The Google Business Profile audit every practice should do

How a few minutes monthly can ensure your Google Business Profile works for you

The Google Business Profile felt finished. Maybe last fall, maybe two years ago. The hours were right, the photos were uploaded, the description was written. Nobody on staff has been back since.

That's the natural failure mode. Practice managers are stretched, the profile had been complete, and Google didn't send a reminder. But the profile keeps changing, whether anyone is watching or not. New patients post photos. Hours need a holiday update. Old reviews accumulate without responses. A "local guide" (or any Google user, often someone who lives nearby, who can contribute reviews, photos, and answers to a profile) answers a Q&A question that the practice never saw.

The business stakes are higher than they look at first. For local, provider-intent searches — "internist near me," "dermatologist in [city]" — Google routes patients through traditional local results, not AI summaries.¹ That matters because the Business Profile is what those results display: the map, the listing, the photos, the hours, the reviews. When someone searches for a new doctor in their area, the profile is what they see and judge — making it some of the most valuable real estate the practice manages. And the profile a prospective patient sees today might be one that was completed a year or two ago, with information that's quietly gone out of date.

A 2024 survey of more than 1,000 patients by rater8, a healthcare patient feedback platform, found that 84% of them check online reviews before choosing a new healthcare provider.² A profile with stale information shapes that decision before the practice even realizes the information is wrong.

Setting up a Business Profile in the first place is its own task, covered in a separate blogpost. But once it's claimed and complete, keeping it current is a five-minute monthly habit. Just six checks, ideally tied to another task the practice already does every month.

Why a profile drifts

Google says it plainly in its own documentation: Business Profile information is compiled from publicly available web content, licensed third-party data, user contributions, and owners who claim profiles.³ That sourcing doesn't stop after a practice claims its listing. It continues.

What that informational drift looks like in a practice's actual life:

• Hours change: A new front-desk policy moves the lunch break.
• Services evolve: Telehealth was added; the profile doesn't say.
• Patients edit: Someone adds a photo of the parking lot. Someone else marks the practice "permanently closed" by accident.
• Holidays roll around: Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, the day after Christmas. Google identifies when a practice updates these and when it doesn't.

Drift is the default. Maintenance is the exception. The audit closes that gap.

Why monthly, why five minutes

A 2026 consumer review survey found that 74% of those surveyed cared only about reviews written in the previous three months.⁴ The timeframe in which a profile actually shapes patient decisions is short, and monthly is the cadence that matches it.

Five minutes is enough to spot drift, especially when the audit is tied to a workflow your practice already has in motion: billing close, end-of-month team huddle, the first Monday of the month. Audits that float on the calendar don't get done. The ones attached to a recurring task do.

The six checks

Each check follows the same structure: what to look at, what good looks like, what's worth fixing in the moment and what should be flagged for later.

1. Business info

The basics: practice name, address, and phone number — sometimes called "NAP". Open the profile and confirm all three match the website and the front-door signage exactly. "Suite 200" and "Ste 200" can read as different addresses to Google. A 30-second check; almost never needs fixing, but when it drifts, it drifts quietly.

2. Hours

Look at regular hours first. Then look ahead: Are there any holidays in the next 30 days? Add it now. A practice that updates its hours for upcoming holidays signals to patients that the profile is current. The "open now" search a prospective patient runs at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday only works if the hours are accurate.

3. Photos

Scroll the photos. Two questions:

• Are any of them outdated (renovated waiting room, retired clinician, old signage)?
• Has anyone added photos the practice didn't upload?

Flag anything misleading and report anything inappropriate. Add one new photo if nothing's changed in 90 days. Even swapping an existing image for an updated version can help. Google uses photo recency as a signal of an active business.

4. Services and categories

Confirm the primary category still fits. For example, if the practice has added a telehealth service, make sure it's listed. Services can influence how the profile appears in relevant local searches, and services that aren't listed may prevent the practice from appearing.

5. Recent reviews

Filter to the last 30 days. Read each one. Has every review received a response? A short, privacy-safe acknowledgment signals to prospective patients, and to Google, that someone is paying attention. Negative reviews, in particular, benefit from a calm, professional reply that invites the conversation offline.

And pay attention to this: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) includes privacy requirements that practices should keep in mind when responding to reviews. Online review responses are a documented enforcement area for the U.S. Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR). They have imposed fines ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 on practices that disclosed patient information in review responses.⁵

Reviews older than 30 days may need attention, but they can require more time to route internally and create privacy-safe responses. Start with the past 30 days first.

6. Q&A

Anyone with a Google account can post and answer questions on a practice's profile, including people who have never been a patient. Scan the Q&A for unanswered questions, and look for answers that are incomplete or incorrect. Practice staff can post a clear, accurate answer from the practice and check back periodically to make sure outdated or incorrect answers are not creating confusion.

When you find a gap

The rule: Fix it in the moment, if it takes under a minute. Add a holiday hour, respond to a single review, or correct a Q&A answer. These are 30-second tasks that can easily be done inside an audit.

For anything bigger — a renovation that calls for a full photo refresh, a category change with downstream implications, a wave of negative reviews — note the issue and schedule time for your team to address it. The audit's job is to surface gaps, not fix everything in one sitting. That bounded scope is what makes the habit manageable and sustainable.

What's next, beyond the audit

The monthly audit helps keep the profile current. Over time, the next opportunity is building a stronger review strategy — one that helps patients see how the practice listens, responds, and earns trust.

See how reviews can help build patient trust.