Google My Business (GMB) changing into Google Business Profile (GBP)

Originally Published March 2022

It’s been known as Google My Business for a long time. Before that, you may have known it as Google Places, Google+ Local, and we know people who even call it Google Maps Places. Whatever you call it, the service you use to manage your business location on Google Maps and your listing in Google Search has changed, and not in name only.

Let’s learn more about the new changes and how they may affect how you market your business in Google Seach and Maps.

How GMB Changing To GBP Affects Your Day-To-Day Business

Phone Apps

With GMB, you needed to download the Google My Business app from the Google Play or Apple App stores. The app has been around since 2014, so you may have gotten quite used to using it! The app allowed you to manage multiple listings all from your phone.

Google now wants you to manage your listing without the app – right in Google Search or Google Maps if you have a single listing. If you have multiple listings, they’re going to encourage you to use the desktop backend interface at business.google.com, now called Google Business Profile Manager.

Managing Listing Via Desktop

If you’ve already been managing one listing or multiple listings at business.google.com, you can continue to do so. But you’ll also have a greater ability to edit your listing right within the results of Google Search or Google Maps. They say with GBP, you’ll be able to make much more detailed changes, as long as you’re logged into the owner/manager account.

New Features

Chat

You may or may not already have Chat set up on your GBP. Users will, once you enable it, be able to click “Chat” or “Message” on your GBP and be able to send you a direct message. You’ll be able to respond to this message via the Desktop backend at business.google.com. The potential customer will need to keep the window open or be logged in and have the Google Maps app on their phone to be able to see your response.

This is not our favorite feature, but it could be useful for certain businesses.

Insights

Google is also changing how Insights (kind of like Analytics but only for your GBP) are displayed. We like the new way the Insights are displayed, and you are able to see more data now – 6 months, rather than only up to 3 months for the original data display in GMB.

GMB Changing Into GBP: Not So Scary After All

Altogether, there aren’t too many major changes to how you do business within GBP vs. GMB yet. Google always has more changes in store for us though.

Learn how to set up your GBP for the first time, or optimize it, on our website, and reach out to our team with questions or for help.