Well, that’s not precisely accurate. Google My Business has been renamed to Google Business Profile. Why? To keep things simple, according to Google. They are hoping this change will increase the direct activity of Google Maps, Google Search, and other apps and decrease the amount the Google My Business app is used.
Sometime next year, the new name, Google Business Profile, will replace Google My Business. This isn’t the first name change for this app, though, which reminds us of the line in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”.
Once upon a time, Google My Business as we know it today was called Google Places, Google+ Local, and Google Local. Name changes don’t seem troublesome when this product has been named and renamed several times.
So, is Google My Business going to go away this time? It isn’t going away, the name changing is just coming with a change in how business owners will manage their single listing. What will another name change mean to business owners and consumers?
For business owners, Google encourages you to directly use Google Maps or Google Search to manage your single listings. You can do this using the web interface or the mobile app starting next year. The Google My Business console will go away.
According to the folks at Google, the Google My Business web experience will be transitioned to supporting larger businesses that have multiple locations. But that will have a new name, “Business Profile Manager,” as Google redirects and rebrands the Google My Business web interface.
If your business has multiple locations to be managed, you’ll still have the Google My Business interface under the name: Business Profile Manager.
Google has announced that there will be some new features, including:
- Using Google Maps and Google Search directly to verify your Google Business Profile
- Call History will be launching in US and Canada officially
- Messaging can be used using Google Search directly
- Google Maps and Google Search will be used for message read receipts for controlling message read receipts
How will business listings be managed? Either through Google Maps or Google Search for businesses. You can also search for “my business” in Google Search to make sure your business has been claimed and verified.
Within your Google Business Profile, you’ll be able to utilize Google Ads to plan local campaign budgets with a tool called ‘Performance Planner.’ This tool will allow business owners to create plans for their advertising budget and see how the key metrics and performance is affected by making campaign changes. This tool is designed to let business owners see projected forecasts for their campaigns and make adjustments in their campaign settings that will affect the outcome. With this Performance Planner, a business owner will have an opportunity to manage their account and campaign budgets during seasonal periods.
Google’s local search is powered from the business profiles found in Google Business Profile instead of the current Google My Business. There won’t be much change in the web interface for now, other than the rebranding. In the coming months, though, expect more of the Google My Business features we’ve all come to like/love and use to be interfaced so that we will need to go directly to Google Maps, Google Search, and the respective apps.
As An Additional Note
Over the next few weeks, as we head into 2022, the rebranding of Google My Business will be occurring on social media and in the help forums as Google prepares for the official launch.
