Bought a Dental Practice? The Marketing Handoff Checklist

You closed on the practice and the staff stayed. Then a patient calls asking for the old dentist by name, because that's still the name Google shows.

I see this constantly in the new owners we talk to. One dentist was three weeks into ownership and still had 37 directory listings under the previous doctor. Another found out the prior owner's agency still controlled the Google Business Profile when the profile name flipped back to the old doctor's name, weeks after closing. Both could have been handled at closing. Nobody had put the marketing accounts on the checklist.

The purchase agreement covers the equipment, the patient records and the lease. It almost never spells out who hands over the domain login, the Google profile, the ad account or the phone number. So here's the list. Work it in the first 30 days, in this order, and most of it takes an afternoon.

This is practical guidance, not legal advice. If something in your purchase agreement conflicts with it, your attorney wins.

Short on time? Five things decide whether patients can still find you after a sale:

1. The domain. Moved into an account you control, at the registrar.
2. Google Business Profile. You're the Primary owner, not a manager.
3. The phone number. It moves with the practice, not with the seller.
4. The ad accounts. Your login is Admin, and billing is on your card.
5. The listings. Every directory shows the new owner and the current hours.

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Before Closing: What to Get in Writing

The easiest time to get account access is before the wire clears. After that, you're asking a favor of someone who already got paid.

Ask the seller for a written list of every marketing account the practice uses, who controls each one, and a commitment to transfer them at closing. The list usually looks like this:

• Domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace and so on)
• Website hosting and the website builder login
• Google Business Profile
• Google Ads, Meta ads, and any other ad accounts
• Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console
• The practice phone numbers, including any call-tracking numbers
• Email accounts on the practice domain
• Review and reputation tools, patient communication software, social media pages
• Any marketing agency contract, with its renewal date and notice window

That last one matters more than people expect. If the seller's agency built the site and holds the domain, you've inherited a vendor relationship along with the practice. Read the contract before you assume anything is yours. My dental marketing contract red flags post covers the ownership clauses to look for.

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Week 1: Take Ownership of the Accounts

Move the domain first

Everything else depends on the domain: the website, the practice email, Search Console verification. Get it into a registrar account your practice controls, registered to the practice entity.

Plan for a delay. Under ICANN's current transfer rules, a change of registrant can trigger a 60-day lock on moving the domain to a different registrar, unless the owner opted out. So change the registrant at the current registrar first, and move registrars later if you want to.

Become the Primary owner of the Google Business Profile

This is the listing that shows up in Google Maps and the local results, and plenty of patients call straight from it without ever opening your website. If you want to understand what it does once you have it, start with my Google Business Profile guide for dentists.

The clean path: the seller (or their agency) adds you as an owner, then transfers primary ownership to you. Google's own guidelines say that's how a takeover works.

If they won't, or can't be reached, Google has a request process. Search your practice at business.google.com/add, select it, and choose Request access. The current owner has three days to respond. If they don't, you may be able to claim the profile from the confirmation email, though Google says that option isn't always available. If they deny it, you can appeal.

Don't create a second profile to get around a stuck one. Duplicates split your reviews and confuse Google about which listing is real.

Get Admin on the ad accounts, with your own billing

For Google Ads, the current owner adds your Google login as an Admin, then removes their own access once you're in. Set up billing in the practice's name before they leave, or the ads stop when their card does.

If an agency ran the ads, ask whether the account sits under their manager account and whether you can keep the account itself. The campaign history and conversion data are worth keeping. Starting a new ad account means starting that learning over.

Claim Search Console and Analytics

Once you control the domain, you can verify yourself as an owner of Google Search Console through a DNS record, no seller cooperation needed. For GA4, ask the seller or agency to make your login an Administrator on the account. If they can't, set up a fresh property. You lose the history, but you'll own it from day one.

Keep the phone number

Patients have the old number saved in their phones. It's printed on old appointment cards and sitting on dozens of directory listings. Losing it means losing every call those sources send.

Make sure the main line, and any tracking numbers forwarding to it, transfer to your account with the carrier or phone system. If an agency owns the tracking numbers, find out whether they'll release them before you cancel anything.

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Week 2: Decide the Name Before You Touch Google

Here's the decision that trips up new owners: keep the old practice name, or rebrand?

Google's Business Profile guidelines are specific. A rename can happen on the existing profile when the proper nouns and services in the name stay the same and the category doesn't change. If the new name doesn't meet that test, Google treats it as a new business: you mark the old profile closed and create a new one. A new profile starts with zero reviews.

So "Smith Family Dental" to "Smith Family Dental & Implants" is a rename. "Dr. Smith Dental" to "Riverside Dental" is, by the letter of the guideline, a different business.

That doesn't mean never rebrand. It means count the cost first. If the old profile has hundreds of reviews, one option is to keep the name for now, introduce yourself as the new doctor everywhere else, and rebrand later when it's worth it. Whatever you decide, the name has to match what's on your signage, your website and your letterhead. Google requires the profile name to match the name you actually use.

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Weeks 2 to 4: Update Everything With the Old Doctor's Name

Once the accounts are yours and the name is settled, swap out the seller everywhere a patient or Google might see it.

The website is where the old doctor's name hides longest. It's in the schema markup, image alt text, blog posts signed by the seller, and "meet the doctor" pages that still rank. Update the bio pages rather than deleting them, and if a URL has to go, redirect it to your new bio. A deleted page with links pointing at it just becomes a 404.

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How to Handle Reviews That Mention the Old Doctor

You can't delete honest reviews about the previous dentist, and you shouldn't try. They're about real visits at your practice, and they still help.

What you can do is reply. A short note on recent reviews works: "Thanks for the kind words about Dr. Smith. I'm Dr. Patel, and I took over the practice in October. I'd love to meet you at your next visit." Future patients read that and understand what happened.

Then start asking for new reviews from your own patients right away. The fastest way to make old reviews matter less is to stack recent ones on top of them. My post on how to get more Google reviews has the asks that work.

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The 30-Day Handoff Checklist

Print this and check it off.

Before closing

• Written list of every marketing account, and who controls it
• Seller commits in writing to transfer accounts at closing
• Read any agency contract: ownership clauses, renewal date, notice window

Week 1

• Domain registered to the practice, in an account you control
• You're Primary owner of the Google Business Profile
• Your login is Admin on Google Ads (and Meta), with billing on your card
• You're an Owner in Search Console and an Administrator in GA4
• Main phone line and tracking numbers are in your account

Week 2

• Name decision made, checked against Google's rebranding rule
• Signage, website and profile all show the same name

Weeks 2 to 4

• Website bios, schema and footer updated, old pages redirected
• NPPES updated within 30 days of the change
• Insurance directories updated
• Healthgrades, Zocdoc, Yelp, Bing and Apple listings claimed and updated
• Replies posted on recent reviews introducing you
• Review requests going out to your own patients

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Where to Start Tomorrow

Most new patients find a practice through a search, so the profile, the domain and the listings are part of what you paid for. Get them into your name before you spend anything on ads, a new website or a rebrand. Those can wait a month.

If you're about to buy a practice and want a second look at what you're inheriting online, I'll run a free competitive analysis on it. Mention "acquisition" and I'll start with who controls what.

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Go deeper: More from the Practice Growth hub: choosing partners, budgeting, and protecting your practice's marketing assets.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: request ownership of a Business Profile: Google, the Request access steps, the three-day response window and the appeal option
• Google Business Profile Help: guidelines for representing your business: Google, the business name rules, the rebranding criteria and the ownership tip
• Google Business Profile Help: transfer primary ownership: Google, how an owner hands the Primary owner role to someone else
• Google Ads Help: transfer ownership of a Google Ads account: Google, adding the new owner as Admin and removing the old owner's access
• Google Search Console Help: managing owners, users, and permissions: Google, owner roles and how verification works
• ICANN: Transfer Policy: ICANN, the change-of-registrant rules and the 60-day inter-registrar transfer lock
• CMS: NPI requirements for prescribers: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the requirement to update NPPES within 30 days of a change