Category: Google Maps

A new day and a new Google Business Profiles review bug. It seems a ton of business owners are seeing a message that reads “You have no reviews yet” when clicking on the option to read reviews of their Google Business Profile listing.

Google has updated its Google Business Profile appeal process and flow to allow businesses to upload their evidence for the business profile suspension. The old flow had a different form where you would later upload that evidence, and you only had 60 m…

Google reviews seem to be disappearing from Google Business Profile local listings. In the past few days or so there has been an influx of complaints in the Google Business Profile forums. I have not seen Google respond to the complaints, but either t…

Google will add to existing penalties or restrictions on your Google Business Profiles if you continue to violate the same policy over and over again. The initial restriction might be 30 days but then if you are caught doing the same thing, Google can…

Google is testing updating the design for the local pack and places listings within Google Search. The map was moved to the top, instead of on the right and the action buttons are also moved and changed. I am not sure which version I like more, but he…

Google has added the messages button back to the Google Business Profile dashboard within Google Search. Google use to have a feature like this but I believe removed it but now it is possibly coming back.

Google is adding a new feature to the Google Business Profiles actions named Collected Info. This is to confirm your business details and keep your Business Profile updated, Google wrote.

Google is testing using a hot pink font for the live time for when a place is busy or not. This is part of the old popular times feature, but Google is testing or launching a hot pink font to make it really noticeable.

Google can show an “Activities” button in the Google Business Profiles dashboard within Google Search. I assume this button is reserved for venues that let you book activities including booking tickets or other activities.

It looks like Google has removed the pagination feature within the Google Local Finder interface. When you scroll through the local business profiles, it keeps adding more and more but the pagination bar is no longer there. I suspect the pagination fe…

There are reports of a bug with Google Business Profiles where using the feature to invite others with owner and/or manager access is not working. Supposedly, the invite emails are either not going out at all, or they are not being delivered; either wa…

Google will soon allow you to connect Google Business Profiles with Gemini. This will allow you to ask questions about your reviews, your local listing and performance within Google Maps and Google Search.

Google seems to have added WhatsApp phone numbers to tons of Google Business Profiles automatically over the past week. Google has sent email notifications to some of those businesses, and in some cases, the numbers are wrong or they are not reachable.

A new study has been released that looks at the review replies that have been rejected by Google. Business owners take the time to reply to customer reviews and then Google deletes them, and often, the business owner has no idea the reply was deleted b…

Google will soon allow you to connect your Google Business Profile with Google Analytics. Google sent out an email to some businesses saying this is coming soon, within the next “few weeks.”

About five months ago (I missed it), Google began asking searchers if the business location they are visited offers rewards in exchange for reviews. The prompt that comes up in the app asks, “Does this business offer rewards in exchange for reviews?”

Google is testing letting searchers check for real-time stock, inventory, of products through the local pack in the search results. There is this new button being tested next to view “more places” in the local pack that says, “Check real-time stock.”

Google is now showing the number of times a photo or video was viewed and seen by users in the Google Business Profiles photos/videos section. So now, business owners can see if the images and videos that they are uploading are being seen by searchers…

Generally, when a Google Business Profile email notice gets sent, especially the rejection notices, the details around that rejection are obscure and unknown. But Google seems to be trying harder to get more specific and detailed advice on the notices.

Google is now showing directly hotel booking links directly inside the AI-generated responses within AI Mode. This can lead to sending hotels direct traffic in the AI response, which seems like a win to me.