• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 9, 2020

Google is now asking businesses to update their Google My Business listings if their business is affected by COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. The changes appear in search queries.

The help document, posted Monday, describes how businesses can update their hours of operation, phone numbers, business descriptions and other information. It also allows businesses to create a post to share more details in a timely manner. The idea is to share as much information as possible with existing and potential customers.

Creating a post means adding information about available products and services, as well as links to other resources. This enables the business to use Posts to directly communicate with customers as events change.

For example, a school in Clarksburg closed its school and town offices for one week to deep clean the buildings after the Vermont Health Department confirmed the case of an adult with a “presumed” case of coronavirus during the weekend.

Similarly, a Georgia district closed all schools at least through Tuesday after a teacher was found to have coronavirus.

On Monday, Google also began restricting external visitors in some offices including the San Francisco Bay Area the same day that San Francisco city officials confirmed five new cases of coronavirus in the city, bringing the total number of people to 13. Google also restricted visitors from its New York office and told employees in both locations that they can work from home.

The help document explains how to update the pages and the type of information to include if the company is impacted in any way that might change how consumers and customers interact with the business.