Google Business Profile questions and answers, seeded by you

Aug 22
3 min read

Updated: Aug 27

Introduction

There is a section on your listing where anybody can ask a question — and, more importantly, where anybody can answer one.

Most businesses have never looked at it. Some discover it years later containing a wrong answer from a stranger that has been shown to customers thousands of times.

1. Google Business Profile questions and answers can be answered by anyone

This is the part people do not expect. The section is not a private channel between you and a customer.

Any member of the public can post an answer to a question about your business, and their answer appears publicly. It may be well-meant and out of date, guessed, or simply wrong.

Answers can also be voted on, and the most-voted answer tends to be shown most prominently. Which means an incorrect answer can become the visible one.

2. Seed it with the questions you already answer daily

The most useful action available: post the common questions yourself, and answer them.

You are permitted to ask and answer your own questions, and doing so fills the space with accurate information before anyone else fills it with something else.

Take the questions your staff answer on the phone every week — parking, accessibility, whether booking is needed, whether you cater to a particular requirement, payment methods, whether children are welcome — and put each one in.

3. Write the answers plainly and completely

Each answer should stand alone, because it may be read without the surrounding context.

State the fact, add the qualification, and stop. "Yes, we have step-free access from the street, and an accessible toilet on the ground floor." Not "yes we do!"

Avoid marketing language entirely here. This section is consulted by people looking for a specific piece of information, and anything promotional reads as evasive.

4. Monitor it, because notifications are unreliable

The known weakness of this feature: you may not be notified when a question is asked.

So checking it has to be a scheduled task rather than a response to an alert. Add it to the monthly routine — open the listing, read the section, answer anything new, and check that existing answers are still correct.

Businesses that discover a two-year-old wrong answer almost always discover it by accident. A monthly look prevents that entirely.

5. Correct wrong answers by adding a better one

You generally cannot delete another person's answer unless it breaches the platform's content rules.

What you can do is post the correct answer yourself and make it comprehensive. Answers from the business are usually labelled as such, which gives them authority with readers.

Where an answer is genuinely abusive, spam, or promoting another business, report it. Where it is merely wrong, out-answer it.

6. Update answers when the business changes

Stale answers here are worse than none, because customers act on them.

Prices, hours, whether a service is still offered, whether the policy on bookings changed. An answer stating you accept walk-ins, posted three years ago, will still be sending people to a business that now requires reservations.

Review the whole section whenever something material changes, and at least annually.

7. Use it to reduce your own workload

The commercial argument for taking this seriously is not visibility. It is fewer repetitive enquiries.

Every question answered accurately in public is a phone call somebody does not have to make, and a customer who arrives already knowing the answer. For businesses where staff spend a large share of their time answering the same six questions, this is a measurable saving.

It also filters out the enquiries that were never going to convert, which is a benefit even though it looks like fewer leads.

8. Watch what people actually ask

The questions arriving unprompted are free research.

If several people ask the same thing, that is information about a gap — in your website, your listing, your signage, or your offer. A recurring question about parking usually means the parking situation is genuinely unclear.

Keep a note of what gets asked over a year. It is one of the few unfiltered records of what prospective customers are uncertain about, and it usually points at cheap fixes elsewhere.

Conclusion

Anyone can answer questions about your business publicly, so seed the section with the questions you answer daily and reply to them yourself, plainly and completely.

Check it monthly rather than relying on notifications, out-answer incorrect responses and report only rule-breaking ones, refresh answers whenever the business changes, and treat the questions people ask unprompted as free research into what confuses your customers.