When emergencies happen, it’s important to keep your business information up-to-date so customers know when and how to access your products and services. Here’s a checklist of action items to help ensure your online business information remains accurate and reliable when a health crisis, natural disaster, tragedy, or other emergency affects daily operations. These recommendations are based on the features available in Google My Business (GMB).

Please note: If you are a business that is affected by COVID-19, you can learn more from Google Support about handling your Google My Business listings.

Update Store Hours

If an emergency has disrupted your normal business hours, change your store hours to reflect your new open and close times.

Tips for Handling Unique Store Hours

• GMB Special Hours: For short-term changes in business hours, you may use Google My Business “special hours” to show that this adjustment is temporary.
• Appointment Only: If your business cannot remain open to the public but you’re still conducting business, share this information by adding it to your business description (more below). Google does not provide an “hours by appointment” option at this time.
• Dedicated Hours for Certain Patrons: More businesses are adjusting their hours to give the elderly and other at-risk people exclusive access to their business at certain days and hours. The best way to communicate this message is through your business description (see below), email marketing, social media, and a post on GMB.

Use Alerts

Add an alert banner to your website and location pages communicating information about changes customers can expect during this time. Website visitors may want to know if you are still operating during the emergency, how your business is making adjustments, and if they can expect delays in receiving your products/services.

Use an alert banner to drive traffic to a page that addresses customers’ most common questions. For example, with the increase in to-go and takeout orders, people want to know: Is it safe to order from [Restaurant]? And what are the restaurant’s employees doing to ensure the safety of my food?

A dedicated FAQ page with answers to customer questions is a great way to maintain customer trust—and potentially business—during a risky time. Turn to your social media profiles or customer service team for insight into the most commonly asked questions.

Update Your Business Description

Your business description is a summary (up to 750 characters) that appears when a user searches for your local business or checks out your listing on Google. Use your description to share how your business is handling the emergency. Here are some ideas to help you craft your emergency business message:

• Explain why you are adjusting your business hours.
• Share extra precautions you’re taking to mitigate risk.
• Communicate new or extra services during this time.
• Highlight any delays customers may see.
• Give readers a timeline on when they can expect your business to resume its normal operation.

Use Google Posts

Google Posts allow you to post content directly into the search engine results pages for your business listing. Think of it like a social media post for your business listing. You can write a quick note, add an image, and link to a more extensive webpage or blog post that shares a complete overview of how the emergency is impacting your business and what customers should know.

Manage Store Closures

On March 15, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that businesses now have the option to mark themselves as ‘temporarily closed.’

You may use this setting to let customers know that though your business is temporarily shut down, they can expect to see your business return after the resolution of the emergency.

Top Tips for Managing Business Information in Evolving Emergencies

Be on Standby for Evolving Changes

As emergency situations evolve, so will your business information. Be on standby to make online changes that’ll help customers stay up-to-date on how to access your products and services.

Prioritize Location Pages and GMB

Update your owned location pages and GMB listings. Anticipate that consumers may look in both areas for information.

Understand GMB Limits

Google My Business is an amazing tool for spreading information about your business, but it has limits. Depending on the nature of the emergency, Google may choose to prioritize updating one business’s information over another’s. For example, Google is prioritizing health-related businesses during the COVID-19 outbreak, so critical edits (like hours, business description, etc.) to health-related businesses will be reviewed by Google before edits to other businesses. Also, new reviews and Q&A posts are on pause in an effort to protect businesses from ill-informed reviews.

If you have questions or need guidance on how to update multi-location business information online, please contact GPO.

Google is the Big Cheese. The Kahuna. The Sultan of Swat. (Okay, so that last one is Babe Ruth, not Google.) But did you know that Google Maps, in particular, might be the reigning Titan of Terror? Many clicks are shifting away from WWW sites and traditional SERP listings in favor of Google Maps.

We’ve been tracking this shift in our clients’ monthly analyses.

Engagement with Google business listings (GMB) continues to show growth YoY, including a record number of calls, direction requests, and clicks to clients’ websites from GMB. Map views and discovery searches are also at all-time high levels.

Survey confirms Google Maps preference

A new survey* found that 77% of respondents use Google Maps to find “near me” business information before they turn to other sites. After Google Maps, users turn to Facebook (38%) and Yelp (35%).

The survey also found that the majority of people (81%) use their smartphones for “near me” searches—no surprise there.

What’s interesting, however, is that people aren’t searching on their phones when they’re “on the go!” Most local searches are happening while people are at home (59%). Among those who performed local searches at home, 54% said they would go to the business either right away or on the same day, and 46% said they would visit the business within the next few days.

What’s the big deal?

Online research still results in offline purchases—it’s just difficult to track. (Google’s latest patent aims to track AND increase offline purchases. Check it out if you’re ready to get a little creeped out.)

The best way to secure your spot in Google’s Map Pack is a threefold approach.

1. Claim your Google My Business listings and ensure the data (name, address, phone number, hours, latitude and longitude, etc.) are accurate. This isn’t a “one and done” thing. You will need to manually triage and correct listing information on an ongoing basis.
2. Create local content pages for every business location and geographic area your company serves.
3. Link your local content to your Google My Business listings.

This last step is especially important. It closes the loop for Google and shows the search engine exactly who you are, where you do business, and what you sell/do.

You can also further optimize your Google Maps listing by adding images, getting reviews, and optimizing your business description.

Reach out to GPO for help improving your presence in Google Maps or closing the loop on your local search presence. The Titan of Terror isn’t going anywhere. 😉

*The survey included a little over 1,000 responses from U.S. adults; 53% female; 47% under the age of 45.

More reservations, more appointments, more menu views…it can all be yours! Customers can now interact more with your business, right from your listing in Google.

In the past, Google only allowed Google My Business (GMB) owners to add one landing page URL per location, which typically took the user to the main brand page or a local landing page for that specific listing. You essentially had to choose one action over another. Did you want reservations or orders? Appointments or homepage visits?

Over the past few months, Google has released a number of updates to GMB, the first of which was the ability for restaurants to add a menu URL to their local listings to drive users back to the brand’s domain as opposed to a third-party site, like OpenTable.

The most recent update has extended this feature to include landing page URLs for a host of other business types and actions. Check out local search expert Mike Blumenthal’s screenshot, left. Businesses can now add multiple URLs to make it more convenient for customers to:

• Book an appointment
• Place an order
• Reserve a table
• Search for items
• View a menu

Here’s the thing: local listings are evolving into an extension of a business’s website, making strategically optimized (and accurate) GMB listings more important than ever. This update makes it easier for your customers to take action directly from Google Search or Maps. Customers can already chat with a business right from a business listing. What will they be able to do next? What do you want them to do next?

GPO can help you find out which landing page URLs are available for your business type. Local business URLs are currently available at the enterprise level and through bulk updates. View Google’s Help page on Local Business URLs to explore on your own!

What are Google Posts?

Google Posts offer a new way for businesses with brick and mortar locations to be heard online, in real-time.

Released to all businesses with a Google My Business (GMB) account on June 22, this feature allows local businesses to effortlessly create content to display in their Knowledge Panel in Google.

“Your Google listing is the ideal place to showcase what is unique about your business,” says Google, and Google Posts is “an easy way to help attract new customers and build relationships with the customers you already have.”

With a maximum word count of 300 and a lifespan of seven days or less, Posts are built for instant consumption and to drive action. They can be used to:

• Highlight daily specials or current promotions
• Promote current or upcoming in-store events
• Showcase a product or announce a new arrival
• Drive one-click action, making it easier for customers to make a reservation, sign up, learn more, or buy an item

Take a look at how a jewelry store (above), therapist (below), and secondhand sporting goods franchise (below) are using Google Posts to drive brand awareness and action.

Barbara Oliver Jewelry uses Google Posts to share stories about her customers (Shane and his girlfriend) and send visitors to product pages and customer reviews. Just Mind uses Posts to explain what they do in relation to a certain social problem (in this case, traumatic events) and drive newsletter sign-ups. Play It Again Sports uses Posts to let customers know about the latest and greatest products. Come and get your skateboards while they last!

Why bother with Google Posts?

This feature is essentially a new way to make social media type posts directly in Google Search and Google Maps. As a business’s organic reach in Facebook continues to decline, Google Posts offers an opportunity to be heard in an equally crowded, but just as trafficked space—all in real-time.

Google hopes that this new content will keep users engaged in the Knowledge Panel and search in general, for longer.

No one is yet sure the extent to which Google Posts will be beneficial for search from a long-term perspective, as it’s not clear where or how Posts that have expired will live (if anywhere at all), and whether they will be indexed, searchable, and discoverable in search.

From a short-term perspective, however, Posts could prove to be a powerful way to increase in-store traffic, especially when it comes to generating an audience for an in-store event or limited-time offer. Posts can also be shared directly from Google across Facebook, Twitter, G+, and email.

Ready to try Google Posts?

Now is the time to start brainstorming how your business can leverage Google Posts. Will you promote limited-time offers? In-store events? New product arrivals? Customer testimonials?

Creating a Post for a single location is incredibly simple. Within your GMB dashboard you can add text, an image, link, and select a CTA button (Learn more, Reserve, Sign Up, or Buy). If your post is designated as an Event, it will live as long as the event timeframe. Or, you can schedule up to ten Posts ahead of time and give each a lifespan of up to seven days.

Currently, Posts can only be displayed for one location and cannot be applied to all locations within an account. Analytics is limited to Post views and actions, is not integrated into Insights, and cannot be viewed in aggregate. Google has indicated that this lack of functionality will soon be addressed.

Connect with your Presence Management team or Client Partner for more information on how to utilize this exciting new feature. Are there business goals that Google Posts could help you achieve? Let’s talk about!

Further Reading

• Create a post on Google, Google My Business Help
• Your presence on Google, fresher than ever, Google
• Google Posts Rolling Out Worldwide, Mike Blumenthal
• Google Posts now live for all Google My Business users, Search Engine Land