How should a dental practice manage its Google Business Profile?

Yes. A Google Business Profile is the free listing Google shows for your practice, and it is the product that used to be called Google My Business.

Google renamed it in late 2021. It is what people see when they search for a dentist in Google Search or open Google Maps. A complete profile shows:

• your practice name and main category
• your address, phone number and opening hours
• photos of the practice and its team
• reviews written by patients
• buttons to call, visit your website or get directions

Many people choose a dentist from that listing, often on a phone, before they reach your website. That is why every detail on it has to match your website.

Your practice does, always. We never ask to become the owner.

The owner adds Shoutout Digital as a manager from the practice’s own Google account, and our team works inside the profile with that access. Google’s policy for third parties says an agency needs the owner’s consent before it manages a profile, and must not guarantee placement.

Because the practice stays the owner:

• you can remove our access at any time, from your own account
• if you leave, the listing, its reviews, its photos and its history stay with you
• a past agency that still has access can be removed the same way

Before we get any access, you sign our onboarding form, and you keep the profile login throughout.

Google decides how a profile is verified, and someone at your practice does it, because it has to come from the business.

Google sometimes asks for a short video. It shows the practice from outside, its signage, and that you have access to the rooms. A person at the practice films it on a phone.

What our team does around it:

• tells you what Google asks to see before you start
• checks that the name, address and hours on the profile are right first, so the video matches them
• tells you when a step is waiting on Google and not on us

No. Google allows one profile for each real location, and a second profile for the same rooms risks suspension.

A duplicate often appears by accident: an old listing from before the practice moved, one created by a previous owner or agency, or one made for a single dentist. Practice owners name a suspended profile and a duplicate listing among their biggest worries on Google, so we check for duplicates early.

If you have several locations:

• each real location has its own profile
• each one has its own hours, phone number and photos
• each one is checked against your website on its own

Our team looks after each profile in the same way.

“Dentist” as the main category.

Specialist titles are protected under Ahpra rules, so a specialist category is only for a practice where a registered specialist works. Google’s list of categories is a menu, not permission.

Extra services and features, such as wheelchair access or languages spoken, go on only when you confirm they are true.

The description says who you are, where you are and what you offer, in plain words.

Google’s rules for the listing and Ahpra’s rules for health advertising both apply to it. What belongs:

• your practice name and suburb
• the services you actually offer
• things that help people choose, such as parking, accessibility or languages spoken, when they are true

What is not allowed:

• prices, or offers that end on a date
• a direct call to action such as “book now”
• clinical claims, testimonials or any promise of a result
• keywords stuffed into the name or the text

Not on the listing itself. Google keeps prices, time-limited promotions and calls to action such as “book now” out of it.

We do not write posts on your profile either, so offers never go on it through us. Your offers belong in your ads and on your website, where the terms can be written in full and your practice approves them first.

Ahpra’s rules say an ad that offers a gift or a discount must state its terms. Patients can still reach you from the listing through Google’s Call, Website and Directions buttons.

Yes. We add the booking link your practice already uses to the profile.

We do not set up booking systems. The link takes a person to your own booking page, and your team and your own system do the rest. We never book appointments for you and never see your appointment book.

You give us the link in the onboarding checklist, along with access, your practice facts and who approves changes. Before it goes live, we check that:

• it opens the right location, if you have more than one
• the booking page works well on a phone
• the hours on the booking page match the profile

Only if someone at the practice can answer quickly. Otherwise, turn it off.

Messages on the profile come from the public. What the practice writes back is its own communication, and Ahpra’s advertising rules still apply to it. A slow inbox looks worse than no inbox.

Our team does not answer patient messages. If you turn messaging on, decide first:

• who at the practice owns the inbox
• which hours it is watched
• that replies never give clinical advice or discuss anyone’s treatment

Whether messaging is on is your practice’s choice, and you can change it at any time from the profile.

Patients write reviews, and your practice decides whether to reply. Shoutout Digital does not reply to reviews, draft replies or ask patients for reviews.

Ahpra’s testimonial guidance says advertisers should take care if they engage with reviews on third-party websites, because that may count as using a testimonial to advertise a health service. Publishing only the positive reviews can also be misleading.

If your practice asks patients for reviews itself, Google’s rules and the Australian Consumer Law set firm limits:

• no payment, discount or free service in exchange for a review
• no asking only happy patients
• no staff targets for a set number of reviews
• never a fake review, and never leaving up one you know is fake

Photos of your rooms, your team and your building are safe. Photos of patients and clinical before-and-after images are not.

Real photos help people recognise the practice when they arrive. Good photos to add:

• the entrance and signage, so people can find you
• reception and the waiting room
• the surgeries
• the team, with each person’s permission
• parking, if you have it

Leave out patients and anything that shows another person’s medical information, which Google’s rules prohibit. We also leave out before-and-after images. That is our own rule, and Ahpra’s advertising guidelines say such images risk misleading people.

You send us the photos, and our team uploads them to the profile after checking each one against these rules.

Each month we report the calls, website clicks and direction requests that came from your profile.

What we will not claim is a position in the map results. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and its policy for third parties does not allow an agency to guarantee placement.

If a figure looks wrong, ask your account lead. A person replies within 1 business day.

Google Business Profile management is included from the Growth plan, $3,490 a month + GST.

It is not sold on its own. It is part of Growth and of Group, from $5,990 a month + GST. Foundation covers Google Ads and SEO and does not include the profile. The full comparison is on pricing.

The day-90 promise is on the Growth and Group plans: we work for free until we hit it. We agree a cost-per-enquiry target with you in week one. If it is missed at day 90, our management fee is free each month until the target is reached. Ad spend is not included.

• Plans are charged to a card, monthly in advance.
• You can leave with 30 days’ notice, with no exit fee.

Nothing changes for the profile, because your practice already owns it.

• You keep the listing, its reviews, its photos and its history.
• You keep owner access and the profile login. We are only ever a manager.
• We remove our manager access within 5 business days.
• Plans are month to month, with 30 days’ notice and no exit fee.

Before we go, we hand over a note of what we changed on the profile while we managed it, so whoever looks after it next does not start blind.

If you come back later, the owner simply adds us as a manager again.