What Replaced Google Business Profile Q&A (and What to Do Now)

Google retired the Questions and Answers section of Business Profiles in late 2025. It shut down the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, then phased the public section out of profiles over the following months. In its place, Google leans on Ask Maps, its Gemini-powered AI answers, which pull from your Business Profile, reviews, photos, and website. You can no longer write those answers yourself, but you control most of the information they're built from.

What happened to Google Business Profile Q&A?

For years, anyone could ask a question on a business's profile, and the owner or other users could answer. The section was hard to moderate, since questions often went unanswered, answers went stale, and spam crept in. Google discontinued the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, and removed the public section from profiles in waves after that.

Google's direction is clear: instead of a static list of user-written questions, people can ask about a place and get an AI-written answer assembled from everything Google knows about the business.

Where do AI answers about my business come from?

Google's AI answers draw on the public information attached to your business, chiefly:

• Business Profile fields: categories, services, hours, attributes such as wheelchair access or free estimates, and your description.
• Reviews: what customers say about your work, staff, prices, and experience.
• Photos: what your location, products, and completed work look like.
• Your website: service pages, FAQs, and policies.

If any of these is thin, outdated, or contradicts the others, the AI has less to work with, or wrong information to repeat.

What should you do with your old Q&A content?

If you spent time answering questions on your profile, that knowledge is still valuable. It just needs a new home:

1. Short factual answers → Business Profile fields. "Do you offer free estimates?" belongs in attributes or services. "Are you open Saturdays?" belongs in hours.
2. Explanations → your website. "How long does a roof replacement take?" deserves a clear answer on the relevant service page.
3. Recurring questions → a website FAQ, placed on the page where the question naturally comes up, with FAQPage markup that matches the visible text exactly.
4. Policies → plain statements. Cancellation terms, service areas, and payment options should be stated plainly on your site.

How do you keep AI answers accurate?

You can't edit Google's AI answers, but you can make the correct answer the easiest one to find:

• Fill in every relevant profile field and review them quarterly. Attributes and services are easy to neglect.
• Answer the common questions directly on your website, with the answer in the first sentence under a question heading.
• Reply to reviews that contain misunderstandings. A polite factual correction ("We do offer weekend appointments; call to book") adds accurate public information.
• Test it. Ask Google about your business the way a customer would, such as "Does [business] offer free estimates?", and note what comes back. If it's wrong, find which source is feeding the error and fix it there.

Frequently asked questions

Did Google remove Q&A from Business Profiles? Yes. Google discontinued the Business Profile Q&A API on November 3, 2025, and the public Q&A section was phased out of profiles over the following months. Businesses can no longer post or answer questions in that section.

What replaced Google Business Profile Q&A? Google moved toward AI-generated answers through Ask Maps, powered by Gemini. When someone asks about a business in Maps or Search, the answer is assembled from the Business Profile, reviews, photos, the business website, and other public sources.

Can I still control how Google answers questions about my business? Not directly. You can't write the answers anymore, but you control much of the information they're built from: your Business Profile fields, your website content, and how you respond to reviews.

Where should my old Q&A answers go now? Move each useful answer to the place it belongs: hours, amenities, and service details into Business Profile fields; longer explanations into service pages or a website FAQ with matching FAQ markup.

Is Q&A seeding still a useful tactic? No. Q&A seeding meant posting and answering your own questions on the profile, and that section no longer exists. The same effort is better spent on complete profile fields and clear answers on your website.

Related reading

• Answer engine optimization (AEO) for local businesses
• A practical four-week Google Business Profile posting routine
• Review cadence and response strategy

Sources

• Google Business Profile APIs documentation, Q&A API discontinuation notice (effective November 3, 2025).

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Ramon Diaz is the founder of Adatek Agency in Hackensack, NJ, with 18+ years in digital marketing. Adatek manages Google Business Profiles for New Jersey businesses. Google independently decides how AI answers are generated and displayed; no agency controls them.

Source: adatekagency.com