{"id":117339,"date":"2019-10-15T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/why-financial-advisors-should-have-practitioner-listings-on-gmb\/"},"modified":"2024-12-20T09:23:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T14:23:10","slug":"why-financial-advisors-should-have-practitioner-listings-on-gmb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-ca\/insights\/blog\/local-search\/why-financial-advisors-should-have-practitioner-listings-on-gmb\/","title":{"rendered":"Why financial advisors should have practitioner listings on GMB"},"content":{"rendered":"

While customers often visit a business for the business itself, there are many instances in which the customer is not invested in the brand but rather an individual working within it. For businesses like doctor\u2019s offices and law firms, clients are largely the individual practitioner\u2019s customer base rather than the office\u2019s.<\/p>\n

While it may seem that Google My Business<\/a> is dedicated to brands and enterprises, the platform offers significant support to promote an individual practitioner of any profession. With niche websites being created to showcase local real estate agents, contractors, and doctors, it was only a matter of time until Google picked up on this need and offered the same service within their platform. Practitioners in all fields\u2014and financial advisors in particular\u2014should take advantage of this and use GMB to help sell their services. Here’s why.<\/p>\n

The case for displaying individual listings<\/h2>\n

From a bank\u2019s perspective, displaying their individual advisors\u2019 listings on Google and other websites will provide more exposure for both the practitioner and the bank itself. More listings are always better, as each one could be the listing that ranks for a user\u2019s search. It also gives enterprise-level banks a chance to rank on websites that show individual advisors rather than general financial institutions.<\/p>\n

Individual advisor listings are also categorized differently on Google and other platforms. This gives your brand a far better chance to rank on not only searches for \u201cbank\u201d and your brand name but for searches such as \u201cstock broker\u201d and \u201cmortgage information.\u201d There is a benefit not only for overlapping search terms between your branch and its financial advisors but also for long-tail keywords and categories that only your advisors would fill.<\/p>\n

\"Practitioner<\/p>\n

In recent months, Google has also made the problems of dealing with multi-practitioner listings less taxing. Practitioners previously were tied to the office address in which they worked, which caused issues if the advisor retired, moved, or otherwise was no longer working at that location. Now it\u2019s a simple address change if the practitioner changes locations\u2014and it\u2019s possible to close the practitioner\u2019s listing without it having any effect on the listing for the office they worked within.<\/p>\n

Creating a practitioner listing<\/h2>\n

There are three types of practitioner listings that can be relevant when creating them on Google: either multiple practitioners at a single location, a single practitioner who represents the brand at that location, or a fully independent individual.<\/p>\n

For multi-practitioner businesses, there are two caveats for creating individual practitioner listings on Google My Business:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The organization should create a listing for this location, separate from that of the practitioner.<\/li>\n
  2. The title of the listing for the practitioner should include only the name of the practitioner, and not the name of the organization.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are also three requirements for an individual practitioner:<\/p>\n

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    1. He or she operates in a public-facing role. Support staff should not create their own listings.<\/li>\n
    2. He or she is directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours.<\/li>\n
    3. A practitioner should not have multiple listings to cover all of his or her specializations.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      There is, however, a difference if the practitioner is independent or if he or she is the only public-facing practitioner at a location and represents a branded organization. A financial advisor that represents their bank has the advantage of being able to include the name of the brand along with their own information. The format Google prefers is: [Brand\/Company]: [Practitioner Name]. For example, \u201cDAC: Zoran Dobrijevic\u201d.<\/p>\n

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