Google Business Profile is now your Google business listing headquarters! Change is inevitable, and while that’s especially true in the natural world, it is also true with internet technology and industry leaders like Google. Those in the know will note that Google is renaming “Google My Business” to Google Business Profile in a strategical attempt to improve business profile management and help users make the most out of the increasingly popular Google My Business app. This also has a direct influence on other functionality including Google Search, Google Maps, and the respective apps that populate them.
To understand how businesses of every scale can make the most out of this change, we decided to take a look at the upgraded and updated functionality of the rebranded Google Business Profile.
Right off the bat, you’ll be happy to hear that Google themselves made the change with an emphasis on “keeping things simple.” At the same time, you should also note that Google will officially retire the “Google My Business” completely early in 2022.
Of course, people who have been using Google will note that this is yet another rebranding that follows in the shadows of “Google Places” which was a rebrand of Google+ Local. It is a sign of Google’s efforts to keep updating its functionality and value as a search engine industry leader.
This is also another way that Google encourages businesses to be proactive about managing their single listings directly on things like Google Search and Google Maps. This can be done via a traditional web interface or through one of Google’s mobile apps. This is Google’s way of saying it they prefer businesses with single listings manage their businesses in Search or Maps rather than through the arguably outdated Google My Business console.
Fortunately, the Google My Business web experience was designed to make an easy transition to primarily support larger businesses that might also have multiple locations. In this regard, it will be renamed “Business Profile Manager.” For these users, Google will rebrand and redirect the Google My Business web interface.
This means that if you are a content curator or a site manager for multiple locations or you manage the Search Engine Optimization for multiple businesses, you can continue to use an interface like Google My Business. It will just be Business Profile Manager in 2022 and into the future.
Though like a lot of Google’s platforms there will likely be some additional changes to the Business Profile Manager that are in the coming months. These new features will include:
- The ability to “Claim” & “Verify” your Google Business Profile via Google Search as well as Google Maps
- Messaging will be available directly from Google Search
- Message any read receipts can be controlled in Google Search and Maps
How To Manage Google Business Profile?
There are a few different ways to manage your business using the new Google Business Profile rebrand. For starters, you can simply search for your business name in a traditional Google Search. You can also search for it using Google Maps, which might help you to better understand your local demographics. This will help you confirm that your business has already been claimed and verified.
This means you can rest easy knowing that you will still have access to the features that you do now. Instead, it’s best to think of the rebranding as an upgrade with some features that help you better optimize your business website’s performance.
Improved Ability To Optimize Your Business Profile
Optimizing your business profile is a critical component of improving your search ranking as well as playing a critical role in other aspects of your business website’s overall performance. One of the main strengths of Google’s rebranding to Google Business Profile is that you have more tools to not only optimize your business website but also methods for better targeting you’re advertising efforts.
What Happens If I Don’t Use Google Business Profile?
It’s understood that a lot of people resist change. It’s a human trait that’s arguably hardwired into us. On the one hand, if you just stand pat and don’t use the rebranded Google Business Profile, you won’t be actively penalized. That’s never been Google’s way of doing business.
Though it’s worth bearing in that that Google plans to continue developing this rebranded suite of tools to better help with local searches. This means if you are remiss to use the new Google Business Profile tools that you will risk losing your standing in a lot of search results, and that includes local search results. In the long run this could end up hurting your company’s sales.
What Is Google Ads Performance Planner?
This rebranding will also affect things like Google Ads by empowering your business to plan things like local campaign budgets via Google’s Performance Planner. This is a special tool that makes it possible for you to create plans for your advertising spending. You can also target those plans, where the ads appear, and also lets you see how changes to campaigns can potentially affect key metrics. Over time you can also use Performance Planner to track the overall performance of your Google Ads campaign.
The Google Ads Performance Planner tool allows you to see projected forecasts for your business’ Google Ad campaigns, while also providing you with tools to let you explore the potential outcomes. This includes functions for:
- Adjusting campaign settings
- Tools for understanding opportunities in seasonal periods
- The ability to manage budgets across accounts
- The ability to manage budgets across multiple campaigns
Conclusion
The rebranded Google Business Profile is just in its infancy, and already it is offering up a wide range of innovative tools. Not only are these tools handy for content creators and small business website managers, but they also offer a more targeted way to rank high locally. As time goes on, you will likely see additional development tools showing up that will help you make the most out of your business presence locally, as well as opening doors to scale up in the future.
Like all of Google’s products, a great effort was put into making the interface as easy to use as possible. Long-standing users will notice a great deal of similarity in the interface of the rebranded Google Business Profile, and new users are sure to pick it up quickly.
