During The Coronavirus Pandemic OMG wants to keep its community up to date with Google changes. Your digital health is important to OMG and Google is a big part of that.

According to Google.

“During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we are taking steps to protect the health of our team members and reduce the need for people to come into our offices. As a result, there may be some temporary limitations and delays in support as we prioritize critical services.”

At OMG, there will be not delays in our support. Instead, our continuing focus is the digital health of your business. For us, that starts with the quality and reliability of your business information across the internet, including all of Google.

Here is a list of recent changes and developments from Google that we are monitoring for your business.

1. Temporarily closed businesses. If you have a business that is closing temporarily due to COVID-19, mark the listing as “temporarily closed.”a “temporarily closed” label on your listing so that people who search Google for your business name see this label, rather than “permanently closed.”

2. Google is allowing businesses like restaurants to add “delivery available” or “takeout available” to the business name. This is normally not allowed per GMB guidelines.

3. Currently there are many reports on the GMB forum about businesses unable to add descriptions. We have a direct PIPELINE to your listings, so rest assured, we are monitoring the situation, and as always your Digital Data is secure.

4. There are many reports on the GMB forum about businesses having posts rejected – posts that do not contain violations. Google is challenged too, and the OMG Team is addressing where appropriate.

5. There are reports of businesses being marked temporarily closed that did not request it. Fortunately, OMG has our client GMB listings on lock down, so this should not be an issue for our clients.

6. Google has shut off the ability for businesses to receive new reviews. This includes reviews left via Local Services ad listings. If a user goes to leave a review, it appears to work as normal – but the review doesn’t show up anywhere. This behavior started on Friday, March 20, 2020. We have temporarily paused review requests until Google turns the visibility back on. Now is a great time to work with your OMG representative to strategize “Post Corona” review strategy.

7. The Questions and Answers section on Google has been completely removed from listings. OMG was first to exploit this in the market, and like reviews, Now is a great time to set up your Q & A for “Post Corona” launch.

8. Photos that are added are not showing live. We have many assets for our clients, but sending new photos through the OMC is still encouraged.

9. Newly created listings claims and verifications may be delayed. The support team at Google will temporarily be manually reviewing new listings, claims, and verifications for critical health-related businesses. Please expect a delay for publication of new listings, claims, and verifications for other types of businesses to Google Search and Maps.

We will keep this list updated over time, so check back to stay apprised. Regardless of these changes, the OMG team remains at work and committed to helping you get and keep more customers.

OMG has been sharpening each of its clients’ Google presence during this time and working hard to make gains even as we face other set-backs.

#OMGSTRONG