Alert: Limited Google My Business functionality due to COVID-19.
Christina M.
Brand Marketing Strategist - Digital Marketing - Social Media, Local Search & real Reputation Management.
In light of COVID-19, Google will be operating with a limited team and as a result, there may be some temporary limitations and delays with support issues.
Google's current focus will be on the quality and reliability of the information on Google Search and Maps. Google wants to make sure both users and business owners continue to have access to essential features like whether the business is open or has special hours.
For newly created listings, claims, and verifications support Google's team will be manually reviewing those for critical health-related businesses. They will be prioritizing critical services and to expect delays for publication of new listings, claims, and verifications for other types of businesses to Google Search and Maps.
For new reviews, review replies, and new Q&A will be unavailable during this time. I did notice that for some of my business owners we were still able to gain reviews, but for others not at this time. For those of us managing several locations, this is going to a challenge, but just not being able to respond to reviews in general, especially bad ones is going to hurt some businesses, I fear.
If your business' has been affected by COVID-19 - Google suggests updating your GMB profile to provide the most accurate information to your customers - operating hours, temporary closures, etc. Even though it may take a little bit for the updates to reflect on your GMB listing, Google still suggests making those updates.
Until Google makes those updates, you do have another that you can utilize now, if you are not already doing so, and that is by creating posts with detailed updates about what is going on with your business, hours changes, products, and services due to limited staff. That way you are directly communicating with your customers on a regular basis as your business changes.
The other option would be to download the GMB App on your phone or tablet and enable this feature. Once you do that, anyone visiting your GMB knowledge panel (listing) will be able to communicate with you that way - set up appointments, asks questions and more.
#GMB #GoogleMyBusiness #Covid19 #BusinessOwners #ReputationManagement #LocalSearch #GoogleSearch #Local
Source: https://bit.ly/GMBupdateCOVID19 and https://bit.ly/GMBcovid19update
Brand Marketing Strategist - Digital Marketing - Social Media, Local Search & real Reputation Management.
4 年Kevin Peranio - my review count is going to be down this next month. 8(
Brand Marketing Strategist - Digital Marketing - Social Media, Local Search & real Reputation Management.
4 年Craig Pollack - I tagged your business in my post. 8)
Marketing Technology Leader at PRMG | System Implementation, Automation, Real-world AI, Communication, Product Marketing, Social Media, Digital Marketing, Sales Coaching, Campaign Management
4 年Thanks for the tip.? I found the support to be light from GMB before this started happening, so this is a good heads up so we can plan a? new strategy.