- \n
- How can searchers chat with your business?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Should your business enable Messaging?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- History<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Benefits<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Best practices<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
How can searchers chat with your business?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
There are three ways to chat with a business:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- The chat icon,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The request a quote button, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The chat button on Posts (mobile only).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Should you use this feature?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The answer to this question is going to be different for every business owner and business type. If you have the staff and the ability to respond immediately to a chat inquiry and it makes sense for your business then this may be the ideal feature for you. Two-way messaging can improve a customer\u2019s experience, especially if it\u2019s a customer that doesn\u2019t want to call to ask a quick question and text is their ideal communication method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are not going to be readily available to answer texts for your business and the response time will be delayed, this is not an ideal feature for you. This is an \u201con-demand\u201d type of feature, which means expectations for a quick response are high. If you opt-in to use this feature but you don\u2019t respond to incoming messages or you take an unreasonable amount of time to respond, you will lose the feature<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
History of Google Business Profile Messaging<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Local SEOs often caution to watch what Google does<\/em>, not what it says<\/em>. There\u2019s a lot we can learn from the history of Google Business Profile Messaging. This feature is always changing. While that\u2019s not always great for reliability, it has been significantly improved recently. If you\u2019ve given up before, we want to encourage you to test it out again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March 2005, Google Local Business Center launched and allowed businesses to update their information on Google Local for accuracy. After years of new launches, merges and deprecations, Google My Business (now known as Google Business Profile) was launched in June 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By November 2016, Messaging was being tested in active beta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-108.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn July 2017, Google started rolling out the Messaging feature in the U.S. on desktop, mobile and the Android search app using SMS and Allo. Messages couldn\u2019t be answered through the Google Business Profile Manager (dashboard) and customers would see a proxy number for the business\u2019s response. It wasn\u2019t very elegant, but it seems it hoped to compete with Facebook\u2019s ability to give business owners a direct chat opportunity from their business page to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-109.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn November 2018, customers were given access to their Messages with businesses via the Google Maps app. Messaging continued to roll out to more countries and by December 2018, business owners could answer Messages through the Google My Business app. Mike Blumenthal called it \u201ca clear indication GMB is gaining capabilities for better b-c communications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Messaging strategy was further complicated by the shutdown of some integrated messaging apps, including the impending demise of Google Allo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September 2019, Google started to toggle off the functionality of this feature when a business is unresponsive. For businesses already using Messaging via SMS, nothing changed until November 2019 when Google announced \u201cmessaging will move from SMS to the free Google My Business app.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/wordpress.whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/How-to-read-reply-to-messages-from-your-Business-Profile-Android-Google-My-Business-Help-2021-09-01-16-45-19-1024x215.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen the Messaging feature is enabled, the business profile may display this additional button. The call-to-action text of this feature cannot be edited by the business and will display \u201cRequest a Booking\u201d or \u201cGet a Quote\u201d or similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-110.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn December 2020, we saw three improvements to Messaging:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Messages can be managed directly in the Google Maps app (not just the My Business app).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-113.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n2. A Chat button on Google Posts for businesses with Messaging enabled. (Google will tell you a Message came from a Post, but not which one).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-112-678x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n3. When a searcher calls a business but there\u2019s no answer, there\u2019s a prompt to send a Message instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- <\/ol>\n\n\n\n
In February 2021, Google updated its Messaging feature so businesses can manage chats with customers in the dashboard on desktop. Although initially pretty unreliable, June 2021 saw the full roll out of web notifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-114.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn October 2021, Messages notifications started appearing in the desktop version of the Business Profile Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Should your business enable Messaging?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n