The panel beside your business name comes mostly from your Google My Business listing. Verify it, keep the hours, phone, category and photos right, and check for edits Google has accepted from the public.

The box beside your name

Search for a local business by name on a computer and a box often appears to the right of the results. It holds photographs, a map, the address, hours, a phone number, a star rating and reviews.

On a phone the same panel fills the top of the screen.

Google calls it a knowledge panel. For many people searching your name it is the first thing they see, and often the last: they find the hours or the number and never reach your website.

Most owners have never looked at theirs closely. Some have never claimed the listing behind it.

Where each part comes from

The last is the one that catches owners out. Anyone can suggest that your hours are wrong, or that you have closed, and if Google accepts the suggestion the panel changes, sometimes without the owner noticing for weeks.

Claim the listing first

If the panel invites the owner to claim it, the listing is not verified, and a stranger's suggestions carry as much weight as yours.

Verification usually means a postcard with a code, mailed to the business address. Some businesses are offered a phone or email option instead.

Once verified, you can edit the core facts directly, reply to reviews, answer questions and see what has changed. Google can still accept edits from others, but the change usually shows in your dashboard for you to review.

What you can change directly

Inside Google My Business you control the name, address or service area, phone number, website, hours, categories and attributes, such as wheelchair access or outdoor seating.

Special hours cover holidays and closures without touching the regular hours. Owners often forget them, and the panel then shows the business open on Christmas Day.

You can upload photographs, choose a cover photo and a logo, publish Posts, answer questions and reply to reviews.

The name should be the one on your sign and nothing more. Adding a city or a list of services to it breaks Google's guidelines and can get the listing suspended.

What you can only influence

Customer photographs stay on the listing. Ones that break Google's policies can be reported; ones you simply dislike cannot.

Reviews stay too. You can reply, and report the ones that break the rules, but an honest unflattering review is the customer's to keep.

Which photograph leads the panel is Google's choice. Setting a cover photo states a preference; plenty of good, current photographs of your own make it more likely that one of them is chosen.

Popular times, ratings from other sites and the list of similar businesses people also search for are not yours to edit at all.

A worked example

A hat maker who makes felt and straw hats to order works from a second-floor studio in an older building downtown, open Tuesday to Saturday, with fittings by appointment.

In September two customers arrived on a Monday to a locked door. Both had checked the hours on Google, which showed the studio open every day from nine to five.

She had never changed the hours. In Google My Business she found a notice that Google had updated the listing, accepting a suggestion from a member of the public.

The panel's lead photograph was a customer's picture of the coffee shop on the ground floor, and a question about parking had sat unanswered for weeks.

She restored the hours, added special hours for the holidays ahead and uploaded a dozen photographs: the street door, the stairs, the studio, hats on their blocks. She answered the parking question and set a cover photo.

Google still decides which photograph leads. For now it is one of hers, and she checks the listing on the first Tuesday of each month.

When the panel is wrong

Start in Google My Business. Look for a notice of updates from Google, review each change, and put back anything that was wrong.

If a correction keeps being overturned, the wrong information is probably coming from somewhere else: your own website, an old directory listing, or a duplicate listing for the same business. Fix the source, or the error returns.

If it still will not hold, Google My Business has a support team that can be reached through its help pages.

Your website feeds it too

The panel links to your website, and Google also reads what the website says about your address and hours.

A site showing last year's hours or an old address works against the listing you just corrected. Make the two agree, word for word where possible.

A developer can also add markup to the contact page: labels in the code that tell search engines which text is the address, the phone number and the hours. It guarantees nothing in the panel, but it removes guesswork.

The counter-case

A business that customers reach mostly by referral, with a name few people search, will see its panel rarely. The core facts still need to be right, but photographs and questions can wait.

A business with no premises open to the public will have a panel without an address, which is normal and not something to fix.

And no amount of attention makes the panel entirely yours. Customers' photographs, reviews and questions are part of what makes it believable.

Verify the listing, keep its facts right, and check each month for changes you did not make.

The monthly look

  1. Look up your business on a phone and a computer.
  2. Claim the listing if the panel offers it.
  3. Review any updates Google has made.
  4. Correct hours, phone and categories in Google My Business.
  5. Add special hours for the holidays ahead.
  6. Upload current photographs and set a cover.
  7. Answer questions waiting on the listing.

Step three is the one most owners have never done. Accepted edits sit in the dashboard as a notice, and until someone reviews them, the panel can say something the business never said.

The links that can appear under your main result are covered in sitelinks under your search result.

Frequently asked questions

What is a knowledge panel?

The box of photographs, hours, reviews and contact details Google shows beside the results, or at the top on a phone, when someone searches for a business by name.

Where does the panel's information come from?

Mostly from your Google My Business listing, plus customer photographs and reviews, questions from the public, popular times from phone location data, and edits suggested by anyone.

Why did my hours change by themselves?

Usually because someone suggested an edit and Google accepted it. Google My Business normally shows a notice when this happens, and you can review the change and restore your hours.

Can I choose which photograph appears first?

You can set a cover photo, but Google decides what leads the panel. Plenty of good, current photographs of your own make it likelier that one of them is chosen.

Can I remove a customer's photo or review?

Not directly. You can reply to reviews and report photographs or reviews that break Google's policies, but honest unflattering ones stay.

How often should I check the panel?

Monthly, on a phone and a computer, along with a look in Google My Business for notices of changes, new reviews and unanswered questions.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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