Did Google Just Change the Policy for Solo Practitioners?
Update: Google re-added these guidelines a couple weeks later (April 1, 2016)
Local SEOs rejoiced the day Google came up with the rule for solo-practitioners that indicated locations with only one public-facing professional could combine the listing for the organization and the practitioner.
As of today, I noticed this section completely vanished from the Google My Business guidelines. It’s been completely removed. I’m trying to get a statement from Google on why.
Here is what it said before:
Currently the page has absolutely no mention of solo practitioners or the fact that they should not have a separate page.
I’m praying this is a fluke and Google didn’t actually mean to remove this. More listings is often never what any business owner wants or needs (not to mention it’s often a ranking killer).
I’m very interested in this as well… I have several clients who need to know what Google’s suggested “best pratice” is.
Wow, that is a significant discovery on your part. Thank you for posting this, Joy. I look forward to any updates and will update any of my discoveries.
Yikes! That’s a significant change (if it IS a change) to the guidelines. Thanks so much for the heads up. I’ll be watching this closely to see what unfolds.
Hi Joy – thank you for sharing. So for a real estate office, 350 agents and 3 or 4 of us who prospect Via SEO – do you suggest that each agents sub page has that : In the header
Woah, that’s crazy! I just checked and it’s STILL missing!
Looks like they’ve added the missing section back – thankfully I don’t see any change in policy!
Hi Joy! This appears to have re-appeared.
https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177
Thanks Emily – it did return about a week after I wrote this.