December 17, 2020
Google My Business is Crowdsourcing Attributes for Your Dealership Listings
There has been a flurry of enhancements to Google My Business lately, and one change that dealerships need to pay attention to is the increase in opportunity for consumers to provide Google with attributes about your business. This means that consumers can suggest edits to your GMB listing, and Google may publish those consumer edits on your listing.
In this post, we’ll share the latest information Google is looking to obtain about your dealership from consumers, and what to do about it.
GMB Crowdsources with “Suggest an Edit”
Google has long asked consumers and Local Guides to edit GMB listings via the “Suggest an edit” link on all listings. Surprisingly, Google does publish consumer suggestions on business listings, without seemingly verifying the suggestions for accuracy. For example, earlier this month we saw a consumer’s recommended hours for a dealership posted below the dealer’s published (and accurate) hours.
GMB Recently Expanded Crowdsourcing with “Share the latest info”
In the quest for more thorough GMB listings, GMB recently posted a second consumer call to action link labeled, “Know this place? Share the latest info.” Interestingly, this link seems to only appear when accessing GMB from a personal Google account. When logged in via your corporate Google account, it is unlikely that the link will appear.
Here is a visual of this link, when businesses are searched from non-work accounts:
For Friendemic’s GMB, Google is crowdsourcing information regarding accessibility to our building:
For dealers, GMB is asking consumers about how to shop at the dealership:
Google is also asking about products offered at the dealership:
What Dealers Should do About GMB’s Crowdsourcing
Not all the information GMB is seeking from customers in this new “Share the latest info” feature is available to you, as the business owner, within your GMB account. Thus, the only way to ensure the accuracy of this information is for you to answer the sequence of questions on behalf of the dealership. When we at Friendemic answered the questions posed on our listing, the “Share the latest info” link then disappeared from our GMB. As of yet, none of the information we provided has been published on our listing, but we’ll update this post should that change.
Similarly, you should look at your GMB listings daily to ensure that if Google has crowdsourced and published information on your listing, you can verify for accuracy or request Google to take it down.
Friendemic has great expertise in developing robust Google My Business listings that use the power of reviews, photos and posts to grow searches, calls and web visits for dealerships. If you would like to learn more about how we can help with your GMB listing(s), call or email us.
(801) 415-9314
Lastly, in case you missed it, here is a link to our recent post on the impact that 100+ pictures on your GMB listing can have on your business. https://www.friendemic.com/more-gmb-photos-more-searches-more-calls-and-website-visits/