Local SEO for multi-location therapy practices

For OT, PT and speech therapy practices with more than one site, serving children, adults or both: record every real location first, give each eligible clinic one Google Business Profile under the practice’s real name, publish one useful page per location, and skip near-identical city pages made only to catch searches.⁠^1,2

This guide covers the sites a practice runs itself. A practice that travels to patients follows the mobile and in-home guide, and a telehealth-only service is a separate case, because Google requires in-person contact with customers during stated hours.⁠³

Why should a multi-location practice build a location matrix first?

Because every public record of a site should be copied from one written source rather than from memory. A location matrix is that source: one row per site, holding every fact that a Google profile, a location page, a service page or a directory listing repeats about it, since those records are often entered by different people at different times.

Give each site a stable internal ID that does not change when its name, address or services do, so a change can be traced through a move or a rebrand. A practice with 10 or more locations can add, verify and manage them in bulk from one spreadsheet of all its locations, and the matrix is the natural source for it.⁠¹¹

Write a row for every site, including the ones that should never appear in public. The billing office, the room borrowed one afternoon a week and the clinic that closed last year belong in the matrix so that nobody creates a profile or a page for them by mistake.

Which therapy practice sites may have a Google Business Profile?

A site may have its own profile when the practice sees patients in person there during stated hours, at an address it really operates from. Google’s eligibility guidelines require in-person contact with customers during stated hours, and its address rules ask for a profile at the actual, real-world location, permanent signage where the address is shown, and no more than one page for each location.⁠^1,3

Google lists as ineligible an ongoing service, class or meeting at a location the business does not own or have the authority to represent, and online-only businesses; it does not accept a virtual office, a remote mailbox, or a co-working office without clear signage, customers received and the business’s own staff there during business hours.⁠^1,3 It also disables a profile when it determines that the business does not exist at the location claimed.⁠¹²

Treat a partner site as a question of fact rather than a label. A room the practice leases for itself, with clear signage, its own staff and patients received during business hours, meets the conditions Google sets for an office in shared space; a clinician visiting someone else’s building to run a program is a service delivered at a partner site.⁠^1,3

How does Google decide which location a searcher sees?

Mainly by relevance, distance and prominence, judged for each profile. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity; it defines relevance as how well a profile matches the search, distance as how far each business is from the person searching, and prominence as how well-known a business is, based partly on links and reviews.⁠¹⁵ It also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.⁠¹⁵

Because distance is measured from each business, every clinic is judged from its own address, which is one more reason each needs its own accurate profile and page. Google adds that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results, and that the categories chosen affect local ranking.⁠^15,16

Should each discipline or therapist have a separate Google profile?

Not each discipline. Google says a business that offers different services lists them on its one profile rather than creating a separate profile for each service, so a clinic providing occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology at one address has one profile, with its services listed in the profile’s services editor.⁠^17,18

The exception is a department that operates as a distinct entity. Google allows public-facing departments their own profiles when each has an exact name different from the main business and from other departments, typically a separate customer entrance, and a distinct category; two businesses at one address can each have a profile when they are distinct, eligible, and have different names and clearly visible differences in signage.⁠^17,19 A children’s therapy wing that shares the adult clinic’s front desk, phone and name does not fit that description; one with its own name, entrance and signage may.

Individual clinicians follow Google’s practitioner rules, which the categories guide explains. In short, a practitioner profile is for a public-facing professional who can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours, support staff should not have one, and where several such practitioners work at one location the organization keeps its own profile for that location.⁠¹⁹ Decide practitioner profiles one clinician at a time, never for the whole staff at once, and record each decision in the matrix.

How should a multi-location therapy practice name its Google profiles?

With the practice’s real-world name, the same at every location. Google requires all locations of a business within one country to use the same name, with the example that every Home Depot use "The Home Depot" rather than "The Home Depot at Springfield".⁠⁴ The name reflects what is used on the storefront, website and stationery; Google does not permit marketing taglines, service information or location information added to it, and says unnecessary information in a name could result in suspension.⁠⁵

Two exceptions matter for therapy groups. A sub-brand may carry a distinct name if it is applied consistently to all of its locations, as Google’s "Gap" and "babyGap" example shows, and a location that consistently uses a different name on its storefront, website or stationery can use that name.⁠⁴ Neither admits a keyword added for search: Google’s examples reject "Equinox near SOHO" and "Midas Auto Service Experts" while accepting "Holiday Inn Salem" and "Equinox SOHO".⁠⁵

If the whole group changes its name, Google says a business with multiple locations may be eligible for rebranding, a name change without new profiles; a name changed after verification may also mean verifying again, so allow time for it.⁠^6,20

Do all locations need the same Google Business Profile category?

Yes for the primary category, where the sites provide the same service. Google’s profile editor says all locations of a business must share a primary category, and its chain rules apply the category requirement within each sub-group when a business has sub-brands, departments or different types of operation.⁠^4,6

Additional categories describe what that site is, not what the group offers elsewhere. Google asks for as few categories as possible, chosen to complete the statement "This business IS a", and none used solely as keywords; adding or editing a category can trigger another verification.⁠^16,21 Which category names fit OT, PT and speech-language pathology is in the categories guide.

How do you manage many Google profiles without losing control?

Keep every profile in a business group the practice owns, with staff and any agency added as managers. Google describes a business group as a shared folder in which owners and managers can create, edit and delete profiles, recommends one to those new to Business Profile who manage multiple businesses, and suggests one group per business or brand, with several only when divisions need different sets of users.⁠²²

At 10 or more locations of the same business, bulk verification becomes possible. The spreadsheet must include every profile the account manages, service-area businesses cannot use it, Google may ask for evidence if the chain’s size differs from the profiles in the account, and it may de-verify accounts that do not actively manage their profiles.⁠²³

An agency is an authorized representative. Google requires the owner’s express consent before it claims a profile, asks it to transfer ownership immediately on request and to encourage the owner to own the profile with the agency as manager, and says the profile’s phone and website should be the business’s single authoritative ones.⁠³ Google also warns that a third party cannot promise or directly influence a business’s ranking through any special means.⁠²⁴

The stakes are shared across sites: Google says a merchant who shows a pattern of violating its policies may have access restricted, and that all Business Profiles associated with a restricted account are suspended.⁠¹² A habit repeated at every site, such as a keyword in each name or a profile for each borrowed room, is the kind of pattern to keep out of the account.

How should a multi-location therapy website be organized?

In three layers: a locations hub that lets a reader compare sites, one page per real location, and service pages that say at which locations each service is offered. The hub lists every clinic with its address, disciplines and ages and links to its page, so nobody has to open each page to learn which site sees adults. Keeping the location pages in one folder, such as /locations/ followed by each site’s short name, also makes them easy to filter in Search Console.

Link each Google profile to its own location page. Google asks for a website that represents the individual business location and a phone number that connects to that location, prefers a local number to a central call center helpline whenever possible, and bars numbers or URLs that redirect users anywhere other than the business’s own.⁠⁷ If one team schedules for every site, make sure each profile’s number reaches someone who can book that site, and say on the page who answers; the practice name, address and phone audit covers call tracking numbers.

Profile and page have to agree because Google builds a profile from more than what the owner enters: it compiles profile information from crawled web content such as the business’s official website, from licensed third-party data and from users’ contributions.⁠²⁵ A page that lists a service the profile does not, or hours the profile contradicts, gives Google and families two versions of one site.

Which content can be shared across all your location pages?

The parts that are true for every site: the approach to care, what an evaluation involves in general, the privacy notice, how payment and benefits checks work, and the inquiry form’s terms. Write each once on its own page and link to it from every location page. Google says some duplicate content on a site is normal and not a violation of its spam policies, while the same content at many URLs can confuse people about which page is right.⁠⁸ A short shared paragraph is fine; a long article copied to every location with the town swapped is the pattern described below.

What should a therapy practice’s location page include?

Everything a parent or an adult patient needs to choose this site and contact it, and nothing claimed for the site that happens somewhere else. The matrix row is the checklist:

On the profile, give the customer-facing hours; Google’s guidelines say businesses that operate only by appointment should not provide hours there.⁠²⁶ DrSensory’s editor has a "By appointment only" option for the same case, shown where opening hours would be.⁠¹⁰ Whichever applies, the page, the profile and the listings should agree.

Google’s helpful-content guidance asks whether content provides original information and whether it was written to a particular word count, adding that Google has no preferred word count.⁠²⁷ A location page is complete when every row above is true for that site, not when it reaches a length.

Photograph the site, not patients. If the practice is a HIPAA covered entity, a patient’s photo, name or story on a location page needs a written authorization: the Privacy Rule bars uses and disclosures of protected health information that it does not otherwise permit without a valid authorization, and requires one for marketing uses.⁠²⁸ HHS treats a provider as a covered entity only if it transmits health information electronically in connection with a transaction for which HHS has adopted a standard.⁠²⁹

When do location pages count as doorway pages for Google?

When they exist to catch similar searches rather than to describe real sites. Google’s spam policies treat it as doorway abuse when pages are built to rank for specific, similar queries and serve only as stepping stones, less useful than the page the reader actually needs, and one of the examples they give is a set of pages aimed at particular regions or cities that all funnel users to one page.⁠² The neighboring policy, scaled content abuse, covers many pages produced mainly to manipulate rankings rather than help readers, whether written with AI tools or stitched together from other pages without adding value.⁠²

A real location page is the opposite of both: it is the final destination, and its facts differ because the site differs. The editorial test is one question per page: does it help a reader make a decision no other page on the site helps with? A page for the Eastside clinic helps someone choose Eastside. A page called "pediatric OT near Northgate", for a town where the practice has no site, sends the reader on to the Eastside page and fails the test.

Google’s self-assessment questions put it another way: is the content primarily made to attract visits from search engines, and do readers leave feeling they need to search again?⁠²⁷ Towns the practice serves without a clinic need their own reason for a page, such as an in-person service area that really includes them; the guide to useful city pages covers that case and the spam policies in full, while this guide stays with the sites themselves.

How do you find duplicate location and service pages on your site?

List every location, service and city page, write beside each the decision it helps a reader make, and look for two URLs that answer the same one. "OT in [town]", "occupational therapy [town]" and "OT near [town]" are usually three spellings of one reader’s task and need one page. A pediatric OT page and an adult OT page for the same site answer different decisions and can each earn a page, because the ages, services and questions differ.

Two pages appearing for related searches is not proof that they compete, so check what each is for before merging. Read the numbers with care, too: Search Console assigns most performance data to the canonical URL rather than a duplicate and omits some queries to protect user privacy, so a page-level view can differ from the totals.⁠^30,31

Who should decide canonical tags and redirects for merged pages?

Whoever maintains the site’s technical setup, in a review of the specific URLs, after the editorial decision is made. Google describes redirects and rel="canonical" link annotations as strong signals and sitemap inclusion as a weak one, asks sites to link internally to the canonical URL, and calls a canonical preference a hint, not a rule.⁠^8,32 Record each merge in the matrix so the profile’s website link, the hub and the service pages point to the URL that stays.

How do pediatric and adult sites share one practice’s local presence?

By letting each reader find the right site before they inquire. A parent looking for a toddler’s speech evaluation and an adult looking for swallowing therapy after a stroke should each land on a site that provides that service, without inferring it from the practice’s name or a list of everything the group does.

Write each location page for the ages it actually serves. A children’s site says which ages it sees, how caregivers take part in sessions and which after-school times it offers; an adult site says how patients reach the clinic, whether the entrance and restroom are accessible, and how someone with a communication difficulty can make contact without a phone call. The pediatric service page guide and the adult service page guide cover the service pages each site links to, and the local search guides for pediatric OT and pediatric PT cover a children’s site discipline by discipline.

Keep disciplines honest by site, too. If the group’s speech-language pathologists see adults at one site and children at another, the pediatric page should not imply adult swallowing services, nor the adult page early language evaluations; the same goes for OT and PT, where a pediatric gym at one site does not mean every site has one.

If the children’s sites carry their own brand on their signage and website, Google’s chain rules allow that sub-brand name across all its locations, with the category rule applied within the sub-group.⁠⁴ DrSensory takes the same per-site view: its claim guide asks that each location’s listing be checked on its own, so that a service offered at one office does not show up as offered at all of them.⁠³³

How do you keep Google profiles and location pages aligned over time?

Give every site one person who reports changes, and change the profile, the page and the listings on the day the fact changes. Google reviews profile edits, usually within 10 minutes but sometimes up to 30 days, and may update a profile itself when it receives reports that the information is not accurate, notifying the business when it does.⁠³⁴ An edit is finished when the live profile shows it, not when it is submitted.

Keep a change record for each event: the location ID, what changed and the document it came from, the day it takes effect, every record affected, who makes the edits, when each was submitted and when each showed publicly, and anything still open.

What do Google’s own pages say about moving a clinic?

They differ, so read both before a move. Google’s article on duplicate profiles says a business that relocates should update its existing profile with the new address rather than create a new one; its policies overview, in a section that opens with venues whose identity is tied to the location, such as dining, lodging and entertainment, says a business that has relocated must mark the existing profile permanently closed and create a new one.⁠^12,17 Either way, a verified business that moves must verify again.⁠⁶ The practice name, address and phone audit covers the website and directory side of a move.

How do you measure local search results for each location?

Separately for each site, from three sources the practice controls: Search Console for its pages, Business Profile performance for each profile, and its own inquiry log. Judge each site against its own earlier months rather than against an outside figure.

In Search Console’s Performance report, a Pages filter for URLs containing the locations folder, or a custom regular expression, groups the location pages, and the Queries dimension shows which searches led to them.⁠^31,35 Running the same search from the office proves little, because Google says results are specific to the time, place, device and recent history of the person searching.⁠³⁵

For each verified profile, Business Profile performance reports the searches that found it, views, direction requests, calls and website clicks, and a practice that manages several profiles can download them at once to compare locations.⁠³⁶ A Google Analytics property can also be linked to several Business Profiles, which shares interactions such as website clicks, calls and directions with it.⁠³⁷

The inquiry log answers what neither Google tool can: which site each new patient asked about, where they started care, and how they found the practice. Count inquiries by site and source, and keep names and health details out of the marketing report; a HIPAA covered entity must make reasonable efforts to limit protected health information to the minimum necessary for the purpose of each use or disclosure.⁠³⁸ Watch routing errors as closely as volume: adult inquiries reaching a pediatric line, or requests at one site for a service given only at another, point to a profile, page or hub that does not make clear which site does what.

What does this look like for a practice with three kinds of site?

One matrix, two profiles and three pages:

What does DrSensory list for a therapy practice with several locations?

One clinic for each address, all held on one account. Families search DrSensory free for occupational, physical and speech therapy clinics serving children and adults in every state and Washington, DC; the directory lists clinics rather than individual therapists, and a listing covers the practice at one address.⁠¹⁰ A clinic at one address counts as one clinic at one price even if the directory shows it under more than one therapy, and every listing for it belongs on the same account.⁠^10,33

Claiming costs nothing: the practice finds its listings, selects each of its addresses so they share one account, confirms its email with a six-digit code and sets a password.⁠¹⁰ A location the directory does not have yet can be added in the same claim and goes live only once the practice subscribes and publishes, so a planned site can be prepared before it opens.⁠^10,33

The subscription is priced per location, not per therapist: $29.99 a month or $349.99 a year for the first location, and $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for each additional one, with no contract.⁠⁹ A paid listing can carry the clinic’s own description, logo, up to five photos, opening hours, ages and conditions treated, website and reviews with public replies, and on a paid listing family inquiries reach that clinic’s portal instead of the DrSensory team; every clinic still keeps a basic listing free.⁠^9,10

Fill in each listing from its own matrix row, not the group’s: that clinic’s ages, therapies and hours, telehealth only where that clinic offers it, and "By appointment only" where it sees patients only by booking.⁠¹⁰ Logins grow with the account, four of them for a group of three clinics, and each one can edit, publish and reply, so decide who owns which listing.⁠¹⁰ Listings show on the directory’s matching city and specialty pages, one more reason to keep every address and therapy exact, and no listing, basic or paid, comes with a ranking promise; DrSensory sells no leads and does not check clinical quality.⁠⁹ The claim and optimize guide walks through the claim and the editor.

Sources

1. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; section “Address”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “Create your Business Profile for your actual, real-world location”; “If your business rents a physical mailing address but doesn’t operate out of that location, also known as a virtual office, that location isn’t eligible for a Business Profile”; “Businesses can’t list an office at a co-working space unless that office maintains clear signage, receives customers at the location during business hours, and is staffed during business hours by your business staff”; “Do not create more than one page for each location of your business, either in a single account or multiple accounts”; “Individual practitioners and departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may have separate pages”; “Businesses showing their address on Google should maintain permanent fixed signage of their business name at the address”; “Service-area businesses, or businesses that serve customers at their locations, should have one profile for the central office or location with a designated service area”; “If you have different locations for your service business, with separate service areas and separate staff at each location, you’re allowed one profile for each location”.
2. Google Search Central. Spam Policies for Google Web Search (documentation; sections “Doorway abuse” and “Scaled content abuse”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “Doorway abuse is when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar search queries. They lead users to intermediate pages that aren’t as useful as the final destination”; its examples include “Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page”, “Generating pages to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of a site” and “Creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy”; “Scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users. This abusive practice is typically focused on creating large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little to no value to users, no matter how it’s created”; its examples include “Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users” and “Stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding value”.
3. Google. Business eligibility and ownership guidelines (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “To qualify for a Business Profile, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours”; the examples of ineligible businesses include “An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location that you don’t own or have the authority to represent” and “Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses”; “Any business whose address is listed as a P.O. box or mailbox in a remote location”; authorized representatives must “Never claim a Business Profile without express consent from the business owner”; “Note that the phone number and website for a Business Profile should always be the single, authoritative phone number and website for the business and be verifiable by the business owner. Website content must be owned and managed by the business owner”; “Always respond to management access requests promptly, and always transfer Business Profile ownership to the business owner immediately upon request. Authorized representatives must, whenever possible, encourage the business owner to create an account, own the Business Profile, and add authorized representatives as managers”.
4. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; section “Chains & brands”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “All locations must have the same name unless the business’s real world representation consistently varies from location to location. All locations must also have the same category if they provide the same service”; “All business locations within the same country must have the same name for all locations. For example, all Home Depot locations should use the name "The Home Depot" rather than "Home Depot" or "The Home Depot at Springfield"”; “If you have multiple types of businesses, sub-brands, multiple departments, or various types of operations such as retail and wholesale, they may also have a distinct name so long as it is consistently applied to all locations of that business”; “Acceptable name variations: "Walmart Supercenter" and "Walmart Express"; "Nordstrom" and "Nordstrom Rack"; "Gap" and "babyGap"”; “If some of your locations consistently use a different name on their storefront, website, or stationery, these locations can use this different name”; “All locations of a business must share the one category that best represents the business. If you have multiple types of locations (e.g. sub-brands, multiple departments, or various types of operations such as retail, distribution center, and office), this rule only applies within each of these sub-groups”.
5. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; section “Name” and its examples). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “Your name should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers”; “Including unnecessary information in your business name isn’t permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile”; a name must not include “Marketing taglines”, “Service or product information” or “Location information”; under location information, “Holiday Inn (I-93 at Exit 2)” and “Equinox near SOHO” are not acceptable, while “Holiday Inn Salem” and “Equinox SOHO” are acceptable; under service or product information, “Midas Auto Service Experts” is not acceptable.
6. Google. Edit your Business Profile (Google Business Profile Help; sections “Business name”, “Category” and “Address and pin location”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “If you change your business name after it’s verified, you might need to verify your business again”; “All locations of a business must share a "Primary category." Choose a specific category that represents your main business”; “If you move your business to a new address after it’s verified, you must verify your business again”.
7. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; section “Website & phone”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location, or provide a website that represents your individual business location”; “Use a local phone number instead of a central call center helpline number whenever possible”; “Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or "refer" users to landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business, including pages created on social media sites”; “The phone number must be under the direct control of the business”.
8. Google Search Central. What is URL canonicalization (documentation). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “Some duplicate content on a site is normal and it’s not a violation of Google’s spam policies. However, having the same content accessible through many different URLs can be a bad user experience (for example, people might wonder which is the right page, and whether there’s a difference between the two) and it may make it harder for you to track how your content performs in search results”; “You can indicate your preference to Google using these techniques, but Google may choose a different page as canonical than you do, for various reasons. That is, indicating a canonical preference is a hint, not a rule”.
9. DrSensory. Therapy Clinic Directory Pricing (the directory’s pricing page). Checked October 26, 2026.
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   “$29.99 a month or $349.99 a year for your first location, and $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for each additional location”; “not per therapist. There is no contract and you can cancel at any time”; “What if I have more than one location? Each location is a separate listing”; “Your practice appears on relevant city and specialty pages across the directory”; a claimed listing adds “A description in your own words”, “Photos of your practice”, “Opening hours”, “Ages and conditions treated”, “Your website linked”, “Your logo on the profile”, “Collect and display reviews” and “Reply to reviews”; “Basic listings are free and always will be. Claiming your listing is free”; “We do not guarantee rankings”; “We do not verify clinical quality”; “We do not sell your leads”.
10. DrSensory. DrSensory for therapists (the For Therapists hub). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “DrSensory is a directory families use free to find occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy clinics”; the clinics are “across all 50 states and Washington, DC”; “The directory lists clinics rather than individual therapists, so one listing covers a whole practice at one address”; “Per clinic, not per therapist. Listings at one address are one clinic and cost one price, even when the clinic is listed for occupational, physical and speech therapy”; “Claiming is free and has three steps: find your listing, confirm your email with a six-digit code, choose a password. The subscription is what puts your changes in front of families”; “Tick every address you run, so all your locations sit on one account”; “If you are not there, tick "my clinic is not listed yet" and add the location. Nothing is published until you subscribe, so you can fill it in before you open”; “One account holds every location. Each location after the first is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year”; “The account has one more login than it has locations: two for one clinic, four for three. Every login can edit, publish and reply”; “A paid listing adds your own description, logo, up to five photos, hours, reviews with your replies, and inquiries that come to you instead of to the DrSensory team”; “Tick "We offer telehealth". Your profile then says "Offers telehealth appointments"”; “If you see families only by booking, tick "By appointment only": the profile says so where opening hours would be, so nobody turns up at a door that is not open”; “Does DrSensory list clinics that see adults? Yes”; “DrSensory does not guarantee rankings, sell your leads or vouch for clinical quality, and says so on its pricing page”.
11. Google. Bulk location management overview (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “If your business has 10 or more locations you can add, verify, and manage them in bulk”; “Create a spreadsheet with all of your locations. Enter business information for all of your locations into one place so you can verify them all at once”; “You can add, remove, and edit locations in your dashboard or upload a revised spreadsheet”.
12. Google. Overview of Google Business Profile policies (Google Business Profile Help; sections “Account restricted from Business Profile activity”, “Business does not exist”, “Identity change” and “Location change”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “If a merchant displays a pattern of violating Google Business Profile policies, they may have their Business Profile access restricted”; “If a merchant’s account is restricted, all Business Profiles associated with that account will be suspended”; “If we determine that your business doesn’t exist in the location you claim, Google will disable your profile”; “If a different business is now at the location or the business has changed significantly, the previous business should be marked as permanently closed and not renamed”; the section “Location change” reads, in full: “Location edits will be rejected for businesses whose physical identity is directly tied to customer experience (e.g., dining, lodging, or entertainment venues). If your business has relocated, you must mark the existing profile as permanently closed and create a new Business Profile at the new location. If your business has not moved and you need to fix an incorrect address, you must contact us”.
13. Google. Add a business opening date (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “If your business hasn’t opened yet, you can create a Business Profile on Google to let your community know when your business will open at the given address”; “Only the year and month of your opening date are required. You can enter a date up to one year in the future”; “After you enter the date and verify your business, your profile shows up on Google 90 days prior to your opening date”.
14. Google. Mark your business as closed (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “If your business or any of its locations closes, you can update your Business Profile. Your Business Profile displays as "Temporarily closed" or "Permanently closed" on Google Maps and Search”; “If you mark a business as permanently closed, your Business Profile may still appear on Search and Maps for users who search for it. It clearly shows that your business is closed”; “If your business is closed for more than 7 days, closed for the off-season, or closed indefinitely, use the option "Temporarily closed." If your business is closed for 7 days or less, use set Special hours”; “To manage multiple profiles in bulk at once, you can use Business Profile Manager”.
15. Google. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google”; “Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity”; “Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for”; “Distance refers to how far each business is from the customer who’s searching”; “Prominence means how well-known a business is”; “This factor’s also based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have”; “Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results”.
16. Google. Manage your business category (Google Business Profile Help). “The categories you select affect your local ranking on Google”; “Do not select a category for every product or service”; “If you add or edit an existing category, you might be asked to verify your business again”. Checked October 26, 2026.
17. Google. Resolve duplicate profiles & ownership issues (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “You can have only one Business Profile for each business. Multiple profiles for the same business may mislead your customers and are against our policies. If a profile is considered a duplicate, it won’t show on Google Search or Maps”; multiple businesses at the same address can each have their own profiles if they are “Distinct businesses with different names and clearly visible differences in signage” and “Eligible for Google Business Profiles”; “If your business relocates, do not create a new Business Profile for the new location. Instead, update the existing profile with the new address”; “If you offer different services at your business, do not create separate Business Profiles for each service. Instead, you should list your services on your Business Profile”.
18. Google. Manage your services on your Business Profile (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Businesses in certain categories, like service businesses, might have the option to showcase their offerings directly on their Business Profile”; “When local customers search Google for an offering you provide, that service may be highlighted on your profile”; to remove a service, “select Delete service”.
19. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; sections “Departments within other businesses, universities, or institutions” and “Individual practitioners”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page. The exact name of each department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments. Typically such departments have a separate customer entrance and should each have distinct categories”; “An individual practitioner is a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base”; a practitioner should have a dedicated profile if “They operate in a public-facing role. Support staff should not create their own Business Profiles” and “They can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours”; “A practitioner shouldn’t have multiple Business Profiles to cover all of their specializations”; where several public-facing practitioners work at one location, “The organization should create a Business Profile for this location, separate from that of the practitioner”.
20. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; section “Rebranding”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Your Business Profile may be eligible for rebranding (defined as an eligible name change without creating a new Business Profile) if you make a minor name change, in which the proper nouns and services described in the business name remain unchanged and the business category remains unchanged”; “You may also be eligible for rebranding if you have multiple locations and the business name changes”.
21. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; section “Categories”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list”; “Do not use categories solely as keywords or to describe attributes of your business”; “Select categories that complete the statement: "This business IS a" rather than "this business HAS a."”.
22. Google. Create & manage business groups (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Business groups provide a more secure way to manage and share access to your Business Profiles with co-workers. It’s like a shared folder for your profiles”; “Both managers and owners can create, edit, and delete profiles within a business group”; “If you’re new to Business Profile and need to manage multiple businesses, we recommend you create a business group and use that group to add, verify, and manage your profiles”; “Limit business groups to one account per business or brand”; “If your organization operates multiple brands or divisions that require different sets of users who have access, you can create multiple business groups”; “Each business group requires its own spreadsheet to import businesses”.
23. Google. Verify Business Profiles in bulk (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “The profiles added to your account must accurately reflect the size of your business. You may be required to provide evidence if your chain size differs from the number of profiles in your account”; “Your spreadsheet has 10 or more profiles from the same business”; “Your spreadsheet has all the profiles you manage. Do not leave out any businesses”; “Your business isn’t a service-area business”; “To keep Google Maps data sources correct, we may de-verify accounts that don’t actively manage their profiles”.
24. Google. Tips for working with third parties to manage your Business Profile (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Guarantees placement on Google: Third parties can’t promise nor directly influence your business’s ranking on Google Search or Maps through any special means”; “Third parties can’t remove your business from Google or access your profile without your permission. Only profile owners can control who has access and can update permissions at any time”.
25. Google. Understand how Google sources & uses info in Business Profiles & local search results (Google Business Profile Help). information in profiles is compiled from sources including “Publicly-available information, such as crawled web content (e.g., information from a business’ official website)”, “Licensed data from third parties” and “Users who contribute factual information (such as addresses and phone numbers), and content (such as photos and reviews), including business owners who claim profiles through Google Business Profile”. Checked October 26, 2026.
26. Google. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help; section “Business hours”). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Provide your regular customer-facing hours of operation”; “Certain types of businesses shouldn’t provide hours, including those with varied hours (like schedules for different types of activities, including showtimes, worship services, or classes) and those that operate only by appointment”; “To highlight times for specific services, you can also set More hours”.
27. Google Search Central. Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (documentation). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?”; “Is the content primarily made to attract visits from search engines?”; “Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources?”; “Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t.)”.
28. eCFR. 45 CFR 164.508 Uses and disclosures for which an authorization is required (HIPAA Privacy Rule, current text, paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(3)). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Except as otherwise permitted or required by this subchapter, a covered entity may not use or disclose protected health information without an authorization that is valid under this section”; “a covered entity must obtain an authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information for marketing, except if the communication is in the form of: (A) A face-to-face communication made by a covered entity to an individual; or (B) A promotional gift of nominal value provided by the covered entity”.
29. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. Covered Entities and Business Associates (HIPAA for Professionals). health care providers are covered entities “but only if they transmit any information in an electronic form in connection with a transaction for which HHS has adopted a standard”; “If an entity does not meet the definition of a covered entity or business associate, it does not have to comply with the HIPAA Rules”. Checked October 26, 2026.
30. Google. Performance report (Search results): Dimensions and data groupings (Search Console Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Anonymized queries: Some queries are omitted from the report to protect user privacy”; “The page dimension groups data by the final URL linked by a Search result after any redirects”; “Most performance data in this report is assigned to the page’s canonical URL, not to a duplicate URL”.
31. Google. Performance report (Search results): Advanced filtering and comparison (Search Console Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Choose Queries containing or URLs containing to match your provided string”; “Regular expression (regex) search enables you to filter for, or exclude, multiple queries or URLs that might contain significant differences or variable sections”; “Default regex matching is not case-sensitive”; “Filtering your data by query or URL can affect the report totals due to data truncation and the omission of anonymized queries”.
32. Google Search Central. How to specify a canonical with rel=“canonical” and other methods (documentation). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Redirects: A strong signal that the target of the redirect should become canonical”; “rel="canonical" link annotations: A strong signal that the specified URL should become canonical”; “Sitemap inclusion: A weak signal that helps the URLs that are included in a sitemap become canonical”; “When linking within your site, link to the canonical URL rather than a duplicate URL”.
33. DrSensory. How to claim and optimize your DrSensory profile (For Therapists guide). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Tick every location you run. A practice listed for more than one therapy appears more than once, and every one of those listings belongs on the same account”; “A location you add is saved against your account first, and goes live once you subscribe and publish”; “Check each location independently. A service available at one office should not automatically appear as available at every office”; “Photos are of the practice, not of patients, unless you hold a written HIPAA authorization from the parent”.
34. Google. Understand what happens to your Business Profile edits (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Edits that you make to your verified Business Profile are reviewed to ensure they follow our guidelines”; “Edits usually take up to 10 minutes to review, but sometimes it can take up to 30 days”; “Pending: Your edit is still under review”; “If we receive reports that your business info isn’t accurate, we might update your profile. If this happens, you’ll get a notification and find an alert in the "Edit profile" section of your Business Profile”.
35. Google. Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup (Search Console Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “The default view of the report shows click and impression data for your site in Google Search results for the past three months”; the dimensions are “Queries”, “Pages”, “Countries”, “Devices”, “Search appearance” and “Dates”; “Even if a query appears in your list, you might not see your site in results if you run the same query in Google Search. This is because Search results are specific to the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching”.
36. Google. Understand your Business Profile performance & insights (Google Business Profile Help). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “Performance data is available only for verified Business Profiles”; “Business Profile owners and managers can check the number of views, clicks, and other customer interactions with your profile on Search and Maps”; the metrics include “Searches: The search terms people used to find your business”, “Views: How many people viewed your Business Profile on Search and Maps”, “Directions: How many people asked for directions to your business”, “Calls: The number of times a customer clicked on the call button on your Business Profile” and “Website clicks: The number of times people clicked on the website link on your Business Profile”; “If you manage multiple Business Profiles, you can download performance data for multiple profiles at once in a spreadsheet to compare the performance of different locations”.
37. Google. Connect your Business Profile to Google Analytics (Google Business Profile Help). “A Google Analytics property can be linked to multiple Google Business Profiles”; “When you link these accounts, performance data from your Business Profile, such as interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings, and menu clicks, is shared with your Google Analytics property”. Checked October 26, 2026.
38. eCFR. 45 CFR 164.502 Uses and disclosures of protected health information: General rules (HIPAA Privacy Rule, current text, paragraph (b)(1)). Checked October 26, 2026.
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    “When using or disclosing protected health information or when requesting protected health information from another covered entity or business associate, a covered entity or business associate must make reasonable efforts to limit protected health information to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose of the use, disclosure, or request”.

Medical disclaimer. This page is for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is general guidance on running a therapy practice, not legal, compliance, billing or financial advice. Google updates its Business Profile and Search rules, so check its Help pages in the sources before you rely on a detail.