In early November of 2021, Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile (GBP). I’ve rallied for years about how dumb the name is, so I am super jazzed that they are changing the name. What’s the reason, you ask? Well, according to Search Engine Land, “the reason for the new name is to “keep things simple” and sometime in 2022, Google will retire the Google My Business app completely.” You can read more from SEL on Google’s name change here.

Why the reason for the change?

A few months back, I was chatting with an associate who told me that Google may be rolling out a new plan for their business profiles. This year, we’ve seen Local Ad Services scale tremendously and with that, I suspect we are going to see new tiered options for Google My Business in the next couple of years. While I don’t suspect any significant changes right away, I would anticipate seeing a “free profile” and a “paid profile” with more benefits of awareness being directed at the paid profile.

What should you do?

If you are a local business, you need a GBP. Not having one puts you behind the curve. However, simply having one isn’t enough. You need to maintain it and there are a few things you can do to ensure yours is well-maintained.

(1) Make sure all your information is up-to-date

Name, address, phone, hours, services, and business overview are good places to start. Basically, navigate to the “Info” tab and fill out all the information the best you can and be sure to check it at least monthly.

(2) Upload photos

Take pictures of you and clients, your business, and daily ongoings and be sure to add them to your GBP. This helps keep your profile active and sends positive signals to Google that you’re staying current.

(3) Create posts

Tools like Zoho Social and Loomly can automatically post to your social media accounts for you and they include integrations into GBP. Like photos, these social-type posts send signals that you’re staying active in the Google-sphere.

Summary

Overall, it’s great that Google is embracing simpler names, we’ve seen that with the change from GSUITE to Google Workspace and even updating all the application designs for uniformity. I am fearful that a once free and beneficial product will soon become another Google Ads-like product that causes businesses to bid for positioning, but that, however, is for another time. 

If you have questions on Google Business Profiles or need an agency to review or improve your GBP, check out our service page for GBP.

Talk soon, friends.

Rob