It is a tough time for everyone, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). These businesses are the ones facing the hardest-hit of the COVID19 pandemic. However, it is not all dark and gloomy out there. Google My Business has come up in the rescue of the SMBs.
According to Google reports, the search related to “how to help small e-commerce businesses” spiked drastically from March. In response to such a significant increase in search results related to this, Google introduced the support links in early May.
This is one of the multiple new features that Google rolled out in an effort to help the local business get through the COVID19 crisis. Let us have a look at the Google My Business features.
What are the features offered by Google My Business?
The global expansion of support links – Initially the support links were available for the English speaking markets including the USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Now, the support links have been expanded to 18 more countries including Spain, Japan, and Italy.
These links allow the e-commerce business owners to add donations and links of gift cards to the business profiles through Google partnerships using PayPal and GoFundMe. For the gift cards, Google is already working with Clover, Toast, Square, and Vagaro.
According to Google, a business name search will expose the gift card links or donations on the Business Profile. In a short time, people will be able to use Maps and Search to find nearby businesses looking for support.
The question arises whether this will result in meaningful support or not. According to SVP of Google Maps, Jen Fitzpatrick, the search query volume is anecdotal evidence indicating high demand.
Online classes and virtual appointments – The company also discussed the spike in online classes and virtual appointments. There has been a shift from in-person classes and offline services.
Under such circumstances, Google is going to increase online service opportunities with new business attributes including “online appointments” and “online estimates”. In the coming weeks, it will make the attributes more visible in search maps.
The company is also expanding the Reserve with Google program. The program includes a growing roster of the third party booking software provider. For online services, it is adding Booksy, WellnessLiving, Regis, and Zooty.
Merchants who are working with one of these partners will be able to offer online bookings directly on Google and share the details with customers. The customers can then pay and join the meeting using the preferred video platform.
With businesses starting to reopen, some of them will also have secondary hours. Here is an example of a restaurant that operates as a drive-through after the main restaurant is closed. The similar thing works for special grocery store hours, or pharmacies operating within a larger supermarket or drugstore.
The COVID19 Posts – Google also emphasized on the success of the COVID19 posts. According to Google, there were more than a million posts related to COVID19 since March. These posts included millions of clicks to merchants’ websites every week.
Along with that, there have been more than 200 million edits on the e-commerce business profiles since February. Most of these changes are done considering the special hours and the needs of temporary closures.
Within the restaurant category, more than 3 million restaurants have edited and added the dining including “takeout” since March. Google also added more features including “no contact delivery” and “curbside pickup”. The company is also planning more food-delivery services globally.
Enhanced control over food delivery – Food delivery is a controversial topic during this global pandemic. There are some food delivery organizations that have been accused of unethical means in delivering food including charging excessive fees from struggling restaurants or hijacking listing.
Google My Business is going to offer restaurants over which delivery services are going to be associated with their profiles. The restaurants will also be able to identify a preferred food delivery provider.
Now the question that comes up here is whether Google is checking if there is an actual business relationship between the delivery service and restaurant. To that, Google says, if the restaurant finds any unauthorized vendor on the profile, the owner can get in touch with Google My Business support.
Google will intervene and get the third party removed. It is important to note that Yelp offers identical features, even the ones that Google doesn’t. Anyone who is working a local business or multi-location brands will know the gravity of Google My Business.
With the new features available from Google My Business, it will work as a gateway to both offline, online, and e-commerce services. If your business is affected due to COVID19 pandemic, it is important to update the GMB profile with accurate information from your customers that include the following:
- Adjusted hours of operation (for instance if you are closing early or operating at different times)
- Any kind of delays in business
- Additional services for the community
- In case your business is temporarily closed
These updates will be shown on the business profile on Google Searches and Maps. Even if you mark your business as Temporarily Closed, it will not affect the local search ranking. It will be treated similarly to open businesses. The businesses that offer pickup and delivery services, need to mark the business as “temporarily closed” or else those businesses will not be shown on Google.
Is your business listed on Google My Business? Share your thoughts with Skyram technologies here.
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