Business owners with verified Google My Business listings can now reply to reviews left about their business directly in Google Maps on desktop, Kara Jancourtz, a community manager from the Google My Business team, announced in the Google support forums. Business owners no longer need to use the Google My Business center or mobile app to reply to reviews; they can do so directly in their Google Maps listing on the desktop view of Google Maps.
What Google said. Kara wrote “We’re making improvements on how you can reply to reviews, and providing you with more information and tools to get feedback from customers. You can now reply to reviews directly with your business profile on Google Maps from your computer. Replying directly from Google Maps lets you manage your reviews without having to download the Google My Business app or open its homepage.
“Positive or negative, reviews are an opportunity to identify areas to improve the consumer experience,” she added.
How it works. Here are the steps to reply to reviews left about your verified business:
- Go to Google Maps.
- Enter your business name. Then, click Search Search or press Enter.
- Click Reviews.
- Next to the review you’d like to reply to, click Reply.
Other methods. There are other methods to reply to reviews about your business in Google Maps. You can log in to Google My Business on desktop and reply to reviews in the “reviews” section. You can also download the Google My Business app on iOS or Android and reply to reviews within the app.
There are more details on how to reply to reviews in Google Maps over here.
Why it matters. Being able to reply to reviews directly on your desktop might make it easier for business owners who sit behind a screen all day, like myself. When you see a new review about your business while on desktop, you no longer have to then open the app or Google My Business and look for it there. You can simply and quickly just reply to the review right from where you are reading it, on desktop.
About The Author
Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land’s News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.