At a glance
An orthopaedic surgeon who consults from three locations had an unverified Google profile at his main rooms, hidden from Google Maps. We verified it, completed it and kept it active. In five measured months it was viewed 3,016 times and produced 204 direction requests and 74 calls.
| Industry | Orthopaedic surgery, individual surgeon |
| Location | Melbourne, Australia (one of three consulting locations) |
| Engagement | Monthly SEO retainer, Google Business Profile included |
| Period measured | September 2024 to January 2025 |
| Headline result | 204 direction requests and 74 calls from the profile |
About the client
A Melbourne orthopaedic surgeon focused on knee, shoulder and joint replacement surgery, consulting from rooms inside a major private hospital and at two other locations. Like most specialists, he receives patients by referral, and those patients search for him by name.
The starting point and the challenge
The profile for his main rooms existed but was unverified and hidden from Maps. A patient searching his name had no profile to call from or navigate with. Inside a large hospital, finding the right building and floor is part of the visit, and nothing on Google helped with that.
No performance data survives from before verification, so this case has no “before” figure.
What we did
Each part of the problem was matched to one piece of work on the profile.
| Challenge | What we did |
|---|---|
| Profile hidden and locked | Verified ownership and set the correct categories |
| Thin profile | Added services, a description and photos |
| Static profile | Monthly posts on procedures |
| Trust | Review requests and replies |
Results
All figures come from Google Business Profile’s Performance report for September 2024 to January 2025. Before verification the profile was not shown on Maps, and no figures from that period survive.
| Metric | Before | Sep 2024 to Jan 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Profile views | Not shown on Maps | 3,016 |
| Direction requests | Not shown | 204 |
| Calls | Not shown | 74 |
Direction requests outnumbered calls 2.8 to 1, about 41 a month against 15. Monthly figures held steady across the period. February 2025 is excluded because it had only just started when the data was captured.
67% of views came from mobile devices, and 95% came from Google Search.
What this tells us
For this surgeon, the profile works mainly as a map. People who have already been referred use it to reach the rooms inside a large hospital more often than they use it to call.
That reading fits the numbers, but the data alone cannot prove it. Website visits from the profile were not captured. The case covers one of three locations, and the practice did not track how many actions became appointments.
Key lessons
Three points from this project apply to any surgeon consulting inside a hospital.
- Specialists inside large hospitals need their own profile. The hospital’s listing gets patients to the building; the surgeon’s profile gets them to the rooms.
- Mobile comes first. Two in three views happened on a phone, so the profile has to work on a small screen first.
- Measure every location. A surgeon with three locations needs three baselines.