who make a wasted trip tend to answer with a star rating.
- Phone and website. Use a number that reaches that location directly and a page that represents that location. The guidelines set the same standard.
- A tagged website link. Add
utm_source,utm_mediumandutm_campaignto the link so visits from the profile can be counted separately. - Photos. Upload the exterior, the building entrance, the reception desk and a treatment room. First-time visitors check whether they can find the entrance.
- Review replies. A reply is public. Do not write anything that confirms a visit or describes a treatment.
- Monthly numbers. Record views, calls, direction requests and website clicks from the profile’s performance screen on the same day every month.
Practitioner and department profiles
Google’s guidelines ask for one profile per business. There are exceptions. An individual doctor who sees patients directly, and a department inside a hospital, may have a separate profile when the name and category are distinct from the main one.
In a clinic with several doctors, scattered practitioner profiles split the reviews. Decide who manages which profile before creating any.
What not to do
- Do not trade benefits for reviews. Google’s policy prohibits offering discounts, free services or payment in exchange for a review.
- Do not collect only the good ones. Discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones is prohibited by the same policy.
- Do not stuff keywords into the name. It may raise visibility for a while, and it is against the guidelines.
Clinics face medical advertising rules on top of this. Get legal advice for specific cases. This post summarizes Google’s policies and is not a legal opinion.
Frequently asked questions
We already manage Naver Place. Do we need Google too?
The audiences differ. Naver is used mostly by people in Korea, and Google by people coming from abroad. A clinic that treats international patients needs both.
Should we create a separate English profile?
No. There is one profile per location. What you do need is a website with a page for each language. We covered that in translation widgets versus language pages.
An agency runs our profile. What should we check?
Two things: that the clinic’s own account is the owner, and that you receive the numbers every month. Without numbers nobody can tell whether it is working.
