If you are trying to leave a review, or have noticed that there have been no recent reviews on your own GMB (Google My Business) Listing, there is a reason for this and it’s not due to any malfunctions within the GMB platform.

We manage dozens of GMB listings for various businesses, and we’ve discovered that due to COVID-19 concerns, Google has temporarily suspended a number of “features” in the GMB platform including:

• Leaving Reviews
• Responding To Reviews
• Q&A Are No Longer Visible

In an information article, Google writes,

“During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we are taking steps to protect the health of our team members and reduce the need for people to come into our offices.”

In reducing the team available to review edits and updates, Google is prioritizing its own review of updates, edits to focus on changes businesses make in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and new hours, temporary closings, and services. Obviously, there will be many scammers who will be trying to take advantage of the present world-wide pandemic, and Google wants to keep those scammers away from their platform. Google also writes:

“Our support team will manually review new listings, claims, and verifications for critical health-related businesses.”

This is not a time to ignore your GMB listing, and is something we can help with. Google places a great deal of emphasis on “trust factors” with regard to ranking GMB listings for Local Searches, and keeping your listing updated with modified hours and/or other business changes as a result of COVID-19 is really important. It’s also a good time to use the posts functionality to let Google users know about changes to products and services, business opening times, and your own responses to COVID-19 and various legal requirements you might be facing with your business.

Need Help With Your GMB Listing?

We’ve been helping many businesses for over 5 years with their GMB listings and understand the importance of keeping this properly maintained and optimized. If you need help, contact us today (519) 940-3504 and let’s talk about the challenges facing your business right now, and how we might be able to help you face and meet them!