GBP now has PAA section with links to other websites added by Google?

[Mindquest]

Probably not new but just noticed on one clients GBP listing that under the "Suggest an edit" button and above the "Question & Answers" section Google added 4 questions with drop downs. Each question's dropdown has a link to a competitor.

Q. Is there a way to remove this?
Q. Is this happening because the client does not have any questions in the "Question & Answers" section?
Q. Anyone have a link to an article talking about this change?


Any thoughts would be helpful!

 

[Mindquest]

So I spent some time yesterday and today on the forum, the Sterling Sky blog and other Local SEO places and haven't found out what this is. Anybody see this before? @JoyHawkins @Colan Nielsen


Talked to a couple other SEO's and they haven't seen it before either.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Google support might be able to help. We see random things like that get pulled into the KP all the time. A lot of the time it's pulled in from a website that is ranking organically for the branded search and in most cases, marking whatever the thing is up with Schema.

 

[Mindquest]

Google support might be able to help. We see random things like that get pulled into the KP all the time. A lot of the time it's pulled in from a website that is ranking organically for the branded search and in most cases, marking whatever the thing is up with Schema.

Thanks for the reply, with a little more snooping it looks like it is a "Things to know" section but I didn't know that a "Things to know" section could be inserted into a GBP panel? Send you a DM with some screenshots.

Google Tests Things To Know In Search Results More Often

Google seems to be testing displaying the Things To Know section in the Google search results more often. We first heard about Things To Know back in September at the Search On Google event and then

www.seroundtable.com

 

[JS Girard]

The business is probably being treated as what I call a "mixed panel": it pulls significant content from both Knowledge Graph and the business profile. I usually see it on stuff like Colleges and Profiles that are also entities (e.g. major tourist attractions).

Seeing a PAA or PAA-equivalent in there is definitely unusual, though.