COVID-19 Effects on Google Reviews Explained

Due to COVID-19, there may be some temporary limitations to ‘Google My Business’ functionality, which includes reviews because Google wants to give more priority to critical services.

According to the official announcement,

“During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we are taking steps to protect the health of our team members and reduce the need for people to come into our offices. As a result, there may be some temporary limitations and delays in support as we prioritize critical services.”

Let’s take a look at the temporary changes.

Temporary Changes of Google My Business Product

Reviews, Q&A and More

• Until further notice, Google My Business will not publish any new reviews, review replies, or new Q&A. The existing reviews, review replies, and Q&A will be visible 

New Listings, Claims and Verifications

• Publication of new listings, claims, and verifications will be prioritized for health-related businesses or services. For other businesses, there will be a delay in publication

Business Information Edits

Google will prioritize reviewing business information such as changes to open-and-close states, special hours, temporary closures, business descriptions and business attributes.

Even here, the priority will be given to health-related businesses or services. If your business does not fall under this category, it will take some time for the changes to go live

Best Practices That Businesses Can Follow During This Situation

Meanwhile, here are some things that businesses can do.

• • Avoid making unnecessary changes like adding new photos or descriptions. If required focus on important changes such as business hours, address and contact information
  • Gather reviews through other platforms such as Yelp, Facebook, Twitter or e-mails. You can also add the reviews on your website
  • Google posts are not affected. So, if you want to share new updates to your customers, use Google My Business listing to publish posts

Click here to learn how to update information if your business is affected by COVID-19. 

We will keep updating this article as and when we get new information related to this. 

As always, our Wisevu team is happy to help you during these tough times. If you have any questions related to online marketing or online reputation management, do not hesitate to contact us.

We will keep updating this article as and when we get official Google announcements about Google My Business product.