The short answer
For a dental group of about 3 to 50 or more offices, keep one provider roster and let that sheet feed the website, the booking links, and any practitioner profiles. Each row names the person, the office or offices, the days, the services, the booking link, and a status of active, moved, or left. Put provider pages under the office or under a group path such as /dentists/, and write the choice down. When someone moves, update the row and use a permanent redirect only for a URL that will not come back. When someone leaves and no page replaces them, return 404 or 410. A thin 200 notice, or a redirect to the homepage, is the soft 404 pattern. A practitioner profile is a separate Business Profile.
It fits when that person is public-facing and patients can contact them at the verified location during the stated hours. The office keeps its own profile. Office-page markup is Dentist or another LocalBusiness subtype for the office. The provider's name and days stay in the visible text. None of the source pages below publish a ranking bonus for one URL pattern, a required count of dentist profiles, or a turnaround for a roster edit.
This guide is for a marketing lead at a dental group whose associate dentists and hygienists join, split time across offices, or leave. It covers the roster, the URL choice, and the profile rules. Ask counsel before a contract treats the roster as an employment file. A single office can start with marketing when a dentist leaves or joins and setting up a dental Business Profile. The map of the other group jobs is marketing a multi-location practice or DSO. The office URL itself is in multi-office location pages.
One provider roster
The roster is the only list that is allowed to say where a person works. The website, the booking link, and the profile copy from it. Three offices and fifty offices use the same columns. A larger group has more rows. It does not get a second list for "the website team" and a third list for "the profile team."
Who
A public label such as Doctor A or an associate dentist. The row does not hold a patient name, an email, a phone number, or a chart id.
Role
Associate dentist, hygienist, or another clinician the public page names. The role is how you decide whether a practitioner profile is even a candidate. It is not an employment classification.
Office or offices
Every door where patients can reach this person, spelled the same way as that door's location page.
Days
The days at each office. Monday at Oak and Thursday at Pine are two lines. One blended week hides the door.
Services
Treatments this person performs at those offices. A service the office offers, and this person does not perform, stays off the row.
Booking link
The scheduler URL for the office on that line. A group link that never names the office does not fill this cell.
Status
Active, moved, or left. Moved names the new office. Left records that the public page should stop offering this person. No clinical note.
Public URL
The provider page, when one exists, and the office URL already used in that office profile's website field.
| Field | What the cell holds |
|---|---|
| Who | A public label such as Doctor A or an associate dentist. The row does not hold a patient name, an email, a phone number, or a chart id. |
| Role | Associate dentist, hygienist, or another clinician the public page names. The role is how you decide whether a practitioner profile is even a candidate. It is not an employment classification. |
| Office or offices | Every door where patients can reach this person, spelled the same way as that door's location page. |
| Days | The days at each office. Monday at Oak and Thursday at Pine are two lines. One blended week hides the door. |
| Services | Treatments this person performs at those offices. A service the office offers, and this person does not perform, stays off the row. |
| Booking link | The scheduler URL for the office on that line. A group link that never names the office does not fill this cell. |
| Status | Active, moved, or left. Moved names the new office. Left records that the public page should stop offering this person. No clinical note. |
| Public URL | The provider page, when one exists, and the office URL already used in that office profile's website field. |
Add a row when someone joins, before the bio goes live. Change days when someone rotates, before the profile hours change. Set the status to moved or left before you delete a URL. If the sheet and the page disagree, fix the sheet first, then publish. Patient names do not belong on this sheet. The public label is Doctor A, an associate dentist, or a hygienist.
URL patterns
Google's URL structure guidance asks for a simple structure people can read: descriptive words rather than long ID numbers, words your audience uses, and hyphens between words rather than underscores. It does not score /locations/oak/doctor-a above /dentists/doctor-a, or the reverse. Pick one pattern and keep it. A mix is allowed only when the roster says which people use which pattern.
Under the office
/locations/oak/doctor-a
When it fits
The page is one person at one door. Days, services, and the booking link are that door's. The URL sits beside the location page patients already use.
Tradeoff
Two offices means two URLs, or the page is no longer under one office. When the person leaves that door, this URL changes or ends, and the redirect log needs a row.
Under the group
/dentists/doctor-a
When it fits
One URL lists every office and the days. An internal move updates the list. The address can stay put, so there is no redirect for the move itself.
Tradeoff
This URL is the provider page. It does not replace the office page. The office profile's website field stays the office URL. A page that only repeats the office address is a thin duplicate of the location page.
| Pattern | When it fits | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Under the office/locations/oak/doctor-a | The page is one person at one door. Days, services, and the booking link are that door's. The URL sits beside the location page patients already use. | Two offices means two URLs, or the page is no longer under one office. When the person leaves that door, this URL changes or ends, and the redirect log needs a row. |
| Under the group/dentists/doctor-a | One URL lists every office and the days. An internal move updates the list. The address can stay put, so there is no redirect for the move itself. | This URL is the provider page. It does not replace the office page. The office profile's website field stays the office URL. A page that only repeats the office address is a thin duplicate of the location page. |
The office page still exists in either pattern. Its job is the door: address, hours, phone, and the list of who is there this week. How that page is built is the location-page guide. A provider page that copies the office page and swaps the name is the duplicate you can avoid by keeping services and days that are actually this person's. Job openings stay on a careers page, separate from this provider page and from the office page, as described in careers pages and job markup.
Moves, departures, and the page
Three statuses, three page actions. Google's redirect documentation says a permanent redirect tells Google to show the target, and a temporary redirect tells Google to keep showing the source. Use a permanent redirect when you are sure the old address will not come back. A 301 and a 308 are both permanent. Server-side redirects are the kind Google is most likely to interpret as you intend. Use a script redirect only when you cannot do a server-side or meta refresh redirect. The same page names removal of a page, and a wish to send people to a new page, as reasons to redirect.
Active, same offices
Provider page
Edit days, services, and the booking link on the URL you already published. Leave the address alone.
Profiles
Edit the hours so they match the days patients can reach this person at the verified location. A second profile for a second specialty is the pattern the practitioner rules tell you to skip.
Moved inside the group
Provider page
On an office-level URL, publish the new address and send the old one to it with a permanent server-side redirect. On a /dentists/ URL that still describes this person, update the office list and skip the redirect.
Profiles
Hours at the old door have to stop claiming this person is there. Edit the address when that same profile should follow them. If patients can no longer reach them at the old verified location, mark that profile closed. Read the rebranding rules before you rename a shared brand-and-practitioner profile.
Left the group
Provider page
A real successor page, usually the office page, gets a permanent server-side redirect. No successor means 404 or 410. A 200 page that only says they left matches the soft-404 pattern. Keep a short notice only when it still names who sees patients and where to book.
Profiles
The profile is for someone patients can contact at the verified location during the stated hours. When that stops, mark the practitioner profile permanently closed. Leave the office profile open. Do not copy reviews onto another profile.
| Status | Provider page | Profiles |
|---|---|---|
| Active, same offices | Edit days, services, and the booking link on the URL you already published. Leave the address alone. | Edit the hours so they match the days patients can reach this person at the verified location. A second profile for a second specialty is the pattern the practitioner rules tell you to skip. |
| Moved inside the group | On an office-level URL, publish the new address and send the old one to it with a permanent server-side redirect. On a /dentists/ URL that still describes this person, update the office list and skip the redirect. | Hours at the old door have to stop claiming this person is there. Edit the address when that same profile should follow them. If patients can no longer reach them at the old verified location, mark that profile closed. Read the rebranding rules before you rename a shared brand-and-practitioner profile. |
| Left the group | A real successor page, usually the office page, gets a permanent server-side redirect. No successor means 404 or 410. A 200 page that only says they left matches the soft-404 pattern. Keep a short notice only when it still names who sees patients and where to book. | The profile is for someone patients can contact at the verified location during the stated hours. When that stops, mark the practitioner profile permanently closed. Leave the office profile open. Do not copy reviews onto another profile. |
Search Console's 404 guidance says a deleted page with no replacement should return 404. It says Google currently treats 410 the same as 404. It also says that returning a code other than 404 or 410 for a page that does not exist, or redirecting people to another page such as the homepage, can be a problem. It calls those soft 404s. The HTTP status documentation describes the same report for a 2xx response whose content suggests an error, an empty page, or an error message. A 200 page that only says "Doctor A has left" is that shape. A short notice earns its 200 when a visitor can still learn who sees patients at that office and can follow a working booking link. If the notice cannot do that job, use 404 or 410.
Keep the redirect log with the roster. Each retired URL is one row: the old address, the destination, and the status code you expect. Request the old URL after launch and confirm a permanent server-side response. Do not send a stack of unrelated provider URLs to one office homepage and call it a cleanup. The log is a deliverable the group keeps if the firm changes. Account ownership for that handoff is in switching a dental marketing agency.
Practitioner profiles and office profiles
Google's representation guidelines describe an individual practitioner as a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base. Doctors and dentists are in the examples, along with lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents. A practitioner profile may include a title or a degree. The examples on the page are Dr., MD, JD, Esq., and CFA.
The same section says a practitioner should create a dedicated profile when both of these are true: they operate in a public-facing role, and they can be contacted directly at the verified location during the stated hours. Support staff should not create their own profiles. A practitioner should not have several profiles to cover every specialization. Sales associates and lead-generation agents are not eligible.
- Several public-facing practitioners at one office. The organization creates a Business Profile for the location, separate from the practitioner. The practitioner profile's name is only that person's name. It does not include the organization.
- One public-facing practitioner at a branded office. The guidelines say that practitioner should share one profile with the organization, named as the brand or company, a colon, then the practitioner name.
- A hygienist. Hygienists are not in the examples. Apply the two tests. A public bio on the website can exist either way. A Business Profile waits until both tests are true. Do not create one for the front desk.
The guidelines do not publish a separate button labeled for a practitioner who left. They do publish the contact test, and a closed status for a business or a location that closes. Permanently closed profiles can still appear when someone searches the name, and they show that the business is closed. Temporarily closed is the status for a closure longer than 7 days, an off-season closure, or an indefinite closure. A closure of 7 days or less uses special hours. Google notes that, for broad queries, temporarily closed businesses can rank after open businesses, and that this depends on the category, the query, and how many matching businesses are temporarily closed. A normal day off is special hours, not a temporary close of the whole profile.
If the person will practice at a different office and that same profile should follow them, edit the address. Google's address help is the edit path, and it says profile changes usually appear in about 10 minutes, with some edits taking up to 30 days.
If the shared profile is named "brand: practitioner" and the practitioner's name is the part that changed, read the rebranding section of the representation guidelines before you save. A minor name change that keeps the proper nouns, the services described in the name, and the category can be an edit. A name change that does not meet that test is treated as a new business: mark the existing profile closed, then create a new one. Swapping the person's name changes a proper noun. Confirm the live section before you assume the old listing can absorb the new name.
Who may do the work is in the eligibility and ownership guidelines. Only an owner or an authorized representative may verify and manage the profile. An authorized representative includes a marketing firm and a scheduling or booking provider. They need express consent from the owner, they work with the owner on verification, and they transfer ownership to the owner when asked. The phone number and the website on the profile should be the single authoritative ones for that business, and the owner should be able to verify them. A firm that created the profile still does not replace the group's owner. Day-to-day roles for a group with many office profiles are in profile governance.
Reviews stay on the profile where they were written. The Maps content policy says a contribution should reflect a genuine experience at a place, and that you post about a specific location. It prohibits fake engagement, incentives for a review, and requests that a review include specific content such as a staff member's name. Copying reviews from Doctor A's profile onto the office, or onto the next associate, fails that rule. Flag a review that breaks the policy. Do not rebuild it on a different listing.
Structured data
Google's local business documentation says to define each location as a LocalBusiness type, using the most specific subtype you can. The required properties are the business address and the business name. Recommended properties include the phone, the URL of that location, and opening hours. Dentist is a LocalBusiness subtype (it also sits under MedicalBusiness and MedicalOrganization). Use it on the office page, with the office name and the office address, matching the visible page and the office profile.
Provider details belong in the sentences a visitor can read: the name, the days, the services, and the booking link. Do not add a Person JSON-LD block for an associate dentist or a hygienist. Do not add employee or founder. The Person node in Google's restaurant sample is the author of a review, and that page limits review and aggregate-rating markup to sites that capture reviews about other businesses. A dental office marking up its own clinicians, or its own reviews, is outside that sample. The longer schema walkthrough is schema markup for practice search results.
One office, one block. Do not put every door's address inside one Dentist node on the group homepage, and do not put a provider page's Dentist node on the person's home address. If a provider page needs any local-business markup, the name and address are the office where that page says they see patients, and the URL is a working link. Two offices on one row means the roster, not two addresses stuffed into one node.
Booking links and location assets
Google's local business links help says a profile can include up to 10 links in a category such as booking an appointment, and that you can mark one of them Business preferred. Put the scheduler for that office on that office's profile. A practitioner profile, when one exists, gets the booking link for the location and the hours on that profile. A single group URL that drops the visitor on a chooser with no office selected is a follow-up question, not the preferred link, until you have checked where it lands.
Some booking links appear because a third-party partner added them. The same help page says you cannot delete those booking or reservation providers from the profile settings. You contact the provider, using their opt-out path. Google says the provider has to process that request within 5 business days. If the link is still there after that, you report it. Remove a partner the office does not use. An outdated button sends a ready patient to the wrong book.
Location assets can show a store address, a map, or distance, and a details view with hours, phone, and photos. The data comes from Maps and the Business Profile. Linking the profile lets Ads use the profile's street address, phone, hours, and photos. If you mark a business or a location temporarily or permanently closed, location assets for that location do not show. Closing a practitioner profile stops assets for that profile. It does not mark the office closed, and it does not require a new campaign. How budgets stay attached to an office is in DSO Google Ads budgets and call attribution.
Red flags
These are operations checks. They do not name or rank any firm.
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1. Bios are edited from memory.
There is no roster, or the roster and the live page disagree about the office or the day. The page, the booking link, and the profile are then three stories.
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2. Every departed provider redirects to the homepage.
Search Console's 404 guidance says returning something other than 404 or 410 for a page that does not exist, or redirecting people to another page such as the homepage, can be a soft 404. A successor page is a specific office or provider URL. The homepage is the pile.
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3. Reviews are moved onto the next profile.
Maps policy says a review should reflect a genuine experience at that place, and that contributions are about a specific location. Copying Oak's reviews onto Pine, or onto the next associate, is not an experience at the destination. Asking patients to name a staff member in a review is also on the prohibited list.
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4. A profile stays open after the roster says left.
The practitioner rules require a public-facing role and direct contact at the verified location during the stated hours. A profile that still shows open hours for someone who has left fails the second test. The office profile is a different listing and stays.
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5. Staff profiles for people patients do not book.
The same rules say support staff should not create their own Business Profiles. A hygienist is not in Google's examples. Create a profile only when the public-facing test and the contact-at-this-location test are both true. A website bio can exist either way.
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6. Each dentist is a Person block in the page code.
Google's local business documentation defines each location as a LocalBusiness type and requires the business address and the business name. The Person node in its restaurant sample is the author of a review, and review markup on that page is for sites that collect reviews about other businesses. Put Doctor A in the visible page. Do not add Person, employee, or founder markup.
Questions for an agency
Put the same questions in the RFP. A useful answer names a person, a sheet, or a URL. A weak answer describes the work without saying who edits the roster on the day someone leaves. These are procurement questions. They are not legal advice and not a template. A wider scorecard, without a ranking of firms, is in how to choose a DSO dental marketing company.
1. Who updates the provider roster, and which systems read it?
A useful answer names
A named person at the group. The website, the booking links, and the profiles change from that row. You can open the sheet without the firm's inbox.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
The firm will "keep the bios current," with no sheet and no named editor.
2. What is the turnaround after a status change, and who checks the live page?
A useful answer names
A written turnaround the firm is willing to put next to the roster, plus the person who confirms the page and the profile after the edit. Google's address help says profile edits usually appear in about 10 minutes and that some take up to 30 days. That is Google's window, not a promise you can paste into a contract.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
"As soon as possible," with no owner and no way to see the change.
3. Is the redirect log a deliverable?
A useful answer names
A row for each retired provider URL: old address, destination, and the permanent server-side status. The group can request an old URL and see the response. If the URL pattern does not retire addresses, the log says so.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
Redirects live only in the firm's account, or every old URL is sent to the homepage.
4. Which URL pattern will you use when someone works at two offices?
A useful answer names
One written choice. Under the office means two URLs or a stated exception. Under /dentists/ means one URL that lists both doors. Both use readable words and hyphens.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
A different folder at each office, chosen by whoever published that page.
5. Who may create or close a practitioner profile?
A useful answer names
The business owner, or an authorized representative with express consent. The practitioner rules are applied in writing: public-facing, and contactable at that verified location during the stated hours. The group can see the owner on the profile.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
The firm creates a profile for every name on the website, including hygienists and the front desk, and the group cannot open the owner list.
6. What happens to reviews when an associate leaves?
A useful answer names
Reviews stay on the profile they were written for. The office profile is unchanged by one departure. Nobody asks patients to repost a review onto a different profile or to name a staff member.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
The firm will "move the reviews" to the office, to the next associate, or to a new profile.
7. Which booking link is on each office profile, and how do you remove one the office does not use?
A useful answer names
The scheduler for that office, marked Business preferred when more than one link is present. A third-party booking link the office does not use is removed through that provider. Google says those providers have to process the opt-out within 5 business days, and that you report the link if they do not.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
One group booking URL on every profile, or a partner link nobody can name.
8. What happens to location assets when one associate leaves?
A useful answer names
Assets stay linked to the office profile that is still open. Closing a practitioner profile stops assets for that profile. It does not close the office, and it does not require a new Ads account.
Ask a follow-up if you hear
The office campaign is paused, or the office profile is marked closed, because one dentist left.
| Question | A useful answer names | Ask a follow-up if you hear |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Who updates the provider roster, and which systems read it? | A named person at the group. The website, the booking links, and the profiles change from that row. You can open the sheet without the firm's inbox. | The firm will "keep the bios current," with no sheet and no named editor. |
| 2. What is the turnaround after a status change, and who checks the live page? | A written turnaround the firm is willing to put next to the roster, plus the person who confirms the page and the profile after the edit. Google's address help says profile edits usually appear in about 10 minutes and that some take up to 30 days. That is Google's window, not a promise you can paste into a contract. | "As soon as possible," with no owner and no way to see the change. |
| 3. Is the redirect log a deliverable? | A row for each retired provider URL: old address, destination, and the permanent server-side status. The group can request an old URL and see the response. If the URL pattern does not retire addresses, the log says so. | Redirects live only in the firm's account, or every old URL is sent to the homepage. |
| 4. Which URL pattern will you use when someone works at two offices? | One written choice. Under the office means two URLs or a stated exception. Under /dentists/ means one URL that lists both doors. Both use readable words and hyphens. | A different folder at each office, chosen by whoever published that page. |
| 5. Who may create or close a practitioner profile? | The business owner, or an authorized representative with express consent. The practitioner rules are applied in writing: public-facing, and contactable at that verified location during the stated hours. The group can see the owner on the profile. | The firm creates a profile for every name on the website, including hygienists and the front desk, and the group cannot open the owner list. |
| 6. What happens to reviews when an associate leaves? | Reviews stay on the profile they were written for. The office profile is unchanged by one departure. Nobody asks patients to repost a review onto a different profile or to name a staff member. | The firm will "move the reviews" to the office, to the next associate, or to a new profile. |
| 7. Which booking link is on each office profile, and how do you remove one the office does not use? | The scheduler for that office, marked Business preferred when more than one link is present. A third-party booking link the office does not use is removed through that provider. Google says those providers have to process the opt-out within 5 business days, and that you report the link if they do not. | One group booking URL on every profile, or a partner link nobody can name. |
| 8. What happens to location assets when one associate leaves? | Assets stay linked to the office profile that is still open. Closing a practitioner profile stops assets for that profile. It does not close the office, and it does not require a new Ads account. | The office campaign is paused, or the office profile is marked closed, because one dentist left. |
Checklist
Twelve checks for the roster, the URLs, and the profiles. Ticks stay in this browser only.
Provider page checklist
12 items
What DDS Web Solutions builds
DDS Web Solutions builds practice websites. Our team has been building websites since 2014, and we have served 100+ practices. Offices are in Sacramento and San Mateo. The products are Smyly, SmileTrak, and ToothRank. The planning page is DSO and multi-location marketing.
Sources
Wording on these pages can change, so confirm the live page. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice.
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google
- Google Business Profile Help: Mark your business as closed
- Google Business Profile Help: Business eligibility and ownership guidelines
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your business address
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your local business links
- Maps User Generated Content Policy: Prohibited and restricted content
- Google Search Central: Redirects and Google Search
- Google Search Central: URL structure best practices
- Google Search Central: HTTP status codes
- Search Console Help: 404 (Page Not Found) errors
- Google Search Central: Local business structured data
- schema.org: Dentist
- Google Ads Help: About location assets