Update:
Looks to be fixed as of 3pm – 22 Nov
If you are in the medical space you may have noticed that one or all of your selected categories in your Google Business Profile has been removed.
Joy Hawkins tweeted about this Nov 16th
Dozens of healthcare categories have been removed from GMB. Due to how many there are, I’m not sure this is intended so @ColanNielsen is checking with Google on it. @krystal_taing @headley have you heard anything on this? The full list is here: https://t.co/fvCr7FRO1N
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) November 16, 2021
Affected Medical Categories
Venereologist
Vascular surgeon
Urologist
Transplant surgeon
Surgeon
Speech pathologist
Sexologist
Rheumatologist
Radiologist
Pulmonologist
Psychosomatic medical practitioner
Psychoanalyst
Proctologist
Physician assistant
Physiatrist
Pediatrician
Pediatric urologist
Pediatric surgeon
Pediatric rheumatologist
Pediatric pulmonologist
Pediatric orthopedic surgeon
Pediatric neurologist
Pediatric nephrologist
Pediatric hematologist
Pediatric gastroenterologist
Pediatric endocrinologist
Pediatric dermatologist
Pediatric cardiologist
Pathologist
Pain management physician
Otolaryngologist
Orthopedic surgeon
Occupational medical physician
Obstetrician-gynecologist
Nurse practitioner
Neurosurgeon
Neurophysiologist
Neurologist
Nephrologist
Neonatal physician
Men’s health physician
Kinesiologist
Internist
Intensivist
Infectious disease physician
Immunologist
Hyperbaric medicine physician
Hepatologist
Hematologist
Hand surgeon
Gynecologist
Geriatrician
General practitioner
Gastrointestinal surgeon
Gastroenterologist
Fertility physician
Family practice physician
Endoscopist
Endocrinologist
Doula
Diabetologist
Dermatologist
Cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon
Cardiologist
Bariatric surgeon
Audiologist
Anesthesiologist
Allergist
Category Chaos
When Joy initially tweeted this, it had not extended into the UK, however by the 18th it started spreading with one of my business profiles for a vascular surgeon and into Germany, Japan, pretty much going global.
Is this Intended?
I think this is a massive bug and the reason being is that if you try and add another category, it returns Not Supported in Your Region
Based on this, I believe it to be an update that has gone haywire trying to offer regional segmentation into the system.
What Should I Do?
Don’t do anything at the moment until we have some kind of guidance from Google.
Colan Nielsen (tweet above) has reported and last night our CM acknowledged reading and has forwarded to program team.
This is almost certainly a monumental cock up, but hang tight until we get the correct fix on what was originally intended.
The thing to remember when something like this happens, is never to make knee jerk changes until you have more information to hand. Need a comforting business profile consultant in your corner, feel free to reach out to us for a chat.