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The latest news in marketing is that Google My Business has been renamed as Google Business Profile. Will this have an affect on local SEO?
Google My Business was, for seven years, a physical business’ digital business card. It helped businesses establish an online presence, improve their SEO and manage their information in one place.
Things have changed, and now Google Search and Maps serve as GMB used to in the past. Your listings will now be manageable by doing a Google search instead of a dedicated application for them.
However, other tools in the app might not be the same and could be confusing for some users.
Let’s find out what things have changed in the Google Business Profile.
What is Google Business Profile?
The Google Business profile is a free tool available on the Google Suite, used for providing a physical business with a digital presence.
The GBP will serve as a replacement for Google My Business.
What will Happen to my Google My Business Listing?
No need to worry!
All your local business information from GMB is still stored in your google account. The Business profile remains essentially the same as GMB, with a couple of changes that we’ll be explaining below.
The Business profile is mostly just a new name for GMB.
What’s new on Google Business Profile?
Business owners can now manage their GMB listing directly on Google Maps or Google Search.
These updates to the GBP allow you to quickly verify a business’s profile directly on Google Maps or the search engine. It also opens up more accessible possibilities for profile suspension, social media integration, and Google ads.
On the ‘My Business’ section of Google Search, you can get to what was once your Google My Business website and also edit the information people will see when searching for your business, such as your address, photos, and store hours.
GBP will now feature customer messaging on search, including read receipts for client and customer. Previously, this feature was only available on Maps.
There’s also a new Call History tool available for verified profiles in the US and Canada, among new features.
The call history feature will highlight what inbound customer phone calls came from their Google Business Profile. It’ll also select the real answer and missed call ratio and even the call’s performance.
How do I Create a Google Business Profile?
Setting up your business profile will help manage how your business appears in Google products so new customers can find your business.
But what if I didn’t have a Google My Business profile created?
No need to worry! We created a guide for you to claim your business listing here.
Alternatively, these are the steps to create a Business Profile on Google:
- Go on Google Search and type in your business address.
- Select the “maps” tab.
- Click on “add your business”.
- You’ll be asked to fill in the information on the Business Profile Manager. Type in your business name and category, then click next. Add your keywords on the business name to boost your search rankings, as long as it fits properly.
- Select whichever business category option matches your type of business.
How to update your business’ display data
- You’ll be asked about your business’s physical location.
- An excellent way to know whether to answer yes or no is by deciding if your business is one your clients will go to in person.
- If your business is one clients will go to, you should select yes. If you’re a small business or a service-area business that doesn’t need customer visits, then you should select no.
- Optionally, you can specify which areas you’ll serve your customers, such as deliveries. You can choose a state, city, zip code, nationwide, or worldwide.
- Add your business phone number and your website URL.
- Include a mailing address.
- Add your contact name, and click on mail.
How do I Customize My Business Profile?
Now that your listing is up and running, it’s time to customize your Business Profile:
- Add your services. If it doesn’t show on the available list, click ‘Add custom service’ and create your own.
- Add your business hours.
- You have the option to add messaging so customers can contact you through Google Maps. Toggle “Accept messages” depending on your decision.
- Add a business description with keywords and descriptive language conveying your business’s message.
- Add photos of your business. Don’t skip this step! This is excellent for SEO.
You can also check out this guide on how to further optimize your listing to rank better.
What can I do in the Google Business Profile?
The Business Profile manager lets you add posts with important announcements in the “posts” tab, which is especially useful when announcing special hours, sales or events.
You can edit all of the previous information on each remaining tabs, which haven’t changed much from the My Business app.
Sign in to your Google account and type your business name exactly as it’s registered on the profile manager. Alternatively, you can type ‘my business.’
On search or maps, select view profile. You have the option to create an ad, local marketing, or add updates to your business’ display information directly from here.
What will Happen to the GMB Mobile App?
Google stated that the GBP manager would transition to support larger businesses with multiple locations.
The Google My Business app will be retired from mobile in 2022. Google wants to encourage business owners to manage their data on the browser instead.
Why was Google My Business Renamed?
Google My Business was released to help businesses complete an online listing to be found out on Google searches. It cemented itself as the go-to tool for physical businesses to create an online presence using local search.
The tool has been through several renames even prior to it being called GMB. It was called Google Places and Google Local at one point.
It provided potential customers with all the necessary data about the business, ranging from physical address, contacts, working hours, and customer reviews.
Google wanted to simplify things for business owners and rebrand GMB to be more representative of the tool’s purpose and target audience: physical businesses and chains.
What are the Benefits of the Business Profile Over Google My Business?
The Business profile simplifies managing the business’ online information by keeping everything in one place.
This is useful for physical businesses with special hours or important updates on their services.
On GMB, this could’ve been confusing with the mix-up between personal and business accounts. Since everything is in one place now, it becomes easier to understand how to manage your business’ data.
With the rename and new functionality, a business owner can easily understand the tool’s purpose at first glance.
What Does Google My Business’ Retirement Mean For Companies?
GMB being renamed and the mobile app retired means things will be easier for business owners.
Google wants to provide businesses with an easier time managing their business profiles directly on both Google Maps and Google Search.
Thanks to this shift, the entry bar for digitalization and management of physical businesses has been lowered.
Conclusion
Google My Business changing to Google Business is a step in the right direction for simplifying the user experience for physical business owners with a digital presence.
Schedule a call with our digital marketing consultants to learn more about how you can effectively set up Google Business to correctly display your business’ information.
