Google Business Profile - What Will Change For Your Business?
Google My Business (GMB) has recently rebranded to Google Business Profile (GBP), the fifth official name change to Google’s local digital business management platform. GMB was used for the last 7 years, so it became pretty ubiquitous in the world of business and especially digital marketing. But is this just a name change, or is there more to it than a rebrand?
Here are a few of the rumored changes:
First, Google is eliminating their GMB app, in favor of having businesses use GBP in a browser. There’s more functionality available this way, and quite frankly, you couldn’t do much in the app. This helps with integration, as Google has a vast ecosystem, including maps and ads, that connect with your GBP so having a separate app doesn’t make sense anymore.
With this cross-functionality, users are now also able to edit their information simply by searching the name of their business and editing the listing directly (so long as you’re logged into the corresponding Google account in your browser).
There will be updates to their user interface, streamlining processes, making it easier for business managers to perform actions, and making analytics more accessible. It will also make things easier for businesses with multiple locations.
The capabilities of what you can do won’t change but the layout of the user interface may be different. Business managers may have a tough time finding where to do all the things they normally would.
Google originally launched their free business tool on Google Local so that they could collect (and monetize) data while connecting users with businesses. Google launched their Google Local Business Center and changed Google Local to Google Maps to avoid confusion between the two. Google Local Business Center then changed names a few more times as the Google ecosystem changed, while Google Maps has stayed the same.
Google Maps has also experienced significant changes over the years but the name has stayed the same, keeping it simple. In 2009, Google Local Business Center became Google Places when Google Maps started offering Place Pages, Google’s attempt to give every business their own website. The name change came as a way to align one of their offering with the other.
In 2011, Google Places changed its name to Google+ Local, again trying to align to another product, Google+, an attempted social media platform. By integrating photo and video sharing, and reviews (through Google-owned Zagat), users and businesses could share more information about the business directly with other users.
As we know, Google+ didn’t really take off and as a result, Google+ Local didn’t stick either. In 2011, Google+ Local rebranded as Google My Business but it wasn’t just a name change this time. Google My Business contained tons of new features that allowed businesses to take more control over their online presence and identity. By housing all this information themselves Google could keep users within their ecosystem without sending them to individual business websites. This is exactly how Google still functions today, and what makes it the most used search engine and the use of which is the most important factor in local search ranking.
Bluetrain goes more in-depth about these changes over time to Google’s business management platform.
From the beginning, the focus seemed to be on giving small and local businesses a platform to provide and share their information. However, Google’s role in search has dominated consumer behavior, and Google My Business has become critical for large businesses to maintain. This may be the reason why Google has decided to rebrand GMB as more than a small business tool and added additional functionality for multi-location businesses, like having a profile for your business on Google, i.e. Google Business Profile.
A streamlined platform that standardizes your location management across Google Maps, Google Business Profile, and non-Google products like Facebook, Apple Maps, and more can make it much easier to manage a single location or a multi-location business, even when faced with changes from these vendors. Contact us today to learn how BeLocal makes it easy to optimize your presence on Google Maps and your Google Business Profile.
