Local SEO for Doctors: How a Medical Practice Gets Found by New Patients

Someone moves to a new town and needs a general practitioner. Someone else wants a dermatologist who is taking new patients. Both start in the same place: a search on a phone, a map, three names. Local SEO for doctors is about appearing there with accurate information, while respecting rules that a restaurant does not have.

What do patients search for?

• a speciality and a place: "dermatologist" plus a town;
• a need: "doctor accepting new patients", "walk-in clinic", "same day appointment";
• a constraint: "doctor open Saturday", "female GP".

The patient then checks three things: where you are, when you are open, and whether they can book. Those three answers must be right on your profile.

Should the practice or the doctor have the profile?

Google's guidelines allow both in some cases. A practice has its profile. An individual practitioner who sees patients directly at that location can have a separate one, under conditions set out in those guidelines.

In a practice with several doctors this quickly creates many profiles at one address. Before creating them, decide who will maintain each one. An abandoned profile with wrong hours does more harm than no profile.

If a doctor leaves, the profile should be updated or marked as moved, not left behind.

How should a medical practice fill in its profile?

• Primary category: the speciality, as precisely as Google's list allows. See how to choose your category.
• Hours: consulting hours and the hours when the phone is answered, if they differ. Set special hours for holidays and absences.
• Appointment link: if you use an online booking service, add its link to the profile.
• Attributes: step-free access, languages spoken, when the profile offers them.
• Photos: the entrance, the waiting room. No photo in which a patient can be recognised.

What about reviews?

This is where medicine differs from other trades, and where I would be careful.

First, your professional rules come before anything written here. In many countries, medical bodies restrict advertising and the soliciting of testimonials. Check what applies to you before asking patients for reviews.

Second, confidentiality applies to your replies. Never confirm that the author is a patient, never mention a consultation, a diagnosis or a date. A reply such as "We take all feedback seriously and invite you to contact the practice directly" says what can be said.

Third, a review that breaks Google's policies can be reported. See how to remove a Google review.

What should your website say?

• Your speciality, the care you provide and the care you do not provide, in plain language.
• How to book, and what to do in an emergency.
• Your address, phone and hours as text, identical to your profile: see NAP consistency.
• Access: floor, lift, parking, public transport.

A local SEO audit checks that these pages can be read by search engines.

Do AI assistants matter for a practice?

People now ask assistants questions such as "which clinics near me take new patients". The assistant answers from what it finds on the web, so the same basics apply: accurate, consistent, public information. An AI visibility tracker measures in what share of answers your practice is mentioned. It is a coverage rate, not a ranking, and answers vary from one request to the next.

Summary

My opinion: for a practice, accuracy matters more than promotion. A patient who finds the right hours, the right door and a way to book has all they wanted from your profile.