The Facilities That Fill Beds From Google All Do These Three Things

When someone decides their family member needs help, the first move is almost always a search. Not a referral call. Not a directory browse. A search — usually on a phone, often in a moment of crisis. The query is something like 'alcohol rehab near me', 'detox center in [city]', or 'inpatient drug treatment [county]'.

Google responds with a map pack — three local results displayed above everything else on the page. Below that comes the organic list. Below that, ads. The map pack is the most visible real estate on the page, and for treatment-related queries, it is where the largest share of clicks goes.

This is not a technical abstraction. It is the specific moment when a family chooses which facility to call first. Facilities that appear in those three spots receive the call. Facilities that do not, often do not.

Local SEO for rehab centers is the discipline of earning and holding one of those map pack positions — and ensuring that when someone lands on your profile or website from that position, what they find builds enough trust to make them pick up the phone.

The mechanics are straightforward: Google evaluates your Google Business Profile completeness, the consistency of your name, address, and phone number across the web, the volume and quality of your reviews, and the local relevance signals on your website. None of these require proprietary tools or tactics. They do require consistent, accurate execution — which most facilities underinvest in.

Note: This page covers local search strategy as general guidance. Listing content for addiction treatment facilities is subject to FTC endorsement guidelines, LegitScript certification requirements, and state-level advertising regulations (including Florida's HB 807 and California DHCS rules). Review your listing content against applicable compliance standards before publishing. This is educational content, not legal or regulatory advice.

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single highest-use asset in your local SEO stack. It controls what Google displays in the map pack and in the knowledge panel when someone searches your facility by name. Here is how to build it correctly.

Step 1: Claim and Verify

If you have not claimed your GBP listing, do it first. Google will mail a verification postcard to your facility address or offer phone/video verification depending on your profile status. Do not skip verification — an unverified listing can be edited by anyone and will not rank competitively.

Step 2: Choose the Right Primary Category

Your primary category tells Google what type of business you are. For most residential rehab centers, "Rehabilitation Center" is the correct primary category. Outpatient facilities often use "Drug Addiction Treatment Center" or "Mental Health Clinic" depending on services. Add secondary categories to reflect your full service scope — detox, sober living, and dual diagnosis programs each have relevant categories.

Step 3: Complete Every Field

• Business name: Use your legal or commonly known name exactly — no keyword stuffing, which violates Google's guidelines and can trigger suspension.
• Address: Match your address precisely to what appears on your website and SAMHSA listing.
• Phone number: Use a local area code number that routes directly to admissions. Tracking numbers can be used but must be managed carefully to avoid NAP conflicts.
• Hours: Admissions lines are often 24/7 — mark this accurately. Incorrect hours cost you calls.
• Website URL: Link to your main website or a location-specific landing page for multi-facility operators.
• Services: List specific programs — detox, residential, IOP, PHP, MAT — using Google's services feature.
• Description: Write a clear, factual description of your facility's approach and programs. Avoid outcome guarantees or claims that would not pass FTC or LegitScript review.

Step 4: Add Photos

Facilities with photos receive meaningfully more profile views than those without, based on Google's own published benchmarks. Include exterior shots (so families recognize the building), common areas, and staff photos where privacy allows. Avoid stock imagery — it signals inauthenticity to both Google and prospective patients.

A citation is any online mention of your facility's name, address, and phone number. Google uses citations to verify that your business is real, located where you say it is, and consistently identified the same way across the web. For addiction treatment facilities, some directories carry more weight than others — both for SEO authority and for the direct referral traffic they send.

Tier 1: Healthcare-Specific Directories

• SAMHSA Treatment Locator (findtreatment.gov): The federal government's treatment locator is the most authoritative citation source in this vertical. Listing here is free and signals legitimacy to both Google and families doing research. Ensure your SAMHSA listing matches your GBP address and phone exactly.
• Psychology Today: Widely used by families researching outpatient and IOP programs. A complete Psychology Today profile with accurate NPI information builds both citation authority and direct referral traffic.
• NAATP Member Directory: If your facility holds NAATP membership, your directory listing reinforces both credibility and citation consistency.
• NAADAC: Relevant for facilities with certified addiction counselors on staff.

Tier 2: General Healthcare Directories

• Healthgrades, Vitals, WebMD: These carry broad domain authority and appear frequently in health-related searches. Claim and complete your listings even if you do not actively manage them.
• Yelp: Yelp reviews appear in Google results and carry local citation value. Claim the listing and monitor it — do not solicit reviews in ways that violate Yelp's policies.

Tier 3: General Local Directories

• Google, Apple Maps, Bing Places: All three major map platforms need accurate listings.
• Yelp, Facebook Business Page, Better Business Bureau: These contribute to your overall citation footprint and appear in branded searches.

Across all of these, your name, address, and phone must be identical. A facility listed as "Recovery Center of [City]" in one place and "The Recovery Center" in another creates conflicting signals that suppress rankings. Audit for consistency at least quarterly.

Google's map pack is determined by three factors: relevance (does your GBP match what was searched), distance (how close is your facility to the searcher), and prominence (how well-established is your facility online). You can directly influence all three.

Relevance: Match What People Search

Your GBP category, services list, and business description should reflect the specific programs people search for. If your facility offers medication-assisted treatment, that phrase should appear in your services and description. If you specialize in co-occurring disorders, say so. Google reads these fields when deciding whether your listing matches a query.

Your website reinforces relevance. A dedicated page for each core program — detox, residential, IOP, PHP — with location signals in the page content gives Google more evidence that your facility is a strong match for treatment-specific searches in your area.

Distance: What You Can and Cannot Control

Google factors physical proximity into map pack results, which means a facility 45 minutes from a city center will be disadvantaged for searches originating in that city. You cannot move your building, but you can create location-specific service area pages on your website that signal relevance to surrounding counties and cities your admissions team serves.

Prominence: Reviews, Links, and Citations

Prominence is the factor you build over time. It includes:

• Review volume and rating: Facilities with more recent, positive reviews rank higher and convert better. A consistent review generation process — asking patients who consent to share their experience — builds this over months, not weeks.
• Inbound links: Links from local health organizations, hospital partners, and state-level treatment directories signal prominence to Google.
• Citation consistency: As covered in the previous section, a clean citation footprint reinforces legitimacy.

Map pack rankings are not static. A competitor who builds more reviews or earns a link from a regional health system can displace you. Treat map pack maintenance as an ongoing operational task, not a one-time setup.

Multi-facility operators face a compounded version of every local SEO challenge. Each location needs its own Google Business Profile, its own citation footprint, its own review presence, and its own location page on the website. Managing this at scale introduces several specific risks.

Separate GBP Listings for Each Location

Each physical facility must have its own GBP listing — including its own verified address, a direct phone number for that location, and accurate hours specific to that site. Do not use a single listing to represent multiple locations. Google may merge, suspend, or penalize listings that appear to misrepresent a single facility as multiple distinct businesses, or vice versa.

NAP Consistency Across All Listings

With multiple facilities, the risk of NAP inconsistency multiplies. A location that has undergone a name change, phone number update, or address correction needs those changes propagated across every directory — SAMHSA, Psychology Today, Healthgrades, Yelp, Apple Maps, and Bing — not just Google. In our experience working with multi-site healthcare operators, unresolved NAP conflicts from old listings are one of the most common suppressors of local ranking performance.

Location-Specific Pages on Your Website

Each facility should have a dedicated page on your website with that location's name, address, phone number, hours, programs offered, and local context. These pages serve two purposes: they give Google a trusted source for your location data, and they give prospective patients location-specific information that builds confidence before they call.

Avoid duplicating content across location pages. Each page should reflect what is genuinely distinct about that facility — the team, the setting, the specific programs, the communities it serves.

Review Management by Location

Review generation and monitoring should be managed per location, not at the brand level. A facility with 85 reviews outperforms one with 4, even if they share a parent brand. Assign ownership of review monitoring to someone at each site, and establish a response protocol for both positive and negative reviews that meets HIPAA standards for not confirming patient status in public replies.

Rehab center marketing operates under a more restrictive compliance environment than most industries. Your Google Business Profile, directory listings, and location pages are part of that environment. Several categories of content create compliance risk when they appear in local listings.

Outcome Claims

Statements like "90-day sobriety designed to" or "most effective treatment in [state]" are problematic under FTC guidelines governing health advertising. Google's own policies prohibit misleading claims in business descriptions. Keep your GBP description factual: describe programs, credentials, and what the experience involves — not what outcomes patients will achieve.

Testimonials and Reviews

Patient testimonials used in marketing materials are subject to FTC endorsement guidelines updated in 2023. Reviews on Google are user-generated and treated differently, but responding to reviews in ways that confirm patient identity or treatment status may implicate HIPAA. Train anyone who manages review responses on a protocol that thanks reviewers without confirming clinical details.

LegitScript Certification

Google requires LegitScript certification to run paid ads for addiction treatment services. While certification is not currently required to maintain an organic GBP listing, holding LegitScript certification signals legitimacy in your listing and supports future paid media capability. Reference your certification status in your GBP description if you hold it.

State-Specific Advertising Rules

Florida's HB 807 restricts certain patient brokering and marketing practices for addiction treatment providers operating in or targeting Florida residents. California DHCS has its own advertising standards for licensed facilities. If your facility operates in a heavily regulated state, review your listing content against those state-level rules. This is educational guidance, not legal advice — consult qualified legal counsel familiar with behavioral health advertising regulations in your operating states.

For a detailed breakdown of compliance requirements that affect your online presence, see our guide on HIPAA, LegitScript, and FTC compliance for rehab center marketing.