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As someone running a Google Business Profile, there is a new addition worth knowing about. Google has introduced a feature known as “Collected Info” in the Business Profile actions menu, which helps business owners get better insight into the data that Google has collected on their business, and from where it has been sourced.
It has been discovered by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable and has also been confirmed by a modification in Google’s help documentation. This is a minor yet significant addition and is highly relevant for anyone who has logged into their Google Business Profile to find something updated without any effort on their part.
The Collected Info section is a new addition to Google Business Profiles that enables business owners to review all the information collected about their company by Google from various sources. According to Google’s Help Center, this feature is designed to keep your business details accurate and help customers find you on Google.
Additionally, Google mentioned that sometimes it may contact business owners via calls, texts, and WhatsApp using the number that is verified in their profile in order to collect or confirm some data. It is not spam; it is just part of how Google keeps your information current across Search and Maps.
Essentially, Google does its own research on your listing using whatever sources it can find, and then gives you a chance to review and approve what it collected. The last step, the ability to approve or reject information is what makes this update different from how things worked before.
It should be said that the Collected Info section is currently available for only certain regions, languages and business types. If you don’t have it yet, there is nothing to worry about. Your account is working just fine.
If the Collected Info section is available for your account, getting to it is simple: you just have to go to your Google Business Profile, click “Edit profile” and find the “Collected Info” option.
Barry Schwartz noticed that he himself did not see the feature in his Google Business Profile and it is a clear sign that the rollout is still in its early stages. Either way, it is worth spending a few minutes reviewing what Google has on file for your business.
That is the point where the new Google Business Profile feature becomes really useful. As SEO expert Hiroko Imai explained, there are two features in Collected Info section that solve some old problems.
Firstly, you can see not just when Google changed your business information, but also exactly where that change came from. For example, you can easily track down which call or text message gave particular piece of information. That kind of transparency is new. For years, business owners would log into their profile and find their information changed with no explanation. Now you can actually see where those changes came from.
Secondly, if you think that some of the automatic updates are irrelevant or false, you can easily reject this information right from the management interface of Google My Business. Previously, there was no easy way of rejecting auto-updates, other than updating it yourself and hoping the change stuck. Now there is a straightforward way to push back on unwanted auto-updates without any workarounds.
Thus, the Collected Info section of Google My Business is not just a transparency tool but also a correction tool and it is exactly what local business owners really needed for a long time.
As it has been already mentioned, Google is gathering the data from various sources in order to modify your business information. For example, Google crawls websites, accepts user-submitted edits, gathers the information from third-party data providers and, yes, it contacts business owners directly to verify or update their business information. This has been standard practice for Google for years, but most business owners had no idea it was happening.
However, the problem here is that business owners have very limited visibility of this process. Your opening hours may be changed without any reason, your business description may be modified, your business category may be changed, etc. All these changes occur because Google tries to keep all its data up-to-date but it is a quite unpleasant experience for business owners.
There is another problem here – it is a question of the trust between business owners and their potential customers. When customers see the incorrect data about the business in its Google Business Profile, they do not think that Google made mistakes while searching the information, they think that you are responsible for this mistake. Incorrect hours can cause the wasting of customers’ time, outdated phone numbers can result in missed calls, etc. The consequences of incorrect information in Google Business Profile are real and the consequences fall on business owners, not on Google.
Collected Info is Google’s attempt to reveal the process of its work for business owners. You can see which information Google found for your business, from which source and can either approve or reject this information. That is a much better variant comparing with the situation when the changes occur silently.
The information in Google Business Profile is crucial for the visibility of your business in local search. For example, when customers search for some services around them, Google takes the data from Google Business Profile and uses it to form local results, map pack and knowledge panel. In case any of this information is incorrect, even slightly, it may negatively impact on your business and your presence in local search.
Having a feature which allows to check and correct the data, automatically collected by Google, is a significant improvement of Google Business Profile. It gives more control to business owners.
If you manage many profiles at once or you are an agency, this feature can be very helpful because you can easily check which changes Google made based on calls and web data and reject these changes if they are wrong. One wrong update of a high traffic profile can cause serious problems before anyone notices it.
Consistency is something we have to consider as well. In local SEO, the consistency of NAP data is critical, and now that Google auto-updates it, you can run into problems without realizing it. Having your name, address, and phone number matching everywhere is important; if Google finds some information on another platform and automatically updates your profile, it may create inconsistencies you didn’t notice. That is where the Collected Info section helps – it shows you what was collected and allows you to review and change it.
If you have access to the Collected Info section, it is worth looking at it as soon as possible. Take a look at all of the information Google collected and make sure it corresponds to your business’ actual information. Then, if you find any inconsistency or anything wrong, you can simply reject the incorrect information and manually add the right one to your profile.
In case you don’t have the new feature available yet, you should still take this as an example of how important it is to audit your Business Profile once in a while. Checking your hours, phone numbers, address, categories, and other information makes sure your listing reflects your business in an accurate way.
Moreover, it might be useful to check whether the phone number in your profile is valid and active. This is because Google may use it to send automatic messages for collecting information about your business.
While the system tries to be helpful and provide you with relevant and updated information, it may make mistakes. So the responsibility for your listing still lies with you and the only thing you can do is be proactive in maintaining it.
One last thing worth noting is that this feature has not rolled out to everyone yet. So if you haven’t seen it, that does not mean something went wrong. Google has already said that Collected Info is not available for everyone right now – it is being selectively rolled out depending on region, language, and business category. There is no official timeline, but given how useful it is, broader availability seems likely down the road.
Q 1: What is the Collected Info section in Google Business Profiles?
It is a newly-introduced feature that provides business owners with information collected by Google about their company using various sources, including calls, texts, and web data. It also allows reviewing and rejecting information that is incorrect or unnecessary.
Q 2: How does Google collect information about my business?
Google collects the information with the help of web crawls, user-edited changes, data from third parties, and through outreach in the form of automated calls, texts, or WhatsApp messages to the verified phone number of the business.
Q 3: How do I access the Collected Info section?
To open the Collected Info section you need to go to the settings page of your Business Profile, then click “Edit profile” and choose “Collected info” in the list of options.
Q 4: Can I reject information Google added to my profile?
Yes. In the Collected Info section, you will have an opportunity to review the auto-updated data and delete all incorrect or unwanted information straight from the management interface.
Q 5: Will Google contact my business directly to collect information?
According to Google documentation, it may conduct automated calls, texts, or WhatsApp messages to the verified phone number of your business in order to confirm or update information. This is one of officially approved ways of collecting the information about the business.
Q 6: Is this feature available for all businesses?
No. Google has announced that it is available at the moment only for some regions, languages, and certain types of businesses.
Q 7: Why does Google update my Business Profile without asking me?
The process of regular updating business listings in Search and Maps includes pulling data from multiple sources in order to provide customers with accurate information.
Q 8: Can I see where a specific piece of information came from?
Yes. In the Collected Info section, you will see not only the date of the change of the information but also its source, which might be a certain call or message.
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