Google Business Profile for mobile physios and allied health providers

Decide whether you are service-area or hybrid

Google treats a business that visits or delivers to clients, but does not see them at its own address, as a service-area business. If that is you, Google says to remove your address from the profile and set a service area instead. That also keeps a home address off the map.

If you also see clients at a clinic, you may be a hybrid business: you can show the clinic address and a service area. Google's guidelines say the location should be staffed by your team and able to receive clients during its stated hours, and that a business without permanent signage at its address should be listed as service-area instead. A virtual office or mail address is not eligible, and a co-working desk only qualifies if it has clear signage and is staffed and open to clients during business hours.

• Home visits only: hide the address and set a service area.
• Clinic plus home visits: show the clinic, add a service area.
• No virtual offices or mailbox addresses.

Set the service areas you really cover

Google lets you set up to 20 service areas, based on cities, postcodes or other areas. Its guidelines say the overall area should not usually extend farther than about two hours' driving time from where the business is based. Choose the suburbs and regions your clinicians actually travel to, and keep them consistent with the areas named on your website.

Setting a service area does not guarantee you will show in every suburb listed. Distance still matters, so a provider based in one part of a city will usually appear more often nearby than at the far edge of its list. Listing areas you rarely visit tends to bring enquiries you have to turn away, which wastes time for families and support coordinators.

Google notes that approved service area changes can take up to 48 hours to show, so change areas deliberately rather than every week.

Choose a practice profile, practitioner profiles or both

Google says a service-area business should have one profile for its central office or location with a service area. For most mobile practices, that means one profile for the practice. Do not create extra profiles for each suburb you visit, as duplicates break Google's rules and can be removed.

Google does allow individual practitioners to have their own profile when they are public-facing and can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours. A practitioner should not have several profiles for different specialties. If a solo practitioner is the only public-facing clinician of a branded practice, Google suggests sharing one profile named in the format brand: practitioner name. For a mobile team, one well-run practice profile is usually simpler and stronger than several thin ones.

Get the name, categories, services and hours right

Use your business name as it appears on your signage, invoices and branding, with no added suburbs or keywords such as "Mobile Physio Melbourne". Pick the primary category that best describes the main service, such as Physiotherapist or Occupational therapist, and add secondary categories only for services you genuinely provide.

List your services in plain language, including home visits, aged care visits, NDIS supports or telehealth if you offer them, and explain in the description who you see and where. Google's guidelines say businesses that operate only by appointment generally should not list opening hours, so check the current guidance against how you work before adding hours. If you add a booking or referral link, make sure it goes to a page that works on a phone.

• Business name with no extra keywords.
• The most accurate primary category.
• Services, funding and visit types described clearly.

Handle reviews within the rules

Reviews help with prominence, which Google lists alongside relevance and distance as a main factor in local results. Make asking for a review a routine step at the end of an episode of care, for every client or family, without offering anything in return. Google's review policy does not allow incentives such as discounts or free sessions, and does not allow businesses to selectively ask only happy clients for reviews.

Reply politely and never confirm that the reviewer is a client or mention their treatment. Physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychologists are registered with Ahpra, so the advertising guidelines on testimonials apply to how a practice uses reviews in its own advertising. Ahpra's guidance says practitioners are not responsible for reviews on platforms they do not control, but republishing reviews about clinical outcomes on your website or social media can breach the rules. Speech pathologists and exercise physiologists are not Ahpra-registered, but making careful, accurate claims is still the safe approach.

Connect the profile to your website and measure it

Link the profile to a website page that confirms your service areas, visit types, funding options and how to refer, so a family or support coordinator who taps through finds the same information. The profile's performance screen shows calls, website clicks and direction requests; record new clients by source too, so you can see whether the profile brings the referrals you want.

Google Business Profile management and weekly map-pack visibility scans are part of Seam Media's Growth and Complete Growth packages. Our allied health page explains how we look after Google profiles, websites and Google Ads for mobile physio, OT, speech and NDIS providers.