Google Appears to Be Automatically Adding Booking Links to Some Business Profiles
TLDR
Google may be automatically adding booking links to some local business profile listings, and some of those links return 500 errors.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
SERoundtable reports that Google may be automatically adding booking links to some local business profile listings. The site's author found a booking link added to his own profile, and Brandon Schmidt, Joy Hawkins and Syed Amir posted on Friday that it seems to be happening for more businesses. In some cases, the booking links break and lead to a 500 error on Google's website.
How we got here: earlier coverage
- Nov 4Google's AI Mode Adds Booking and Quote Links for Home Service Searches
AI Mode now links home service searches to booking and quote pages, and the article covers how businesses reach those pages and what partners say about lead fees.
- Oct 28Google Is Automatically Adding Facebook Messenger M.me Links to Business Profiles
Google is automatically adding Facebook Messenger m.me links to Google Business Profiles and emailing businesses to notify them of the change.
- Sep 24Google Business Profiles Tests AI-Powered Auto-Fill for Business Hours
Google Business Profiles is testing an AI feature that automatically converts text descriptions of business hours into structured format for local search results.
- Aug 25Google Dramatically Expands Direct Booking for Local Services Ads
Google expanded direct booking for Local Services Ads to support more than 500 partners, up from 20, automatically enabling eligible businesses to let customers book straight from ads on Search and Maps.