Creating a listing on Google My Business is essential for online visibility and customer experience. However, building citation is only the first step. The online world is constantly changing, and you need to pay close attention to the new updates that are coming each year. Unfortunately, the year 2020 has brought many changes for businesses. Changes in opening and closing times, the way they provide services, etc. All of these resulted in customers paying more attention to the GMB listings of their favorite businesses. For that reason, we want to inform you about the new features and updates related to Google My Business, so you can be sure you’re doing your best to present your company online.
Why you should keep your GMB profile updated?
Apart from the new updates that Google provides, it is essential to always keep an eye on your business’s GMB profile. Up-to-date information is very important for the customer experience. Therefore, if you’re changing the working hours or any other important info, make sure you update your listing, too. Furthermore, adding all the useful features and tags will make your online presence more informative, and also more attractive to new customers. For that reason, let’s see what new updates and features you can use to make your profile as efficient as possible.
Specifying the type of services
Due to the global pandemic, more businesses shifted their focus to remote services or other pandemic-friendly options. restaurants have improved their delivery services as most people order their food online. GMB recognized these changes and offered more ways for cafes and restaurants to specify their services. Now you can tag your place as Takeawsy, Dine-in, and Delivery. There are also specifics such as curbside pickup or contactless delivery, used by most of delivery services. Furthermore, as people avoid enclosed spaces, be sure to check outdoor seating if your place offers such a facility.
Tags concerning health and safety
One of the main new features and updates includes adding tags that are related to health and protection against the virus spread. Now, there are several pandemic-related tags you can add to your business GMB listing :
- mask required
- staff wearing masks
- temperature check
- appointment required
These have proven to be incredibly effective, as people check these things more often now before visiting a business. This way, they can prepare and stay protected during the pandemic.
Google guaranteed badge
Another new feature coming from Google is Guaranteed certification, which is a sort of upgrade to the GMB Profile. Your business will get a green badge next to its name if it is eligible to have it, which will show that your business is recommended by Google. Even though Google has not shared a lot of specifics about this new feature, we can say for now that the eligible businesses will be those that advertise on Google’s Local Services. However, the selected business will have to prove the quality of its services and ensure the best possible experience for the customers.
Grow my store
A great new tool that is focused on e-commerce businesses. It analyzes the customer experience of your brand and compares it to similar brands in the same niche. This way, you can get some valuable tips on how to improve the digital experience of your customers and therefore make more profit. Also, Google Maps Marketing is very important, and it is all connected. So you need to know that as well.
Gift Cards/ Vouchers
Purchasing gift cards, and vouchers, and making direct donations are now available on Google My Business. Businesses can now add links that lead to these options, which makes it easier for customers to spend money and make someone happy. They don’t need to come to the store but can do this kind of purchase online, which is very beneficial for the business. Rather than giving cash to someone, customers ‘make’ their loved ones spend the money at a specific location and therefore directly help the local business. It’s good to know that Google is not charging this feature additionally – so feel free to use it!
Accessibility of new features and updates
Recently, Google has improved the way you can access your profile settings and make changes. You can now do that by logging in to Google Maps, or by Google Search. Click the profile picture, select ‘Your Business Profile’, and go to the editing section. When you’re in Google Search select the ‘My Business’ button that’s located on the right side, and easily access all the necessary settings. However, to be able to use this feature, your default GMB language needs to be English.
X years in business
Even though it was first presented as a test feature, now you can select how many years you’ve been in business. You need to select the opening date, so Google will show the ‘X years in business’ tag under the name of your company. This is a fine new update, as business longevity is quite important for customers. They tend to trust ‘older’ businesses more, as these had to prove their quality over the years. So, if you’re running a longstanding business and want only the highest-quality listings, be sure to set up this new feature.
Return of phone support as one of the new features and updates
For some time, the feature of phone support has been missing from GMB, leaving businesses with social and email support. Luckily, one of the latest updates brought it back, and business owners are happy about it. Phone call solves problems much faster, which has proven to be quite important during the pandemic. You probably want to know more about Google My Business Location Authority. Once you do, lots of things will be more clear.
Preview call history
Taking a look at your call log can be quite useful, especially for local businesses. This feature is focused on improving the user experience, interactions between businesses and customers, etc. Business owners can keep track of phone calls from customers, and help them respond to missed calls. This makes it easier to stay in touch with the customers, using the ID call history from the call button on Google.
A new feature and update that everyone will definitely notice is a new name
As 2022 has almost come to an end, you probably noticed that Google My Business is not Google My Business anymore. From now on it is called Google Business Profile. But even though for some people it is a shock, most of them actually saw it coming. Months ago Google My Business Help documents started to use the term “profile” instead of “listing”. This is not the first time that this platform is changing its name. So people are not surprised. It all started as Google+, changing into Google Local. And even now, many years later you can find those names still active. People prefer calling it the same, even though the platform changed many names so far.
Now, you probably want to know what we think about this. Well, it will be difficult to adapt to this one. That is for sure. But we do think it is a good idea to freshen it up a little bit. Also, the name sounds much more serious now than how it sounded before. A new name doesn’t necessarily need to mean that it is a bad thing. From how we see it, it definitely means more improvements and many new other things that will come along. And we all want to see changes in our favorite applications, don’t we? The sooner you understand SEO Predictions from Google in 2022, the better.
New Access options are also something from new features and updates
Up until now, the only way how you could access this platform was directly through the application or through the website. But after the latest update, you will be able to find it through some other applications as well. Ever since the experience has been upgraded, people that are using this platform can easily access their profiles on Google My Business, or Google Business Profile from Google Maps and Google Search. This is the best update they made because for many users it was frustrating to access the platform only through the application. However, we do know that this feature is available now for a while, even though it wasn’t announced yet.
If you want to check it out, all you need to do is type the name of your business in the search bar and if you are logged in, your profile will appear. This is the best and more convenient way for smaller businesses to access their profiles. But however, everyone is happy and will be to use this feature. When it comes to our opinion, we definitely do believe that this is the best feature Google My Business made in 2022. It is much faster to access your profile, and definitely less frustrating. You can also try adding social media links to your Google business profile. It can be useful.
Another one of the updates and new features is the support changes
Ever since Google posted its news about the Google My Business portal will transition to primarily support larger businesses with multiple locations, there have been many mixed reactions. They are different among search optimization people and digital marketing professionals. Some people have an opinion that Google is moving further away from supporting small and medium-sized businesses. On the other hand, there is another group of people that believes that the impact will be minimal to most small businesses since the desktop platform is already being used primarily by agencies and multi-location businesses. But we will still have to wait a little bit for this update since Googled said that more details on this change will be announced in the months ahead.
When it comes to this change, we are not quite sure where we stand at. For sure, some people will like it, while others won’t. And we are somewhere in between. Since nothing is still official, and we don’t even have any idea what it will look like, we cannot say anything else. However, there are other interesting changes, and for now, we can focus on those ones that we have and that we know what they will look like. Learn how to use local keywords to rank higher in Google, because you will need that.
Another one of the news and features that Googled shared with us is the frequent updates to attributes
Each business will have the possibility to add a wide range of other attributes to its profile to share information with searchers. This means from details about all-gender public bathrooms to identifying as “veteran-owned” for instance. It is a good idea to check out these options periodically since they are expanded regularly. Probably in a month or two, there will be more features added to this section. For instance, when the pandemic hit our world Google added many new attributes related to contactless payments and deliveries. So we are expecting other new and exciting features.
We do love any updates to attributes. And we do think they are the best ones. So maybe that is the reason why we expect too much from them. However, they never did disappoint us with these updates and features, so we are sure they won’t do it now. In the meantime, discover where do NAP Citations fit into the Google Local 3-pack.
The best thing about this platform is that it is still free
At least for now, one thing didn’t change and we are all very happy about it. And that is the price. For now, it is still completely free to use it. Of course, there are plenty of opportunities to learn from and use paid Google Ads. But in general, the platform doesn’t need to be paid. There are no pieces of evidence that Google will start charging for Google My Business, but we must say that plenty of experts believe they will. And we? We have no idea what to think. But we know that we hope it will stay the same still. Also, for using the business profile successfully, you need to understand why are citations such an important ranking factor.
Don’t worry, there will be more changes to come
We are well aware that these news, updates, changes, and new features are not a lot. And probably most of you expected much more. But it is what it is for now. However, we do hope that soon more changes are coming. We all do love them. And Google never stops with its surprises. So we are definitely ready for more. Until new features come, you can explore a little bit deeper the effects of Google Voice Search on keyword analysis.
To conclude now that we know all about new features and updates
All of the Google My Business new features and updates should be welcomed by business owners, as they give a more detailed approach to the GMB profiles. These features make it easier to communicate with the customers and make their experience much better.
