Populating Q&A with FAQs

[Jeffrey Taylor]

I do a lot of work with GMBs and have my own best practices when it comes to uploading data and making changes. I take the advice of some of the experts here regarding not making too many changes too quickly. One tip I use (can't remember who it was) was to populate the Q&As one at a time and waiting 45 seconds to ensure the question appears and waiting another 45 seconds before answering it. I have not had any problems using this strategy.

I recently received a notice from an digital agency i do consultant work for, that they have service that wants to populate auto dealer Q&As with canned questions and answers. It looks like an automated feed that puts them up in quantity using a template for all dealers.

Image below is what they sent me.

It appears they want to mass produce Q&As for dealers using the above format. Plug in elements for that dealer and upload.

My preference is to use the unique attributes of each business and manually populate Q&As based on those attributes. Never thought about using automated pre-loaded questions and answers.

My concern is that uploading too much too fast may trigger something, and also if they scale this there will be widespread Q&As using the same questions and answers.

Should I be concerned or does this appear to be a good way to go? I have not spoken with the Agency people yet with my opinion.

I look forward to getting feedback on this.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey @Jeffrey Taylor I haven't run into any cases where Q&A was filtered because too many were posted at once. However, when you introduce automated software into the equation...well, you never know.

Google has no issue with a business pre-loading Q&A. In theory I like the idea. I would give it a test and see how it goes.

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Thanks Colan, It is automated software that always makes me nervous. I am going to definitely give it a test. I will update once it is up and running.

 

[BenFisher]

I was the 45-second advice person I notice some of that template and would think they are using the API to accomplish this. It "should" be ok, and duplicate content is not a problem. But as Colon said, test it first, hammer a location and see what happens. worst case, you get a suspension that you are out of pretty quickly.

 

[Tim Colling]

We use a batch uploading tool for creating Q&A "FAQ lists" for clients and have not had any issues with doing so. Of course, that could change at any time due to constant changes on the part of Google.

Test in small samples and see whether that breaks anything.

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Thank you Ben and Tim. It is always nice to automate when appropriate. It makes sense that many of the Questions asked in certain verticals will be redundant. The answers may vary based on a specific client, so I will keep a sharp eye out for any issues.

 

[sarmcl]

Hey guys

We are working on FAQ's for clients. Refresh my memory--you are NOT allowed to put a phone number in an answer, correct?