April 14, 2025 • 16 mins
Today, we’re diving into a question that could be costing you serious rankings and revenue: Are extra Google listings hurting your visibility? You might think that more listings mean more opportunities to show up in search results.
But in reality, those additional profiles could be doing more harm than good.
Stick with me as I break down how Google’s ranking filter works, how to tell if this issue is affecting you, and what to do to fix it.
Send in your questions. ❤ We'd love to hear from you!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to the Clinic Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, darci Sullivanfrom Propel Marketing and Design
.
Today we're diving into aquestion that could be causing
and costing you serious rankingissues and revenue problems.
Are extra Google listingshurting your visibility?
(00:23):
You might think more listings,more opportunity to show up in
search results, but thoseadditional profiles could be
doing more harm than good.
Stick with me as I'm going tobreak down how Google's rankings
filters work, how you can tellif there's an issue that's
(00:45):
affecting you and what to do tofix it.
Did you know because some peopleknow this and some people don't
that if you were a doctor, ifyou're a practitioner, you can
have a listing, a Googlebusiness profile listing, that
is separate from your company'slisting?
So today we're going to talkabout three different types of
(01:09):
extra Google listings that youcan have and if you should have
them, one being the variable ofif you have a company listing,
and then each doctor orpractitioner has their own
listing, and we'll get into thepros and cons of that.
Petitioner has their ownlisting, and we'll get into the
pros and cons of that.
Two could be multiple listingsfrom the same company.
(01:33):
And then three.
Let's say that your clinic hasthree locations and you have
three Google business profilelistings, one for each of those
locations.
So that's what we're kind ofdiving into today.
We're looking at those andtalking about how Google looks
at this information and how theyrank it.
(01:53):
And again, we're talking aboutthe Google Business Profile
listing, and I love talkingabout Google Business Profile
listing.
Tons of our resources are aboutthe Google Business Profile
listing.
Tons of our resources are aboutthe Google business profile
listing.
And why?
Because when you implementchanges and best practices to
your Google business profilelisting, you get kind of real
(02:13):
quick results.
And in fact, I had a call onFriday with one of our Ready Set
Rank members.
If you don't know, we have aDIY SEO program for clinics and
it's called Ready Set Rank andhe had purchased the program
with a bundle that included acall where we walk through
(02:36):
things and go through actionablestrategies.
So on this call, we talkedabout his website and we talked
about his Google businessprofile listing.
On Monday I received a verynice email from him saying how
great it was to talk and that hehad already implemented some of
(02:56):
the Google business profilesuggestions and had seen his
listing move up the ranksubstantially.
So not just move, but move upsubstantially.
So making the right changes toyour Google business profile
listing can have huge results,and you can see them quickly.
(03:19):
Okay, so back to today's topic.
Should you have extra Googlebusiness profile listings or are
they hurting you?
Do you even have them?
Let's get into it.
So one of the commonmisconceptions about Google
listings and it's logical, right, you would think, or a clinic
owner might think more Googlelistings equals more chances to
(03:43):
rank.
Separate listings forpractitioners and their practice
equals greater visibility.
More locations equal moreoverall search presence.
But here's the catch Googledoesn't see it that way.
In fact, sometimes havingmultiple listings for the same
practice in the same locationcan work against you.
(04:05):
So we're going to dive intosome examples, but first notice
what I just said Having multiplelistings for the same practice
in the same location can workagainst you.
This means that this does notaffect if you have multiple
physical locations.
If you are a clinic with fivedifferent locations, you should
(04:28):
each of those individuallocations should have a Google
business profile listing.
You don't want to then have anoverall Google business profile
listing for them, right?
You just each location has itsown listing.
That's it.
But it's okay in that instance.
(04:49):
What we're going to dive intonow is examples when there are
multiple listings for the samepractice and the same location.
So we had worked with oneclient who had multiple Google
business profile listings onefor their overall practice and
then one for the individualdoctors.
Again, on the surface, thissounds like a smart move More
(05:13):
listings equals more visibility.
But we checked his rankings andthe main practice listing was
not sitting high and thepractice the practitioner's
listings weren't sitting high.
And the practice thepractitioners listings weren't
sitting high either.
Neither were really in thosetop results.
And the reason?
Google was filtering out one ofthe listings, seeing them as
(05:34):
competing businesses rather thancomplementary ones.
This is because google'salgorithm tries to avoid
duplicate or similar businessrankings in the same
geographical area.
So what was our suggestion?
We suggested that they deletethe practitioner's listings, and
you know what happened theyincreased their visibility and
(05:57):
position, which in turn, drovemore traffic and leads.
So if you have multiplepractitioners, our suggestion is
to not have multiple listingsfor them, because it dilutes the
water.
If you want to think about itlike that, you're saying to
Google no, our company is here,no, this practitioner is here.
(06:19):
It can just get a littleconfusing.
And we had another issue wherea client came to us and said we
had a practitioner who left, butthey were promoting themselves
as a practitioner, not as theoverall company.
And now the internet includesall of these listings for this
(06:43):
one practitioner, but it'slisted at the company's address
that they're no longer with.
Of course, with your GoogleBusiness Profile listing, it's
easy enough to suggest an editfor that issue.
But there were other onlinelistings that were still
showcasing this practitioner whowas no longer with the
(07:04):
organization.
The organization wanted nothingto do with this practitioner
and they didn't have thepractitioner's logins to all
these listings that thepractitioner had set up.
So keep that in mind.
Google's algorithm is designedto provide the best search
experience possible.
That means preventing multiplelistings from dominating local
(07:26):
search results, and we've seenthis before, too, where there
could be a company that somehowended up with two listings For
some reason.
This happens if a marketingcompany had originally taken
over that responsibility, or anex-employee had taken over that
responsibility, and thensomebody didn't realize, so they
(07:47):
set up a separate listing.
Whatever the reason is, if youhave two listings for one single
location, you want toconsolidate those, and if I were
going to do that.
What I would suggest is lookand see which one gets the most
traction and which one has thebest reviews.
The other issue with havingmultiple listings is there's
(08:10):
multiple places for people toleave reviews.
So instead of having thatgleaming, oh, we have over 500
reviews now.
They're scattered throughout,so we don't want that.
If Google sees two or morelistings in the same, for the
same business, at the sameaddress, it often filters out
(08:30):
one, so you usually only see one, and even the filter listing
might still exist.
It won't rank well.
So, instead of helping, theextra listing again can dilute
the overall authority, drag downyour listing that you want to
write, so you want to think ofthese.
(08:51):
They could kind of think ofthem like anchors dragging you
down, and we don't.
Instead, we want you to haveone solid, amazing company
listing for each of yourlocations.
So how do you know if you'redealing with this issue?
Well, here are some red flags.
Your writings have plateaued,despite strong reviews and
(09:14):
optimized content.
Your practice listing isn'tappearing high in that local
pack of competition out there.
Right, the competition keepsgrowing, and this is going to
(09:36):
vary if you are living in apopulated area where you have
tons and tons of competitorsversus if you're living in a
rural area with less competition, but you do want to keep an eye
on where your listing is placedin that local package.
Do you have multiple Googlebusiness listings that you're
aware of?
Are they including separatepractitioner profiles?
(09:57):
This can also confuse patientsabout which listing to use or to
go to for information, and ifany of that sounds familiar,
it's really time to take action.
So how do you do this?
Well, if you suspect multiplelistings are hurting your
(10:17):
visibility, here's what youshould do Audit your Google
business listing.
If you have issues with this,we offer a Google business
profile audit.
You can find out more byvisiting propellyourcompanycom
Under services.
You will find the businessprofile audit if you're
interested in having somebody dothis for you.
You can also use GoogleBusiness Profile Manager to see
(10:43):
if you have multiple profiles.
Decide which listings to keep.
The practice listings shouldalways be the main focus.
If practitioner listings existand you decide that you want to
keep them, they should beoptimized separately and ideally
, if they are including a linkto your website, it should go
(11:07):
directly to that practitioner'spage, so a bio specific to that
practitioner.
They should not link to thehomepage.
If you have multiple listings,consider merging or removing the
extra listings.
If you have multiple listingsexisting for the same business,
request to merge them throughGoogle Business Profile support.
(11:31):
If your practitioners havetheir own listings, ensure that
they do not interfere with themain practice listing and again,
we suggest if they are going tohave their own listings, that
they need to link to a page onyour website that is specific to
that practitioner.
Also, optimize your remaininglisting.
(11:52):
Ensure that your Googlebusiness profile is fully
optimized with accurate businessdetails, categories and
services.
Regularly update your profilewith posts, offers and patient
reviews, and use SEO strategieson your website to support your
Google business profile ranking.
(12:14):
Now we already talked about thisfor a minute, but I want to
circle back and make sure thatwe talk about multiple locations
.
If your business has multiplelocations, each location again
should have its own dedicatedGoogle business profile listing.
(12:34):
However, they should haveunique contact information and
addresses.
They should featurelocation-specific services
service page on your website andyou want to avoid duplicate
content across listings.
So if you were a chiropractorand let's just say you had a
(12:56):
location in Greenville and alocation in Blueville, on the
Blueville listing I would linkdirectly to a page on your
website that is specific to theBlueville location.
That has details about theservices you offer photos, more
information than just aparagraph like quality content,
(13:19):
location-specific information.
This ensures Google understandsthat these are separate
businesses rather than duplicatelistings.
So here's the bottom line.
More Google listings doesn'talways mean more visibility and
in many cases, they could behurting your rankings.
By auditing your profiles,consolidating when necessary and
(13:43):
optimizing your main listing,you can improve your search
visibility and attract morelocal patients.
So take a few minutes today tocheck your Google Business
Profile listing.
If you spot duplicate listings,address them as soon as
possible.
If you found this episodehelpful, please be sure to
subscribe to the ClinicMarketing Podcast so you never
(14:05):
miss the strategies that weshare here.
And if you need help optimizingyour Google business profile,
please visit our website to bookan audit.
We'll make sure your listingsare working for you and not
against you.
That's all for today's episode.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome back to the Clinic Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, darci Sullivanfrom Propel Marketing and Design
.
Today we're diving into aquestion that could be causing
and costing you serious rankingissues and revenue problems.
Are extra Google listingshurting your visibility?
(00:23):
You might think more listings,more opportunity to show up in
search results, but thoseadditional profiles could be
doing more harm than good.
Stick with me as I'm going tobreak down how Google's rankings
filters work, how you can tellif there's an issue that's
(00:45):
affecting you and what to do tofix it.
Did you know because some peopleknow this and some people don't
that if you were a doctor, ifyou're a practitioner, you can
have a listing, a Googlebusiness profile listing, that
is separate from your company'slisting?
So today we're going to talkabout three different types of
(01:09):
extra Google listings that youcan have and if you should have
them, one being the variable ofif you have a company listing,
and then each doctor orpractitioner has their own
listing, and we'll get into thepros and cons of that.
Petitioner has their ownlisting, and we'll get into the
pros and cons of that.
Two could be multiple listingsfrom the same company.
(01:33):
And then three.
Let's say that your clinic hasthree locations and you have
three Google business profilelistings, one for each of those
locations.
So that's what we're kind ofdiving into today.
We're looking at those andtalking about how Google looks
at this information and how theyrank it.
(01:53):
And again, we're talking aboutthe Google Business Profile
listing, and I love talkingabout Google Business Profile
listing.
Tons of our resources are aboutthe Google Business Profile
listing.
Tons of our resources are aboutthe Google business profile
listing.
And why?
Because when you implementchanges and best practices to
your Google business profilelisting, you get kind of real
(02:13):
quick results.
And in fact, I had a call onFriday with one of our Ready Set
Rank members.
If you don't know, we have aDIY SEO program for clinics and
it's called Ready Set Rank andhe had purchased the program
with a bundle that included acall where we walk through
(02:36):
things and go through actionablestrategies.
So on this call, we talkedabout his website and we talked
about his Google businessprofile listing.
On Monday I received a verynice email from him saying how
great it was to talk and that hehad already implemented some of
(02:56):
the Google business profilesuggestions and had seen his
listing move up the ranksubstantially.
So not just move, but move upsubstantially.
So making the right changes toyour Google business profile
listing can have huge results,and you can see them quickly.
(03:19):
Okay, so back to today's topic.
Should you have extra Googlebusiness profile listings or are
they hurting you?
Do you even have them?
Let's get into it.
So one of the commonmisconceptions about Google
listings and it's logical, right, you would think, or a clinic
owner might think more Googlelistings equals more chances to
(03:43):
rank.
Separate listings forpractitioners and their practice
equals greater visibility.
More locations equal moreoverall search presence.
But here's the catch Googledoesn't see it that way.
In fact, sometimes havingmultiple listings for the same
practice in the same locationcan work against you.
(04:05):
So we're going to dive intosome examples, but first notice
what I just said Having multiplelistings for the same practice
in the same location can workagainst you.
This means that this does notaffect if you have multiple
physical locations.
If you are a clinic with fivedifferent locations, you should
(04:28):
each of those individuallocations should have a Google
business profile listing.
You don't want to then have anoverall Google business profile
listing for them, right?
You just each location has itsown listing.
That's it.
But it's okay in that instance.
(04:49):
What we're going to dive intonow is examples when there are
multiple listings for the samepractice and the same location.
So we had worked with oneclient who had multiple Google
business profile listings onefor their overall practice and
then one for the individualdoctors.
Again, on the surface, thissounds like a smart move More
(05:13):
listings equals more visibility.
But we checked his rankings andthe main practice listing was
not sitting high and thepractice the practitioner's
listings weren't sitting high.
And the practice thepractitioners listings weren't
sitting high either.
Neither were really in thosetop results.
And the reason?
Google was filtering out one ofthe listings, seeing them as
(05:34):
competing businesses rather thancomplementary ones.
This is because google'salgorithm tries to avoid
duplicate or similar businessrankings in the same
geographical area.
So what was our suggestion?
We suggested that they deletethe practitioner's listings, and
you know what happened theyincreased their visibility and
(05:57):
position, which in turn, drovemore traffic and leads.
So if you have multiplepractitioners, our suggestion is
to not have multiple listingsfor them, because it dilutes the
water.
If you want to think about itlike that, you're saying to
Google no, our company is here,no, this practitioner is here.
(06:19):
It can just get a littleconfusing.
And we had another issue wherea client came to us and said we
had a practitioner who left, butthey were promoting themselves
as a practitioner, not as theoverall company.
And now the internet includesall of these listings for this
(06:43):
one practitioner, but it'slisted at the company's address
that they're no longer with.
Of course, with your GoogleBusiness Profile listing, it's
easy enough to suggest an editfor that issue.
But there were other onlinelistings that were still
showcasing this practitioner whowas no longer with the
(07:04):
organization.
The organization wanted nothingto do with this practitioner
and they didn't have thepractitioner's logins to all
these listings that thepractitioner had set up.
So keep that in mind.
Google's algorithm is designedto provide the best search
experience possible.
That means preventing multiplelistings from dominating local
(07:26):
search results, and we've seenthis before, too, where there
could be a company that somehowended up with two listings For
some reason.
This happens if a marketingcompany had originally taken
over that responsibility, or anex-employee had taken over that
responsibility, and thensomebody didn't realize, so they
(07:47):
set up a separate listing.
Whatever the reason is, if youhave two listings for one single
location, you want toconsolidate those, and if I were
going to do that.
What I would suggest is lookand see which one gets the most
traction and which one has thebest reviews.
The other issue with havingmultiple listings is there's
(08:10):
multiple places for people toleave reviews.
So instead of having thatgleaming, oh, we have over 500
reviews now.
They're scattered throughout,so we don't want that.
If Google sees two or morelistings in the same, for the
same business, at the sameaddress, it often filters out
(08:30):
one, so you usually only see one, and even the filter listing
might still exist.
It won't rank well.
So, instead of helping, theextra listing again can dilute
the overall authority, drag downyour listing that you want to
write, so you want to think ofthese.
(08:51):
They could kind of think ofthem like anchors dragging you
down, and we don't.
Instead, we want you to haveone solid, amazing company
listing for each of yourlocations.
So how do you know if you'redealing with this issue?
Well, here are some red flags.
Your writings have plateaued,despite strong reviews and
(09:14):
optimized content.
Your practice listing isn'tappearing high in that local
pack of competition out there.
Right, the competition keepsgrowing, and this is going to
(09:36):
vary if you are living in apopulated area where you have
tons and tons of competitorsversus if you're living in a
rural area with less competition, but you do want to keep an eye
on where your listing is placedin that local package.
Do you have multiple Googlebusiness listings that you're
aware of?
Are they including separatepractitioner profiles?
(09:57):
This can also confuse patientsabout which listing to use or to
go to for information, and ifany of that sounds familiar,
it's really time to take action.
So how do you do this?
Well, if you suspect multiplelistings are hurting your
(10:17):
visibility, here's what youshould do Audit your Google
business listing.
If you have issues with this,we offer a Google business
profile audit.
You can find out more byvisiting propellyourcompanycom
Under services.
You will find the businessprofile audit if you're
interested in having somebody dothis for you.
You can also use GoogleBusiness Profile Manager to see
(10:43):
if you have multiple profiles.
Decide which listings to keep.
The practice listings shouldalways be the main focus.
If practitioner listings existand you decide that you want to
keep them, they should beoptimized separately and ideally
, if they are including a linkto your website, it should go
(11:07):
directly to that practitioner'spage, so a bio specific to that
practitioner.
They should not link to thehomepage.
If you have multiple listings,consider merging or removing the
extra listings.
If you have multiple listingsexisting for the same business,
request to merge them throughGoogle Business Profile support.
(11:31):
If your practitioners havetheir own listings, ensure that
they do not interfere with themain practice listing and again,
we suggest if they are going tohave their own listings, that
they need to link to a page onyour website that is specific to
that practitioner.
Also, optimize your remaininglisting.
(11:52):
Ensure that your Googlebusiness profile is fully
optimized with accurate businessdetails, categories and
services.
Regularly update your profilewith posts, offers and patient
reviews, and use SEO strategieson your website to support your
Google business profile ranking.
(12:14):
Now we already talked about thisfor a minute, but I want to
circle back and make sure thatwe talk about multiple locations
.
If your business has multiplelocations, each location again
should have its own dedicatedGoogle business profile listing.
(12:34):
However, they should haveunique contact information and
addresses.
They should featurelocation-specific services
service page on your website andyou want to avoid duplicate
content across listings.
So if you were a chiropractorand let's just say you had a
(12:56):
location in Greenville and alocation in Blueville, on the
Blueville listing I would linkdirectly to a page on your
website that is specific to theBlueville location.
That has details about theservices you offer photos, more
information than just aparagraph like quality content,
(13:19):
location-specific information.
This ensures Google understandsthat these are separate
businesses rather than duplicatelistings.
So here's the bottom line.
More Google listings doesn'talways mean more visibility and
in many cases, they could behurting your rankings.
By auditing your profiles,consolidating when necessary and
(13:43):
optimizing your main listing,you can improve your search
visibility and attract morelocal patients.
So take a few minutes today tocheck your Google Business
Profile listing.
If you spot duplicate listings,address them as soon as
possible.
If you found this episodehelpful, please be sure to
subscribe to the ClinicMarketing Podcast so you never
(14:05):
miss the strategies that weshare here.
And if you need help optimizingyour Google business profile,
please visit our website to bookan audit.
We'll make sure your listingsare working for you and not
against you.
That's all for today's episode.
Thanks for listening.
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