Google Business Profile for dentists: the UK setup guide

A Google Business Profile is the panel that appears when someone searches your practice by name, and the listing that shows in the map when they search for a dentist nearby. For most practices it is the first place a new patient sees your opening hours, your reviews and your phone number. This guide covers Google Business Profile for dentists from first setup to the rules that get practices suspended, with Google's own help pages linked at each step so you can check the detail yourself.

What a Google Business Profile is, and is it free?

A Business Profile is Google's record of your practice: name, address, phone number, hours, website, photos, services and reviews. It shows on Google Search and Google Maps. It is what used to be called Google My Business, so if a colleague talks about "GMB" they mean the same thing.

It costs nothing. Google says plainly that you can add or claim your business at no charge. You also cannot buy your way up the map. Google's page on local ranking says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity (the section explaining the last one is headed Prominence), and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Paid ads can appear above the map, but the map places themselves are earned.

How to create or claim your practice's profile

Many practices find a listing for them already exists, so check first and create a new one only if nothing is there. A second profile for the same location breaks Google's rules.

1. Search Google Maps for your practice name and town. If a listing appears with a "Claim this business" link, select it, then Manage now, and follow the verification steps.
2. If no listing exists, go to business.google.com/add, select Add your business to Google, and follow the on-screen steps. Google sets out both routes on its add or claim page.
3. If someone else has already verified it, such as a former manager, a previous owner or an old agency, request access from business.google.com/add. Google says the current owner is emailed and has three days to respond. If they do not reply, you may be offered the option to claim it yourself.

Before you start, decide which Google account will own the profile. Use one the practice controls, such as an account on a practice email address, rather than somebody's personal Gmail. If the profile sits in the personal account of a manager who later leaves, getting it back can take time you do not have.

How to verify a dental practice profile

A profile does not work fully until it is verified. Google offers several methods, and which ones you see depends on your business. They include a phone call or text, email, a live video call, a postcard, a recorded video, and instant verification through Search Console if your website is already verified there. Google says verification reviews take up to five working days, and that most postcards arrive within 14 days.

Two practical points for practices:

• Do not edit the name, address or category while verification is pending. Google warns that if you do, the code it sent will not work.
• If you are asked for a video, record it before patients arrive. Google's video rules say the recording must be continuous and unedited, at least 30 seconds, and must not include other people's faces or private information. Show the street, your permanent sign, and something only staff can access, such as unlocking the front door or the staff room. Keep screens showing patient records out of shot.

Set it up within Google's rules

Google publishes guidelines for representing your business, and they apply to dental practices like everyone else. These are the parts that matter most for a practice.

Your practice name

Use the name patients see on your sign, your letterhead and your website. Google's guidelines rule out marketing taglines, location details, service information, phone numbers and website addresses in the name. "Your Practice Name" is fine. "Your Practice Name, Emergency Dentist, Implants, Town Centre" breaks the rules and puts the profile at risk.

Address, signage and one profile per location

Use your precise, real address. Google expects permanent signage at the address, and says you should not create more than one profile for each location. A group with three sites should have three profiles, one per site, each with its own address and local phone number.

Profiles for individual dentists

Google's guidelines name dentists specifically as individual practitioners, which means a dentist can have a profile of their own as well as the practice. Where a practitioner is the only public-facing professional at a branded practice, Google asks for a single profile named in the format "[practice name]: [practitioner name]". Where several practitioners work at one practice, the practice has its own profile and a practitioner's profile should not include the practice name. Agree as a team who creates practitioner profiles and who controls them, because they show separately in search.

Categories

Google asks you to choose categories that complete the sentence "This business IS a", and to use as few as possible. For most practices the primary category is a dental one such as Dentist. Do not add categories just to target treatments, which is what services are for.

Hours, phone and website

Give your regular patient-facing hours and set special hours for bank holidays and closures. Google asks for a phone number that connects to that location and is under your direct control, and a local number rather than a central call centre wherever possible. Link the website page that represents that site. For a group, that is usually the location page rather than the home page.

Fill in the rest: services, attributes and photos

Once the basics are right, the rest of the profile helps Google and patients understand what you offer.

• Services. Google offers suggested services for your category and lets you add custom ones with a price and description. It asks you to keep prices and phone numbers out of custom service names. List the treatments you actually offer, NHS and private, and keep descriptions factual.
• Attributes. These are yes or no facts such as a wheelchair-accessible entrance, toilet or parking. Google's attributes page covers how to set them. Accessibility details matter to patients choosing a practice.
• Photos. Google's ranking page suggests adding photos to show customers what you offer. Use real photos of your building, sign, reception and surgeries. Never use patient photos without the consent your clinical and GDC obligations require.

Edits are checked before they go live. Google says edits usually take up to 10 minutes to review, but sometimes up to 30 days, so do not keep resubmitting the same change.

Reviews: what Google says, and what pack holders have

Reviews are the part of the profile patients read most closely. Google's own words are that "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking", and it recommends replying to reviews. In our study of 1,489 UK places, the median practice in the local map pack had 113 reviews and a 4.8 star rating, and the typical count rises with the number of practices competing in the town.

Ask every patient in the same way, never offer anything in return and never pick only the happy ones. Google's fake engagement policy prohibits incentives and selectively soliciting positive reviews. For a target that fits your town, see how to work out your practice's review target, and for replies that stay within patient confidentiality, see how to reply to Google reviews.

Posts, and what happened to questions and answers

Posts let you share updates, offers and events on the profile. Google says posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set, and that posts with a phone number in the description might be rejected if the number cannot be verified as connected to the business, so use the Call now button instead. Anything you post is a marketing claim, so the same GDC and advertising rules apply as on your website.

The questions and answers section is no longer something to plan around. Google discontinued its questions and answers API on 3 November 2025, saying it was updating how questions and answers work. Put answers to common questions, such as parking, NHS availability and emergency appointments, on your website and in your services and description instead.

Who should own and manage the profile

A profile can have several owners and managers, but only one primary owner. Google says owners have full control, while managers have mostly the same access but cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. Google also says new owners and managers must wait seven days before they can remove profile content or other managers.

• Make the practice owner, or a practice-controlled account, the primary owner.
• Add a second owner so the practice is never one person away from losing access.
• Give your practice manager and any agency manager access, not ownership.
• Do not share passwords. Google describes business groups as a safer way to work together than sharing a username and password.

Keep it accurate: Google updates and suggested edits

Your profile can change without you touching it. Google says it gathers information from sources such as user reports and licensed content, and may update your profile if those sources say your details are wrong or out of date. Changes made by Google show in blue text in the profile editor.

When a member of the public suggests an edit that needs your review, you have four days to accept or reject it. If you do not respond, Google may publish it anyway if it is supported by other public information, such as your website. That is why your website, your profile and your NHS website listing should all show the same hours, phone number and address.

Suspension, removal and starting again

Google says it may suspend or disable profiles that do not follow its guidelines. Until it is reinstated you lose normal control of the listing, so treat a suspension as urgent. The fix is to correct whatever breaks the guidelines, then appeal through Google's appeals tool with evidence such as a utility bill or business registration that matches the name and address on the profile. Do not create a new profile while an appeal is under review.

If you are tempted to delete a profile and start over, read Google's page on removing a profile from your account first. Removing your ownership and content does not guarantee the listing disappears from Maps and Search. If a practice has genuinely closed or moved, marking it permanently closed is Google's route.

A monthly check for your practice profile

1. Search your practice name on a phone and read the profile as a patient would.
2. Look for blue text or pending suggested edits in the editor and deal with them.
3. Check special hours are set for the next bank holiday and any planned closures.
4. Confirm the phone number, website link and services still match the website.
5. Reply to every new review, good and bad, without confirming that anyone is a patient.
6. Review People and access, and remove anyone who has left.
7. Search your main terms, such as "dentist" plus your town, and note who holds the three map places. A rank tracker, or the map pack watch in Practice Radar, will do this weekly across your whole area.

The profile is one part of local SEO for dentists. Get it accurate, verified and owned by the practice, and the rest of your local work has something solid to build on.