Google My Business added COVID attributes. Update yours.

Six weeks ago most of the businesses we work with were arguing about photos and review replies. This week the argument is whether the listing says “temporarily closed” when the back door is very much open for pickup. Google has been shipping changes to Google My Business faster than we have seen in five years of managing listings, and a lot of owners have not touched their profile since the shutdowns started in March.

That is a problem, because the profile is now doing the job the front window used to do. Here is what changed, what we are updating for clients this week, and what we are leaving alone.

What Google added, in plain terms

Since mid-March Google has rolled out a run of features aimed squarely at the shutdown:

• A COVID-19 post type. A special update that sits at the top of your profile, above regular posts, for hours changes, safety measures and how to order. It expires after 14 days, so it needs refreshing.
• “Temporarily closed.” A status that keeps the listing live but tells searchers not to show up. It is the right call for a business that is fully shut. It is the wrong call for anyone still doing pickup, delivery or phone orders, and we have found it set on listings that are open.
• New attributes. Dining attributes for takeout, delivery and curbside pickup, and for other categories “online appointments,” “online care” and “online estimates.” Google is surfacing these directly in the map results, so a restaurant with “curbside pickup” checked shows it next to its name.
• Support links. A place to add a gift card link or a donation link. Google is pushing these in a “support local businesses” treatment on the listing.
• More hours. You can now set separate hours for things like pickup or delivery, so the main hours can say one thing and the pickup window another.

Some things also went away for a while. Google paused new reviews and review replies in March and is only now restoring them, region by region, and Q&A has been slow to come back. If you replied to a review three weeks ago and it never appeared, that is why. It is not gone.

The order we are doing it in

Every listing we manage is getting the same pass, in this order, because it moves from “stops people showing up to a closed door” to “nice to have.”

1. Hours and status first. If you are open in any form, the status is “open” with the real hours, not “temporarily closed.” If you are closed, use the temporary closure so Google does not treat the listing as permanently gone.
2. Attributes second. Check every attribute that is true. Do not check ones that are not: “delivery” when you only do pickup will produce angry calls, and the calls are what you are trying to protect right now.
3. A COVID post third. Two or three lines: how to order, when, and what you are doing to keep people safe. Refresh it every two weeks. We put the refresh on a calendar because nobody remembers otherwise.
4. The description and services. If you have added new offerings, like family meal kits or virtual consultations, put them in the services list and the description. Google is matching searches like “meal kit near me” against this text.
5. Support links last. Gift cards are a real lifeline for restaurants and salons right now. If you sell them, add the link. If you do not, skip it rather than pointing it at your homepage.

What we are telling dental and medical clients

Dental practices are the biggest part of our client list, and most are limited to emergency care right now under state guidance. The listing should say so. “Open” with reduced hours and a COVID post that reads “Emergency and urgent care only, call before coming in” has produced far fewer wasted trips and confused calls than either “temporarily closed” or leaving the listing untouched. The “online care” attribute is worth setting if you are doing any teledentistry triage, because patients are searching for exactly that.

For practices that are fully closed, this is the month to fix the things that never get fixed when you are busy: categories, the services list, photos of the office, and answering the questions sitting unanswered in Q&A once it comes back.

What to leave alone

We are not changing primary categories, business names or addresses right now unless they were wrong to begin with. Google’s review of edits is slower than usual, and a category change that goes into a queue for two weeks can drop a listing out of the results it was already winning. Fix the temporary things, keep the permanent things stable.

We are also not deleting old posts or photos. They are not hurting you, and the listing looks more established with them.

What to do this month

• Open Google My Business today and read your listing the way a customer sees it in the map. Hours, status, attributes.
• Set every attribute that is true and no attribute that is not.
• Publish a COVID post and put a reminder in your calendar to refresh it in 14 days.
• If reviews are back for your area, reply to everything you missed in March. Short and human is fine.
• If you are closed, use the downtime on the permanent stuff: categories, services, photos.

If you would rather hand this to someone, this is what we do all day. Our Google My Business work is the part of local SEO that is paying off fastest right now, and for restaurants in particular the profile is the storefront until the doors open again.