If you’ve noticed that some business information has changed on your Google My Business profile without you making the changes, you’re not going crazy: Google can change info on your Google Business Profile without your knowledge. These changes to your profile can be both helpful and harmful, so it’s important to keep a watchful eye on your GMB account to ensure every piece of information is as accurate as possible. In this blog, we’ll go over the several reasons why Google may be automatically updating your Google My Business information!
Conflicting Information
One of the main reasons why Google will update your business information without your knowledge is if they find reliable, conflicting information from other online sources. For example, if Google comes across a more in-depth description of your business on a listing website like YellowPages or Yelp, they may update your Google My Business description. For example, if your previous business description was “Restaurant in Boston”, but Yelp has it described as “Seafood restaurant in Boston serving tapas and craft cocktails”, the change may be made to more accurately represent your business. If you notice a change has been made to your profile without your knowledge, be sure the new information is accurate!
Suggestions From Users
Another common reason why Google will automatically update your business information is from user suggestions. If you look at any Google My Business knowledge panel, you’ll see a “Suggest an edit” link. These suggested edits allow Google to crowdsource accurate information about your business. For instance, if your hours have changed but you forgot to update them on GMB, a customer of yours may suggest an update. If enough users suggest this same update, Google may automatically update your business information. Again, be cautious of these automatic updates and make sure they are accurate!
Artificial Intelligence
One more reason Google may automatically update your Google My Business profile is that they’ve begun implementing artificial intelligence. Google has stated that they’ve started to use AI to automatically update business profiles using the hours of competitors, your business as seen from Google Maps Street View, suggestions from Google Maps users, and other resources. The media giant plans to update the information for over 20 million businesses globally by 2023!
Contact Boston Web Marketing!
If you have any questions about optimizing your Google My Business profile or any other SEO tactic, don’t hesitate to contact our team at Boston Web Marketing! Our search engine optimization specialists help businesses in almost every industry achieve higher search rankings! Give us a call today at (857) 526-0096 or fill out the contact form on our website, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!