What should a community's Google Business Profile say?

A senior living community's Google Business Profile should carry the community's real-world name, a phone number that reaches someone at that community who can answer a family's questions, customer-facing hours that make clear when families can call or tour, and a short description of the care the community is licensed to provide. Campuses with independent living, assisted living, and memory care need a deliberate decision about whether each setting gets its own profile. Every fact should match the website and the license.

Google's guide to its generative AI features says those responses can include information about local businesses "where appropriate," and that using products such as Google Business Profiles "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results." That guide does not explain how its AI features use profile details, and this page makes no further claim. What a community controls is whether its profile is accurate.

This is listing and content guidance for operators and marketing leads, not legal advice, and it reflects Google's published guidelines as read on the date below. Google revises those guidelines, so check the current version before editing.

One campus, several care settings

This is the profile decision most particular to senior living. Google's guidelines say "Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page," and add: "Typically such departments have a separate customer entrance and should each have distinct categories." Each department's name must differ from the main business and from the other departments, and its most representative category must differ from the main business's. A memory care building with its own entrance, staff, and license might fit that description, while a memory care wing that shares the assisted living building's front door and phone line may not. Your executive director knows where the entrances are and which license covers which building, so nobody writing listings should be left to guess, and the decision should be written down before anyone creates a second profile.

Google also asks that departments' hours go "on that department's separate Business Profile." If the campus includes a separately branded nursing home or home health agency, the guidance on combined brands applies: "If your business location combines two or more brands, do not combine the brand names into a single Business Profile."

The name on the sign, not the operator's brand

Google says a business name "should reflect your business's real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery." For a senior living community, three names can compete: the community's own name, the management company's brand, and the legal name on the state license. A management company is not a community, and a family searching for the name on your sign should not find a profile titled with the operator's brand and a city. If the sign and the website use one name, the profile uses that name, and the licensed entity's name stays on your licensing and inspection page.

Hours, phone, and website for a place that never closes

Care runs around the clock, which makes "hours" ambiguous. Google asks businesses to "Provide your regular customer-facing hours of operation," and for a community the useful reading is usually the hours when admissions can take a call or give a tour, with visiting policies explained on the website. Google's guidelines ask for "a phone number that connects to your individual business location," or a website that represents that location, and a local number instead of "a central call center helpline number whenever possible." Put a test to your executive director: "If a daughter calls the number on our profile at 7 p.m. on a Sunday, who picks up, and can they answer a question about memory care?" If the answer is a regional call center, the profile and website should at least say what happens next. The website field should point to a page for that individual community, not the operator's home page.

A description that names the care, not the lifestyle

Google's description rules say "Do not exceed 750 characters," "Do not include URLs or HTML code," and "Focus primarily on details about your business instead of details about promotions, prices, or sales." The suggested contents include "What you offer" and "How long you've been in business." For a community, that means the care levels offered in the license's terms, the setting, staff languages if relevant, whether respite stays are available, and how to arrange a tour. It does not mean move-in specials, monthly rates, or anything implying Medicare pays for residence.

A hypothetical description for a fictional community, with the name and location left as placeholders:

[Community name] is an assisted living and memory care community in [city], [state]. Memory care residents live in a separate single-story building with its own enclosed courtyard. Nursing staff are on site around the clock, and several caregivers speak Spanish. We offer short respite stays when an apartment is available. Call our admissions office to arrange a tour, including evening and weekend visits.

Each sentence would have to be confirmed by a real community, including whether its license wording supports "assisted living and memory care" as written.

Reviews from residents and families

Reviews for a community come from residents, family members, and sometimes former staff, which puts Google's conflict-of-interest rules in play. Google's contribution policy prohibits content based on a conflict of interest, which "may include current or former employment," and bars businesses from offering incentives for reviews or choosing to "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers." The FTC's endorsement guidance makes a related point: "it's okay to invite all of your customers to post honest reviews, positive or negative," while asking only the customers likely to be happy "would be misleading." A review request sent to every family, not only the ones who mailed a thank-you card, fits both.

Replies need care, because they can disclose information about a resident. Do not confirm that a reviewer's parent lives in the community, discuss their care, or argue the details in public; agree with counsel on a few reply patterns that acknowledge the review and move the conversation to a call. In Hudson South's process, Authority Asset gathers the license, location, and contact facts that feed both the profile and the site; Hudson Twenty-One captures how the community communicates across 21 dimensions; Market Intelligence studies how families in your market search and what nearby communities publish; and AEO Creation writes the site's answer-first pages, which the profile should agree with. For the AI side, see our guide on how communities get named when families ask AI, and the senior living hub for the full page plan.

See how your listing and site compare

On a free 30-minute call, Hudson South walks through the gaps between your community's pages and the communities families compare you with.

Sources

1. Guidelines for representing your business on Google. Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-16.
2. Edit your Business Profile. Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-16.
3. Prohibited & restricted content. Maps User Generated Content Policy Help, Google. Read 2026-10-16.
4. FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking. Federal Trade Commission. Read 2026-10-16.
5. Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search. Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-16.