Well, for starters, the name–as of November, Google My Business has been officially rebranded as Google Business Profile. It’ll take some getting used to, but the name change should certainly be the least of your concerns when it comes to taking advantage of the rebranded tool that Google offers.
Managing Profiles Directly From Search
For small businesses with single locations, Google is strongly encouraging (read: forcing) users to manage and edit their listings directly through the front-end. If you are signed into the correct Gmail account, you’ll be able to edit hours, add photos, respond to reviews, and do everything else the Google My Business console could do directly from the search results page. This also applies to the Maps listing.
For businesses with multiple locations or agencies managing multiple listings, the Google Business Profile dashboard will continue to be in use–with some potential changes on the horizon.
Claiming and verifying businesses is also now done directly from Search–no more having to go through the dashboard for single listings.
Call History
Call history is a great new feature from Google Business Profile that allows users to see missed calls, recent calls, and more that came through their Business Profile listing. This feature needs to be turned on, but once it is, customers connect to you through a forwarding number instead of the number listed on your profile. You’ll be told that it’s a call from Google before you pick up, allowing you to easily track who is finding you through Google.
Read Receipts
For businesses that utilize the Messaging feature, you can now turn on read receipts so you can see when your customers read your messages directly from the Search results page. It looks something like this:
Learning how to deal with the name change and the new features of Google Business Profile will be a key 2022 strategy for businesses looking to harness the power of hyperlocal traffic.
