Google is gearing up with its Google My Business and improving a lot for the users to provide exact local search results by introducing many new features. In reality, it’s not well known to all. This article will explore the Google my business updates from JAN 2019 – APR 2019. It will be helpful for all the local businesses to increase the conversion rate & to avoid the problems faced by the business owners.
29th JAN 2019:
#Hashtags are now used in Google My Business:
Hashtags are very popular in all social media channels for the collective view of all the posts regarding a particular topic like #HappyNewyear. Now GMB owners shall use hashtags for their posts they posting about the business. It will help the customers to pick up the correct business services and also useful for business owners to take their service or products easily to customers.
5th FEB 2019:
Check In & Check out options for Hotels:
This exclusive feature is made available for the businesses that are listed in Google under the category of hotels, luxury hotels, serviced apartment, etc.,. It displays the hotel rooms availability & check in dates, for the customers who are searching for the stay options. This update will be useful for the audience to check the availability of rooms and reduce the search efforts of people.
27th Feb 2019:
New Google complaint form for fraudulent activity:
The foremost drawback of GMB listing is that local guides or anyone can easily edit the business information in Google without any permission from the business owner, which is being a major threat for small business for many years. Now Google has a solution to this problem with a complaint form to control inappropriate information added on Google My Business account. Through this complaint from business owners can report the wrong information or activities on Google Maps related to the name, phone number, or URL of business. Complaints submitted through this form will be reviewed in accordance with Google guidelines.
6th MAR 2019:
Google Assistant used for booking tables in a restaurant:
Nowadays most people are using voice search instead of type search because voice search is more efficient & reducing the time taken to search. Taking these actions into account, Duplex-powered Google Assistant has come up with a new feature where people can interact with Google’s Assistant and check the availability of restaurant tables before they visit the restaurant. The Assistant will then call the restaurant to see if it can accommodate your request. Once your reservation is successfully made, you’ll receive a notification on your phone, email updates and a calendar invite so you don’t forget. This enables the users to converse with Google’s Assistant and can quickly book restaurant reservations over the phone.
4th APR 2019:
Product Catalogue in GMB account:
50% of Customers who are searching for local businesses are visiting the shop on the same day. To increase the engagement between the customers & shop owners of the local business, Google enables product catalogue update for some of the categories listed in the GMB and enables shop owners to showcase their products on request. This will help the customers to view the products from the shops and stimulate them to purchase again & again.
Image Source: Motornuts
References:
1. https://searchengineland.com/google-my-business-supports-hotel-check-in-and-check-out-times-311670
2. https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_redressal_form
3. https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/book-table-google-assistant-across-country-more-devices/
4. https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html
