Google Business Profile Category Issues – Are You Affected?

Before Thanksgiving, we talked about a study detailing the importance of listing management for a winning SEO strategy. This week, we’re looking at some problems with the new Google Business Profile (GBP) update and what it could mean for your clients. As a reminder, Google My Business rebranded to the Google Business Profile earlier this month.

Healthcare Providers Faced Google Business Profile Problems

GBP had a major issue over the last few weeks that was impacting businesses in the medical categories. It seems to have resolved itself now, however we highly recommend you check your clients’ GBP listings.

For those partners who are using our GBP Sync, you can check this data from your Advice Local partner dashboard.

In what appears to be a bug, medical listings saw countless categories removed from their profiles. Users attempting to add a category were faced with an error message stating, “This business category isn’t available in your region.” There were even problems with some medical facilities’ addresses showing the error message on map listings.

How Reliant Are You on Google?

Issues like these are the perfect example of why you need to diversify the marketing strategies you use to help your local business clients. Of course, GBP will always play an important role in any strategy, but we all need contingencies for when unresolved bugs appear and Google isn’t especially forthcoming with information.

At Advice Local, we aim to reach potential customers wherever they can be found. This process involves using listing sites like Bing, Yelp and Nextdoor, along with other niche and vertical directories.

We also recommend submitting to data aggregators, GPS navigation, mapping apps and data sources that submit to Siri, Alexa and other voice assistants. This approach leaves your clients less exposed to the whims of Google and increases the touchpoints where customers can find local businesses.

Have You Tried Our Listing Management Solution?

At Advice Local, we have created a listing management solution that lets you control your clients’ listings from a single dashboard. Syndicate listings to all the major platforms, make quick updates, generate client reports and respond to reviews from one location. To try it for yourself, request a demo today.