Check your listing on a phone every few days, answer each question as the business, and add the questions customers ask most with your own answers. Report answers that are wrong or abusive.

A new section on your listing

Last week Google added questions and answers to business listings, in Google Maps on Android phones and in Google search on phones.

Anyone signed in to a Google account can ask a question about your business. Anyone can answer it: regular customers, people who have never visited, and you.

The questions and answers sit on the listing itself, where people deciding whether to visit will see them.

On a desktop computer the section may not show yet, which is how many owners will miss it.

Who answers if you do not

Questions do not wait for the owner. Other people answer them, and some of those answers are guesses.

A guess about your hours, your prices or whether you take a certain card sits on your listing, beside your business name, until someone corrects it.

A question with no answer at all says something too: that nobody at the business is paying attention.

Either way, the section fills up with or without you.

What people ask

The fourth is where a wrong answer from a stranger can do real harm. Someone with an allergy who reads a confident answer on your listing may take it as your word.

Answering as the business

Answer while signed in to the Google account that manages your listing, so the reply is tied to the business rather than to a personal profile.

Open the listing on your phone, in the maps app or in a search for your business name, and answer there.

Answer the question that was asked, briefly and plainly, as you would at the counter. Add the one detail that helps: where to park, which door, when to call ahead.

Write so the answer stays true. "Yes, Monday to Friday" ages better than "Yes, this week".

Where the answer needs judgement, such as an allergy or a price that depends on the job, say so and give the phone number.

One answer, read many times

A question asked on the phone is answered once, for one person. A question answered on the listing is answered for everyone who wonders the same thing.

That changes how much care each answer deserves. Write it the way you would write a line on your website, not the way you would reply to a text message.

It also means a wrong answer keeps being read. Correcting it this week saves explaining it at the counter for months.

Adding the common questions yourself

Nothing stops a business from asking a question on its own listing and then answering it.

Start with what the phone already tells you: the handful of questions staff answer every day. Parking. Whether you take bookings. Holiday hours.

Phrase each question the way customers ask it, such as "Is there parking nearby?", rather than as a heading like "Parking information".

Write each answer as a complete sentence that makes sense on its own, because people will read it without the rest of the listing.

Those questions belong on your website as well, where you control the wording completely and nobody else can add to it.

A worked example

A falafel shop near a college campus had a busy listing, good reviews and plenty of photos.

Within days of the new section appearing, someone asked whether the falafel contained sesame. Another customer answered with confidence: no, it was just chickpeas.

The shop served its falafel with tahini, which is made from sesame, and fried everything in the same oil. The answer was wrong in a way that mattered.

The owner signed in as the business and answered properly: which items contain sesame, and that the kitchen cannot promise anything is free of it. Then she reported the wrong answer.

She also added four questions of her own, on sesame, gluten, vegan options and parking, each with a careful answer.

Anyone opening the section now finds the kitchen's own words under every question that matters.

Wrong answers and abusive ones

You cannot delete someone else's answer. You can report it, and you can add the correct answer alongside it.

Report answers that are false, offensive, off topic or advertising for somebody else. Google decides whether they come down.

Do not argue with a wrong answer. Correct it once, politely, as the business, and let readers see both.

Questions that are really complaints get the same treatment as a review: a calm reply, an offer to sort it out by phone, and no details on the listing.

Keep a screenshot of anything you report, with the date, in case it needs raising again.

How often to check

Do not count on Google telling you when a question arrives. For the next few weeks, look at your listing on a phone every few days, then weekly.

Make it one person's job, ideally the same person who replies to reviews.

Fit it beside the other listing habits: a new post every seven days, since most posts expire after a week, and photos kept current.

Read the questions as a record of what customers cannot find. A question that keeps coming back points to a gap on your listing or your website.

The counter-case

For some businesses the section will stay quiet. A trade that works at customers' homes, or a listing with few visitors, may see one question a year. A monthly look is enough there.

Not every question needs a reply from you. If a customer has already answered correctly, a short confirmation is plenty.

The feature is also new, and Google may change where it appears and how owners are told about questions.

For any listing that gets regular visitors: check it, answer as the business, and seed it with the questions you hear most.

While the section is new

  1. Open your listing on a phone.
  2. Sign in with the account that manages it.
  3. Answer every open question as the business.
  4. Report answers that are wrong or abusive.
  5. Add your five most common questions.
  6. Name one person to check it weekly.
  7. Copy the same answers onto your website.

Step five is the priority. The first answers in a new section set its tone, and they may as well come from you.

What visitors see on the same listing before they arrive is covered in entrance and interior photos on your listing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the new questions section?

A part of your Google listing where anyone signed in can ask about your business, and anyone, including customers, strangers and you, can answer.

Where does the section appear?

For now in Google Maps on Android phones and in Google search on phones. It may not show on a desktop computer, so check from a phone.

Can I delete a wrong answer?

No. You can report it to Google and add the correct answer as the business. Correct it once, politely, rather than arguing.

Can I add questions myself?

Yes. Ask the questions staff answer every day, such as parking, bookings and holiday hours, and answer each one in a complete sentence.

Will Google tell me about new questions?

Do not count on it. Check your listing on a phone every few days for the next few weeks, then weekly, and make it one person's job.

How should I handle allergy questions?

Answer as the business, say which items contain the allergen, explain any limits on what the kitchen can promise, and give the phone number for anything else.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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