Google to show wait time for local results

Google announced on November 7, 2017, an update to its display of local businesses on Google Maps and in Google Search by specifying the estimated wait time before being able to be properly advised or taken into account by said businesses. The goal is to go further than the busy periods that were already displayed in the part of the Knowledge Graph dedicated to businesses, this time by actually displaying an estimated wait time .



So far, the display generates a bar chart for each opening hour off page seo service and estimates the busiest periods. To go further, Google even specifies the estimated visit time in the place. Here is an example for a McDonald's restaurant in Poitiers which displays at the bottom of the Knowledge Graph in Google Search the busy or major occupation periods as well as the average time spent on site . The new display will go further as you will see later...





Crowd and occupancy times of a local business in Google Search (Knowledge Graph)



Currently, when you click on one of the traffic bars (in blue), Google displays the chosen time and messages like "Generally quite busy", without further details. With the update of the functionality, the display will evolve and show an estimated waiting time in addition to this information (see the Gif below). For certain types of local businesses, this may be major information for users, who may organize their visit or appointment differently. I doubt that this will fundamentally change things, but in theory, it's not stupid, let's say... ;-)



Wait time displayed in the Knowledge Graph of local results on Google



As for peak periods, it seems that Google itself organizes the waiting times of local businesses, it will not be possible to manage this information via Google My Business, but let's hope that it will be possible one day because it is still more precise if the businesses speak for themselves (well I hope... ^^).