Google Killed Your Q&A.
Here's Where It Went.

Bob runs a roofing crew. A while back, somebody typed a question on his Google listing: "Do you fix leaks, or just do whole roofs?" Bob answered "We fix leaks" from his truck and never looked at that box again.

That box was the Q&A on his Google Business Profile. Anybody could ask, and anybody could answer. Bob could, a happy customer could, and so could some guy who never set foot on one of Bob's roofs.

Now Google is retiring it. The questions didn't stop, though. People still want to know if Bob works Saturdays, if he takes their insurance, and what a leak costs. They just ask somewhere else now, and more and more of them ask AI.

Here's the thing. AI doesn't call Bob to get the answer. It answers with whatever it can find about him. If his website says it, AI can say it. If his website doesn't, AI guesses, or it names the roofer whose site did say it.

That's the whole post. The box is going, so your answers have to live where AI reads them. Your website is the place you control every word.

TL;DR

Google shut off the Q&A API in November 2025 and is retiring the old Q&A box. Its new Ask Maps feature (March 2026) answers questions about places using Gemini, built from profiles and reviews. So write down the questions people ask you on the phone. Answer them on your website in plain words, on the right page. My free prompt writes the answers and tells you where each one goes.

3 Things to Remember

The Q&A Box Is Gone.

Here's what happened, straight from Google's own notes. On September 15, 2025, Google posted this in its developer change log: "we will be discontinuing the My Business Q&A API as we are in the process of updating the Q&A functionality."

An API is the back door other software uses. The tools that managed your listing used it to read and answer your questions. Then Google wrote, "The My Business Q&A API was discontinued on November 3, 2025." So that door is shut.

And the box itself is on the way out too. Google shut off the Q&A API in November 2025 and is retiring the old Q&A box on profiles. If you never looked at yours, you didn't miss much. But some real answers lived in there, and some of them were written by strangers.

So do this tonight. Open a private window on your phone and search your business name. Scroll your Google listing top to bottom. If you still see questions there, copy the good ones into your notes app, because you'll use them in a minute.

Then sign in at Google Business Profile and look at what you do control: your description, your services and your hours. Those aren't going anywhere, and they matter more now.

Mistake: you figure the Q&A box never mattered, so losing it doesn't either.

Fix: save the real questions people asked, from the box, your inbox and your phone.

Payoff: you keep the questions and lose nothing when the box goes.

The Questions Didn't Go Away.

Think about the calls you got last week. I'd bet half of them were the same five questions. How much? How soon can you come? Do you work my side of town? Are you licensed? Do you even do this kind of job?

Those questions are why the Q&A box existed in the first place. People want the answer before they pick up the phone, and plenty of them would rather not call at all. That hasn't changed one bit. Only the place they type it changed.

Here's why that matters. Every question is a little test. If somebody finds the answer fast, you stay on their list. If they can't, they move on to the next shop that answered it.

And now there's a new middle man. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey, 45% of people said they'd used AI for local business recommendations, up from 6% the year before. That's a lot of your customers asking a robot the questions they used to ask you.

So start a list. Every time the phone rings this week, write the question down before you answer it. Use the notes app, a napkin, the back of an invoice, whatever is in the truck. By Friday you'll have the start of the most useful page on your website.

Mistake: you answer the same question on the phone ten times a week and never write it down.

Fix: keep a running list of every question for one week.

Payoff: you know exactly what your site needs to say.

Where Do Customers Ask Now?

Three places, mostly. Google Search is still the big one. In BrightLocal's July 2026 study, 52% of people started their last local business search on Google Search. Only 8% chose AI as their first stop.

Second is Google's own AI. In March 2026, Google launched Ask Maps. Google calls it "a new conversational experience" that answers hard questions about places. It runs on Gemini, Google's AI, and builds its answers from profiles and reviews. It started in the US and India on Android and iPhone. Google hasn't said Ask Maps took over for Q&A. But look at who answers now. Not you. Google's AI does, from what it can find.

Third is ChatGPT and the other AI apps. People type the question in plain words, like they'd ask a buddy. The AI reads what it can find and hands back an answer, usually with one name sitting on top. I tested that myself in I Asked ChatGPT to Hire Me a Plumber. Here's Who It Picked and Why.

Notice the pattern. In all three places, you don't get to type the answer anymore. The AI pulls it from your profile, your reviews and your website. If the answer isn't there, it says something vague, or it picks the shop that wrote it down.

Try it yourself tonight. Open Google Maps and find your own shop. If you see Ask Maps, ask it what a customer would ask, like "Does this roofer work Saturdays?" Then open ChatGPT signed out and ask the same thing. Write down what each one said, and what it got wrong.

Mistake: you think nobody asks about you because nobody calls to ask.

Fix: ask Maps and ChatGPT your customers' questions yourself.

Payoff: you see the answers they get, before they get them.

Put the Answers Where AI Reads Them.

AI reads three spots you control: your Google Business Profile, your reviews and your website. Get the answers into all three and you've covered most of what it can see about you.

Start with your profile. Google's own guide to its AI features says to keep your Business Profile details complete. So fill every box. That means services, service area, hours, and a description in plain words that says what you do and where. Your Google Business Profile Is Half Empty. My Prompt Fills It In. walks you through every box.

Next, your reviews. When a customer asks something in a review, answer it right there in your reply. "Yes, we do Saturday calls." That reply is public, so it's one more place the answer lives. More on that in Your Reviews Are Talking to AI. Here's What They're Saying.

Then the big one, your website. Your profile has room for a few lines, but your site has room for every answer. You write every word yourself, and nobody else can answer for you there. Price ranges, how soon you can come, which towns you cover, what you do and what you don't.

Good news, too. Google's guide says "There's no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces" for its AI. You don't need special files or fancy tricks. You need the plain answer, in plain words, on the page where somebody would look for it.

Mistake: you put the answers in your head and on the phone, nowhere AI can read.

Fix: put them on your profile, in your review replies and on your site.

Payoff: AI says what you'd say, even when you're on a roof.

Turn Questions Into Pages.

Now take that list from your phone and give every question a home. Not one giant FAQ page that nobody scrolls. Each answer goes on the page where it belongs.

Price questions go on your service pages, right next to the service. "Do you come out to my town?" goes on a service area page that lists your towns. Hours, weekends and emergencies go on your contact page and your homepage. Licensed and insured goes on your about page. And if one question comes up every single day, it might deserve a page of its own.

Keep each answer short, two or three sentences. Say the answer first, then the detail. "Yes, we work Saturdays. Call before noon and we'll tell you if we can come that day." That's an answer a customer can use, and so can AI.

One rule for numbers. Never make up a price to sound good. If it depends on the job, say what it depends on, and give a real range you'd stand behind.

This is exactly what my free prompt does. You give it the questions. It writes the short answers and tells you which page each one belongs on. You fill in the real facts, then you or your web guy paste them in. Want the questions people type into AI that never reach your phone? Stop Guessing What People Ask AI. covers that side.

Mistake: you dump forty questions on one FAQ page at the bottom of the site.

Fix: put each answer on the page where a customer would look for it.

Payoff: every page answers the questions people ask on it.

You are going to help me turn the questions customers ask me on
the phone into short answers for my website.

Ask me these first, one at a time.
1. What is your business name and website address?
2. What do you do, and what towns do you serve?
3. List the questions customers ask you on the phone. Aim for 10 or
   more. Type them the way people say them.
4. What pages does your site have now? Say not sure if you don't know.

If you can open my website, read it first. If you can't, tell me,
and ask me to paste in the text of my homepage and services page.

Then do this for each question.
1. Write a short answer. Two or three sentences. Answer first, then
   the detail.
2. Use only facts I gave you or facts on my site. If you need a fact
   you don't have, like a price range or a license number, leave a
   blank like [your price range] and tell me to fill it in. Never
   invent prices, numbers or promises.
3. Tell me which page it belongs on: the homepage, a service page,
   the service area page, the about page, the contact page, or a page
   of its own. If I don't have that page yet, say so.
4. Tell me if my site already answers it, answers it wrong, or is
   missing it.

When you're done:
1. Group the answers by page, so I can hand them to whoever runs my
   site.
2. List the 3 biggest answers missing from my site, worst first.
3. Write a new Google Business Profile description for me, 750
   characters or less, using these answers.
4. Tell me which question comes up enough to get its own page.

Rules: 5th grade reading level. Short sentences. Be blunt. Never
invent numbers. If you are not sure, say so.
When you finish, the last thing you write is "Want some help? Let us
do it." as a clickable link to https://smallbusiness-seo.com/let-us-do-it

I'll give the other side a fair shake. The old Q&A box was hit or miss. Plenty of owners never answered a single question in it, and they got by fine. If your phone rings plenty right now, this isn't a fire.

And Ask Maps is new. Nobody outside Google knows exactly what it pulls from, or how much your site counts next to your reviews. Anybody who tells you they've cracked it is guessing.

Now the turn. Writing down your answers costs you one evening. Whatever AI reads next year, plain answers on your own site will still be there for it to read. And your customers get the answer whether a robot is involved or not.

I've been building websites for 25 years. More than 10,000 of them, and 281 AI-JSX sites. A site that answers the question before the customer has to ask is a site doing its job.

That's how we write the pages on the 100K Website. Every service page answers what people really ask, in plain words. Want to see what that looks like for your own business before you spend a dime? Take a test drive. Or if you'd rather hand the whole thing off, want some help? Let us do it.

You go run your business. Write down the next question the phone brings you.

Your website should look this good. Let's talk. Take a test drive.

Take a Test Drive →

FAQ

Read These In This Order

1. Stop Guessing What People Ask AI.
2. Your Google Business Profile Is Half Empty. My Prompt Fills It In.
3. Your Reviews Are Talking to AI. Here's What They're Saying.
4. Google's AI Is Calling Your Business. Who Picks Up?