During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, many local search platforms have made changes or updates. Please check back often for updates as they happen.
Plus, read Vendasta's blog about how businesses can navigate Google's temporary review limitations.
Google My Business
*Items in red are the newest entries
| Issue | What is being affected | Last updated |
| Reviews | Reviews and review responses were disabled (announced 3/20/2020). Users who try and post reviews might think it's published, but will not be public. Google says all reviews attempted posting during this time will post after functionality has been restored. | 3/26/2020 |
| Questions & Answers | Q&A disabled and hidden on all Google listings. |
3/20/2020 |
| Edits | Expect delays when editing business information. Google is prioritizing healthcare-related businesses and critical edits such as hours. | 3/20/2020 |
| Photos | Reports of all user-updated photos removed from listings. Photos uploaded by the business are unaffected. | 3/23/2020 |
| Posts |
Google has released a new post type called COVID-19 Update. |
3/26/2020 |
| Posts |
Business posts were temporarily disabled for some businesses and have since resumed. Google is working to reprocess previously rejected posts. |
3/30/2020 |
| Temporary Closure | You can now mark a business as Temporarily Closed from the GMB dashboard. Google has noted to only use this feature if the business is actually closed. | 3/25/2020 |
| Short names | New short names are now unavailable. | 3/30/2020 |
| Videos | All videos are now unavailable. | 4/02/2020 |
Yelp
| Issue | What is being affected | Last updated |
| Review moderation | Yelp announced more strict restrictions on reviews that mention COVID-19, complain about being closed due to COVID-19, or insinuate someone caught the virus from a restaurant. | 3/20/2020 |
| Temporary Closure | You can now mark a business as Temporarily Closed from the Yelp dashboard. You must include a re-open date. | 3/26/2020 |
| Pickup and delivery | Enables business owners to easily indicate if they’re only open for delivery and takeout. | 3/20/2020 |
| Fundraising | In partnership with GoFundMe. A new, fast and simple way for independent businesses to accept donations through their Yelp pages. | 3/24/2020 |
| Special Advisory | Yelp has added a COVID-19 Advisory banner to every listing. | 3/26/2020 |
How will this affect your clients?
Reputation Management
- No new Google reviews will be pulled into Reputation Management Express or Pro
- Clients will be unable to respond to reviews
- All actions related to Google Q&A will be unavailable
Customer Voice
- We recommend not requesting reviews on Google
Follow these steps to request reviews on the client's Facebook or another industry-specific site.
Follow these steps to request reviews on the client's My Listing page.
We will update this post if or as more information becomes available on this.
Requesting Reviews to Preferred Sites (not Google)
- Go to Templates
- Add New Template
- Select New Email Template or New SMS Template*
- Name your template
- Select New Preferred Review Sites Template
- Go to Settings
- Click Preferred Review Sites
- Uncheck Google from the list
- Check the boxes beside other preferred sites and include URL
- Send review request
*SMS templates only available with the purchase of an SMS Add-on, available with Customer Voice Pro
Requesting Reviews to My Listing
- Go to Templates
- Add New Template
- Select New Email Template or New SMS Template*
- Name your template
- Select My Listing Template
- Send review request
*SMS templates only available with the purchase of an SMS Add-on, available with Customer Voice Pro