With public awareness of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at an all-time high, below is some guidance on how to use your current Local SEOPRO to update consumers with key information. This article provides steps to take across all our tools, so be sure to review the relevant sections based on your current plan.
Knowledge Graph
In the event that you need to cease offering specific services, or make other temporary changes, make sure to update your core data inside the Voice Knowledge Graph so updates flow to any experiences you are powering with Local SEOPRO, including: Holiday hours, menu items or services offered, descriptions, pick-up, drop-off, or entrance locations, etc. More details are provided below to help you make these updates:
- Temporary Closures
- For temporary location closures, the best practice is to leverage the new Hours (Temporarily Closed) field to reflect these changes. Make sure that you leave your regular hours as they are, otherwise it may indicate to certain publishers that you are permanently closed.
- You can see the Indicate that a location is temporarily closed article for recommendations on the actions to take.
- For temporary location closures, the best practice is to leverage the new Hours (Temporarily Closed) field to reflect these changes. Make sure that you leave your regular hours as they are, otherwise it may indicate to certain publishers that you are permanently closed.
- Add relevant COVID-19 business updates to your Voice Knowledge Graph through the Location Optimization tab.
- Update the Business Description to add COVID-19 messaging as it pertains to your business.
- Use the Featured Message to reinforce any urgent information or messages on your Listings. For example:
- “Please note this location is closed through [DATE]”
- “Online ordering and delivery available” with a link to an online ordering page.
- “Help us by buying a gift certificate!” with a link to your online store.
Listings
- Answer any customer questions:
- Google confirmed that COVID-19 related content is not permissible in Q&A for all businesses.
- If customers have already asked questions about coronavirus on your Google My Business listings, make sure to quickly respond. Do not be alarmed if Google removes the original question or your answer from your listing if it pertains to COVID-19.
- To answer questions via Q&A, see Answer Google Q&A Questions.
- Avoid COVID-19 related content when adding FAQs:
- Given the sensitivity around this situation and the potential for misinformation, Google is not allowing COVID-19 related content in Q&A for any businesses.
- Without specifically mentioning anything about COVID-19, clients can still leverage Google Q&A to provide helpful FAQs to their customers.
- For example: [Question: Is this business open for the month of March? Answer: Yes, we are open for the month of March, but only for pickup and delivery].
- Send real-time updates with social posts
- As the situation continues to rapidly evolve, keep your customers updated with posts on Facebook and Google. See Create a Post for steps to create Google Local posts and Facebook posts through Local SEOPRO.
We wish you and your teams the best during this critical moment. If you need anything at all, we are here to help!