Things with Google My Business (GMB) are changing or not working properly. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is hard to keep up with so we have compiled a list of things that have changed or not currently working at the moment, “During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we are taking steps to protect the health of out 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.” - Google My Business Help  

1. Google is allowing businesses to make changes to the actual business name to add on updates such as “Restaurant Name - To-Go Available” or “Restaurant Name - Takeout Available”. Normally this is against GMB guidelines but given the state of circumstances, it’s helpful to those looking to still order and support restaurants near them.
2. There are many reports on GMB forums about businesses not being able to add Descriptions. There is not a fix for this yet.
3. There are many reports on GMB forums about businesses having rejected posts that have not actually violated the content policy. We experienced this personally.
4. There are reports of businesses not able to add websites to their GMB dashboard. We experienced this personally as well.
5. There are reports of businesses being marked temporarily closed that did not request it. The solution here would be to un-check the listing as closed in your GMB dashboard. This should fix the issues but if it doesn’t, contact GMB support. If you are open and operating, you should keep an eye out for this until reports begin to decrease. See Google’s statement here.
6. Google has shut off the ability for businesses to view review replies and all Q&A during this time.
7. Google has created a forum of resources to help your small business manage though uncertainty here.
8. When logging into your Google My Business. You will get the following message: “Limited Google My Business functionality. Edits, review replies, and other Google My Business functionality may not operate as usual at this time due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19)”. From our experience, you can still make changes to your GMB but approval is taking longer than normal and some edits are being rejected with no explanation as to why.

For more up to date information on COVID-19, visit the World Health Organization.