Category: Google Maps

Google may now hold your review replies for approval before showing them in Google Maps or Google Search. Previously, those replies were immediately shown but that may have changed.

Google also released the annual Google Maps safety report saying blocked or removed over 292 million policy-violating reviews and removed over 13 million fake Business Profiles. Google also said it blocked 79 million inaccurate or unverified edits and …

Google has updated its reviews policy to add two items; (1) do not have your staff solicit a certain number of reviews and (2) the content of the review should not mention the staff member’s name and information.

A few months ago, we saw Google testing recurring, repeating Google Posts options. Well, now that option is officially live. This is in addition to the ability to schedule Google Posts.

Google has made some changes to the Google Business Profile policy document, specifically the identity change section. It is now much more descriptive than before.

Earlier this month, Google rolled out the “Ask Maps” feature. Now, Google said it is “available to everyone in the U.S. and India.”

Google is sending out emails with updates on how Google Business Profiles may verify your business details. Google said it may “reach out using automated messages via call, text, or WhatsApp to the verified phone number on your Business Profile.”

Google added a new section to the “Understand available performance metrics” within the Google Business Profiles help documentation. The new section added a section on offer data and it shows the number of times customers viewed and clicked on offers o…

Google is testing encouraging business owners to reply to reviews using AI. There is a new option in the Google Business Profile dashboard that is showing for some businesses that says “Reply to reviews with AI.”

Google seems to have added a new section to the Google Business Profiles section named Place page attributes. Place page attributes allows you to let customers know more about your business by showing attributes on your Business Profile. These may appe…

Google seems to have added a new section to the Google Business Profiles section named Place page attributes. Place page attributes allows you to let customers know more about your business by showing attributes on your Business Profile. These may appe…

Google just announced “Ask Maps”, which is a new feature in Google Maps that leverages Gemini to help users research local businesses, plan trips, get recommendations…

Google just announced “Ask Maps”, which is a new feature in Google Maps that leverages Gemini to help users research local businesses, plan trips, get recommendations…

Recently, Google rolled out the ability to schedule Google Posts. Supposedly, soon, Google will also roll out recurring scheduling for posts. So you can set a Google Post to repeat and post over and over again on a schedule.

Some time ago, Google updated the flow for the Google Business Profile verification. And the issue is, if you fill it out wrong, it can have consequences for that Google business listing in the future.

We’ve seen Google use AI for local panel descriptions, menus and more. But now Google is also using AI to generate a list of services a local business offers.

Google is now (past few weeks?) sending out emails when it detects fake or incentivised reviews on your Google Business Profile. Google also says it has removed the fake or incentivised reviews that were identified.

As I noted in my story yesterday about Google reviews dropping out, Google has updated the Google Business Profiles review policies, the Prohibited & restricted content section.

There has been an uptick in complaints from businesses around Google local reviews disappearing or being removed. We had something similar last October and it was fixed in December and now I am seeing more complaints about reviews going missing.

Google will stop showing the business short names on Google Business Profiles in Search and Google Maps. The short name will still work, if you have one, but going forward, the link in your Google Business Profile will no longer be displayed to you or…