Google Business Profile Q & A

Last month, we hosted a webinar on Google Business Profiles (GBP) and the engagement was so high, we knew it was a topic with a lot of questions. As a result, we converted the Q&A into a helpful blog.

Our guest speaker, Sherry Bonelli from early bird digital marketing, is a Google Business Profile Platinum Product Expert. Together, Stamats offers several levels of Google Business Profile services to our customers.

Webinar questions submitted by attendees.

Q: If you’re managing a GBP for a college or university and there are departments in multiple buildings, would you create a GBP for each of those buildings as well or just the “main college” building? Kind of different from customer-based locations.

A: Publicly facing departments at colleges and universities that operate as separate entities can have their own Business Profile. The exact name and category of each department must be different from the main business and of other departments. Typically, these departments should have a separate customer entrance.

Q: Can you preset your hours for holidays? For example, every December 25 you are closed.

A: Not re-occurring for multiple years. You cannot do multiple years since the day that holiday falls on changes each year. What you can do is set all your holidays for the year at once. So, on January 1, you can update all the year’s holidays.

Q: Can you give us examples of what third-party tools you would want to have associated with your profile?

A: I honestly can’t think of a tool that you would want connected to your GBP.

Q: Can we link the chat button to our third-party chat platform, such as Salesforce CRM?

A: Yes, there are several third-party tools you can connect the chat/message tool to. I use one called High Level. I don’t believe Salesforce is one of them.

Q: If different departments can have different hours, how does that happen if only one profile is allowed per location?

A: See the answer about departments above. If your department meets those requirements, you can set your own hours.

Q: How do we name a different department? I thought earlier it was said the name of the business was the only thing allowed in the name?

A: Here is an example of how you would name a department: “University of Wisconsin Admissions Department.”

Q: If you turn chat on/off, does it happen immediately?

A: Yes, you will see chat/message ready immediately. Studies show people prefer chat to phone calls, so this is a nice feature to enable.

Q: Will turning on messaging/chat help businesses/universities rank higher in Google?

A: Messaging does not impact rankings.

Q: Can customers upload photos to our Google Business Profile without our knowledge or consent?

A: Yes

Q: How do you deal with issues like people spamming or creating multiple accounts for your institution, in this case the University? What is the best way to unify and take control of your presence on Google?

A: If they are fake listings, you should immediately contact Google Support.

You can also reach out to the Google Business Profile Help Forum and a volunteer can help you.

If you have additional questions, please reach out to Sandra Fancher.