How to Add FAQs to your Google Business Profile

There are questions every business gets asked repeatedly.

Most business owners know the drill and even get a good chuckle out of knowing the answers before the questions are finished being asked.

What most don’t know is you can turn these frequently asked questions into a secret weapon to gain more business by utilizing the Google Q&A section on your Google My Business profile.

How the Google Q & A Section Works

Google Q&A is an open section of every GMB profile where questions can be asked and answered by anyone in the world.

The questions can be about anything, but tend to focus on the products or services offered by the business.

All questions and answers appear publicly on your GMB profile and, if the search query is close enough, they can show up in the search results, too.

For example, if a person is searching for dog friendly seating at a restaurant in their area, a local restaurant who has answered a question about dog friendly seating might have a greater chance of showing up in the results than one who has not.

This means having a developed Q&A section can help your company rank higher and appear in more search results.

Seeding Your Questions

The reason this is such an under utilized aspect of the GMB profile is most people who come to a profile will leave a review but very few will ask questions. If customers were actively asking questions, business owners would be all over this section.

This presents business owners in the know with the opportunity to seed their Q&A with the most frequently asked questions and answer them.

The steps you need to take to seed your Q&A are:

Preparation

Create a list of FAQs
Write down a full response to each question

Adding Questions to Your Profile

The Q&A section will show the name of the person who places the question. For this reason you do not want to use your business profile to ask the questions.

The steps you should take are:

Make sure you are logged into Google with a personal account
Search for your business
Click the “Ask a question” button on the GMB profile
Copy the question from your FAQ sheet and hit the “Post” button
Repeat for all the questions

Answering the Questions in Google My Business

You cannot access the questions when you are on the GMB dashboard. Instead, you must review the questions from your outward facing business profile.

To answer questions while representing your business you must:

Make sure you are logged into Google with your business profile
Search for your business on Google
In the “Questions and Answers” section of your business profile select “See all questions“
Find the question you want to answer
Type or paste your answer and hit the “Post” button

That’s it!

Rinse and repeat for all the questions you created in the step above.

Benefits of Seeding Q&A

There are many benefits to seeding FAQs into your Google Business Profile. Who can be sure if anyone but the Google engineers knows all of them but these are the most relevant.

More Search Results

Any information you include in your Google Business Profile is used by the algorithm to match your business up with relevant keywords. The questions and answers in your profile can qualify you for additional search results.

For example, if you are a business which offers private classes, you want to have a question in your profile which asks about private classes for your niche. So if someone searches for “YOUR NICHE private classes near me” you have a great chance of being in the maps listing.

User Experience

Having the information people want to know available in less clicks makes the modern user happy. Anything you can add to your Google business profile which answers a users question more quickly gives them a better experience and leads them to think of you as an authority on the topic.

Save Time

If there are questions you answer over and over, consider including those questions in the most visible places to reduce the amount of time you spend answering them.

Accurate Information

By seeding your questions and answers you make sure the information provided is accurate. The reality is anyone can answer these questions, so you creating and answering them first will get your potential clients the best answers.

Competitive Advantage

Because the Q&A section of the business profile does not show up in the dashboard, very few business are taking advantage of this important tool. Anyone who

Encourage Interaction

Personal interaction with a business gives people more of a connection to that business. By seeding your questions, you encourage people to ask more questions on your profile and create more opportunities to connect with your audience.

Google Q&A Tips

Actively Monitor

Questions can come into your profile at any time. Once you have seeded the first few questions it will encourage others to take advantage of the feature.

Monitoring your Q&A section on a regular basis will insure you are controlling the answers and interacting with potential customers.

Answer All Questions

Not having an answer to a question makes it look like you aren’t paying attention to your profile. That’s a bad look for any business.

Correct Responses

Sometimes people will try and answer questions for you. Make sure they are provide accurate and up to date information.

Also, as your business changes, update any responses that are now out of date.

Beat the Spam

Any question or answer which breaks Google’s guidelines can be reported and Google will usually remove it.

Just click on the three dots in the top right hand corner or a question or answer and it will have a drop down which allows you to report the entry.

Still Need Help With Google Questions and Answers?

As part of Tavallo’s SEO services we help businesses to optimize their Google Business Profiles.

This service includes frequent updates and additions to their questions and answers.

If you need help managing your Google Business Profile or are looking to improve the digital marketing of your business, we can help and are passionate about seeing businesses of all size succeed and see new revenue by partnering with us.