Google My Business released a “Questions and Answers” feature in August of 2017 which allows users to ask and answer questions about a business directly on their Knowledge Panel.
NB: This is an article from gcommerce
Yes, you read that right, any user can also answer any questions that have been asked about your business.
While Google continues to expand its preset business information and attributes for a business to provide directly through their Google My Business profile, it is still limited and does not provide all the answers a consumer is looking for about a business. If your business is not answering these direct-from-consumer questions, you are missing out on a great opportunity. The problem with allowing other users to answer the questions means you are allowing people to speak for your brand. The answers may be inaccurate, unprofessional, unhelpful or the questions could simply go unanswered and you have now lost a potential customer.
It is important that your business is present and responds to your customers wherever the conversation is happening. This includes responding to reviews across platforms but also answering questions on your Google My Business listing directly; even if someone else has already answered. Then moving forward, you want to be sure that you monitor and answer any questions before another user or local guide does so first.
Users are constantly searching the internet for information and Google is constantly evolving to serve up the most relevant and user-friendly content. This is your chance as a business to protect your brand, incorporate some keywords where relevant and ensure that the information that is being shared to your audience is accurate and helpful. While there is no direct correlation between these Q&A’s and ranking, there is some speculation. Even if it doesn’t directly impact your business’ rankings, you want to ensure you are providing accurate information about your business.
Most questions and answers are hidden behind the “see all questions” link, but this is not always the case. If a user “likes” a question, it can appear directly on the knowledge panel with an associated answer as seen below.
Another reason for monitoring your Google My Business profile’s questions is that a customer may use it to file a complaint or write a review versus its intended use for asking questions. By monitoring this on a regular basis you can get ahead of the situation. If you do notice this to be the case, Google does have an avenue to allow for reporting of any misuse and/or abuse in the Q&A section. You can review Google’s guidelines here prior to reporting to ensure the offender is truly misusing the section.
You can even take this Google My Business feature one step further by creating your own FAQs to get ahead of your users and anticipated questions. Aside from providing valuable information to your users, it also makes your business listing look useful to those who are seeking answers to their questions.
