Physical Therapy Local SEO Checklist for Clinics

Google Business Profile listing checklist

• Business name exactly as on door
• Primary category describes the practice
• Address, service area, phone correct
• Hours updated the day they change
• Services match board-permitted wording
• Booking path works and shows slots
• Photos of premises, no patients

• Business name exactly as it appears on the door and on the state board's records, with no added keywords.
• Google Business Profile primary category set to “Physical therapist” if available; secondary categories used only for services actually delivered.
• Address, service area and phone correct, and the phone answered or returned within the practice's stated time.
• Hours correct, including holiday changes, updated the day they change.
• Services listed by the specific care types the practice delivers, using descriptions permitted by the board's advertising rules and making no outcome claims.
• A booking path that works: a phone, a form that someone reads the same day, or an online scheduler that shows real evaluation slots.
• Photos of the premises, the entrance and the treatment areas, with no patients in them and no identifiable records visible.
• Accessibility details for the entrance, parking and restroom stated accurately, because a patient who arrives and cannot get in is a complaint and a compliance question.
• Questions on the profile answered within a stated time, without any answer that discusses a person's care.

• Claim and monitor the practice's profiles on Google Business Profile, Yelp, Healthgrades, Vitals and Facebook. Manage the practice's Apple Maps presence through Apple Business Connect and its Bing presence through Bing Places.
• Use the same neutral review-request process for every patient after a defined point in care. Follow the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule (16 CFR Part 465) and Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255): do not condition incentives on positive reviews, select patients based on satisfaction or suppress unfavorable reviews.
• Use a response template, approved by the compliance adviser, that thanks the reviewer, invites direct contact, and never confirms the person was a patient or mentions any detail of care.
• Answer reviews within a stated time using that template, with unfavorable reviews first.
• Read reviews weekly as a quality signal and route any complaint through the complaint process.

• Create one page per location with the same name, address, phone and hours as the Google Business Profile, and directions that mention the entrance and parking.
• Create one page per service line, describing what the visit involves, who delivers it and what it costs where a cash fee applies, with no promised outcome and no comparison that cannot be substantiated.
• Add LocalBusiness structured data (Schema.org) to each location page, using accurate business name, address, telephone, hours and URL that match the visible page.
• Create clinician pages that name only credentials and specialties currently held, checked against the state board's public records.
• Add a page that explains what happens on a first visit, the cancellation policy in the words on the intake script, and what to bring.
• Use any testimonial only with written consent, compliance adviser approval and compliance with the board's advertising rules on testimonials.
• Make the site usable on a phone and readable with assistive technology, because many self-referred patients arrive from one, and accessibility of the site is part of the accessibility question the compliance file already holds.
• Keep a website privacy notice accurate to the data the site collects, including form data and analytics. For a HIPAA-covered practice, provide the Notice of Privacy Practices required by the HIPAA Privacy Rule (45 CFR § 164.520); if the practice website provides information about its services, prominently post the notice there. Do not send patient-identifiable or protected health information to analytics tools.

• Keep NAP (name, address and phone) consistent across Google Business Profile, the website, payer directories, the state board's public record and other directories where the practice appears.
• Build and maintain local citations by claiming and correcting the practice's listings on Yelp, Healthgrades, Vitals, Facebook, Bing Places and Apple Business Connect, as well as relevant payer directories.
• Remove or correct old locations, old phone numbers and closed listings, because a directory that sends a patient to a former address is a lost evaluation.
• Check payer directory entries each quarter, since patients in-network find the practice there before they find it anywhere else.

• Use Google Business Profile's Performance report to review profile interactions, including calls, website clicks and direction requests.
• Use Google Search Console to review Google search impressions, clicks, queries and pages, and Google Analytics 4 to measure website activity and configured conversion events.
• Track calls answered, forms completed, inquiries followed up and evaluation appointments booked. Compare inquiries with booked evaluations so local search is measured by its contribution to the schedule, not just visibility.
• Review the results on the practice's compliance calendar, and confirm that measurement tools do not receive patient-identifiable or protected health information.