Google Medical Practice/Doctor Listings: Citations & Duplicates

[thewebtheorist]

Hey everyone,

I've been reviewing and referencing this forum for some time and have found it to be a valuable source for information, thanks!

As you know, Google has stated that it will not consider Medical Practice and Doctor listings as duplicates. For example, there can be listings for "Acme Plastic Surgery" and for "Dr. Wile E. Cayote" using the same Address + Phone# and it will not be considered duplicates. One of my questions about this is whether the Doctor listing has to have the practice in the name i.e. "Acme Plastic Surgery: Dr. Wile E. Cayote" or if that is not necessary (Assuming Google can detect the "Dr" in Doctor listing and see that it's using the same information as the practice, therefore categorizing it as a Doctor listing for that practice.

Secondly, if Dr. Cayote wants patients to review his Dr. listing, and wants that one to rank locally for keywords then wouldn't the citations moving forward need to use the Doctor (N)AP, rather than the Practice (N)AP? Would these not be considered duplicates on other sites outside of Google Places, such as SuperPages, YellowPages, Yahoo, Bing and so on?

Appreciate your input and thoughts, thank you!

Resources:
Duplicates: https://support.google.com/mapmaker/answer/1731387

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi thewebtheorist and thanks for posting.

Super short on time. Big webinar coming up today and no time to post.

But no DON'T add practice name to Dr names for multiple reasons.

Google will no longer remove practitioner listings and it can cause you to lose reviews as well as ranking if you do it wrong.

I wrote up a strategy for dealing with the ranking problem below. All the consultants that have tried it tell me it works well.

Read both in detail BOTTOM ONE 1st.

Search Results practitioner duplicates - Google Places Optimization Blog

 

[Gayle Katz]

Hi Linda - Hope you're doing well!

I read the posts you mentioned in your post above. With all the changes that have happened with Google, do you think this is still the right strategy to pursue? Just wanted to check in.

Also, you mention this issue for doctors, dentists and lawyers, but do you think this also applies to other fields, such as an insurance agent within an agency or an individual insurance adjuster within an insurance adjuster group?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Gayle,

Yep to both.

Think it's still a good strategy plus yes it works for Realtors and insurance agents in the same office.

 

[rosshouser]

Linda I seen your post and just had to share this with you and the group..

https://www.google.com/webhp?source...nfectious disease doctors in colorado springs

All locations have the same exact phone number and address and all locations have the same name also... They take up the WHOLE pack in listings as well i can not see how this in anyway is is adding quality to the Google maps and is not pure spam I mean how many doctors specialize in the exact same field and share a office and phone number

Also I actually did some research and looked into the Doctors that claim to be Infectious disease specialists mainly because I do advertising for national medical companies and when I searched for Board certified doctors and I mean every single doctor that claims in the link above ... Not one is even board certified or a specialist in infectious disease's.

I have a medical background and actually have specialized in Infectious disease testing and counseling for people that actually need help when they test positive for incurable disease's for over 14 years!
This is just sick that someone can spam Google maps for profit like this some thing that by law is highly illegal and Google allows it. I hope that if someone is in need of real actually board certified specialists and or Physicians that they would look at this and think twice but unfortunately know better and people will call just because there is no other options but these spammers in that area except organics.. ...

EXAMPLE .. Also I contacted the board by emailing them at certificationmatters@abms.org
They have not even heard or have any license's for any infectious disease specialist in that area..
Sorry to rant like these but people that test positive or need to seek professional advice, deserve way better than this most people are scared enough for recently being diagnosed for a STD or STI...



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[HurricaneK8]

rosshouser ,

That's a wild one! I dont even see a website listed. I also see under reviews "People talk about internal medicine, university school of medicine, gates jr and pediatric" but then when I click on "Reviews from Around the Web" there is no reviews... just an empty list.

And the citysearch result is for another doctor.

The review on Jesse Hoffman from Mike W says "Wonderful doctor. Thanks so much. Scott".... so I'd say thats a fake.

Have you tried posting about this in the Google Business Forum? Maybe it will be picked up by a higher up.... I wish I could say I've never seen it before, but we see it in Canada all the time with "Listings distributed by Yellowpages" results :/ Very annoying.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Weird one Ross.

At 1st I thought spam/hijacking or something...

But I called the number and it sounds like a medical office. And the auto attendant answered with that same name. The phone tree was like: Press 1 for billing, press # if you know the extension, press 3 for an appointment.

Are you sure these are not all just different Drs at the same clinic?

Thomas A. Hackenberg, MD keeps coming up in other citations and I think he may be the owner/main Dr???

One observation is that pre-Pigeon, one practice would not get all those listings. Google would not show the same business/location over and over like that.

 

[HurricaneK8]

I also thought pigeon was to be using more organic search factors-- this breaks that theory, as there's not even a website listed!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Joy mentioned in my latest Pigeon post - the one about the datacenters...

That she's seeing age of G+ L listing being a Pigeon ranking factor.

And I told her that makes sense in the case of these listings that are ranking high with no site. If it's a mature business that's been around for years so Google scraped and created the G+ L listing years ago - then it may have increased trust in the listing.

 

[rosshouser]

OK so I asked my doctors group to look into the doctors that are listed, we used there NPIN number which is given to every doctor in the United States and they are in fact infectious disease doctors, However they all do not have physical offices in the address that they claim. Actually they are part of a national group Named ''Infectious Disease Doctors Inc.'' which markets and lists specialist across the US.

I also called and spoke to the marketing specialist/Director at that location and she confirmed that they let doctors in the area use there location for advertising to help she called it aid in finding a specialist in the area and that the doctors are only there when scheduled to meet a patient.... Which is totally strange because I called just minutes before and spoke to the receptionist and she said that they had infectious disease specialists that could see me today?? (I do not have any STD's I was just trying to get info lol...)

It seams to me that some doctors are clearly taking advantage of Google's new rules towards Physicians and that by not actually having a physical office at the location they claim would be a clear violation. I mean if they do in fact have all the doctors they claim to have office's in that small building that they claim to be at, then they would not have room for any patients yet alone 16 doctors all together that claim to be there... that is more doctors in one ridiculously small building them most urgent care locations have and more than most Hospitals have at a given time...

 

[HurricaneK8]

The first note for them in Mapmaker is Sept 1, 2012 for almost all of them, so I do think they have been around for a while. The next doctor on page 2 of the maps results (Bonwell Lisa M MD) also has the same MapMaker date for edits/syncing though, so it's hard to tell when they were created.

This practice of listing doctors at an office they don't reside at is clearly a violation of Google's guidelines. I would post in the Google Business Forum, and maybe even the MapMaker forum so it can get some traction with the GLE's. There's some GLE's in there who Google trusts to make changes. If they hear the story, they might be able to mark the listings for deletion & explain whats going on to Google LE's who can make the final deletions.

Wish I could be of more help :/ We have free healthcare/testing/treatment here in Canada though so I've never had to deal with doctors listings quite like this! Doesn't really happen with dentists Also *knock on wood* no pigeon here yet, so I haven't really been following that closely.