The Google Maps and Search apps are driving the potential for your business to soar with the Questions & Answers feature. Locations appearing on Maps will now display more information to visitors by offering the opportunity to ask or view questions that could factor into their decision to visit.
How can you manage your Google-powered FAQ? Here are a few observations and instructions that’ll make adding on to your Google presence easier.
Business owners need to engage.
And not always for the reasons you think. When someone asks a question about your business, be sure to respond with as much relevant detail as possible. This is obviously preferable because it shows that you’re paying attention and covering the query to satisfaction, which prospective customers love.
Yet it also prevents your business from being victimized by trolls, spammers, and those with a personal vendetta. Questions can be edited after posting. Thus, if you respond with a one-word “Yes” in response to the question, “Is off-street parking available?”, that question can later be changed to any number of questions you certainly do not want to answer with a “yes”. Instead, say something like, “Yes, there is an off-street lot free for customer parking located at the rear entrance of our building.”
Maps is a must.
The best way to stay on top of questions is to be notified when one is asked, correct? Yes, but you will receive no such notification via Google My Business. Instead, use the Google Maps app to keep track.
Make sure that your app is up to date and that you are logged in with the same account used for your Google My Business listing. This way, you won’t have to keep checking to see if any users have posted a question about your business.
Upvote for greater visibility.
If you want to stay ahead of any trolling or busy times when you can’t answer, add your own relevant questions with their answers. And if you want to take it even further, you can influence which questions are most visible by upvoting a question.
For example, if questions don’t have any upvotes, they may not be featured directly on the listing; it’ll merely be a link you click to expand. But once a question is upvoted, the most popular will appear on the listing for Q&A.
How to ask.
To add a question to a location’s listing, simply search for the location in the Maps app and tap the name when it appears at the bottom of your screen. From there, select “Ask the community” under “Questions & answers”.
You can view, edit, and delete your questions by tapping “All questions” and tapping the down arrow to access “Your questions”. Once you see your question, you can tap “More” next to it to modify or delete it.
How to answer.
To answer, follow the above until you’ve navigated to the “See more questions” option under “Questions & answers” on a location’s listing. There should be a little message box next to the questions which you tap to answer. Answers can be edited or deleted by selecting “More” next to your answer.
Again, you will only receive notifications about this activity if you’re logged into Google My Business. You can also opt out of notifications by scrolling through the Maps app settings and turning off notifications associated with “Your contributions”>“Community questions and answers”, but that may be inadvisable.
After all, Google Q&A is a great way to help control your business’ online reputation. People moving through your area will probably take only a few seconds to decide whether or not to stop by, and a little FAQ due diligence can make a big difference.
