Google My Business (GMB) is a free platform for managing your business’s presence on Google. With the recent update, it will be easier to feature more relevant reviews of your business. Read on to find out more about the change and how you can utilize it to your business’s advantage.
What Is Google My Business?
Google My Business is a free tool from Google that allows business owners to manage their online presence on Google Search and Maps. A complete profile includes a description of your business, photos, hours, and other details. Regularly updating your Google My Business profile can increase your visibility in local search results, which may lead to more customers.
How Does the New GMB Featured Review Work
As of July 2019, GMB has updated its Featured Review system called Place Topics, which is based on the most-mentioned place name instead of just showing standard business reviews.
The featured reviews have been updated to reflect the most often mentioned terms by reviewers, providing searchers with a brief overview of popular consumer opinions and features. This means if a restaurant has four reviews, and three call the food “delicious,” there will be an option to view only the reviews mentioning that specific word.
Place Topics are tags that emphasize characteristics that are commonly referenced in consumer reviews. Google has generated these tags, so there is no way to edit or modify them. These new GMB features should help to highlight your most popular items, services, or features for the benefit of people that read your listing.
Place Topics are visible at the top of the Reviews page on mobile listings and appear to be available just on Android devices at the moment.
The Impact on Business Owners
As a business owner, it is vital to be aware of the changes taking place within Google My Business. With the implementation of this new GMB feature, business owners will now have a greater chance to rank their business in Google maps.
One way to do this is to analyze your best Place Topics to have a deeper understanding of your consumers’ experiences. It may provide crucial feedback that can give direction on how to further improve your business operations.
Google My Business made all these changes to increase the transparency and quality of the review process. And with this major update, there is no better time than now to make sure all of your customers know how great you are so that word gets out through these new featured reviews.