Two Dentists, Same Address, Same Phone, Different Business Names

[abnovak]

Hi Everyone,

I've been looking into this situation for quite a while, but most posts/information on this topic seem to be from at least 1-2 years ago.

I'm currently working with a dentist who just moved into the same suite as another dentist who has been working there for years.

They each have the same address and same suite number, the same phone number, but each own their own respective practice and have their own patients. To make things even more complicated, the dentist that has been working there for years uses his name as a business name, while the new dentist has a business name differing from her actual name.

I'm not exactly sure how to go about optimizing the new dentist's local presence, but the only thing I can think of doing is try to recommend having the suite split into Suite #-A and Suite #-B and seeing if it's possible to add a second phone number for the new dentist.

Please let me know your thoughts, and if you've seen this topic come up in the past, I would love to get pointed in the right direction.

Thanks for all your help!

[danatanseo]

Thanks Miriam Agreed on all of the above.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Alex,

I agree with Dana. It will be important for the new dentist with the separate business name to establish his own suite and local phone number for a variety of reasons.

• He needs to be able to get his own phone calls

• He needs to be able to get his own postal mail

• Were he to market himself at the same address and phone as the other practice sharing the office, he would likely end up harming the other dentist and precluding himself from being able to develop his own business on the web.

The new dentist needs to set up his own website, of course, and be sure that all of his citations reflect his own name, address, phone and website.

The only alternative to this would be for the 2 dentists to combine their practices under a single name, but it doesn't sound like this reflects their real-world situation.

[danatanseo]

You are very welcome. I do think that separating the suites and adding the extra phone number (particularly for their Google+ pages) will really be all that needs to be done. Good luck!

[abnovak]

Hi Dana,

Thank you so much for your response! It does seem to be a tricky situation. I can imagine that many dentists, doctors and lawyers run into the same type of situation, however, I'm don't think it's too normal for them to share the exact same suite number and phone number.

Thankfully, the dentists do have different websites. While this will help, I'm not sure this will make too big of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Thanks again,

Alex

[danatanseo]

Hi Alex,

As I read your question my mind was already turning. I haven't dealt with exactly the same situation, but I have run into a situation where the same company has different divisions that each have separate addresses and phone numbers, but only one business name. It's a different, yet similar problem in reverse in a way. Consequently, I have also struggled with the whole business citation problem and inconsistencies with NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information.

That being said, I think your idea of splitting the addresses by adding Suite # and having one of the dentists get a uniqur phone number is probably the best solution under the circumstances. This might be hard to explain to the business owners, but I'd just present a case to them on how important it is to have all of those online citations line up with absolutely matching NAP information.

Do these dentists share the same Website? If so, this could be a problem too, and it might be worth convincing one or the other to get their own domain, but it sounds like they already have separate sites (since they have different brand names). If they were sharing the same site that would add a whole additional element that hopefully isn't a factor here.

Hope that help! Cheers,

Dana