There's a rumor making its way through the multifamily marketing community that started at the Multifamily Strategic Marketing Summit (MSMS). Google may stop allowing apartment communities from using floor plans as "products" in Google Business Profiles.

If that happens (and while I can't find any official statements, the chatter sounds like it's happening), it's not a small change. For a lot of apartment marketers, that feature has been an effective way to add valuable content to their Google Business Profile.

I have my suspicions about why this change may be on its way.

At its core, Google Business Profile products were not designed for real property. They were built for companies that sell physical goods and have an inventory that can be managed through the Google Merchant Center, which also provides a data layer for Google Shopping Ads, which never allowed apartment listings.

Apartment marketers found a clever way to stretch that definition. We called floor plans "products." We used rent for the "price." Some people stretched this further and started listing amenities.

There are a couple of reasons why Google might want to shut this down.

Some supplier marketing states that they programmatically update floor plan products, including rents. That's explicitly against Google's guidelines. This means either these updates are being made manually or automatically in a way that pushes the rules.

The Google Merchant Center feed is used to update product listings. Its terms of service clearly state you aren't allowed to update "real property," which means any type of real estate asset, which includes apartments. It's possible this got flagged and then opened a discussion about the use of floor plans as a product in the first place.

When communities use revenue management, apartment pricing changes daily. Availability changes anytime someone rents. If rents are incorrect, it has the potential to create a bad user experience.

If someone clicks on a floor plan product that advertises a $1,850 one-bedroom apartment and it's actually $2,250 or unavailable, it erodes trust. While those of us in the industry know there are inaccuracies all the time because most websites and Internet Listing Services (ILS) don't have true real-time, and the likelihood of someone renting the actual unit they first discover doesn't happen all the time, it can erode trust, which is something Google prioritizes highly.

I admit this is pure speculation, but Google already lists hotel availability and prices, and wanting to expand control discovery into multifamily real estate doesn't seem like that much of a creative stretch. Unlike the rest of us, the integration fees they would have to pay to get availability data and the cost of building great integrations are peanuts compared to their resources.

Real estate is one of the few major industries where we still rely on third-party ILS like Apartments.com and Zillow. It's another world they can conquer. If Google wants to get here, allowing us to compete against them in their own product doesn't fit that vision.

If this change happens, a lot of communities will lose a significant tool in a key platform that helps them rank in local search.

We don't know how this will impact visibility, but we'll all need to see what happens and adjust the playbook again.

This isn't the death of Google Business Profiles as a critical marketing channel. It does mean we need to formulate a new long-term strategy. Here are some areas you can start focusing on now that are good ideas, even if this change never comes to fruition.

I wrote previously that Google introduced an "Ask Maps" feature that lets users ask questions right in Google Maps, which uses your review content.

Don't just ask for reviews. Ask for the details.

Instead of asking for a great review, ask people to explain what is great about living with you. For example, instead of leaving a review that says your community is a great place to live with generalities, ask them to write something more like:

"I moved into a 1-bedroom apartment and was nervous about space because I work from home. The built-in desk makes me feel like I have an extra living area. I was a little worried that the desk wouldn't support my heavy monitor, but maintenance came and reinforced everything. They came the same day and were so nice."

That's the kind of language that both AI systems and humans can summarize and act on.

When Google got rid of FAQs, it added a new section that lets you provide details about amenities. Google used AI to pre-populate this, but it's not always accurate. Make sure your profile is up to date, and you are taking advantage of all of the features currently available.

It is likely that your GBP posting provider is completely automating the posts with no human review, and they aren't that great. That happened in part because this product was sold as a way to have frequent updates to your Google Business Profile and boost Google Maps rankings. That was never quite true, and now is the perfect time to change your strategy to something that actually works.

Use them to:

• Advertise units that are actually available that day, and include the rent
• Promote specials and open houses
• Talk about your amenities with in-depth content

Think of posts as your product replacement.

We're starting to see a trend where people are cutting investments in building organic traffic for their website, in part because investments in Google Business Profile have been successful, and some communities are quite dependent on them. This is the wrong time to pull back. If anything, you should be investing more in your website. In particular, you want to make sure:

• You have a schema that feeds your floor plan to search and AI engines
• Your site loads very quickly
• You are investing in improving and extending the content

While most of your traffic is still coming from Google, this will change over the next few years. Your website is probably not.

If you can't show floor plans as products, you can still show them visually.

Upload:

• Labeled floor plan images
• Unit interiors tied to specific layouts
• Before/after or staged vs. empty units

Visual context becomes more important when structured data disappears. Plus, updating photos frequently is a best practice.

Google is constantly adding and removing features as it tries to stay relevant as more users shift from using Google search to AIs. Always strive to be the early adopter of new features. Choose supplier partners who tell you to expect things to change and that they will be adapting their services in response to these pivots.