Profile websites
Killed in 2024
What it was: Google's free one-page sites generated from your profile.
What to do now: You need a real website. Even a clean one-pager you own beats a platform page Google can delete. Chapter 18.
The dead-feature graveyard
Google kills Business Profile features quietly. The paid courses don't update their slides. Here's what's gone, when it died, and what to do now.
Features Google killed
The chat inbox
Retired July 31, 2024
What it was: Google's built-in messaging system, plus its call-history log.
What to do now: The old inbox playbook is dead. Text and WhatsApp contact options for eligible profiles, and Google's AI messaging pilot, are the live version. Make sure customers, and AI agents, can reach you by text. Chapter 9.
Q&A
API shut down Nov. 3, 2025
What it was: Public questions and answers on your listing.
What to do now: Gemini answers instead, and Ask Maps (March 2026) fields the questions owner-seeded Q&A used to. Put those answers in your description, services, posts and website FAQ pages. That's what the AI grounds on.
Promos in your listing
Banned Oct. 6, 2026
What it was: Time-bound offers and pricing written into your listing content.
What to do now: Move offers to Posts. Keep the description about who you are, what you do, and where. Chapter 10.
Tactics that never worked, or now break the law
Everything below is sold every day to business owners who don't know better. Now you do.
Buying reviews
A federal violation since October 2024, with civil penalties up to $53,088 per knowing violation. You're liable even when a vendor does it.
Review software that steers unhappy customers away from Google
That's gating. Banned by Google and treated as illegal suppression by the FTC. Compliant software sends everyone the same link.
"Citation blast to 300+ directories"
Ten to twenty accurate, authoritative citations beat 300 junk ones. Blasts spray inconsistencies you'll pay someone to clean up later.
Geotagged photos and EXIF "optimization"
No evidence Google uses embedded photo GPS data for ranking, and Google strips most metadata on upload. Real, fresh photos matter. Their hidden metadata doesn't.
"GBP chat optimization" and Q&A seeding packages
The chat inbox died in July 2024 and Q&A has been winding down since November 2025. Selling optimization for either is selling seats on a ghost ship.
"Get recommended by ChatGPT, guaranteed"
ChatGPT recommended 1.2% of the locations in SOCi's 2026 study. Nobody controls that. You earn it.
"Guaranteed #1 on Google"
Nobody controls Google's rankings. A guarantee is either a lie or a plan to keyword-stuff you into a suspension.
"Google is calling about your listing," with a fee
Google's own help page says it will never ask for payment, credit card information, or account passwords on its automated calls. Hang up.
The ten-second test for any vendor
Ask: "What changed in Google Business Profile in the last twelve months?" If they can't name the Q&A wind-down, the 2026 review-policy changes, the October listing-promo ban, the four-day edit clock or the AI answer layer, they're selling you a 2023 course with a 2026 invoice.
Chapters 16 and 23 of the guide have the full story, with a source for every claim.
Get the playbook
Free for good. Then attach it to your AI and type do this