Google Business Profile for therapists, step by step

A Google Business Profile is the box that shows up on Google and Google Maps when someone searches for your practice, or for “therapist near me”. It shows your name, location, hours, phone number, website, photos and reviews. It’s free, and for many practices it brings in more calls than the website itself.

Getting it right takes an afternoon. Getting it wrong can get the profile suspended, or put your home address on a map. Here’s how to do it properly, step by step, following Google’s own rules.

Step 1: Check that you’re eligible

Google’s guidelines for representing your business say you can have a profile if your business “has a physical location that customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are”.

For therapists and clinics, that usually means:

• You see clients in an office. You’re eligible. Use that office’s address.
• You see clients in an office and online. You’re eligible. Use the office address, and mention telehealth in your description and services.
• You only see clients online. You usually aren’t eligible. There’s no place to visit, and you don’t travel to clients.
• You rent a “virtual office” or mailbox. Not eligible. Google says a virtual office “isn’t eligible”, and P.O. boxes aren’t acceptable.

If you work from a shared office or a therapy suite, that counts, as long as you really see clients there and can be reached there during the hours you list.

Step 2: Decide what to do about your address

This matters most for therapists who see clients in a home office.

Google lets a “service-area business” hide its address. But Google describes a service-area business as one that travels to customers, like a plumber. If clients come to your home to see you, Google expects that address to be shown.

So if you see clients at home and don’t want your address on Google Maps, your honest options are:

• Rent a real office, even part-time, and use that.
• Skip the Google Business Profile, and put your energy into your website and directory profiles instead.
• If you genuinely visit clients where they are, set yourself up as a service-area business and clear the address, as Google allows.

Don’t list an address where you don’t actually work. It’s against Google’s rules, and profiles that break them can be suspended.

Step 3: One profile, or one per clinician?

Google treats therapists as “individual practitioners”, the same as doctors and lawyers. Its guidelines are specific:

• Solo practice with its own name (for example, Lakeside Counseling, with one therapist): Google suggests a single profile, named like this: Lakeside Counseling: Priya Raman.
• Solo therapist under your own name: one profile, in your name. You can include your credentials, like Priya Raman, PsyD.
• Group practice: one profile for the practice. Each public-facing clinician may also have their own profile, named with just their own name, not the practice name. Support staff shouldn’t have their own.

For a group practice, individual profiles help when clients search for a therapist by name. They’re also more to keep up to date. If someone leaves, their profile should be updated or marked as moved, not left pointing at your phone line.

We go into this more on our page about websites for group practices.

Step 4: Use your real name, and nothing else

This is the most common mistake we see. Google’s guidelines say your name must match your real-world name, as used on your sign, website and paperwork. It must not include service information, location information or taglines.

Adding extra words might seem to help at first. Google says it “could result in the suspension of your Business Profile”. Put your specialties in your categories, services and description instead.

Step 5: Pick the right categories

Your primary category tells Google what you are. Choose the one closest to what you do, then add a few others. For example, these all exist in Google’s category list:

• Therapists and counselors: Psychotherapist, Counselor, Psychologist, Mental health service, Mental health clinic, Family counselor, Marriage or relationship counselor
• Physical therapy: Physical therapist, Physical therapy clinic, Physical rehabilitation center

Pick the primary category that matches your license and the main thing you offer. Don’t add categories for services you don’t provide.

Step 6: Get verified

Google needs to confirm you’re really at the address you gave. Its verification page lists the options it may offer: a phone call or text, email, a short video recording, a live video call, or a postcard with a code.

You don’t get to choose. Google shows you the options available for your business. A video usually means walking from the street to your door and showing your sign and something that proves the business is yours. If clients are in session, record when the office is empty, so no one is filmed.

Step 7: Fill in every section

A complete profile gives Google, and AI assistants that read Google, more to work with. Fill in:

• Description. In plain words: who you help, how, and where. Mention telehealth and the states you’re licensed in if that applies.
• Hours. The hours you can actually be reached. If you see clients by appointment only, say so.
• Phone number. One that a person or a clear voicemail answers.
• Website. Link to your own website, not only a directory listing. If your website is slow or unclear, the profile sends people somewhere that loses them. Our free website check shows you how yours does.
• Booking link. Link to your booking system, like SimplePractice, TherapyNotes or Jane.
• Services. List each specialty in your clients’ words: “therapy for anxiety”, “couples counseling”, “post-surgery rehab”.
• Attributes. Things like wheelchair access, or “online appointments”, where Google offers them.

Make sure your name, address and phone number match your website exactly. Mismatches are one of the reasons a practice doesn’t show up. We explain the others in why doesn’t my practice show up on Google?

Step 8: Add real photos

Photos help nervous clients picture walking in. Add:

• The outside of the building and the entrance, so people can find you.
• Your waiting area and therapy room.
• A friendly photo of each clinician, if they’re happy to be shown.

Never include clients in photos, and check that nothing private is visible, like a calendar, a whiteboard or paperwork.

Step 9: Reviews: follow your ethics code first

Reviews matter on Google, but therapists have stricter rules than most businesses.

Your ethics code and licensing board come first. Many ethics codes, including those followed by psychologists, counselors, social workers and marriage and family therapists, restrict asking clients for testimonials, especially current clients, because of the pressure it can put on them. Rules differ, and we don’t give legal or ethics advice. Check your own ethics code and your state licensing board. Our guide to advertising rules for therapist websites explains where to look.

Physical therapy and other insurance-based clinics usually have more room to ask patients for reviews. Still, check your own profession’s rules.

Google’s rules apply to everyone. Google’s content policy says businesses must not:

• Offer anything in return for a review, like a discount or a free session.
• Ask only happy clients for reviews, or discourage negative ones.
• Pressure people to leave a review while they’re in the office.
• Review their own business, or have staff or family do it.

Replying to reviews needs care. A reply is public. Never confirm that the reviewer is or was your client, and never mention anything about their care, even to correct something unfair. Federal health regulators have fined practices for exactly this, including a dental practice that paid $23,000 in 2022 after its replies to reviews exposed patients’ names, treatment and insurance details. A safe reply sounds like: “Thank you for taking the time to share this. We take all feedback seriously. Please call our office if you’d like to talk.”

Step 10: Keep it up to date

• Update hours for holidays and time off.
• Post updates now and then: a new clinician, new openings, a new group, an office move.
• Answer common questions on your website. Google has been winding down the questions-and-answers section that used to appear on profiles, so don’t rely on it. Put your answers about fees, insurance and first sessions on your own website, where Google and AI assistants can read them.
• Check the profile monthly. Anyone can suggest edits to your profile, and Google sometimes accepts them. Make sure your details are still right.

How this fits with your website

Your Google Business Profile gets you seen. Your website is where people decide. They work best together: the profile links to the website, and the website shows the same name, address, phone number and services.

That’s also how AI assistants like ChatGPT decide which practices to mention. They look for the same clear facts in several places. Our guide on how to show up in ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers walks through the rest, and our page on websites for therapists shows what we build to go alongside your profile.