How To Cope With The Limited Google Business Profile Functionality

Hello and welcome back to our blog. Today we are going to discuss something that has to do with one of the giants of the tech world, Google. We are sure everyone that has access to the internet must have heard or come across Google at one time or another. It is regarded as the biggest and most reliable web search engine in the world today. Do you want to lose weight or learn how to cut your hair? Ask Google. Do you want to learn how to cook or do something as simple as spring clean your house? Ask Google, and the list goes on and on.

If you have logged on to Google my business panel recently, you may have seen something like this “Limited Google Business Profile functionality”. Also, under this caption, you may have noticed “Edits, review replies, and other Google My business functionality may not operate as usual at this time due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19)”. This error message is due to the persistence of the crisis, and Google has decided to limit some of the functionalities of Google Business Profile. In this blog, we will cover what is happening and how you can cope with this new development.

Every business name should reflect the image of the business in real life. That can be seen as the first rule of business. However, due to the recent circumstances, Google is allowing businesses to modify their business names, and add ‘delivery’ and “take out options’ as part of it. If your business allows you to utilise this opportunity, don’t waste it, and try to make it count. Now, let’s talk about restricted functions.

• Reviews: If you encourage customers and clients to post reviews of your product on your Google, you will notice that no new reviews are appearing on your listing panels at the moment. This is because, since 20th of March, 2020, Google stopped publishing customer reviews on any listing panels. Take, for example, the London Eye. It is always known to have tons of reviews every day, but recently, there has been no new reviews. Users can post their reviews, but Google does not publish them any longer. It is also not possible to try to respond to those reviews. The reason is to protect local businesses from anyone that tries to post malicious reviews or mislead anybody, given the current circumstances. Just stop asking customers for their reviews. Instead, keep in touch with them until everything becomes normal.

• FAQs: Those of you hoping to use the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to inform your customers, you will not be able to, because it has also been removed. We believe it is also a ploy by Google to protect these small and medium enterprises from the dire effects of our present circumstances.

• Descriptions: Since some of these descriptions get rejected, adding them to your listings can cause some problems. We cannot say for sure if it is true with every business, but a likely cause may be the effects of our economic situation.

• Google posts and pictures: Some Google posts have been rejected lately, and even though one cannot tell the cause, Google is working tirelessly to fix this problem. Images posted on listings are also facing the same issues.

If you are experiencing any of these; please be patient. Also, if your business is no longer open at present, you can lock it as temporarily closed. Do that by logging into your Google Business Profile dashboard, click on ‘Info’ and in the main dashboard, select the ‘Locked as temporarily closed option’. It is unfortunate that some companies have been marked as ‘Temporarily closed’ without them requesting it, but if you are affected, you can submit a request for your company to be unmarked. Just click on the ‘Info’ tab, and in the main dashboard, click on the log as Open option. Due to inadequate lack of response from Google, this may take some time and may stay as the ‘Under review’ status for some time. Google is aiming to prioritise edit reviews that are critical to health-related businesses. If you are trying to create new Google listings, you may have to be patient, as health-related issues come first.

If you need any help or advice, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

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