Google Business Profile in 2026: What's Changed Since You Last Looked
If your Google listing was set up back when it was called Google My Business, the guide you followed is probably out of date. Not slightly. Properly.
The COVID-19 updates are gone. Google's built-in chat is gone. The Q&A section is gone. Insights has been replaced. And the biggest change of all: Google's AI is now answering questions about your business, whether or not you have given it good material to work with.
Here is what changed, what it means for a New Zealand business that depends on people walking through the door, and what to do about it this week.
Why your profile matters more, not less
Google Maps has more than 2 billion monthly users, and Google is now building AI directly into it. The zero-click trend we wrote about last time has only picked up speed. Google wants to answer the question on its own pages, and for local searches, your Business Profile is the answer.
Someone searches for a cafe, a clothing store or a plumber near them. There is a good chance they decide, call or get directions without ever visiting your website. Your profile is the shopfront they actually see.
It is not Google My Business any more
Google My Business became Google Business Profile in 2021. Most day-to-day edits now happen straight from Google Search and Maps when you are signed in to the account that manages your profile. If you are still hunting for the old GMB dashboard, that is why you cannot find it.
What has been switched off
COVID-19 features. The pandemic-era advice from our old guide belongs to another era. If any old COVID updates are still sitting on your profile, take them down. Use 'temporarily closed' only when you genuinely are, and use special hours for public holidays.
Messaging. Google ended its built-in chat and call history on 31 July 2024. If you were relying on customers messaging you through your listing, that channel closed. Check your phone number, website link and other contact details are right.
Q&A. Google shut down the Q&A API on 3 November 2025 and phased the public section out of profiles after that. You can no longer seed or answer questions on your listing.
Insights. Replaced by Performance. More on that below.
Ask Maps: AI is now answering questions about your business
Google launched Ask Maps on 12 March 2026. It is a Gemini-powered assistant inside Google Maps that lets people ask complex questions about places in plain language.
It replaces Q&A in spirit, but works very differently. Instead of a list of questions written by you and the public, Ask Maps generates an answer on the spot. Google describes it as using Maps' fresh information. Local SEO specialists report that in practice it leans on your profile details, your reviews, your photos and your website.
That changes your job. You cannot write the answer any more. You can only make sure what Google reads about you is right. More on that in our SEO blog.
Make your sources agree. Hours, services, categories and description on your profile should match your website exactly. Conflicts are how wrong answers happen.
Say the obvious things out loud. Parking, accessibility, dietary options, delivery, bookings, what you do not offer. If customers ask it, put the answer in plain words on your site and your profile.
Ask it yourself. Open Maps and ask three or four questions a real customer would ask about your business. If the answer is wrong, fix the source.
Reviews: still your biggest lever, with stricter rules
Reviews still shape who gets the call. Google says it published more than 1 billion reviews in 2025 and blocked or removed over 292 million that broke its rules. It also removed more than 13 million fake business profiles. That is the scale of what Google is policing, and in April 2026 it tightened up.
What Google announced on 16 April:
Better detection of scam patterns, like someone demanding payment to remove fake one-star reviews.
If Google spots a sudden spike in spam reviews, it removes them, pauses new reviews on your profile, alerts you and shows customers a banner explaining why.
Gemini now catches bad edits to business names and details before they go live.
Verified owners get email alerts before important suggested edits are published.
Two practical points. First, get verified. The alerts go to verified owners, and performance data is only available for verified profiles. Second, keep your review process clean. Incentives and review gating (only asking customers you expect to be happy) have always broken Google's rules. Local SEO specialists also reported two new lines in Google's policy in April, covering staff review quotas and asking customers to mention staff by name. Google did not announce them and how broadly they apply is unclear, so the safe approach is simple: ask every customer, keep the request neutral, and let them say what they like.
In New Zealand the stakes go beyond Google. The Commerce Commission treats misleading reviews as a Fair Trading Act issue. A District Court judgment reported in December 2025 found The TV Shop guilty of 13 charges after staff posted reviews without disclosing their link to the business and low-rated reviews were removed from its own website. Fines under the Act can reach $600,000 for a company.
The old advice still stands. Reply to every review, good or bad, in a human voice. No keyword stuffing, no sales pitch.
Posts, photos and keeping the profile alive
Posts are still worth doing, with realistic expectations. Google supports Updates, Offers and Events, and each can carry a photo and a button. Google has not confirmed that posting directly lifts your ranking. What posts do is show customers a business that is open, active and has something on.
The same goes for photos. Real, recent ones from your own premises beat stock images every time. Google is leaning more on recent activity and engagement and less on how long you have been in business. Treat that as a reason to refresh your profile regularly, not as a trick. If you added products or booking links, check they still show and still work.
Performance: the new Insights
Insights has been replaced by Performance, and only verified profiles get it. From Google Search, sign in and click Performance. In the Maps app, tap See more next to Performance. You can see how people find and interact with your profile across Search and Maps, including the search terms that surface it, and you can download the data.
Check it monthly. If contacts are falling while your reviews and photos have gone quiet, that is worth a look.
Your 30-minute checklist
Sign in and confirm your profile is verified, and that email notifications are on.
Remove any old COVID-19 updates and check your hours, including special hours.
Make your description, categories and services match your website.
Add a handful of recent, real photos.
Ask Maps a few customer questions about your business and fix anything wrong at the source.
Review how you ask for reviews. Same neutral request to every customer.
Reply to any reviews you have not answered.
Open Performance and note your starting numbers.
Not sure where your profile stands?
Most owners set their listing up once and never looked again. That worked when Google was a directory. It does not work now that Google's AI reads your profile and tells customers what it finds.
If you would like a second pair of eyes, hairyLemon can review your Google Business Profile alongside your website so the two tell the same story.