Google Business Profile in 2026: the updates that matter for local businesses

Why your Business Profile still matters

Your Google Business Profile is the box that appears on Google Search and Maps when someone looks for your business or for "dentist near me". It shows your hours, phone, photos, reviews and directions. For a local business it is often the first thing a customer sees, before your website.

In the last year Google has made several changes. Some are small. A few change how customers find answers about you. Here are the ones I think a local business owner should know.

1. Q&A is being replaced by AI answers

For years, anyone could ask a public question on your Maps listing, and anyone could answer it. On 3 December 2025 Google said it would essentially remove this Questions and Answers feature from Google Maps, as PPC Land reported. In its place, an AI-powered "Ask" button gives customers an instant answer based on the answers you provide and on relevant reviews.

Google also shut down the Q&A part of its Business Profile API in November 2025. The section in your Business Profile dashboard where you add answers stays, and those answers can still feed what Google shows.

Things are still moving. In August 2026, Search Engine Roundtable spotted Google testing a revamped Q&A button in the profile dashboard that asks owners yes or no questions about their business.

What to do: answer every question Google asks you in the dashboard, and make sure your services, hours and attributes are complete. The AI can only repeat what it knows. Your reviews now matter here too, because the AI reads them.

2. Reviews with nicknames

In late 2025 Google started letting people post reviews under a custom display name and picture instead of their real name. Search Engine Journal reported it was rolling out globally on Android, iOS and desktop.

As Whitespark explains, these reviews are not truly anonymous. Each one is still tied to a Google Account and goes through Google's spam checks. An unfamiliar name alone is not a reason for Google to remove a review. You can still report reviews that break the rules.

What to do:

• If you work in a private field, like health, therapy or legal services, tell customers in your review request that they can use a nickname. Some people who never left a review before may now do it.
• Stop using the reviewer's real name in your replies. If they switch to a nickname later, your old reply could reveal who they are.
• Keep a copy of your reviews from time to time, in case good ones are removed by mistake.

3. Scheduled and repeating posts

Posts are short updates, offers or events that show on your profile. Google's help page on posts now explains how to turn on "Schedule this post" to pick a date and time, and how to use the Repeats option for weekly or monthly posts. If you manage more than one location, you can select several profiles and publish one post to all of them.

Google also notes that posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range. So an offer from last spring is not helping anyone.

What to do: spend half an hour once a month and schedule two or three posts ahead. One update, one offer or seasonal message, one photo of real work.

4. WhatsApp and text message buttons

Google closed its old Business Profile chat in July 2024. Now, according to Google's chat help page, verified businesses can add a WhatsApp link or a phone number for text messages under Contact in their profile. Google says the option is only available in select regions, and if you add both, only the text option shows.

What to do: check under Edit profile, Contact, Chat. If you see it, add your WhatsApp Business link. In Cyprus and Greece, many customers prefer a quick WhatsApp message to a phone call.

A simple monthly checklist

1. Check your basic info. Hours, phone, address, website link. Add special hours for public holidays coming up.
2. Reply to every new review. Thank the good ones, answer the bad ones calmly. Do not use real names.
3. Answer any questions Google shows you in the dashboard.
4. Schedule two or three posts for the month ahead.
5. Add three to five new photos. Real staff, real products, real premises. No stock images.
6. Review your services and products list. Remove what you no longer offer.
7. Check the performance numbers. Calls, direction requests, website clicks and chat clicks. Compare a full month with the full month before it.
8. Search for your business on Maps on your phone and look at it as a customer would.

What this means for businesses in Cyprus and Greece

Most local businesses in Cyprus and Greece set up their profile once and then forget it. With AI now answering customer questions from your profile and reviews, an old or half-empty profile is a bigger problem than before.

With the clinics and service businesses I work with in Nicosia, I always start with two basics: hours that are always right, and a steady flow of recent reviews with polite replies. Both are easy to keep up, and both are exactly what a customer checks before calling.

Also think about language. Many profiles here serve Greek speakers, English speakers and tourists. Write your description and services in the language most of your customers use, and reply to reviews in the language they were written in.

Questions people ask

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Sources

1. Google quietly kills Q&A for an AI button most won't use, PPC Land, December 2025
2. Google Business Profiles Testing Revamped Q&A Feature, Search Engine Roundtable, August 2026
3. Google Maps Lets Users Post Reviews With Nicknames, Search Engine Journal, December 2025
4. Anonymous Google Reviews Are Here: What Your Business Should Do Now, Whitespark, December 2025
5. Create & manage posts on your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help
6. Chat with customers from your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help