Google Reviews for Doctors: Set Up Your Clinic Profile and Get More Reviews

When someone near your clinic needs a doctor, they usually search on Google and look at the map results first. What they see there is your Google Business Profile: your name, your timings, your photos and, above all, your Google reviews. Patients read those reviews before they call.

Google Business Profile used to be called Google My Business, and many doctors still search for it by that name. This guide is Google My Business for doctors, under its new name. It covers how to set up your clinic's profile, how to get more genuine Google reviews without breaking Google's rules, and how to reply to reviews without breaking patient confidentiality. There is also a short section for patients on how to write a helpful review, which you can share with them.

Set up your Google Business Profile

Setting up takes one sitting. Use a Google account that belongs to the clinic, not your personal one, so the profile stays with the clinic if staff change.

Step 1: Create or claim your profile

Go to google.com/business and search for your clinic's name. If it already shows up, someone (often a patient) has added it, and you can claim it. If not, choose "Add your business to Google" and enter your clinic's name exactly as it is written on your signboard.

Step 2: Choose the right category

Pick your specialty as the main category, such as Pediatrician, Dermatologist or General Practitioner, not just "Doctor" or "Medical Clinic". The category tells Google which searches to show you for. You can add a few secondary categories for other services you really offer.

Step 3: Add your location

Enter your full address and check that the pin on the map sits on your building's entrance. A wrong pin sends patients to the wrong lane. If you also do home visits, you can add the areas you cover.

Step 4: Add your phone number and website

Add the number your clinic answers during working hours, and your website address. The profile is a short preview. The website is where patients check your qualifications, services and how to book. If you do not have one yet, every Vaidya OS plan includes a free clinic website.

Step 5: Verify your clinic

Google has to confirm that your clinic is real before your profile goes fully live. Google decides which verification methods you get. Depending on your clinic, it may offer a video recording of your clinic, a phone call or text, an email, or a postcard with a code. Google recommends video verification when it is offered. Follow the method Google shows you. See Google's help page on verification.

Make your profile complete

A complete profile helps Google match you to the right searches, and it helps patients decide before they call.

• Services. List what you actually treat, in the words patients use: "child vaccination", "acne treatment", "diabetes check-up". Keep it the same as your services page.
• Timings. Enter your OPD hours for each day, and add special hours for holidays so nobody arrives to a locked door.
• Description. Two or three plain sentences: who the doctor is, what the clinic treats, and where it is. No "best", "top" or "guaranteed".
• Photos. Real photos of the entrance with the signboard, the waiting area, the consultation room and the doctor. They help patients know what to expect and find the door.
• Posts. Use Google posts for new timings, a holiday closure or a health camp. Do not put a phone number or offers in the post text. Use the Call button on your profile instead.

A note on questions and answers. Older guides tell you to fill in the Questions and answers section of your profile. Google switched off the tool businesses used to manage profile questions in November 2025 (see Google's change log), so do not plan around it. Put the answers patients need, such as parking, languages spoken or whether you see walk-ins, in your description, services and website.

How to get more Google reviews (for doctors)

Reviews help patients decide, and Google says more reviews and good ratings can help your local ranking (Google's local ranking tips). The way to get more of them is simple and a little boring: ask everyone, make it easy, and keep doing it.

Ask every patient, the same way

Do not choose whom to ask based on how you think the visit went. Asking only the patients who seem pleased, or checking first whether someone is happy and then sending only them to Google, is called review gating. Google's rules forbid it. The simplest safe habit is one sentence, said the same way to every patient at the end of the visit.

Make it easy

• Use the direct review link. Your Business Profile gives you a link that opens the review box straight away. Copy it from your profile.
• Put a QR code at the front desk. Turn the review link into a QR code on a small card at reception, so patients can scan it while they wait for the bill.
• Add one line to the receipt or prescription envelope. "Tell others about your visit on Google" with the QR code.

When to ask

Ask at checkout or the same day, while the visit is fresh. Ask in person first. A request from the doctor or the front desk, said face to face, feels personal. If you also send the link on WhatsApp, send it to every patient in the same way, and only to patients who agreed to hear from your clinic.

What to say

Say it to everyone. Do not add "if you were happy" or "if we helped you". Those words turn a fair request into a selective one.

What Google does not allow

Google's Maps user contributed content policy lists these under rating manipulation and conflicts of interest. For a clinic, that means:

• No selective asking. You cannot ask only the patients you expect to be happy, or filter unhappy patients away before they reach Google.
• No discouraging negative reviews. You cannot ask a patient not to post, or to take down, an honest review.
• No incentives. No discount, free visit, free test, gift or anything else in return for a review, even for "any review, good or bad".
• No reviews from inside. You, your staff, your family and anyone paid by the clinic should not review it. No reviews of competing clinics either.
• No bought or written-for-them reviews. Google says reviews should reflect a genuine experience. Do not buy reviews or hand patients ready-made text to paste.

Google says content that breaks these rules is removed from Maps, and it can also limit or suspend the accounts involved. Losing a batch of reviews overnight hurts far more than growing slowly.

Medical ethics add one more rule. The Indian Medical Council Regulations 2002 forbid doctors from boasting of cases, cures or remedies (regulation 6.1.1), so do not use your replies to reviews to advertise results.

How to reply to reviews

Reply to every review, good or bad. Replies are public, so write them for the next patient who reads them, not only for the reviewer.

• Thank the person for taking the time.
• Never confirm that the reviewer is your patient, and never mention a diagnosis, treatment or visit detail, even if they did. A doctor must not disclose a patient's secrets (IMC Regulations 2002, regulation 7.14).
• Take complaints offline. Give the clinic's contact route and invite them to talk.
• Stay calm and short. Do not argue in public, and do not promise results.

If a review breaks Google's rules, for example it is abusive or clearly from someone who never visited, you can report it from your profile. Google decides whether to remove it. Do not report a review only because it is negative.

For patients: how to write a helpful review of a doctor

If you are a patient reading this, thank you. An honest review helps the next family choose a doctor. Things other patients find useful:

• How long you waited, and whether the timings on Google were right.
• How clearly the doctor explained things, and whether your questions were answered.
• How the front desk and staff treated you.
• How clean the clinic was, and how easy it was to find and park.
• How easy it was to book or get a token.

Leave out your own health details. You do not need to share your diagnosis or medicines for a review to be useful. Keep it honest, including the parts that could be better.

For doctors: you can share this section's link with patients if you like. Do not hand patients ready-written text to paste or copy. A review has to be the patient's own experience in their own words, or Google treats it as fake.

Google Maps: why your clinic may not show

If your clinic does not appear on Google Maps for nearby searches, the usual causes are a profile that is not verified, the wrong main category, a map pin in the wrong place, or a clinic name, address and phone that differ between Google, your website and directories. Google says local results mainly depend on relevance, distance and prominence, meaning how well your profile matches the search, how close you are, and how well known your clinic is online. Fix the basics above first. For the full picture, see local SEO for doctors, and for competing with big hospitals, see how a small clinic can compete on Google.

Doctors and advertising rules on your profile

Your profile is public information about your clinic, so the medical ethics rules on advertising apply to it. Keep it factual: name, qualifications, specialty, services, timings and address. Avoid "best doctor", cure claims, before-and-after photos and patient testimonials in your description, photos and posts. For a plain-English reading of the rules, see Are doctors allowed to advertise in India?, or read the IMC Regulations 2002 on the NMC website. This is general information, not legal advice. If you are unsure, ask your State Medical Council.

Your profile and your website

The profile gets you seen. The website is where a patient checks who you are, what you treat and how to book, and it helps Google understand your clinic. Keep your clinic name, address, phone and timings exactly the same on both. For what the website needs and how the two work together, read local SEO for doctors.