Key takeaways:

  • Use the Google Business Profile (GBP) healthcare listing to make prominently display information such as your website URL, directions, phone numbers and business hours in search results.
  • Allow patients to leave reviews and ask questions on the listing — it provides a platform for feedback and direct engagement.
  • Make sure your GBP is up to date. It’s more important than ever because AI overviews will likely pull data directly from your GBP.

Does your hospital have a Google Business Profile healthcare listing? If you don’t know, you can find out by googling the name of your hospital. Google Business Profile listings appear in the box on the right-hand side of your screen when you search for a business name on Google.

Google Business Profile healthcare listings can include a complete business profile for your hospital or clinic — including photos, reviews and ratings, a brief description, a question-and-answer section, and location and contact information. The best part is that as long as you have a physical location, you can set one up completely free of charge.

Learn why it’s important for your hospital to optimize this tool and the best practices for your hospital to use when completing your Google Business Profile healthcare listing.

Keeping your listing up-to-date is essential. Here are the top reasons why your hospital should optimize your Google Business Profile listing:

1. It’s easier for patients to contact you

Your business profile can include your website URL, directions, phone numbers, business hours and more. Of course, people can also find this information on your website. But your listing conveniently places the most important information where it’s easy to find by simply googling your hospital’s name. And since nearly 60% of Google searches are zero-click, it’s more crucial than ever to provide accurate information in multiple places.

2. It can help your hospital’s SEO

Your optimized Google Business Profile listing builds up your local search reputation and gives your hospital more visibility. In other words, when you have a complete Google Business Profile listing for each of your locations, local patients are more likely to find your hospital when searching on Google. Those “near me” searches will be all yours!

You might be wondering, should every provider also have their own GBP?

This is a question we hear often. While there are some SEO advantages, our team typically advises against creating individual profiles for every provider. That’s because managing hundreds of provider profiles is a significant challenge in terms of governance and maintenance. Frequent updates to phone numbers, office locations and hours make it easy for information to become outdated and lead to a frustrating user experience. Plus, redundant or conflicting details across profiles can dilute your brand’s credibility. Finally, managing negative provider reviews across multiple profiles can be time-consuming and difficult to address effectively.

3. It gives patients, customers or clients the ability to review your organization and ask questions

Although online reviews can be a double-edged sword — with a mix of both positive and negative reviews — it’s important to have a place for your hospital’s visitors to provide honest feedback. This gives you a chance to reinforce what you’re doing well or address items that need improvement.


Not only that, Google Business Profile listings offer a question-and-answer section that allows you to engage directly with consumers. This Q and A feature is specifically beneficial to healthcare providers. Through it, you can build trust and engage with people in a more meaningful — not to mention visible — way. But keep in mind, you’ll need to designate someone to respond with accurate and timely answers, or the answers may come from one of Google’s “local guides” — who are not members of your organization.

Now that you have decided you would like to update your hospital’s Google Business Profile listing, it’s time to take action. To sign up, verify, or review and update your hospital’s listing, visit this Business Profile help page.

As you are completing your Google Business Profile healthcare listing, keep these tips in mind:

1. Make sure your profile is complete

Fill out each section offered — website, address, directions, phone number, photos and a short summary. The more information you provide, the more likely the potential patient will contact you. In fact, customers are 70% more likely to visit a business with a complete Google Business Profile.

Taking advantage of Google Posts is an easy way to keep the section updated, too. This feature allows you to showcase important information like events, virtual tours, new service lines, seasonal announcements and recent awards. While this feature often gets overlooked, it has the potential to make sure searchers can easily discover priority topics while keeping your profile fresh and relevant.

Screenshot of Seattle Children's Google Business Profile
Screenshot of Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Google Business Profile with Google Post updates.

2. Include any differentiating information

An effective Google Business Profile description includes as much information as possible — including services offered and any major nearby landmarks and intersections that will help people find your hospital. You’ll want to make sure the description is engaging and keyword-friendly while showcasing what makes your brand unique. Remember, profile listings only have a 750-character limit, so make each character count!

An example of a good Business Profile description would read something like this:
“City Hospital provides healthcare services to the Utopia community. We are located at the corner of Big Street and Long Street, just two miles east of the airport. We provide primary and pediatric services and have appointments available seven days a week.”

3. Keep the information up to date

Designate someone on your marketing team as the “owner” of your hospital’s Google Business Profile listing. This person should answer any questions in the Q and A section and make sure all information is up to date so patients can keep contacting you. That also means prioritizing updates for holidays, special hours or other changes. This is especially important for healthcare organizations because your users depend on you in crisis situations, so be sure they can trust the information you provide.

Remember, if you don’t update your Google Business Profile, Google could use AI to write it, which may cause discrepancies in what it should say.

There are examples of high-quality Google Business Profile healthcare listings available all over the internet. Let’s look at some from U.S. News and World Report’s 2024-2025 Honor Roll.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA

When you enter “Brigham and Women’s” in your Google search bar, you will see a profile listing that is completely filled out and also has received a lot of patient engagement. In fact, there are over 580 Google reviews and more than 110 questions and answers. The images selected are a helpful mix of photos from both inside and outside the hospital.

Screenshot of Brigham and Women's Google Business Profile
Screenshot of Brigham and Women’s Google Business Profile.



Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX

When you Google this medical center, you will find a complete profile that’s up-to-date and verified. There’s a lot of patient engagement — with almost 900 Google reviews and over 125 questions and answers. The hospital also includes details on how to easily access telemedicine on its profile.

Screenshot of Houston Methodist's Google Business Profile
Screenshot of Houston Methodist Hospital’s Google Business Profile


Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

The business profile description for this hospital is also filled out completely — even their religious affiliation — and has lots of patient engagement. There are more than 1,425 Google reviews and over 230 questions and answers.

Screenshot of Cedars-Sinai Google Business Profile.
Screenshot of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Google Business Profile.

WG Content has a team of healthcare content strategists and writers who can help you execute your GBP listing, so you don’t have to face your marketing goals alone. Learn more about location strategy at WG Content.

Editor’s note: This post was last updated on January 15, 2025. It was originally published in February 2022.

Follow-up questions to help improve your hospital’s Google Business Profile:

Always respond promptly to reviews. Acknowledge the reviewer’s experience and offer to take the conversation offline. Always be willing to learn from the feedback — make sure your team has a process in place to address negative reviews and fix problems if they exist. Learn more about how to approach positive and negative reviews.

Don’t be afraid to ask your patients. Provide links to your profile in follow-up emails or on your website to make it easier for patients to find the information. You can also display and share positive reviews in your hospital or on social media to draw attention to them and help encourage others to share their experiences. Prioritize these efforts sooner rather than later as generative search may make reviews even more important moving forward.

Regular updates are important. Of course, you should be responding to reviews and questions in real-time, but here are some more items to keep updated:

  • Basic contact information: Be sure to update any changes to hours, phone numbers, etc., immediately.
  • Photos and videos: Adding new photos helps keep your profile fresh. Aim to update photos and videos every few months.
  • Posts: You can use the “posts” feature to share news and updates. Aim to add posts once a month.

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