Here’s What It Means For Marketers

Google is starting to roll out an AI-powered Q&A feature Google Business Profiles (GBP) on Google Maps for mobile.

This feature will most likely replace Google Q&A, which has quietly disappeared from some lists.

The AI ​​feature “Ask maps about this place” was the first announced at the end of October 2024. along with the number of other AI improvements to Google Maps, but it wasn’t widely available or visible.

At the time, Google also noted that “in the coming months, you’ll also see similar experiences on Search — including AI-powered review summaries and the option to ask detailed questions about places.”

Currently, the feature is available in the Google Maps app, hidden on the profile in the Overview tab, below the basic one business NAP details and review summaries.

How does it work?

Ask Maps allows users to enter open-ended questions into the query box. While it offers and suggests pre-formatted business-friendly queries, users can also ask specific questions.

Preformed queries can vary significantly by company location (for companies with multiple locations), with minimal company overlap. And sometimes, similarly worded questions can yield slightly different answers.

The query field allows for complex questions. Although, the more you ask, the more likely you’ll be told there isn’t enough information about this place to answer your question.

Ask Maps Often, But Not Always, suggests six pre-formatted queries—a sort of local version of People Also Ask—to help the searcher get answers to their potential questions faster.

Some ads have no questions, and some have two to four of these suggested questions.

These pre-formed queries vary by location, with even locations associated with the same brand share having minimal overlap.

Looking at four or five different store locations, there were only a few of these questions that were duplicated.

We were interested in whether a review corpus or previous Q&A responses were used to generate these preformed queries.

We downloaded and analyzed reviews and Q&A content using N-grams, word clouds, and ChatGPT. We found virtually no correlation between existing Google Q&As or review content and the pre-formed queries presented.

Obviously, the searcher can ask any question to the artificial intelligence.

However, as mentioned, if Google does not have enough data from listing attributes, reviews, business website or trusted third party websites, the user will be told “There is not enough information about this place.”

Not every category

Unlike the soon-to-be-available legacy Q&A feature, Ask Maps excludes some business categories and is only available in US locations.

In our review, the feature was not present on the profiles of most health care providers, counseling centers, social services, pregnancy care centers, and drug rehab centers, although we did find it on the profiles of dentists.

The feature was also not visible on highly problematic and unwanted categories like moving companies, locksmiths and garage door listings. It was available in less spammy categories such as HVAC, Roofers, and Electricians.

Business profiles in regulated categories such as marijuana, tobacco, gun stores, or dating services had this feature.

The primary list category determines whether the feature appears or not.

Each YMCA location in my area has slightly different categories, and the one with social services as the primary category didn’t have Ask Maps, while all the others did.

Where does the information come from?

Google says:

“All of these features are made possible by Gemini’s powerful creation, inference and summarization capabilities — based on our trusted data on 250 million locations worldwide and insights from the map community.”

In response to questions from Ask Maps, it appears that Google first relies on the content in the company’s profile, GBP reviews and the company’s website before accessing third-party content.

When Google had images from uploaded GBP images relevant to the answer, they were also included.

While the source of these images, in the example we saw, was presented as a business website, all images came from the company’s Google profile.

Ask Maps will refer to third-party web sources if necessary to answer a question and the site is trustworthy.

In the following example, we asked about the problems customers have experienced with this dealership, and the response was related to Carfax.com and Facebook.

Strangely, Ask Maps is currently unable to answer questions about product inventory even when Google has clearly uploaded the inventory to Merchant Center and is showing elsewhere on the profile.

Reviews from the web

It’s clear that consumers value reviews, and Ask Maps gives them access to a summary of the worst and best Google reviews, as well as reviews from around the web.

The query below, asking about “Barbara Oliver Jewelry online rating”, brought up a summary of the review (using Local scheme) directly from her website with additional data from Facebook.

However, despite numerous attempts, her Yelp review did not appear.

Your website as a data source

The following video demonstrates Ask Maps’ ability to answer questions in many situations that previously required a visit to a business website.

On the Barbara Oliver Jewelry Profile, we asked, “What’s involved in designing a custom ring?” and received a 118-word response that referred to multiple sections and pages from Barbara Oliver’s website.

Google Q&A has been discontinued

Clearly, this feature is a big improvement over Google Q&A, which was introduced early on 2018. Most answers to questions and answers are generated by users and are often repetitive, contradictory or incorrect.

Initially, the feature was highly visible on the Company Profile in search, although it has recently been moved further down the page.

Contributor to the Google Support Forums was recently said that the current Q&A feature is being discontinued.

As we communicated in our previous email, the Q&A feature is no longer available to any of our users, regardless of their location. Additionally, there is no support link or method by which you can independently verify this information. Please note that this update complies with Google’s new guidelines. According to these changes, profiles that are updated according to the latest requirements will not have the Q&A option available.

This has yet to be officially confirmed by Google. But it makes sense given that Ask Maps, once it’s expanded and searched, does a much better job of answering questions than you could ever hope for. Ask Maps does this by using a limited number of trusted sources.

Currently, Ask Maps is only available in the US. In its current form, it likely violates EU DMA regulations and highlights the massive self-preference that occurs with Google Local.

Therefore, it is unlikely that it will come to Europe anytime soon. Although it will probably appear elsewhere soon.

A local marketing strategy response

Google continues to go the route of more dynamic AI-generated content on your Google Business Profile.

While this behavior it changes dramatically verticallythere’s every reason to not only treat your profile as your new home page, but to up your game in that regard.

In practical terms, it doesn’t matter if your leads come directly from Google or from your website as long as they do. And when you can gain an advantage by feeding Google, you should.

Website

As the above example shows, Google responds to users’ questions with meaningful and meaningful answers.

My colleague David Mihm has long argued that your website content is perhaps best viewed as feed for search engines, and now AI engines.

You need to make sure that your site has a properly structured structure and content.

Content must answer all the important questions customers have about your business. This includes not only what you do, but how, where and how well you do it.

It should show as well as tell, providing images and video on top of the text.

Reviews

With the ability for tools like Ask Maps to aggregate your reviews from Google and the entire web, it’s more important than ever to diversify your review content and highlight it on one of Ask Maps’ most trusted sources: your website.

Photos

We’ve long been committed to original, high-quality photography (and video) on your website and GBP.

This leads to increased engagement (a ranking signal) and increased conversions (the ultimate goal). Your photos should be regularly updated in both places for maximum benefit.

There’s no more cost-effective way to get more bang for your buck than great photos and videos.

Social profiles

Google looks at GBP data first, then reviews, then the business website. But if the question cannot be answered there, then it will start pulling information from your social media accounts.

Facebook and LinkedIn were common in our testing and you should make sure they are up to date and accurately reflect your products, services and reputation.

Read

Google has long relied on web references (also known as citations)—brand mentions without links—from around the web to understand local entities.

This can be seen very clearly in the screenshot below, where we asked if the business owner supports local volunteer organizations.

A newspaper article and the Facebook page of one of the organizations he works with were also referenced.

This type of resource is also a great research tool to understand the types and sources of valuable quotes for your business.

These types of searches should also be conducted for your direct competitors to give you additional ideas on where to get those referrals.

The future of local

The growing “zero click” behavior. in Google Local inevitably lead to declining traffic for small business websites. These types of changes will continue unless the government steps in to regulate it as a monopoly.

For some sectors, such as publishing, which depends on traffic to sell ads, this is a potential death knell – at the local level. However, you can often replace lost traffic with more GBP leads if you play Google’s game.

As frustrating as it can be at times, we think the game is still worth playing. The generated leads can be significant. But the types of content and signals Google needs today to rank you well (brandingreviews, engagement, etc.), you should work regardless.

That game is increasingly verticalized at Google – or at least user behavior is.

To really excel in this environment, you have to understand consumer behaviors in your specific industry and adjust everything you do to satisfy them.

More resources:

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Featured image: Darko 1981/Shutterstock